I am so disappointed in our city fathers that all I can do is shake my head in wonder. Pueblo is now on the cutting edge because we have bicycle paths painted all over our fair city. We now have bicycles going both ways on a one way street and cars parked in the middle of the same street. We are accomodating the people who ride bikes, but guess what? The bicyclists are afraid to ride in those lanes because they can see a disaster waiting to happen.
When I was young I rode my bike every where. The first thing I learned to do was think of my bike as a car. I must ride on the ride side of the road, just as if I were a car. That way if a car came up behind me and wanted to pass me, the driver would adjust the speed so when the left lane was clear he could speed up and pass me. I stopped at stop signs and yielded the right of way. I pedaled fast enough to keep up with the flow of traffic and all was well. I did not ride on the sidewalk. So now what?
I was going up South Road on my way to town the other day and came around a curve and was face to face with a very old man on a three wheeler. He was in my lane headed straight for me. Unfortuneately there was a car in the left lane so I could not dodge him. My only choice was to stop right there in the middle of the street. His solution was to wave his fist at me because I was now impeding his forwar progress. What was I supposed to do? He was clearly in the wrong place which apparently made him mad at me. Wouldn't it be nice and wouldn't it make life easier if motorists were actually allowed to use the roads?
The only way to make a right hand turn off Elizabeth and onto 24th is to run over whoever is in the bike lane. And 5th street is a one way. It should me a one way for everyone. I don't remember many bicycles being hit necessitating the need for the bike lanes. Someone said it is really to make people slow down. Wouldn't it have been easier to post speed limit signs at a slower speed? Not enough police to enforce the speed limit? Last week three policemen showed up at a friend of mines house because animal control said he had too many cats and he would not let her come in to count them. Priorities may be a little out of whack here.
Education is the key here. Give motorists a quick course in bicycle etiquitte and give all the bicycle riders a lesson in riding like driving a car. Should me simple. If a car hits a bike and the bike is in the wrong, give the rider a ticket. If the car is in the wrong, give the driver a ticket. The way it is now, we just confound the whole mess and we never will get it right. Rules are rules. We all have them, we just need to obey them.
