Share The Road: A Rant

I love to ride my bike.  It evokes memories of an innocent childhood, when summer days were spent with neighborhood friends and our bikes... sometimes as transport to a local pool or baseball field, and other times just riding around, perhaps shoving a baseball card in the spokes as to imagine we were racing motorcycles up and down the side streets. 

Even today, once the cold weather starts to break into spring and summer, I bust my bike out of storage, grease the chain, and set out toward some of the many great bike paths and mountain biking trails that New England has to offer.    Additionally I have, on occasion, used my bike as a method of transportation to work. 

  
In many Asian countries, traffic congestion has led to people to utilize bicycles for multiple purposes, including commuting, delivery, and even "Food-Bikes."   In many European nations, such as Belgium and The Netherlands, they actually have created tax incentives for those who bike to work.

In the United States, bicycling as transportation is fast becoming a preferred method of many urban commuters.  The high price of gasoline, the lack of available and affordable parking, as well as environmental concerns have caused a shift in many people's commuting philosophy.  Public transportation authorities have  followed suit, placing bike racks on city buses to encourage a hybrid approach to travel.

Now that this practice is becoming more common in American cities,  I think it is only appropriate to add a few rules to the social contract:

1. You are EITHER a Vehicle OR a Pedestrian.  You cannot pick the most convenient elements of both.
2. You are NOT a Pedestrian.
3. ALL Vehicles are subject to the rules of the road.

Now, please do not mistake my point.  I am all for the use of bicycles as transportation, and am more than happy to share the road.  However, I have encountered far too many instances of a bike riding 14 MPH in traffic, then blatantly blasting through stop signs and traffic lights with no regard for their own safety or the rules of the road.   God forbid that a car is coming with the right of way, and has to screech to a halt to avoid hitting the two-wheeled scofflaw, only to have their hood punched in anger... because yeah, it's the car's fault.

End of Rant.

- Kevin Aherne