Ok before I even start this if you are a hard core bicycle activist you might just want to skip this post now. I myself enjoy riding bikes on occasion. It’s a very popular activity in our town since its to the ever famous Lance Armstrong. But because of the overwhelming amount of people biking it has caused some problems.
To many bikers forget that they are not equal to cars on the road. They are far slower and hard to see at times. Most bikers want to have the same rights to the road as cars, yet many of them don’t want to follow the rules of the road. I cant count the number of times I’ve seen them run a red light, run a stop sign, or ride in the middle of two lanes holding up traffic. I also cringe every time I see them on Capitol of Texas Highway, which is dangerous even for cars. I understand it’s a beautiful challenging ride but its not smart to ride on it. I’m not saying that bikes should not be allowed to ride on the road. I’m simply saying people need to be smart about how and where they ride.
For example Highway 620 is not a smart biking route. A few months back a woman was critically injured by a 18 wheeler when she veered into the 18 wheelers lane. Many people wanted to blame the driver of the 18 wheeler for this accident after reading it the news. But what most people didn’t know is that it was entirely her fault. She only had one and on the handle bars and was drinking a cup of coffee. There were several people to back the story when the driver of the 18 wheeler was asked by the investigators what had happened. This is why I think we need to pass laws requiring bikers to stay off more of our dangerous roads. I also think that people that want to use bicycles for commuting should have to take safety classes, and register there bikes just like cars. But on the other side of the argument I think we need to make more roads biker friendly, like what there trying to do on Nueces St. Bikes are great for cutting harmful emissions, saving fuel, and a cheep way of making roads less congested. So lets start making some compromises on the roads, for everyone’s safety and well being.
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I will first start off with I am so not a hardcore biker and have no interest in replacing my car with a bike. With that being said, I found your commentary interesting. I know so many people that do not follow the rules set for Bicyclists, but they are established and are supposed to be enforced. People just need to have common sense when traveling on streets, especially ones like 620. I do believe you are right when you say we should make roads more "biker friendly". In this economy with so many people unemployed and hurting for money, you think it would be wise. I also like the fact that you mentioned that bikes "are great for cutting harmful emissions, saving fuel..." because they indeed are. Let me put it this way, people have no business riding bikes if they aren't going to follow the rules set forth to make it safer for them to travel. That's just common sense, it's for their safety. They should have thought about it before they hoped on the bike, maybe then we wouldn't have so many problems with it.
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