Cool Fiz: October 2008

I just got back from a little saunter around Siloam Springs on my bike. I took off down the hill on Mt. Olive towards the middle school. It's all downhill from my house, which is up on the ridge that defines the Sager Creek flood plain to the south, and where the land kind of levels out to the north, before it starts to get all foothilly for the Ozarks.

One of the many reasons I chose Siloam Springs as my hometown is that it is a very bikeable city. A reasonably fit person could ride their bike anywhere they really needed to go to get what they needed to get. It has a compact size which allows fine living in close proximity to schools, parks, health care, city hall, shopping, and dining. I intended to find a place where my youngest child, 10 at the time, could spread his independence in a wider and wider circle, and be relatively safe.

It was me who really took to the cycling, though. I hadn't owned a bike since my eldest, now 26, was an infant. My last ride before 2004 was with him in a backpack when he was just a few months old. Motherhood and work took up the time I would have used for one of my favorite things in the whole world. Such is life. (I wish I still had that old 10-speed bike, though! Such is my old bike obsession.)

I'm fortunate that a childhood favorite is something that can be done well into my dotage. Unless I keep having days like today. As I was riding on the street by the middle school, I could see a car about to leave the parking lot. It was stopped, and the driver was on a cell phone. I approached and tried to make eye contact with her. As I got to within 20 feet to the left of her car, she looked right, put down the cell phone while she looked left, and then proceeded to turn left right in front of me!

Luckily for me, I was paying attention. As I slammed on my brakes and wobbled to a stop, I hollered in her slightly open window, "HEY! You pulled out right in front of me!" and I could hear her say, "YEAH!" sarcasticly mimicking my tone. At that moment, I'm pretty sure she couldn't have cared less that she put my life in danger, and exposed herself to a possibility of paying my medical bills, getting a ticket or being sued. I'm hoping, that once she finished griping to her daughter about cyclists on the road and she calmed down, that in her quieted mind she thought of all those things, and tries to remember to pay more attention in the future. That's what happens to me when I make a driving mistake that causes a near miss (and there have been plenty just in the many miles I drove in September on The Big Trip).

I calmed down quickly (because it does no good to hang on to such things), and I headed up towards JBU on the Bike Lane to Nowhere. Everyone was polite to me as I signaled my intentions and came to full stops at intersections, but I did get a little miffed at Chris Henson as he came down the hill from JBU on foot and turned towards me into the bike lane on his run. (Why don't runners run on the sidewalk?)

At Granite Street I turned and went south on Stateline Road. Unfortunately, the same situation that happened at the middle school was setting itself up to happen AGAIN at the entrance to the casino. Exact same scenario, except this time the window was all the way down, and I was resigned to not being able to stop it, and not getting my blood pressure up over it. So when the woman got right in front of me (I could have slapped her mirror, she was that close) I just said, "You're cutting it a little close aren't you?" I didn't hear her say anything. I knew she had seen me and decided to go anyway.

These are the incidents that make me think, "That's it, I'm writing a letter!" But, I never do. It's a complicated issue. There are so many cyclists (Will calls them bikelists) who do not know the rules of the road and who do no favors to those of us who do. Then there are the real roadies who love to go fast and won't stop for anything, not even a stoplight. (They're taking their lives in their hands, and I'm surprised any of them are still alive.)

The bikelists never wear helmets, usually have their seat too low for healthy knees or effective pedaling, ride on the sidewalk, or worse, ride on the wrong side of the road in traffic, and go through stop signs without even looking for traffic. They are usually riding a bike that squeaks or doesn't shift; one that came from Wal-Mart (the only place you can buy a new bike in Siloam Springs), and was put together by an employee who doesn't know about bikes. I fell into this category when I first started riding again in 2004, but I quickly left it behind and I morphed into an enthusiast.

The real roadies are always dressed in lycra and are often men with shaved legs. Ninety-nine percent of them wear helmets, and they usually have expensive bikes, which they never use for anything but getting out of town on the highway and going as fast as possible. I sometimes fall into this category. I like going fast, too, but I like to coast more. So hammerfests are usually no fun for me. I get my need for speed fulfilled by coasting downhill!

