Our city's bicycle advocacy group recently held a cyclists' round table discussion. It was a little bit elite: they had specific invitations for bike clubs, bike shops, police, city officials, and then a restricted number of (free) tickets for the general public.

One of the things they did was come up with a Cyclists' Code of Conduct.

After the bike ed classes had some harassment from some cops, they got the entire police force on board. All the police took the bike ed course, and the police started Operation Share the Road. During the month of October they specifically targeted cyclists who ran stop lights and stop signs, wrong way cyclists, and biking at night without lights.

That was great for PR--anyone griping about cyclists getting away with whatever they want could be countered with "Look at Operation Share the Road. ## of tickets issues for no stop, ## tickets issued for wrong way, ## lights given away" (the cyclists at night without lights had a choice: allow the bicycle advocacy folks to install free lights right then & there, or get a ticket).

I don't know that it has solved everything. The recent surge in cycling & cycling facilities as a result of the $22 million alternative transportation grant has caused some backlash to be sure. Our pro-cycling mayor is retiring after 16 years, and a bunch of folks are jumping in the race on an anti-cycling platform. Every article in the newspaper about bike/ped is met with inflammatory comments. Some cyclists are reporting more harassment on the road (I'm experiencing less, personally). Operation Share the Road and the Round Table Meeting were launched to combat that.

I guess my specific suggestion is get involved in the local bicycle advocacy group, or start one up if there isn't one. These things our advocacy group did, or other groups have done, can be ideas for your group. (Google GetAbout Columbia for more details on those programs.) Take your stand firmly on the side of vehicular cycling: cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles.

I find it very frustrating to be lumped in with the idiot cyclists too. I hear a lot about those racers, and I always counter with "That's not me. You won't catch me running a stop sign." And I follow through with that--even if there is no traffic anywhere, I stop at the darn stop sign, because I had a "friend" say "Hey, I saw you not really stop at that stop sign" (I put my foot down but didn't come to a complete stop).

Good luck!