Something tells me you don't look like your avatar - me on the other hand, I look a lot like mine and I'm guessing you can tell which team I ride with
When we all get together we can be a pretty imposing crowd too, but it rarely happens.
The story that I've heard about Lake Washington Blvd is that it was indeed a non-motorized path for many years, then the Olmsteads came along and said they'd design a park, *but* it had to have access for cars..... so they widened and paved
. On the other hand I'll bet you've noticed the "Cars must yield to bicycles" signs that are posted in several places in the park. My husband and I believe that there must still be some type of covenant or something that states that it is a *bike path* first and foremost and we are just allowing cars to drive on it.
I've got some mixed feelings about stop signs. When I'm alone I always at very least track stand them - if there is a car waiting to go I put a foot down. When we do our group rides we generally slow for them, and proceed if there is no traffic, but it would be crazy to expect each rider to stop and take a turn..... I expect that would delay and tick off motorist much, much more. We never run red lights - it seems like a lot of motorist complain about that, but I very, very rarely see it happen. Most cyclist have much more common sense than that.