Some points that are both about your statement about bikes and the way it relates to Chris's analogy: you're begging the question to say that bike riders "start with the assumption that non normative behaviors are completely costless to other people." With that, you're instantly focusing narrowly on the costs that a marginal biker - right now - imposes on all drivers. Why is that the right group to focus on? Well, because you declared driving normative. Which, I said before, doesn't ring true for my experience for what it's worth.
That's a natural first reaction, but it absolves you of having to think about how an even slightly different world would work by focusing on the individual's behavior and their consequences exclusively. (If there are lots of bikers, the marginal inconvenience of a biker goes down, if there have been bikers for a long time, the marginal inconvenience of a biker goes down, and there's no reason to believe that historical path dependence leaves society at a global or even local maximum). It also takes focus away from any other costs that car drivers are imposing - on people's abilities to sleep, to breathe (During the 1996 Summer Olympics Games in Atlanta, when peak morning traffic decreased 23% and peak ozone levels decreased 28%, emergency visits for asthma events in children decreased 42%.). Normative behaviors can be highly costly to other people, and they're protected by the very perception that they're normative.
no subject
That's a natural first reaction, but it absolves you of having to think about how an even slightly different world would work by focusing on the individual's behavior and their consequences exclusively. (If there are lots of bikers, the marginal inconvenience of a biker goes down, if there have been bikers for a long time, the marginal inconvenience of a biker goes down, and there's no reason to believe that historical path dependence leaves society at a global or even local maximum). It also takes focus away from any other costs that car drivers are imposing - on people's abilities to sleep, to breathe (During the 1996 Summer Olympics Games in Atlanta, when peak morning traffic decreased 23% and peak ozone levels decreased 28%, emergency visits for asthma events in children decreased 42%.). Normative behaviors can be highly costly to other people, and they're protected by the very perception that they're normative.