Why it’s safer for bicyclists to ride with traffic - not against it.

As a side note, just imagine if the city's promotional expenditures for parks, concerts, ceremonial anchorages, signature events and the mayor's cult of personality were shifted instead to education about daily realities.

I understand that a certain proportion of the population always will remain distracted or oblivious, for good reasons and bad, and yet I persist in thinking such a shift would be helpful.

Here's one we haven't touched on for a while. Note that I'll be returning to "salmoning" on Wednesday in SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS.

DEBUNKING WRONG-WAY RIDING, by Michael Tatarski (Bike Easy)

A pedicabber breaks down why it’s safer to ride with traffic - not against

At Bike Easy, a question that we often get is whether or not wrong-way cycling (also called salmoning) is safer than riding with traffic. As a pedicab driver, I’ve personally noticed that salmoning seems to be fairly popular here in New Orleans, especially in the French Quarter, with its myriad one-way streets. I regularly see riders going down the wrong way down Royal and other east-west roads, jostling for space with horse-drawn carriages, other bicycles, tourists and taxi drivers. Both sides of this argument have their reasons; let’s begin by taking a look at what proponents of wrong-way riding have to say.

As children, many bike riders were taught by their parents that riding against traffic was the safe way to go. You could see drivers coming, and they could see you, instead of having to worry about cars coming up from behind. Intuitively, it does seem like it would be better to be able to see what is coming, rather than constantly wondering if someone is going to blast by you with inches to spare.

Another common point brought up in favor of salmoning is convenience: why should I cycle some circuitous route following the flow of traffic, when one shortcut down a couple blocks in the wrong direction could get me to my destination much faster? As a pedicabber in the French Quarter I know full well the frustrations of dealing with one-way streets – they can turn three-block jaunts into eight-block marathons.

However, is this type of riding actually safer than following traffic flow? In a word, no. There are a number of risks associated with salmoning ...