It’s an indisputable fact that Baton Rouge traffic is abysmal.
Ask anyone and they’ll tell you to stay clear of anything resembling asphalt from the hours of 3 to 6 p.m.
It only makes matters worse that, especially around campus, there are a select few individuals that decide to further congest our roadways by biking.
If they insist on motorists sharing the road, bikers must first respect the rules of said road.
Now, don’t mistake me. I don’t have any particular animosity for those who choose to ride a bicycle in lieu of walking, driving or taking the bus, nor did I have any traumatic childhood experiences with bikes. It was a scooter.
What I find so irksome is that whenever I’m driving around campus or the surrounding areas, there’s always at least one biker who acts as though they’re above the law and can bike as they please.
We’ve all experienced it. You’re already late for work, so after rushing to get out of the house you hop in your car and pray to hit every green light between there and your office.
But instead of a quick trip down the road, you’re stuck behind a bicyclist who, despite the perfectly good and notably vacant sidewalk one yard to their immediate right, decides to stay just far enough into the road to make passing them impossible.
To top it all off, they may even occasionally flip the bird at everything society stands for and run a stop sign — the same act that would leave a motorist with a ticket.
What you’re left in is a purgatory — traveling at a 10 mph crawl, you’re left full of barely-contained road rage and even later for work.
Bicyclists must understand that if we’re to share the road, it’s imperative that they abide by the same rules as drivers. This includes signaling at turns, stopping at all relevant signals and signs and most definitely not jumping out into traffic whenever the mood strikes you.
But seriously, I almost killed a man one time driving near sorority row when he decided to pull an admittedly sick bunny hop off the sidewalk and into the road.
Bicyclists must also understand that they’re moving significantly slower than everything else on the road. On campus, speed limit signs are posted at 20 mph in some areas, and that number only increases as you get further away from campus.
Given that your average bicyclist travels between 10 and 12 mph, it would help everyone involved if slower persons in the roadway would yield to faster vehicles. Tour de France winners only bike at an average 25 mph, and they do it for a living.
As for an addition of bike lanes around campus and the surrounding area, I’m all for it. However, that would be a question for the same geniuses who decided to make East Boyd Drive and Ben Hur at Burbank right-turn-only.
Adherence to these rules isn’t only a matter of common decency, it’s also a safety issue. Given the weight and average speed of most vehicles on the road around campus, a collision with a bicyclist can leave a would-be Lance Armstrong cooling their heels in the hospital, or worse, the morgue.
Ryan McGehee is a 21-year-old political science, history and international studies major from Zachary. Find him on Twitter @JRyanMcGehee.