LexRides

[fattire]

I wonder what folks on this site think about biker education (obviously a good thing).

What I have in mind has less to do with college students acting like idiots on their bikes that should know better, but rather the working class and lower class folks (often latino) we see around town that obviously have no clue (not necessarily their fault . . .many are foreign). Or, alternatively the foreign (mostly graduate) students that ride with reckless abandon?

Do we have a responsibility to educate them about the rights and responsibilities of riding a bike in town? Or, more importantly, how to keep themselves and others safe by following (wihin reason) the rules?

Anyone thought about this?

Thoughts?

[jkizzle]

i actually wholeheartedly agree. even the homeless shelters need to have something about this. back when i first got to lexington, a homeless veared off the sidewalk into the road around a corner blindly, smashing into my girlfriends car. around campus, ive been nearly hit by foreign kids going the wrong way in bike lanes or crossing into the sidewalk, and they when they try to avoid me or my bike, they possibly end up in car-harms way.

how to implement this though, is hard. maybe wildcat wheels and the local shops ought to brief new owners on traffic laws if they dont already do that, or at least a handout sheet of rules for lexington. who knows, maybe wildcat wheels could even have a test haha.

[brokebike]

I think a broader, and perhaps more practical application of this type of education would be to expand the drivers test to include a comprehensive bicycle component that not only deals with how motorists should handle sharing the roads with bikes, but also how to safely ride a bike on the road with traffic. Make it a significant portion of the test, and include thorough testing on the entire course - not just a couple of questions about hand signals, or whatever.

I don't think it's too far-fetched of an idea. I mean, how many people above the age of say, 10 have you met who cannot ride a bicycle? Enacting a program such as this would help elevate bikes in the collective conscious to a legitimate, responsible mode of transportation that should be taken seriously, rather than what most people think - which is that bikes are nothing more than toys or pieces of exercise equipment.

This of course doesn't address those who already have licenses and permits, but it would be a good precedent to set for future generations, especially if America finally gets in step with the rest of the world and bikes become a bigger part of our transportation and culture as oil use becomes a more limiting factor.

I would also love to see a lot more materials and signage out in the public realm that send messages of sharing the roads in general. It's always frustrating to encounter so many drivers who wholeheartedly believe that if you're riding a bike, you belong on the sidewalk. I'm biased of course, but I think these types of messages should be as prevalent as anti-drinking-and-driving campaigns.

[fattire]

I think the bike portion of the driver license test is a great idea. As you mention, from the outset of their driver's ed. program be informed that bikes belong on the road.

Jkizzle's comment about wildcat wheels and other "free" bike programs is good one. Do they provide information about how to ride a bike responsibly?
Does the yellow bike program?

[DHB]

I definitely agree with teaching drivers how to handle bikers in the roadway, but how can we expect them to be coy with us if we're running amok will no visible system in place?

Trying to educate people will help some. But people will never stop riding on sidewalks and down bike lanes the wrong way because it's too convenient. Everyone knows that it's inconsiderate, but not illegal, to ignore sidewalks and cut paths through the grass just like it's inconsiderate but not illegal (except in some cases) to side on the sidewalk. Foreign exchange students and sorority girls on cruisers aren't going to care too much about being considerate simply because they don't know how considerate it is, especially if they're from out of town.

We need some sort of enforcement for biking ordinances, but there really isn't a strong enough argument to make the city devote the resources necessary.

[elzie5000]

I don't know how effective adding bike education to driving tests would be. We all see every day how ineffective that system is at teaching people how to do things like merge, yield, use 4-way stops, etc.

Added enforcement on the other hand, might. Particularly for people riding the wrong way in bike lanes and against traffic. I can't count the number of times I've seen people riding the wrong way down Winchester Rd, getting passed by police cars and the cops don't even blink. Drives (no pun intended) me up the wall.

[fattire]

Good point. Driver education doesn't do much to teach people to drive. Perhaps it would minimize the heckling because people would at least realize that we have a right to be in the road.

The enforcement issue is key. At the minimum, I think that UK needs to put some effort into bike enforcement a couple of weeks each semester to keep people from riding through campus at peak hours, on rose st., and not locking their bikes to the racks.

Preaching to the choir here, but part of creating a bike friendly community is creating one where the rules are explicit and people follow them. This keeps everyone safe.

[brokebike]

I could be mistaken, but I thought part of the plan was to lift the "no bike" restrictions throughout campus?

Not sure exactly what that entails, and if there are other limits as a result...

[fattire]

I hope they aren't working to lift no bike restrictions on campus. There are places where bikes should be and places where they shouldn't, and riding amongst the hordes of people moving to and from classes is one of those places where they shouldn't be.

People should learn to ride their bikes down rose and park them on the racks behind POT and walk to class. OR, find an alternative route to a nearby bike rack. All the bikes in front of the classroom building are ridiculous (mostly wal-mart specials from idiots that are too ignorant to think about it).

The people that ride their bikes through the bottleneck on the between Chem-physics and classroom building I think are the most ridiculous fools.

Walk your bikes!

[brokebike]

Shane Tedder would probably know the answer to this.

[DHB]

I can remember a few years ago cops gave tickets to people riding bikes in front of Willie T. in an effort to scare people into not riding on restricted sidewalks. The problem is that it's too inconsistent to matter. If you spent a week giving tickets to everyone that rides on sidewalks in the business district and rolls down the street going the wrong way, but then didn't do anything else for a year, people would just forget and go back to breaking the rules.

And even if police did start handing out tickets, there's really no way to enforce them because there's no threat of losing a "bike license". And I don't think you could pin bike violations to a motor vehicle license.

[jkizzle]

parts of the campus are too restricted for bikes. they hardly ever have people one them besides between 950-10 , 1050-11 and 1150-12. i agree there are lots of sidewalks that should be bike-free, but some need to be altered or racks relocated.