Bikers. Ugh. I know I'm supposed to like them, and, in theory, I do.
The positives are obvious: Biking is good exercise, it gets people outdoors, it's good for the environment.
In practice, though, I find that bikers really annoy me.
Not the leisure riders so much — the ones who throw on a pair of sneakers and go for a pleasant cruise along the water. They normally travel solo or in pairs, stick to back roads or paths, and seem more wary of cars and are easily bullied. Once in a while, I fall into this category myself.
It's the hardcore cyclists that make me crazy.
For these people, biking is not a hobby or a way to get from point A to B; it's a cult. Lance Armstrong is God and these are his two-wheeled, spandex-clad disciples.
I'm not alone in my dislike. Even the most patient of drivers can find it hard to resist the urge to curse cyclists who ride in packs. Chattering obliviously with their buddies, riding three abreast on one-lane streets, they force car traffic to crawl along in their wake. And they're apparently unfazed by honks and jeers from drivers hoping they'll consolidate their herd. (Though I suppose I can't be too hard on them; if I were wearing a dorky-looking aerodynamic helmet and neon skintight clothing, I would want to be able to look to my right and left and see someone looking equally ridiculous.)
The desires of bikers and motorists are diametrically opposed. Your dislike for one or the other depends wholly on your current perspective. When you're driving, bikers just mess up the flow of "real" traffic. When you're on a bike, impatient and inattentive drivers can be rude and dangerous.
But there's a fundamental disconnect in hardcore cyclists' notion that it's their road, too. The oft-quoted phrase "Share the Road" would be acceptable if it seemed more feasible.
Bikers who are currently fuming at me, consider this: Would you be content to idle behind a row of slow-moving horse and buggies? Probably not. It's the curse of technology that bike riders have been pushed out to make way for automobiles.
I don't begrudge cyclists their fun; in fact I think there should be more places where they can be free to pedal to their hearts' content. In other places that I've visited (and even biked in), like Santa Monica, Calif., and Vancouver, British Columbia, cyclists aren't forced into the roads. Bike paths wind along clearly marked, safely out of the way of cars.
Unfortunately, bike lanes still aren't the norm in the Bay area. Despite projects like CityTrails in St. Petersburg and Greenways and Trails in Tampa, which are designed to improve conditions for bikers and pedestrians, Tampa Bay consistently ranks among the most dangerous places for cyclists.
I'm all for accommodating bikers. Better and more plentiful bike paths would represent a win-win situation for drivers and bikers alike. But until we have a truly bike-friendly roadway, there's got to be a way to solve this problem amicably. I say we abide by the time-honored American tradition of whoever's more powerful wins. Car trumps bike, so please — get out of the way.
This article appears in Mar 22-28, 2006.