Share the road my foot!
By Gary Becker
Gary is also featured in "A Beach Bums View" in the Barrier Islands Gazette.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve got nothing against bicycles. I’ve had a bicycle since I was old enough and strong enough to pick myself up from the pavement after I had run into something larger and heavier than I was.
Back in those days bicycles weren’t made out of exotic metals nor have so many gears you needed a calculator to figure out how to operate the bike or have to wear special clothing in order make your body more aerodynamic. No, in those days a bike had one gear, two fenders, a basket containing a wooden baseball bat with a handle that had been carefully and secretly covered with Dad’s expensive electrical tape to give you special powers at the plate, and dangling from the handlebars was a baseball glove that had been painstakingly and lovingly broken in using a magical concoction of saddle soap and leather softener.
The bicycle was used to get to the playground or school or if you had any initiative, which I did not, deliver the evening newspaper. I was carefully and endlessly instructed by my parents and teachers to not ride my bicycle on busy streets, get off the bike and walk it across busy intersections and most importantly, don’t challenge a Buick because the Buick will always win.
Even with these restrictions and before the days of bike trails and bike lanes, my buddies and I were pretty much able to safely get anywhere we wanted to go in a fairly large and busy city by using back streets and being respectful of the ever present Buick. We rode single file when a car approached, we stayed to the right of the road and most importantly we actually stopped at stop signs, yielded at yield signs and when the sign said no bicycles on this street, we took another route. We rarely had a driver honk their horn or shake their fist at us. We had been taught to share the road and that is just what we did.
Today my bicycle has no fenders and there are more gears than I have fingers and toes. A waterproof insulated bag with all sorts of secret pockets has taken the place of the wire basket and sadly the well used baseball bat and glove have been replaced with numerous locking devices to protect the bike from roaming thieves. But even though the hardware has changed, the imbedded software managing the operating system is the same. I ride single file, to the right, don’t ride where signs say I can’t and still respect what the ever present Buick can do to me and my bicycle if we all try to occupy the same piece of the road at the same time.
I tell you all this because the other day I was driving my car, no it’s not a Buick, not that there is anything wrong with a Buick, along a narrow four lane boulevard which makes bicycling along this stretch of road extremely dangerous. It is so dangerous to ride a bicycle along this road that the city in which the road resides has deemed it illegal to ride a bicycle on this road and has placed numerous no bicycles allowed signs along the roadway. Well, as you’ve probably guessed by now, during this particular trip there was a sole bicyclist ignoring the no bicycles allowed signs riding on the road forcing morning traffic to dodge back and forth in order to avoid turning this young man and his bicycle into a hood ornament.
The guy on the bicycle wasn’t a wayward bum or an elderly fellow following doctor’s orders to get more exercise, or some large kid on a small bike being rebellious but a biking enthusiast riding a bicycle that cost more than my car and vacuum sealed in spandex. In other words someone who has invested a large amount of time and money on bicycling and someone who should know better than most on how to survive riding a bicycle in a large city.
As several other drivers and I slowed, rolled down our car windows and gave friendly advice to the bicyclist as we passed him I realized that the biggest problems I have with bicyclists while I’m driving a car are not with the guy or gal riding a bike to work or a kid riding his bike to school but seems to be with enthusiast spandex covered riders like this guy who should be the most experienced and knowledge riders.
I can’t recall all the times I’ve been sitting at a stop light only to be passed, on the right, by a group of spandex covered biking enthusiasts who seem to think they are above the law and stop lights or stop signs are to be ignored. Or, come upon a pack of riders who have decided that the entire road is now a bike lane and the phrase share the road doesn’t include sharing the road with automobiles.
I know that there are thousands of bicycling enthusiasts who carefully and legally participate in their chosen sport. However, for a group that demands more money be spent on bike trails, bike lanes and that we all share the road there are many within this group who need to practice what they preach. If a group of twelve year olds riding bicycles adorned with baseball bats and gloves can safely and legally travel around a large city there is no reason adults riding expensive bicycles and covered with spandex can’t do the same.
