Spinning Wheels

WITH A SHRILL blast on the whistle between his teeth the bicyclist announces his apporoach. He whizzes between a Chevy parked at the curb and a bread truck pulled up at the red light and heads into the intersection. There is an oncoming car in the cross street but it is still half a block away, and with a couple of quick pumps on the pedals, the bicyclist is clear.

Bicyclists have long been a part of the Cambridge street scene, but as their numbers continue to grow, and the hazards they engender increase, the city must make a commitment to treating them no differently than the drivers they curse so spitefully. Although it is common knowledge that bicycles are subject to all the same traffic laws that care are: these rules are so rarely enforced that no one pays them any heed. Bikes rolling along the wrong side of the avenue, against the flow of traffic on a one-way street or through stoplights are common sights.

In general, bicyclists seem to treat stoplights the way drivers do at 3:30 on a Wednesday morning, observing their warning is considered entirely optional. The standard practice is to slow slightly before the intersection, look quickly, and then zip across. Usually it isn't a big deal but like anything else it leads to bad habits and the problems arise when bicyclists begin challenging drivers, in the same way pedestrians do when crossing the Square. Everyone fights the cars, but this does not make the practice any less stupid.

Bicyclists have to remember that they are a lot more vulnerable then cars are and if an accident occurs, they are likely to lose. A car bicycle collision might scratch a car's paint job, but it will do a lot more than scratch the bicyclist's face. Bikes are hard for drivers to see, and weaving in and out of traffic or moving against the flow is practically begging to get hit.

While it is true that some drivers tend to run bicyclists off the road, by and large the bikers are far more reckless. If the only victims of reckless bikers were themselves, it wouldn't be an issue. Rather, asking the police to enforce traffic laws and ticket bicyclists who drive recklessly is not asking them to protect people only from themselves.

Many bicyclists are hit by cars each year, but they too can cause accidents. A driver's first reaction when a bike appears unexpectedly in front of him is to swerve or hit the breaks. The bicyclist may escape unharmed but leave a fender-bender or a far worse casualty in his wake.

A COMMON complaint, particularly in hard-core auto magaziens, is that bicyclists should be kept off the roads because they don't pay road-use taxes the way cars do at the gas pump or trucks do directly. The argument may sound good, but it doesn't hold water No bicycle ever eroded a road shoulder or made a pothole like an overweighted truck. Bicycling is a cheap clean alternative to driving and should be encouraged if for none other than utilitarian reasons. When possible, cities should build bike paths like those along the Charles River. But in cramped cities where the roads cannot be widened to accommodate the bicyclists, the drivers and unfortunately the police must make a stronger commitment to keep the roads sane.