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I'm not usually a "letter to the editor" kind of guy, but a recent string of letters in the local paper recently included a note entitled Cyclists need to be more careful that made me mad.

Rather than just sit and be annoyed, I wrote a reply, and submitted it to the paper.

In reference to "Cyclists need to be more careful" (Letters, June 1): It's true. Cyclists could do more to keep themselves safe. Cyclists should obey all traffic laws. And yes, they should assume that drivers don't see them.

Yes, cyclists break the law. They drift out of bike lanes. They ignore stop signs and red lights. They ride side-by-side and clog up traffic lanes.

Drivers aren't much better. We (myself included) talk on our mobile phones. We text. We play with the radio. We roll through stop signs. We speed. (And sometimes we mix and match these violations.)

Blaming each other won't make anyone safer. We have to remember that nobody's perfect. All of us, cyclists and motorists alike, are doing the best we can. We juggle families and jobs and bills. We're all just trying to get through the day with our health and our dignity intact. And if we're lucky we manage to grind out a little space to be happy.

We'd all be better off if we remember to watch each other's backs.

-Chris Raser

It probably won't make a bit of difference. But it feels good to get that out of my system.