The town’s Greenways, Trails & Bikeways advisory board will hold its monthly meeting Tuesday, Aug. 31, to discuss a possible series of events this fall to promote safety among automobiles, bicycles and pedestrians on local streets.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Davidson Day School, Jetton and Griffith streets.
The meeting follows a 5:30 p.m. planning workshop behind Davidson Day, at the site of the planned Lake Davidson Nature Preserve. (See our Aug. 27 report, “Site visit Tues. to plan Lake Davidson Nature Preserve.” )
The board will discuss a planned Sept. 25 cycling awareness ride and other possible events this fall, planning manager Lauren Blackburn said Monday.
“We hope we can improve conditions by which cyclists and motorists and pedestrians use town streets,” Ms. Blackburn said.
The meeting and discussions come amid an apparent increase in accidents recently between bicycles and cars. In at least two of the crashes, cyclists were seriously injured. (Read more about recent accidents and responses under the “Cycling” tag on DavidsonNews.net.)
I am a member of this board and would like to hear from citizens of Davidson about their ideas for improving bike safety. Please feel free to share your comments and concerns here. (Comment via Facebook)
The truth is, our country roads are not designed for cycling safety. When we add wide-enough bike lanes to them, things will improve.
In other countries, especially cities, care has been taken to have bike lanes for good bike circulation, and in some the lanes are almost as wide as the roads they border. For the moment, with no improvements, “share the road” is all we’ve got.
Ann,
I respectfully disagree. Full disclosure, I do bike often in and around Davidson. That said, I think the rural roads around the Davidson area are ideal for safe biking, if a couple of things happen:
1) Cyclists pay particular attention to the NC DMW Driver’s Handbook (which does apply to bikes) where it states that “…bicyclists usually ride on the right side of the lane, but are entitled to use the full lane.” In my opinion, that doesn’t mean riding two and three abreast for chats when there are vehicles behind them. Also, some cyclists have a bad habit of running red lights, which typically doesn’t endear them to the driving public.
2) Drivers understand that bikes are vehicles with all the rights and responsibilities of any motorized vehicle to be on the road. if the timing doesn’t allow for a pass of a bike without forcing the bike and/or oncoming to move to the side and/or slow down, WAIT! Again, from the Driver’s Handbook: “Drivers wishing to pass a bicyclist may do so only when there is abundant clearance and no oncoming traffic is in the opposing lane. When passing a bicyclist, always remember the bicyclist is entitled to use of the full lane.”
“Share the Road” as a message is fine, but not nearly enough. Awareness on both sides, and knowledge of the rules above, is needed.
Natasha,
Given budget crunches, I think the town should focus less on adding and widening bike lanes (and the recent Concord Road resurfacing helped a lot with this anyway), and come up with a grassroots campaign to educate bikers and drivers in the area. Some steps to consider:
- Get a coordinated biking community together in the LKN area that includes the more serious long-range bikers/triathletes, recreational riders, and commuters; a “Calling All Bikers” campaign. Get this group on the same page on both the DMV handbook and an agreed-upon code of behavior, addressing items such as a single file rule when in heavier traffic and smaller group rides, for example. This will result in both an improved relationship with drivers, and a more consistent set of behavior from most bikers, allowing drivers to better anticipate and react to this behavior.
- Roll (pun intended) this new biking awareness for bikers out into the community in a series of publicity-generating rides, demonstrating to area drivers that the biking community wants to get along.
Some communities have gone so far as to take roads out of use for cars and dedicate them to bicycles. In Davidson, we don’t have the infrastructure to do that.
What we might be able to do is identify a limited set of cycling corridors (Grey Road to Shearers to Rocky River and back being one example), and beef up signage, both roadside and in the road. I don’t know if the town has the authority, but if it does it might consider banning cell phone use in these corridors.
I think awareness rides are a great idea, but awareness needs to be continuous. A macabre, yet effective, display that used to be on an interstate in West Virginia was a mangled car in the median with a large sign that said ‘sometimes it takes a family of 4 to stop a drunk driver.’ Perhaps a crumpled bike next to a ‘share the road’ sign or ‘no cell phones’ sign would send a strong message that the driver would hopefully remember. It would be personal, but it might work.