Share the Road...With Some Sanity

A sure sign that the weather is getting better is when you begin to see joggers out for their daily exercise and when bicyclists begin to appear in numbers that would make one believe that the Tour de France is passing through your area. Now I'm all for biking. Although I haven't ridden my bike in a number of years, I'm quite sure that if I were to break it out of retirement and tune it up, I would be back to enjoying rides along the sidewalks like I did when I was a kid. Of course I'm not the only one with a touch of nostalgia for days like those. Look out on the roads these days and you'll see many more cyclists out there. I think it was already a popular pastime with many people but it seems to have become even more so in the past few years. Maybe I'm just noticing it a bit more these days.

That being said, there's more and more awareness being raised about 'sharing the road' with cyclists but sometimes it seems as if cyclists are going out of there way to make the situation dangerous for themselves. On my commute to work I drive along a winding road that has the advantage of being nicely tree covered and quite calm. The speed limit is quite low and for the most part people follow the speed limit rather judiciously. Seeing as how it is a very country-esque drive many cyclists began riding their bikes along these roads. Now I'm sure they were there long before drivers starting using the routes but as more and more cars began to appear, in an effort to make the path safe for recreationists (I think I made up that word just now) a rather wide bike path was made for bikers and pedestrians to use rather than clinging to the side of the road.

Now when I used to ride my bike, I would kill to have paths like those because it was a safer alternative to riding on the street and risking being hit by a car. As I mentioned, this road in particular is quite windy with many twists and turns and though (like I also mentioned) many drivers keep the speed limit down, if a cyclist is riding on the road and a car comes around a blind corner not expecting to see said cyclist, you can imagine what the results could be. And therein lies the problem and point of deferrence between cyclists and drivers. According to many cyclists, they don't use the paths because there are 'too many walkers and joggers and kids' which makes it dangerous. So then they jump onto the streets and cycle around.

I've driven these roads on the weekends in the past as well and I do know that on those days (particularly when the weather is really nice) there are plenty of cyclists out but fewer pedestrians and to ask some of the pedestrians I know as to why they don't walk on these same paths, it's because 'cyclists come whipping around as if they are actually running a race or training for the Tour de France'. So if no one is using these bike paths and trails then why don't the cyclists use them? I find it to be a convenient excuse for cyclists to claim that it's dangerous for them on the paths if there are indeed pedestrians but is it any safer for them (or us drivers) to have them riding along in the middle of the road? I can't count the number of times I've rounded a bend to find a cyclist chugging along in the middle of the lane.

I have confidence in my driving ability (or lack thereof) but I don't have as much faith in the guy behind me. I came around the bend recently to find a pair of cyclists riding side-by-side and as I slowed, the Mario Andretti clone behind me nearly ran into me. When I finally got an opening I crossed the double yellow line to go around these cyclists so that I wouldn't hold up traffic anymore and they proceeded to fling curses in my direction. How childish is that? I think it's a great thing that cyclists are doing their part for their own health as well as the environment but they are putting themselves and others at risk of accidents by ignoring paths built for their safety and the safety of drivers driving along with them.

If there are no bike paths I think it's perfectly acceptable for cyclists to share the road provided they also follow the rules. Think about the last time you've seen a cyclist blow through an intersection without stopping simply because they could get through the line of cars ahead of them. Isn't that creating risk where none existed before? I think most of us have stressful commutes to and from work or school as it is, I don't think adding the danger of darting cyclists will make the situation any better. Cyclists, if you wish to share the road the share them as equals and not like you're above the rules of the road. If you do your part then I'll do mine.