Bikes, Cars, People, Can't We All Just Share?

My pretty car back in Denali when she had Alaska plates.

Although some might be tiring of all the talk about cycling and road-sharing, I figured I would add my two cents into the proverbial piggy bank. There's a lot more to say on this issue, as there usually is on most hot topics, but the subject of road sharing has become particularly prevalent in my life these days.

According to the Philadelphia City Paper's recent cover story, Biketopia, the number of cyclists in Philadelphia has doubled in three years, and I can see why. Cars are expensive and a royal pain in the rear end to keep in the city. I have a car, and I love her. But I definitely do not love fighting with other Fitler Square residents for parking spaces, or with the PPA to keep my car in the space without tickets or towing. I refuse to move my car from a safe spot unless my life depends on it. Not to mention the blood pressure spikes I experience trying to drive around the city; the use of turn signals is never required, lane changing without looking is a given, and forget trying to get anywhere during rush hour.

So, when I go to the rock gym, a friend's house, any location more than ten blocks from which I don't have to carry anything huge, I'll consider using my bike. That opens up a whole new can of worms.
 
I firmly believe drivers should be able to share the road in a friendly, efficient, safe manner. In a perfect world, every road in Philadelphia would have a bike lane, but right now there is no real network of bike lanes in the city. Lanes will begin and abruptly end. There are lanes on roads that don't need them, and no lanes on roads that are in desperate need of them. People seem generally incapable of running two lanes of traffic on Pine and Spruce consistently, at least somewhat attributable to the width of the road, why not put a bike lane there instead?

A bike lane on Columbus Ave is useless to me - drivers speed past at 50mph, there's no way I'm sitting on a bike in that kind of environment. On numerous occasions, I've had cars take the exit off Columbus up to Market Street, which involves crossing a bike lane, and not notice I'm there. There are also no Center City bike lanes that run east/west. I've seen cars, especially cabs, block bike lanes on purpose. People use them as an extended shoulder for parking. Drivers need to accept the fact that cyclists are here to stay, and rather than revving engines or speeding past cyclists on roads without bike lanes, they should help cyclists stay safe.

Friends (with helmets!) on the Ben Franklin Bridge, bikes in hand! (M. Pierwola)

I more firmly believe cyclists should be able to share the road in a friendly, efficient, safe manner. On the way to the rock gym last night, I almost witnessed a serious accident between a cyclist and a cab. Three cyclists were riding east on Pine Street, helmetless. One fell a bit behind, and in an effort to catch up, ran a red light and almost got slammed into the pavement by a cab driver. I can't imagine the guy would've survived being hit by a car going 30mph without a helmet. Although I'm guilty of this as well, there is absolutely no good reason why, as a cyclist, you should disobey traffic signals. I won't even enter in to the helmet debate here. And, while I'm at it, why on earth is there a helmet debate?

I would argue that a large part of the reason why drivers hate cyclists is because they ride on streets with cars, expect to be respected and treated like cars, but don't behave like cars. As both a driver and a biker, I get extremely angry when I see cyclists weaving in and out of traffic and speeding past cars stopped at traffic lights. True, getting on a bike means using your own pedal power to get somewhere, and it takes you longer to ride one block than it does a car to drive the same distance. But is running a red light or stop sign, rather than waiting like all the other vehicles on the road, really worth it?


A good friend told me last night he'd read or heard that our brains are so trained to look for other motor vehicles at intersections that we don't even bother to look for cyclists. Our eyes are trained to see large moving objects, not the small ones, when we're driving. Both cyclists and drivers should be aware of this, and make a more concerted effort to watch out for each other.

In a really ideal, really perfect world, we'd be able to model our cities after places like Amsterdam, and other forward-thinking places that have realized the importance of planning around non-motorized and public transportation. We would have bike paths and lanes that connect the entire country, or at least a major metropolitan area. Cyclists would be well respected, and cycling would be recognized as an efficient, healthy, environmentally friendly way to get around. But until then, we're just going to have to share.