Today I was reading a story in the Downtown Journal about cops writing more tickets for bicyclists.
The story was bout a guy who got a $128 ticket for rolling through a stop sign. The car actually turned on its sirens and everything according to the story. Really was the bike running a stop light that big a deal.
As a cyclist I see cyclists rolling through stop signs and riding the wrong way on one way streets and riding without lights at night.
While I know that cops are cracking down on cyclists I think that some of this is unfair. For example there are some stop lights which are controlled by sensors and the sensors do not sense bikes so I can sit at certain stop lights until a car comes to change the light or I can wait until it is safe for me and then go.
I think that maybe the city needs to be educating people about biking. I know that bikes and cars should share the road but does the cyclist riding at night with no lights on the wrong side of the street know that?
One thing I have noticed this summer more than ever is that there are more bikers on the road and people have strong opinions about that. There was one kid who tried to tell me that his mom yelled at a biker that he should be riding on the bike path and not the road when bikers actually have a right to be on the road. There are always the people who think that bikes should be on the sidewalk.
But really I wonder if people who are in cars are even more unhappy about being in those cars. I mean gas is $4 a gallon, there is always traffic or road construction and then you see people on bikes, with smiles on their faces riding past and it has to be frustrating.
The other day while waiting for a light to change a car came up behind me and wanted to make a right on red. The kept inching closer and closer to me and revving their engine and turning up their Green Day. Really why aren't there laws against harassing people on bikes like this person was doing. The thing that really bugged me about this was that I was near a school and could have been a student.
