That’s but a wee fraction of the problem

From the LTE section of Friday’s SJ-R:

Drivers need to use good judgment, common sense
We trust that when we use the streets and roads that everyone will use good sense and judgment.

On the evening of July 17, I was riding my bicycle back home from a local health club on West Iles when a car leaving Rotary Park pulled right in front of me. The woman driving this vehicle looked straight at me and then pulled out.

By trying to avoid hitting the vehicle, I flew head-first over my handlebars and hit the street head-first. And no, I was not wearing a helmet on this day. That was my poor judgment.
The driver of this vehicle not only caused an accident, which injured me, but then left the accident scene, taking no responsibility.

I would welcome any information about this driver and truly thank those who stopped and helped me. I also would like to apologize to anyone using that road that evening who was inconvenienced. But most of all, I would like to thank the Springfield Fire Department. You guys are the best.

Rick Neuber
Springfield

I don’t ride my bicycle nearly enough. One of my typical excuses is that I have to take the kid(s) everywhere I go, and taking the kids by bicycle turns a simple quick bike trip to Party Zone for some Fat Tire the grocery store into this rather long involved ordeal that is often not worth the hassle, so I tend to either wait until Mrs. Johann gets home from work, or else take the car. Worse yet, too often I wind up waiting until Mrs. Johann gets home and then taking the car.

Let me just say first and foremost that I am NOT a tree-hugger by any stretch of the imagination. Global warming- as it is being presented by the libbies and the media (same diff)- is a myth. And for the record, I’m not going to argue that here- that’s a different argument for a different time- so those who feel an urge to start a debate about global warming need to simply suppress it. Such comments will go unanswered (and possibly deleted at my discretion). I have absolutely no problem with hunting, so long as it’s not poaching, so long as the animal isn’t just left there (especially mortally wounded but still alive), and so long as the hunted animal is not brought to extinction. As long as those conditions are met, then as far as I’m concerned, Bambi, Bugs, Wile E., Daffy, Yogi, Bullwinkle, and all of their little woodland creature friends had better watch their collective asses. Again, not the topic being discussed, so save it.

ANY-hooze, as I said, I am not what can be called an “environmentalist”, but I do still “give a hoot”, to borrow a late-70s PSA slogan. I don’t litter- in fact, I’ve suddenly found myself picking stuff up off the street as the dog and I walk through the ‘hood here lately. I’m not super-militant about it, but I try to recycle whenever I can. Some’s better than none, right? The big thing for me is the whole car thing. There are too many cars on the road as it is, gas is so goddamned expensive (for NO reason than pure profit) and we just keep buying it like Amy Winehouse buys crack, and it does in fact pollute the friggin’ air that my kids (and YOUR kids) breathe.

I would love to see more people riding their bicycles. It’s far better for your health, it’s far better for everyone else’s health, and it reduces the dependency on petroleum. However, this town is not very bicycle-friendly, as alluded to in Mr. Neuber’s LTE shown above. Most drivers don’t give two shits about (and often do not notice) 800-lb motorcycles, let alone 30-lb bicycles. Do the math, folks- car vs. bicycle: who wins that collision? And to you drivers with your heads firmly planted in your assholes, let me just assure you that bicyclists absolutely DO have every right to be on the same roads upon which you drive. Yes, there are bike trails, but there are people who ride their bikes for reasons other than exercise or recreation, and even those riders deserve to be able to ride {safely} more than just from the Dirksen IDOT building to Rochester or from the Parkway Pointe area to the new Sonic on Wabash. Bicyclists have their own set of rules of the road, and you can get a booklet- free of charge from any SOS or DMV office- called, interestingly enough, Bicycle Rules of the Road. Of course, that makes it incumbent on the bicycler to actually follow those BRotR’s, but more on that in a bit. Automobile drivers have simply got to pay more attention- just in general, but especially in relation to bicycles. Car drivers need to familiarize themselves with the Rules of the Road for cars first- and follow them- and then familiarize themselves with those for bicycles.

Now you bicyclists need to do your part as well in that regard. Among others, I’m talking to you dumb-ass douches who ride on the left side of the street, those who ride down the middle of the street, and those who are in groups of 5 or 6 or more spread out across the entire road. I think that that’s more a generational thing (*cough* kids and young adults *cough*), and additionally that the people that don’t follow bicycle traffic rules when they ride probably don’t bother watching for bicycles when they drive a car, either. It might not be “cool” to use hand signals, but it is the law, and it just may save you from getting your ass run over. It is also a requirement that cyclists stop at stop signs. It’s a wonder more cyclists haven’t gotten hit, what with the amount of them I myself have seen blow through stop signs and red lights, or worse yet, go zipping across Veterans Parkway, across traffic and against a red light, because they’re too friggin’ impatient to wait for the green. You also need to do what you can to make yourself more visible to car drivers- reflectors on your bike (on your clothing helps as well, especially at night), head and tail lights, maybe even one of those big ol’ orange flags, things like that. I’d rather look like a dork and be seen than to have to be extracted from someone’s grille. Oh, one more thing: unless you’re a child still learning how to ride a bike, stay off of the goddamned sidewalk!

My thought, however, is that the problem isn’t inattentive drivers and scofflaw cyclists that makes Springfield “bicycle unfriendly” NEARLY as much as it is the fact that this town isn’t doing enough to allow bicyclists to safely ride. Again, there are the aforementioned bike trails, and there are a {very small} handful of streets that have bike paths, but like I say, many people ride to and from work, run errands, or simply don’t live in one of those few areas. There desperately needs to be bike paths downtown, for starters. There need to be bike paths on many of the main thoroughfares in town. Granted, some cyclists try to take less-traveled routes, but depending on where one is going, there are only so many subdivisions through which one can cut and only so many side streets one can take. And for that matter, cyclists shouldn’t have to turn a 12-block ride into a 4-mile jaunt simply to avoid the risk of getting clipped on MacArthur. Or Chatham. Or Monroe. Or Cook. Or Stevenson.

You get my point.

Some dumb-asses people argue that if bicyclists want to use city streets, then they should have to pay for it- registering and/or plating their bikes, for example. First of all, whether you bike or drive (or do neither, for that matter), you still pay for those streets regardless by virtue of paying taxes. Secondly, I look at it just the opposite- I don’t feel a bicyclist should have to pay {extra} for the “privilege” of riding on streets that have nowhere for bicyclists to more safely ride. Frankly, I don’t feel a bicyclist should have to pay {extra} for riding on streets that do have more bicycle access.

Whatever their reason, there seems to me to be more and more people bicycling. That can be considered nothing besides a good thing. People say Americans are fat and lazy; biking addresses that. People say Americans are too dependent on {foreign} oil; biking addresses that. People say Americans don’t care about the environment; biking addresses that. Bummer that we’re in a climate that is not more conducive to riding year-round, but as long as there isn’t too much snow and ice on the ground, one can still ride in the winter, if they so choose. Drivers have GOT to be more attentive, cyclists have GOT to follow the cycling regulations, and most importantly, the city has GOT to make itself more bicycle friendly.

Oh- and it’d sure help if more businesses had bike racks.