I'm loath to get into this discussion, but i'm actually very much in the Dutch camp on this one. Here in France cars and bicycles are considered 'equals' as fa

I'm loath to get into this discussion, but i'm actually very much in the Dutch camp on this one. Here in France cars and bicycles are considered 'equals' as far as road rules go, and it's a nightmare. 1000kg of death metal (no reference to the band) versus about 15kg and an exposed human are no match. I've learned to cycle really defensively here, since motorists just don't treat you with the proper respect. Mind, by 'proper respect' i don't mean that cyclists should be treated like holy cows, but simply that people should all be conscious of the hierarchy of vulnerability. If a cyclist crashes into a pedestrian (even if the pedestrian did stray into the bicycle path) i find it reasonable that the cyclist, being the heavier faster object, should pay more attention. Likewise for the car. It's a disgrace that cyclists end up having to pay for car repairs when in many cases there would've been no accident if the car had been driving respectfully [0] — even if the infrastructure (that is, in France a "bicycle path" is simply an already narrow 50km/h car lane with a bicycle icon painted on post facto) doesn't encourage it. 0. This happened to me. It taught me to drive extremely defensively. You will not believe the number of times i have had (for example) a green traffic light, and have had to stop for oncoming traffic turning left in front of me. I have right of way, but 1000kg of steel trumps right of way Every Time. If i sound a little ranty, it's because i'm rather bitter about the state of affairs here.