HOW QUAINT. When I was a child, bicycles actually required their own license plates. They were little things, about two-and-a-half inches square. But they were real. They had their own license number and expiration date.
One attached the plate right under the seat. All bicycles were pretty much the same back then, a lot less sophisticated than now, and bikes had this little area beneath the seat, perfectly convenient for a license plate. Four of the metal bars out of which the bike was made formed the outline of a square. The plate went right there.
It was visible to anyone, such as a policeman, in back of you.
I dont know whether license plates are the answer, but I do know the problem: bicycle safety in this city is pretty much non-existent, and the police dont seem to care.
Caring even less, however, are the bicycle riders themselves. Not all of them of course. But it seems like four out of every five of them do not wear a helmet and drive as if safety signs and regulations simply do not exist.
I am stopped at a red light. Along side of me comes a bicycle whizzing right past me, right through the light. Not, as car drivers are accused of, entering the intersection when the light is orange and exiting when the light is already red. No, not that kind of running a red light. Rather, running it straightaway. Entering the intersection when it is red and exiting when it is red.
At full speed.
Not even a token slowdown.
The other day, I made a right turn on a red light, which, if you stop first, is permitted in Colorado. Well, a bicyclist on the parallel sidewalk was speeding through the red light. Then he saw me, and slowed down, as did I. But the look he gave me like, who am I to impede his plan to speed through the red light here?
Ditto for stop signs most bicyclist sail right through.
Ditto for lane changing at will, as if no cars were traveling along.
Most bicyclists feel no need to look, to slow down, to signal anything.
EVERY SO often I see a policeman whos pulled a car over. Ticket time.
I cannot recall in decades in Denver having seen a policemen pull over a bicyclist. Im sure it must happen, though its rarity speaks volumes: Travel regulations are for drivers of automobiles, not for riders of bicycles.
We make a big deal about bikers, i.e., riders of motorcycles. We advise them to wear helmets because, if they are injured, they end up costing the public.
Why motorcyclists and not bicyclists? Are not the potential dangers to a bicyclist immeasurably greater than to a motorcyclist, whose vehicle, after all, has some weight and heft?
The danger is not only to the bicyclists themselves, and not even to the car drivers with whom they share the road. A bicyclist joyriding along, oblivious to stop signs, traffic lights and lane markers, is a role model.
A negative role model. The first experience most people have with wheels is kids on their bicycles. What do they see? They see that most adult bicyclists, in Denver anyway, act as if the traffic rules that kids are carefully taught are for kids only.
Add in bicycling as one of those things that kids can look forward to when they grow up as having the adult version.
The kid version has safety precautions.
The adult version has no safety precautions.
Perhaps the old 1950s version of bicycle safety, with official license plates and all, is not a bad message: You are registered. You are responsible. Driving even a bicycle is a privilege. You can lose it.
Its wonderful to put more people on bicycles, to use up less fossil fuels. As the trend grows, and I presume it will, it will be necessary to grow obedience to and enforcement of the same traffic rules that govern cars.
We are all doing the same thing trying to get somewhere or, perhaps, just having a good time. Either way, we are all subject to the dangers of driving. We must all pay heed; and, if not, pay the price.
Copyright © 2015 by the Intermountain Jewish News
