HJ Opinion Sunday Feb 20, 05 "Add bike lanes to posted bike routes"

"signs ... excellent first step to making our beautiful valley more bike friendly"
but question SR 91 to Smithfield as designated route. 

Education would be a better first step to make people realize what a cyclist friendly
place our valley already is.

SR 91 to Smithfield is an excellent bicycle commuting route for several reasons:
the pavement is smooth, wide and clean (thanks to the lack of shoulder stripe) and
the major intersections are all controlled by signals.  Sight lines are good and there
are not many hills.


"Hopefully the signs will make motorists start to expect and watch for bicyclists."

We don't need motorists to watch for bicyclists.  We need bicyclists to ride where motorists are
already watching for other traffic.


"A lot of the rest of us would feel safer with at least a stripe... between us and the traffic"
"..cyclists shouldn't be lulled into a false sense of security by a thin stripe of paint"

Make up your mind, do you want to your false sense of security or not!


"Thousands of bike-striped cities around the world can't be wrong"

Thousands of cities around the world have, to any one observers eyes, the wrong form of
government, the wrong economic system and the wrong religion.  How can cities make those
mistakes but not make mistakes about bikelanes?

In the US, a major push for bikelanes came after a 1994 FHWA document which claimed
without any evidence that motorists give cyclists MORE room when passing them in a bike lane. 
Progressive communities took the reassurance in that document and set off an explosion of
bikelanes in their jurisdictions.  Since then, that unsubstantiated claim of MORE room has been
shown to be false and the reverse to be true.  Motorists overtake cyclists closer, faster and with
less regard when guided by a stripe.   But, where bikelanes are in place, the planners who created
them are trapped by their original commitment of support.  Instead, they must tweak their designs
in an attempt to mitigate their problems, and seek comfort in the fact that cities with bike lanes
have no significant amount of biking, but significantly less clamoring for bikelanes.

"Most motorists can be taught to respect bike lanes"

Bike lanes don't deserve respect by motorists or cyclists.  Motorists should respect bicyclists just
like they respect any other fellow traveler, and in our beautiful cyclist-friendly valley they largely
do.


"Maybe CVV or others... could be organized to bring [hazards] to the CMPO's attention"

Roadway hazards should be brought to the attention of the municipal street departments and
UDOT who are responsible for them.  CMPO is not charged with the maintenance and repair of
our network of streets and roads.   Those departments already have internal programs for hazard
detection and maintenance.  They simply need to recognize what the hazards are for neglected
classes of travelers (bicyclists, pedestrians, etc).


"...grateful crew of cyclists could be mobilized for some free labor on the lanes."

You mean grateful crews of bicycle owners who mistakenly think that bike lanes will make an
unsafe situation safe?  What are you volunteering them for?  What do motorists similarly
volunteer their free labor for?


"Handful of die-hards...have our respect, but our object should be to get the rest of us couch
potatoes out there...."

What "die-hards"?  We are simply showing that bicycle commuting already works.  If you
really want the couch potatoes to get out there, we are just the example to follow.  We daily
illustrate the feasibility, practicality and safety of bicycle commuting in Cache Valley.  Will
it work for everyone? No.  Can it work for more? Yes.  Can we completely eliminate car-bike
collisions?  No.  Can we keep them infrequent? Yes.  How?  Not with paint but with education of
cyclists and motorists alike.

When I lose this debate and we have magical, mind-altering bikelane stripes all over, I expect to
see the HJ editorial staff all dutifully and happily pedaling to work and back home every day.  I
expect Publisher Smith to pass me on his bike every morning instead of in his SUV.  But I doubt
we'll notice the difference in our traffic counts or in our demand projections in the CMPO 20
year plan.

If you want bike lanes so that you can pedal to work, ask yourself these questions: 1) What do
the people already bike commuting know that I don't know about the real hazards of bicycling on
the plain old roadway?  2) Do I have too many culturally-ingrained, deep-seated, childhood fears
(the echo in my mind of my mom telling me to "Watch out for cars!") to allow me to learn from
them? 3) Am I really waiting for my local government to paint special stripes that will give me
permission to ride my bike to work?

If you want bike lanes so that others will pedal to work, ask yourself these questions: 1) Will
stripes really get the cultural change I want?  2) Is this change worth the risks resulting from
enlarging the population of cyclists with new members who are soothed in their misplaced fears
but unaware of the real hazards and how to deal with them? 3) Are there other ways to foster this
cultural change that would result in more informed and safer commuting cyclists?


"Predict a system of bike lanes would encourage a significant number..."

What is the basis for this prediction other than wishful thinking?  Look at the places where you
think this effect has already been realized.  If you stand on a street corner there, you will still see
that most people are still in cars.  You may look at Eugene where they don't have cold winters;
Missoula, where there is no hill between the residential community and the campus;  Boulder,
where bicycles are banned on Main Street.  Bikelanes do not result in an explosion of cycling. 

[Two days later the same HJ editorial board opined that we need a downtown parking terrace
because Loganites are not inclined to walk far from their cars.  Are these the same people who
will gleefully hop in their bikes when they see more paint in the road?]

"Making bicycle commuting pleasant and easy will go a long way toward eliminating some of
that pesky PM 2.5, aleviating[sic] traffic problems and propeling[sic] the local populace toward a
healthier lifestyle." 

Most cycle commuters who have a car available use their car instead of their bike when
conditions are not acceptable to them for cycling.  That means no wintertime contribution to air
quality from bike commuting.

In the wintertime, many Cache Valley  bikelanes would remain snow-covered just like that part
of the pavement is right now.  The CMPO money to paint the lanes does not include funding for
the extra cost to keep them snow free.  Additionally, in many areas, plowing the
bikelane/shoulder/parking strip means throwing that snow on to the pedestrian sidewalk,
increasing the deterrent to using that means of pollution-free transportation.