Portland's bike boxes ripped my family apart!

No, not really. A couple of nights ago my wife summoned me into the living room to see the bit about the strange new traffic markings at the intersection of SE Hawthorne and 7th (Portland, OR). Great big green boxes reserved for bikes at the front of automobile traffic at an intersection. Beautiful. (Check out BikePortland.org for more.)

Somehow my explanation of the function of the new bike box markings evolved into a heated (very heated) discussion about bikes in traffic. I was disappointed to discover my wife's attitudes towards bike in traffic weren't very accommodating. Typical of many motorists she cited the scofflaws as being the greater danger to traffic, not careless operators of 2-ton motorized vehicles.

To cut a long story short: I got an up close and personal glimpse into the mind and attitudes of an average motorist. Most telling was that she stated that she NEVER received ANY instruction (during driver training and subsequent DMV testing) on how to properly share the road with bikes and that, therefore, the burden of caution was on cyclists.

Cyclists need to watch out, not cars.

We are a car-centric society, aren't we.