With the city putting more emphasis into bike lanes, while making parking harder and harder, we think the time has come for bicycle riders to have city or state "bicycling" licenses coupled with proper training on how to ride on streets shared or dominated by automobiles.
The city says 6,000 people commute by bike each day, three times the national average, and it thinks that number will triple in 10 years. It plans projects over the next two years to include 53 miles of pavement markings to encourage cars and bikes to share the road, 37 miles of new bike lanes and two miles of trails.
For automobile drivers, that can be intimidating and even infuriating at time. We of the car world get upset when we have to stop for a light, but a bike rider swerves over to the crosswalk and keeps going. Or the huffing, puffing rider who moves to the exact middle of the lane and goes 1 mile per hour up a hill, leaving the car to jolt along at an impossible speed or to dangerously pass, endangering bike rider, driver and passengers in other cars.
To drive on city streets, we have to pass a test and then periodically renew our license and pay a fee.
Some think bike riders need training too. Take the comments of long-time rider and bicycle driver instructor David Smith. He criticizes the city's plan as "one-dimensional," because it's based on false perceptions that segregated bike lanes are safer than riding with traffic. But he says the plan at least shows the city is taking cycling more seriously but it's mostly a "feel good solution" that ignores the alternative of training cyclists to ride with traffic to overcome their fears.
"The bike lane is a powerful symbol," Smith says. "It sends a message to bikers that they don't belong on the street. It's based on an idea that you can't get along with the other person."
If inexperienced bike riders had training, maybe fewer would do some of the silly things that driver's see. It is usually obvious to the car driver which are amateurs with an "I belong here too and I can do what I want" attitude that causes accidents.
Training and a license, complete with license documents, appears the way to go for the city and probably for the state. We would hope training would help keep novice bike riders safe and from being overconfident.
- Jack Mayne
