Share the road with bikes?

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
July 6, 2010

An editorial in this morning's Northwest Herald proclaims "Sharing road a necessity." The editors took off on a DeKalb motorist who chased a bicyclist for ten blocks.

What the editors failed to report is what caused the driver to become irate in the first place. Something did. Let me offer some possibilities, based on bicyclists I've seen in Woodstock.

The bicyclist was riding in traffic and many cars had gone around him on a straight stretch of road. At a traffic light, all cars stopped. The bicyclist rode past the line of stopped cars to the head of the line.

Perhaps before the light changed green, the bicyclist crossed the intersection against a red light and began riding on an upgrade that restricted his speed. All the cars that had passed the bicyclist now had to pass him again.

The bicyclist rode in the center of the traffic lane, impeding the flow of traffic and preventing cars from passing him.

The bicyclist weaved in the traffic lane, interfering with drivers trying to pass him.

The bicyclist made a left turn from the right side of the lane, without signalling.

The bicyclist rode at night without proper front and rear lighting or reflectors.

The bicyclist rode against traffic.

The bicyclist failed to stop at stop signs.

None of these violations gives a motorist the right to chase down the bicyclist and threaten him with a tire iron. The motorist could have called the police to have the bicyclist cited.

Ah, but what happens when you do report a bicyclist/violator? Does the complainant get laughed at? Does the officer take the caller as seriously as he would, if a bicyclist complained against a motorist?

Perhaps a monthly traffic "initiative" in Woodstock should be enforcement of traffic laws as they apply to bicyclists.