Im back - been posting for a bit, but havent launched anything as I am waiting to move everything over to the NEW blog.... There will be big unveiling - I know yall are excited ;)
Anyway - I had to post this....
This past weekend - 2 CONSECUTIVE DAYS - 2 men were killed riding their bikes in the "Community" (area of several small towns and one good sized one - read rural/suburban). The first was a good man, member of our church and was left where he was hit by a hit and run.... The next day - Sunday, another man was hit and killed, but the pickup driver stayed....
Riding bikes, not the leisure ones with baskets, but the serious people with the mirrors on their helmets, has become a big thing around here. Weekends in my rural area and ON THE HIGHWAY I drive, is almost packed with single riders or little groups of them, along with car clubs, motorcycles, and even a few horses every now and then....
There was a rally at the State Capital this morning to demand bike lanes.... Exercise your rights to assemble people!
Here is the problem - The suburban town that most of the bike riders hail from can flat out afford to pay for bike lanes - in fact, its a great community for bikers, walkers, joggers, park goers, dog walkers, families....
The place the bike riders ride - the gorgeous rural, countryside cannot. And also, they will not.... The areas that are most frequently ridden are hilly, beautiful, peaceful and way out here. I can see why they want to ride their bikes out here - its the reason we live out here. But these communities cannot afford to put in bike lanes. We live with gravel roads, with huge potholes - with gravel thrown in those holes - with a much higher poverty level than the suburban town and people who cannot even afford to feed themselves.
So that leaves the State.... I do not believe that people in Tulsa should pay for anything near me and conversely, I do not want to pay for anything for them.... I know some of my tax dollars do, but I dont have to like it and I can vote it down every chance I get.
But this is a safety issue.... It absolutely is!! Driving is dangerous too.... In fact, I make my daughter take the back roads and not drive Rt. 66. 2 lane highways are the most dangerous and I will absolutely not let my daughter drive them until we are sure of her skill and then only during the day. Sorry, this post isnt about teenage drivers.... Back to topic.... Riding a bicycle on a highway is dangerous - absolutely your right to do so, but dangerous none-the-less....
Bike riding on these back roads is dangerous. It is very hilly and topping a hill going 55 to find myself behind a biker going 20 (maybe) and oncoming traffic with no where to go is dangerous.... We top hills out here all the time and find something - deer, dogs, once a cow and last night a goat (seriously along with a HUGE group of people that had been swimming in a pond and were walking back home). But the difference is, I drive a monster vehicle with a cattle guard just for this purpose - to keep my family safe if I happen to hit something - or if something hits me - There is absolutely NO THOUGHT to not injuring what I hit.... If I hit a biker, I would most likely kill him/her. It isnt a pleasant thought. It makes me sick to my stomach.... And my vehicle isnt alone - we all drive big stuff out here - The Sunday accident was a truck and I bet the hit and run was a truck also..... And if the scumbag happens to read this - I dont care how scared you were - leaving a man where he fell is the most disgusting thing I have almost ever heard... You are sub-human with only the Grace of Jesus to save you which He can do, but do not expect any mercy from your fellow people. May you be left to rot in a hole....
So what to do.... I have no problem with bike lanes - they are great - they keep the flow of traffic moving (which is so much a part of the problem) - it keeps bikers out of the way.... But they dont want to ride in the community that can afford them and where they want to ride cant pay for them.... And for a large part of Hwy 66 coming out of the suburban area, it is 4 lanes which gives people some options.... But it isnt pretty like out here in the country....
Here is my solution.... If bike lanes are the way to go, then bikers need to tag their bikes with the money going for said bike lanes. The Oklahoma Tax Commission collects all state taxes and fees and they are the ones that appropriate where it goes.... It shouldnt be that hard....
And I dont relish another tax and the enforcement thereof.... But this is different - Its kind of like a marriage license - if you dont want to pay the fee (tax) than dont get married ;)
This is not a cheap sport - its expensive.... Bikers take extreme care in picking out their equipment - its nice (and its pretty).... Paying for a bike lane is just an extension of your bike helmet....
