Dangerous Bicycle Scenario

[xuth.livejournal.com]

I just ran into (almost literally) a very dangerous bicycle scenario in Davis Square this evening.

I was parked at the (somerville provided) bike parking space between Dover and Day St on Holland/Elm St. I got onto Holland/Elm St and rode southeast through the square right in front of a car on Day St with a green light. The problem is that from my vantage point, I have no stop light or stop sign (they are all behind me where Holland crosses Dover) and from this vantage point, Day St intersecting with Elm St is a completely separate intersection from Holland St intersecting with Dover St. But the traffic signals treat it as one intersection. Without knowing all the details of this intersection (which I should, I just have never dealt with this scenario before), I have no reason to think that I should be concerned about traffic coming from Day St. There really needs to be an additional Holland street light at the corner of Day St.

Comments

Re: Inanimate vs. Animate objects.

[turil.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming that the folks who say this really mean that I am not driving a car - not that I myself am not a car.

Re: Inanimate vs. Animate objects.

[mattdm [typekey.com] (from livejournal.com)]

Not necessarily. It's pretty typical -- and certainly not a *grammatical* error if it is any kind of error -- to treat cars somewhat anthropomorphically. "That car ran the red light and almost hit me!" -- not "The driver of that car directed his vehicle to continue through the red light, therefore causing it to almost hit me."

Whatever. :)