Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.soc
Subject: Bikeways (was Re: Cycling and Environmentalism)
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 01:09:12 -0500

Gregory D. Surbeck writes:

 GDS> riding is one thing, my on-road rides rarely average above 15 mph.
 While
 GDS> I feel I have every right to share a residential street with a
driver if I
 GDS> can travel at 25 mph, which I can for a little while, I also know
that for
 GDS> me to be on a 45 mph rural highway without shoulders is dangerous
for
 GDS> myself and at least annoying for the people behind me.

15 mph is a more than adequate speed for riding on rural highways where
the
average traffic is going 45 mph, unless the road has an excess traffic
volume
that even makes automobile use unsafe. 15-18 mph is about the speed that
most
touring riders travel at.

 GDS> One person (sorry that I didn't note your name) advocated roads
with wide
 GDS> right lanes.

I'm certainly one who has advocated that, but probably not the first.

 GDS> I feel most comfortable in city traffic (compared to rural
traffic),
 GDS> because the right lane *is* usually wide to allow for parallel
parking.

I feel just the opposite. Roads that are wide to allow for parallel
parking
usually have cars parked along them. I'm real cautious on these kind of
streets
because parked cars can often pull out in front of you or open their
doors
without warning.

 GDS> *I*, the cyclist, have to be the one to break my rhythm when
someone lets
 GDS> go of their dog's leash.  *I*, the cyclist, have to be the one to
swerve
 GDS> when a pedestrian can't walk straight.  That is the price I pay
for
 GDS> avoiding the traffic when I want to get from point A to B without
traffic
 GDS> that weighs 2 tons.

You often pay an even heavier price when the path suddenly crosses a
public
road in the middle of the block, the path has poles or signs in the
middle of
it or there are sharp turns with rapid drop-offs.

 GDS> But to blast bikeways doesn't help.

It sure does, when the choice is between funding a multi-million dollar
hike
and dog walk trail or using that same money to fix dangerous
intersections,
widen roads or educate the public about cycling.

 GDS> To everyone who rides the roads regularly, I ask where you learned
to
 GDS> ride?

I first learned in my driveway, then on rural roads, and then to
suburban
arterial roads.

 GDS> I started in a school parking lot, and after graduating from my
 GDS> residential street, I moved to the local paths around a man-made
lake.

That's the problem. From residential streets you should have gone to
feeder
streets and then to arterial streets.

 GDS> People walked on them everyday, but somehow, that wasn't a problem
for a 6
 GDS> year old who had only been riding for a short while.

My eight-year-old daughter is frightened to death by bike paths. Riding
along
side a few cars on residential streets doesn't bother her, but trying to
dodge
dogs on a 3 foot wide path rightfully causes a scare.

 GDS> If you read carefully, you'll see that "pure" roadies, those that
train on
 GDS> roads, not paths, don't really disagree with the concept of
bikeways. They
 GDS> just don't realistically work for competitive cyclists.

Most roadies have never been on bike paths, nor do they care to try the
experience.

 GDS> I think that that is due in part to the fact that people just
don't think
 GDS> of the bicycle as a vehicle. To many, it is recreation.

This notion is very common even among cyclists. How many riders do you
know who
never ride their bike out of their drive way, but rather always carry it
by car
to a nice country road before getting in the saddle?

 GDS> The problem is that, in making a good point, the "pure" roadies
seem to
 GDS> attack the idea of bikeways. If you don't like them, then stay off
them.

It's not that easy. We need to educate the next generation of cyclists,
and we
need to build better roads for cyclists. Supporting bicycle trails does
not do
this unless the trails are suitable for use by mountain bikers. As long
as the
funds for bicycle activities are very limited, we must stear those who
allocate
these funds toward causes that most benefit cycling, not those that have
at
best marginal utility.

       __ o    Howard Gerber   Two Wheelers: 713-682-6508
  . . <   \ .  USENET:  howard.gerber@urchin.fidonet.org
 :   : > :   : ...!menudo.uh.edu!jpunix!urchin
  ` `     ` `  Fidonet: 1:106/88.0    PODNet: 93:9008/0.0