There's a third and maybe a fourth category, too. There are the people who see cycling as a nothing more than a practical matter. They commute to work or go to the store or they ride for pleasure on the trail. They are usually discerning consumers, so they researched their bike options and may only own one bike. They usually always wear a helmet. They might have a flag on their recumbent because they're concerned about being visible.

Related to that third category, there are those who have a bike as a practical necessity. There are several of them that I see often. They are on Wal-Mart bikes, but they are riding to work at the Simmons plant with their rubber chore boots on, or back from IGA with a bag of groceries hanging off the handlebars. An article in Utne Reader I read once called these "invisible cyclists". I see them as problem solvers who are willing to work for a living and live within their means. No shame in that.

There is one thing all these cyclists have in common. They have a need to be safe on the roads. Under the scant Arkansas law that applies to cyclists, cyclists are considered vehicles, just like cars. Therefore, they are required to use the roadways. Indeed, the most oft-given advice to cyclists to remain safe on the road is to behave like a car. It is a right and a privilege for cyclists to use the roads for which they, too, pay taxes to build and maintain. It is also the cyclists responsibility to ride correctly and defensively.

This means that they should obey all traffic control devices. Stop at stop signs. Signal your turns and use the proper lane when turning. Ride with the flow of traffic. Pass other vehicles only when safe to do so, and NEVER pass a car on the right.

By the same token, cyclists should yield the lane to faster traffic when it is safe to do so. This means to stay to the right of the lane. Cyclists are not required to use the shoulder, but using it to allow traffic to pass when there is no debris or rough pavement or other unsafe conditions, is the polite thing to do. When a cyclist deems it unsafe for a vehicle to pass them, it is perfectly all right for the cyclist to claim the center of the lane and stay there until it is safe for passing. Cyclists should signal their intentions to move into the lane by pointing right or left. Making eye contact with drivers is one of the most effective methods of making your presence known. Cyclists should ride far enough out in the lane when passing parked cars to prevent a car door from hitting them if it opens unexpectedly.

For drivers' part, Arkansas law requires vehicles to give at least three feet of clearance on either side when passing a cyclist. Too many cyclists have been clipped by wide mirrors on pick-up trucks. Passing too close can cause the cyclist to wobble unsafely in the swirling draft of a large vehicle. A cyclist falling or being knocked down in traffic is more likely to be run over by a following car, not to mention the injuries that will be sustained on impact with the pavement.

If a cyclist is claiming the center of a lane, driver's should assume there is a good reason for this. There may be no shoulder, or glass or other debris on the shoulder that would cause a flat or an accident for the cyclist. The road may be too narrow for an oncoming car and a following car to pass a bicycle at the same time, and still allow the for the three feet of clearance required in the law. The cyclist may be preparing to move to the left turn or middle lane to make a left turn up ahead.

The important thing is for drivers and cyclists to be safe and courteous for each other, and not to assume the other is making them late on purpose. Are saving a few seconds really worth endangering the life or limb of a stranger?

No one I know would expect a small child to ride their bike on the road instead of the sidewalk. However, I believe parents should be teaching their children the rules of the road and how to operate a bicycle as a vehicle, as the children become developmentally ready. It may be safer for a child with poor judgment to ride on the sidewalk for the short distances that children are allowed to travel alone. But as a general rule, sidewalks are not safe for cyclists. There are too many driveways and intersections where drivers do not expect cyclists to be. A cyclist on the road is much more recognizable to drivers as a vehicle. A cyclist on the sidewalk is not expected by drivers to cross every driveway and every intersection without stopping.

There is no law in Arkansas which requires bicycles to be on the sidewalk, and none that prohibit it. If a cyclist prefers to ride on sidewalks, and is able to safely manage the obstacles of pedestrians, lampposts, etc., AND is willing to stop at every intersection like a pedestrian and look both ways before crossing, then there is nothing wrong with it. But a bicycle's optimal use is as a vehicle, and vehicles belong on the streets. Knowing how to safely ride in the streets with the flow of traffic is a useful skill that adults should learn and children should be taught.