share the road, y'all

This week is that strange but cool week, the only one of the year, where I can reasonably go for a bike ride before work. My employers are flexible enough that I can work 9 to 5-something during the winter and 7:30 to 4 during daylight savings, and the week before the change is the one week where I have nearly an hour and a half of light before I have to get ready for work. It's kind of cool. I get to see the sun rise, and (less cool) I get to see rush hour develop, from nobody but my crazy ass out on the road at 5:45 to sheer gridlocked madness by 7.

I also got reminded of why I avoid bike paths. Mostly I avoid them because of rollerbladers zooming side to side with their headphones on, erratic little kids with training wheels, and (yesterday) an entire pack of teenaged Boy Scouts wearing enormous backpacks. But in the absence of those things the paths still suck. This morning I used the path that runs parallel to Shepard Road, which is not so different from a sidewalk in that it crosses all the side streets and, as such, puts you at the mercy of any traffic that might wish to make right turns into your path without looking. And pretty much everyone in a car does this constantly.

Noncyclists tend to gasp in horror, "You ride your bike in the ROAD? With CARS? Isn't that DANGEROUS?" Well, no. No, it isn't. Riding on paths and sidewalks next to the road is infinitely more dangerous, and the accident statistics clearly reflect this. When you're in the road you're a known entity. You are visible to drivers, and (presumably) you are following accepted traffic patterns, so you are predictable. When you're on the sidewalk they don't see you, and sidewalks are a Godforsaken lawless wasteland where anybody can do anything anyway, so even if they did see you they wouldn't know what to expect from you. It ain't safe, people. USE THE ROADS.

Unless you're an erratic moron on a Huffy, then you can stay on the paths. We won't miss you.