As with most, if not all, professions, we are able to reach out to fellow members on various platforms to ask questions, present ideas, or express concerns related to our work. Recently, a large number of us were discussing some of the efforts being made by countries around the world—such as with the Paris Climate Agreement and other such accords—to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. Fairly quickly the conversation turned to topics such as electric vehicles, mass transportation, and other methods of getting from one place to another such as bicycles and walking. At that point, I asked the other engineers if they lived in a bicycle friendly town or knew of a bicycle friendly town where people felt relatively comfortable and safe travelling around that town on a bike. Of all the engineers around the country participating in the discussion, only two weighed in saying they felt their towns had done a good job developing safe biking pathways.
At first, I was surprised only two people felt their town had developed a safe and convenient alternative to using an automobile to get to work, school, stores, and other destinations. Then I thought about what Columbia has recently been doing and, from what I have heard, at a pretty significant cost. Columbia has been adding bike “lanes” on a number of downtown streets. I assume by putting these narrow, striped paths towards the middle of the roads, that in some way is supposed to make us feel safer that more drivers will pay attention to bike riders and not as much to phone calls, text messages, and other distracted behaviors— that this bike lane towards the center of the road is deemed to be safer than the narrow strip along the curb. I am not sure who helped Columbia with this thought process, but I hope there were no biking organizations taking credit for this decision.
Like a lot of other things communities do these days, taking half measures tend to be more for show than anything else. I would like nothing better for our communities to develop safe bike paths to promote biking from one community to another or just around that same town. On a nice morning, I would have gladly ridden my bike from my home off Corley Mill Road in Lexington to my office (former) on Elmwood Avenue in Columbia—if there were a safe way to do so.
Do I think these new bike lanes in Columbia will help get more bike riders on the road? I really don’t think so and sincerely hope not based upon how I see many vehicles driving on those same roads. I admire anyone riding on these roads today but, honestly, feel like I have to say a prayer hoping they get where they are going. I worry about them every time I see them on the road. I’m not quite ready to tell my fellow engineers Columbia is the third safest biking town in the U.S. We have a very long way to go.
Leave a Reply