American Reason
VIKRAM PATEL & MATT SOWADA
Vikram Patel: Iowa City: BikeFriendly City as designated by The League of American Bicyclists. As one who considers himself a member of the Iowa City biking community, I am particularly proud of this distinction. In the years since Iowa City first received this status, we have seen numerous infrastructure changes, like new bike lanes and sharrows, and I’m sure that Iowa City will once again be rewarded as it applies for
a safe and efficient way of getting around in certain circumstances. I by no means use my bicycle everyday, but I really enjoy using it to get to the farmers market or to a park on a nice day. I have never felt in the least bit of danger while traveling on low velocity, residential roads. The same cannot be said
renewal this winter. This focus on adding infrastructure, though, seems to assume that we have already answered a much more fundamental question: What should be the relationship between drivers and bike riders? If that relationship is one of equal responsibility and right to the road, then we should have infrastructure that leads to shared use and ubiquitous application of traffic laws. If there is an imbalance in the responsibility for safety and ability to use the roads respectfully, then we should build infrastructure that would separate bikes and cars, as well as laws that restrict the ways in which they can interact. I tend toward the side that believes that bikes and cars should share the rewards and consequences of mutual use of infrastructure. Bikes should be able to use the road wherever traffic laws would allow a car and should also be held to the same or similar standard of adherence to those traffic laws.
for higher traffic, high velocity routes. It just seems like a fundamentally unsafe situation when thousands of pounds of metal and plastic are whizzing A Humble Plea by, inches away from a nearly The "Please Don't Run Me Over" shirt, avaialble (sometimes entirely) unpro- in bright yellow at Raygun (103 E. College) tected human body at 45 m.p.h. It seems to me that bicycles are simply incapable of upholding Even if we expand this to Iowa as a whole and a minimum standard of safety in those circumstances and should thus be include state highways, the data still points to bicycle use being safe. Since 2005, there has banned from those roads. been an annual average of five to six bicycle VP: Matt, I think you would agree with me related fatalities, about 40 major bicycle relatthat laws and restrictions should only be cre- ed injuries and a little more than 400 reported ated if there’s an imminent or existing prob- bicycle related injuries in the entire state of lem that cannot or has not been addressed Iowa. At worst, bicyclists who are riding in a in another manner. If we look at Iowa City, lawful manner can be a rare inconvenience to I don’t think there are any roads that could drivers, but they are neither at risk nor create be described as high velocity and heavily risk for anyone else. The only major problems involved in regutrafficked to the point of posing a danger to cyclists aside from I-80 and I-380. The vast lar bicycle-car interactions come from the majority of "busy" roads in Iowa City have a rare bicyclists who openly flout traffic laws. speed limit of 25-35 m.p.h. and "heavy traf- Bicyclists who run stop signs, run traffic sigfic" on these roads means that there are 10 cars nals and erratically change lanes create an atin a row, and they have to wait at a stoplight mosphere of unpredictability. The unease that twice before making it through an intersection. a driver gets when passing a bicycle doesn’t
Matt Sowada: That is an intriguing way to frame the question: Is there an imbalance in the responsibility that cars and bikes share for safety and respect on the road? On one hand, I certainly enjoy biking and find it
10 Oct. 17 - Nov. 6 2012 | Little Village