And just so you dont think I am totally heartless, I do watch what I do when I drive (especially on the weekends when everyone is out) and if there is a jar for donations, I will do that too..... For non-bikers, it should be a choice.... I license my truck to be on these roads - anyone expecting the same privilege should follow the same laws and put some skin in the game with their own license....
And - if there is a better solution - hit me with it.... Open to any ideas :)
Pray for 2 families that are crushed right now.....1 driver who is racked with guilt....1 driver whose soul is truly in trouble - Praise - Prepare
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3 comments:
Nice to hear from you Pearls! Have missed you a bunch.
In April we finally moved out to the country, not too far from a sorta small town of 8,000. Woo Hoo!
In all the years we lived in the suburbs we dealt with nice and rude bikers alike. Bike lanes are a fine idea, but bikers don't pay for them there either. Some of these bike lanes interfere with motor traffic horribly. There are a number of bikers that are rude and stupid. They pass another biker in the traffic lane without looking and then are angry when a car skids or honks (probably even if it goes off the road) to avoid killing them.
A dear friend of mine is a gentleman biker in his 60s. He has told me of incidents that are quite scary with rude vehicles and bikers alike. He prefers to ride in the country because of the view of course, but also because country people are generally more understanding. By the same token, he has pulled over many times, even on an uphill, when he sees or hears a potentially dangerous situation coming up. I suspect this is a big part of a some solution: manners on both parts. There is way to little of that.
Anonymous,
I just finished helping with the 2010 Census. I saw more back parts of Oklahoma than I could have imagined, back three months ago. I didn't know there was a community in Oklahoma called "Cheyenne". And I have been to Nardin, OK; actually I might have knocked on half the doors there, in a couple of hours one day.
Not all roads have a shoulder you can pull off on.
West of Elk City, I ran into a red dirt road cut about a foot below the level of the surrounding field. Curves around structures, and gullies, and hills, made seeing ahead nearly impossible; the road trapped water, and I had a few slippery moments navigating a couple of 50-100 foot puddles.
Other places the ditch is seriously deep - and the shoulder slants down at more than a 45 degree angle for the first couple of inches, and gets steeper.
Trees grow up to the side of the road and overhang, in places. Sometimes a driveway or lane is cut through a bank taller than the vehicle coming from another direction (that one was scary - the pickup that crossed in front of me pulled over about a half mile later, and a 9 year old kid, dad and grandfather all got out and played Chinese fire drill) - with no stop signs on the intersection.
Get off the city streets, and even though the law is clear - bicycles and horses and such are legal on the high ways, and are accorded all the rights and privileges of any car or truck - they are at greater risk.
Those snazzy and expensive recumbent bikes, please take heed. Get a freaking flag, post that puppy high, put a blinking strobe light on top if you can - your low profile and weird appearance make it tough to see you and make safe choices about how to avoid running you over. Suck it up, and take responsibility for making yourself visible if you are going to play in traffic.
Pearls, aside from those fiberglass flags, I can't think of anything reasonable to solve the problem, aside from constructing actual, non-road bike trails (like with abandoned railroad rights-of-way).
If you acknowledge economic descent, then you have to accept that there will be, from this day forward, fewer vehicles to occupy the roads, and more incentive to get from place to place on bike, by foot, or with hand carts and such. So making more accommodations for bikes would make some sense.
Except in the economic descent future, there will be less resources, money, and interest for keeping roads in condition that would make a bike suitable. I further expect that if conditions really deteriorate, that thugs will find bicycles the simplest mode of transportation to block and disable.
For the present, then - start selling "I care" flags for bicycles. Make the flag bright, color-fast and sun-safe hunter orange, with a tombstone and "Dead Right" on it. Sell the heck out of them, every place someone has a public air hose or bike shop, or greasy spoon with a bike rack.
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