Bike Smart

I’d say this is good advice:

One of the earliest lessons when he started biking to work last summer: avoid Veterans Parkway.

“I would come all the way in on Veterans Parkway. I have since changed my route,” Smith said, adding the ride on Veterans resulted in some “scary” moments.

Can we get a Real Men of Genius award for this guy?

I know that in theory a bicycle should be able to go about anywhere (short of an interstate) that a car can go, but in reality that’s just not practical, at least not the way things are set up now.

Not to keep harping on the same point, but there really needs to be better accommodations for bicycles on the streets of Springfield. I think we need to recognize the reality that, despite the official rules of the road, bikes and cars are not equal and can’t be treated as if they are. Instead, we need areas where one is given priority over the other. Veterans Parkway right now is for cars –period. However, until the day in the distant future when bike lanes and trails abound, why not designate “bike routes” in the city where bicycles are to be given the right-of-way, so to speak, and cars must always yield to them. These would be well marked routes, mostly on side streets, and soon motorists would learn to avoid these streets lest they be slowed by bike traffic.

I’m not sure about the practicality of something like that but it seems to me it might work. It might even be nice for families to live on such streets as traffic would be slow and kept to a minimum. Or maybe everyone would hate it. Who knows.