BIKE: Statesman Editorial: Cyclists: Be Careful

[A. Gelfand]

Anyone read this? I agree that the cyclist was very wrong here, if it 
happened like the writer says it did. However, I think it would have been 
more appropriate to address the offender specifically instead of sending 
out a vague yet strong message that cyclists are the inhuman two hundred 
pound enemy, squashing little children into the pavement (on a hike and 
bike trail?). Will the statesman ever print a letter villifying motorists 
who squash cyclists with 3,000 pounds of driver and steel? Also, if sharing 
the hike and bike trail with walkers is so dangerous, then why are cities 
(like Round Rock) building more of these trails "for" cyclists? Cyclists 
mess up car traffic _and_ run over little kids on hike trails. Is there 
anyplace where cyclists can bike "safely"?

Sorry for the bitterness, but I get harassed so frequently that I cringe 
every time the Statesman publishes crap like this than fans the fire of 
driver hostility, to the point where cyclists hesitate to follow the law 
for fear of getting "squashed.". When I read the "right turn only" threads, 
I agreed that the cyclist should always move in the rightmost lane that is 
going in his direction, but I also have a lot of sympathy for a cyclist 
hesitating to move into a fast-moving lane of traffic. I have to do this 
twice on my commute from work. I "solve" the problem by riding during slow 
times, but sometimes even those non-rush hour motorists do not want to pass 
me safely.

I just got back from Lufkin's Pineywood Purgatory ride, which _rocked_. At 
no time during the 72-mile ride did a motorist honk at me or pass closer 
than a half-lane-width away. Most of the cars pulled into the left lane 
entirely. )I was told that the other 364 days of the year they go back to 
throwing beer bottle at the cyclists, but that's another story....) I 
wonder what the  Outlaw 100 ride will bring? It occurs to me that if the 
driver who killed that woman on the Outlaw 100 ride would  not have hit the 
cyclist had she (the driver) pulled over to the left adequately to pass?

Does this editorial need to be addressed by another letter to the editor? 
Can that be done without sounding like a child-hating jerk?

Anyway, here's the letter.................
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"A bicyclist ran over my 9-year-old daughter as we were walking to school 
on the Shoal Creek hike and bike trail recently. He came down the hill 
behind us, too fast, didn't alert us that he was coming, and assumed he 
knew which way we would dodge when we finally heard him. He guessed wrong 
and ran right into my daughter. We're very lucky that she suffered only 
scrapes , bruises, and a lot of tears. I'm trying not to imagine the 
injuries a child could receive being squashed on the pavement by two 
hundred pounds of bicycle and rider. Walkers have the right of way on the 
hike and bike trails, followed by runners and then cyclists. It's always 
the cyclist's responsibility to pass pedestrains slowly enough to avoid an 
accident."