With an increase in biking and bike lanes, American cyclists and car drivers are at a cultural crossroads. A quick Google search of “biking + accident” will show that in most cases, the driver is either only issued a minor ticket, or not cited. This still occurs even when the cyclist dies. Usually, the driver is not prosecuted, unlike in a car crash where there is a victim and someone blamed. In fact, the police officer’s role in that situation is to discover who was at fault. What does the future hold for bikers and drivers, hoping to share the road in harmony? This is a question now popping up in America, where biking is the second most popular outdoor activity (running is the first).
Most states allow bikers to use the road like a car or truck, but not every municipality makes accommodations for bikers. Bike lanes appear and disappear with irregularity, speed differences between bikes and cars can slow traffic, and accidents are something everyone fears. Additionally, both drivers and cyclists sometimes ignore traffic laws. People go too fast, too slow, run stop signs, ignore red lights, don’t signal properly, talk on the phone, manage their songs on their iPod, try to light cigarettes, pass improperly and dangerously, get angry, and the list goes on. Ask anyone you know why other drivers/cyclists suck and you’ll know doubt hear a similarly exhaustive list.
Returning to the topic at hand, bicycle activists claim that when drivers are barely punished for injuring or killing cyclists, it sends a message that it is not that bad to kill a cyclist or that it is acceptable to injure someone on the road. Bikers can be unpredictable, and this unpredictable behavior is creating an unfair stigma that cyclists are reckless, thereby making law enforcement less inclined to find fault with drivers. Cyclists can combat this stigma by following bike laws or behaving as a car when surrounded by cars, and drivers can pay better attention and realize that 5 tons of metal traveling at even 30 miles per hour can seriously injure a fleshy bag of bones and organs (humans).