Urbana-Champaign Bicycle Commute

13.8 avg. on my commute this a.m. and I was really trying to go fast - but dang it, I still stop at stop signs (or at least slow down a lot). And there was one where I knew a lot of people wouldn't have stopped, because it wouldhave been *perfectly* safe to accelerate on through because that one car was 'way back.
However, my current "best fit model" for Explaining Driver Behaviors is the "most driving is all about automatic responses and instantaneous filters of visual input." And according to that model, I am safest when my behavior will elicit the desired "automatic" response.

That one car would not have seen the expected "vehicle accelerating from really slowly through the intersection," but would have seen a bicycle speeding through, and even though there was gobs of clearance, it would have been an automatic alert: "what's that thing doing speeding through where cars should be going slowly?" probably followed by "another cyclist, blowing a stop sign." (Yes. I put the "anal" in "analytical.")

And for the record I made that post below *before* the email saying "not the ride to the depot, Fritz's ride."