Gremillion’s article causes misconceptions
Eric Gremillion’s article “The plight of the biker is just, sincere” was riddled with misconceptions about cycling. I am sure he meant well, but as George Bernard Shaw wrote in his “Maxims of a Revolutionary” which accompanies Man and Superman, “All men mean well” and “Hell is paved with good intentions,” the only escape from which is learning through experience and activity.
Mr. Gremillion claims the streets, which I happen to ride my bike on, are dangerous and murderous, terms that only reinforce myths about bicycle riding. Many well-intending people who do not ride bicycles and even some “bicycle advocates” have sold the idea of
simply building bike lanes/paths to segregate bicycles and to encourage cycling and safety.
I normally would not care how misguided people’s attempts are, but the law treats all bicycles equally therefore I am affected by other people’s misunderstanding.
The plight of bikers is much hype with a smidget of serious reality and is due to two major factors: bike riders who have neither a knowledge of cycling nor of cycling in traffic and motorists who insist on making left hand turns in front of cyclists – a general refusal to yield.
The reason for the former is that the vast majority of people who ride bikes think of them as toys. And as we all know, toys can be operated as the user wishes and they require little attention and money.
The latter factor is because when faced with an imminent red light and an approaching cyclist at an intersection, motorists will choose to make a left turn in front of the cyclist. In the case of a car, they would stop because they would be risking their own lives, but fortunately for them, if the approaching vehicle is motorcycle or a bicycle only the other guy or gal’s life is at risk. If there is a collision, the motorist can just tell the police officer they “did not see her” and they can then drive home with no censure.
Non-cyclists and ill-informed bicycle riders and advocates have launched a coup de grace, overturning basic traffic engineering and cycling principles in place of beliefs with no factual basis but with sufficient superstition and fear.
While there is a limited place for bicycle paths (not lanes), “limited” being the keyword, they are not currently suitable right on campus because we have low speed limits and no hills like they have in many other cities. In addition, many student areas around campus require left turns to get to campus while bicycle lanes are located on the right hand side of the road. Figure out why that would be dangerous.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has published reports and their findings about cycling collisions, which is, as always, available to the public. The “FHWA Course on Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation” backs up what real cyclists have known for years, “Intersections, driveways, and other junctions continue to be locations where about three-fourths of the crashes occur. Emerging facilities should be designed with this fact in mind.” In addition they state that “Bicyclists need training about how to ride in traffic,” after citing that bicyclists were culpable in half of bicycle-car collisions. You pay your tax money for traffic engineers and researchers to produce the aforementioned results, and LSU’s current plans, which require them to seek federal money, mirror nothing of what was produced. Think about it.
The issue of building bicycle facilities should not even be discussed unless the person discussing the issue understands why: bicycle facilities quickly deteriorate, are strewn with glass, have cars parked in bicycle lanes, present dangerous turning conflicts, and they are not completely accepted by bicycle organizaions in the United States.
If you try to promote the correct form of cycling to many planners or communities, they will not listen because they have been imbibed with the notion that cycling is dangerous unless you seek segregation. Of course, no one questions the inherent lack of safety of cars no matter how many people are killed. But we cyclists do not have the luxury of having commercials with girls,techno music, and bikes on empty metropolitan streets to overshadow safety concerns.
Michael Ohene
senior
electrical engineering