Finally an article that tells both sides. A bumpy road indeed.

[N_C]

Now maybe both sides will open up a respectfull, logical & understanding dialoge on the matter. Especially after each side has finished resorting to childish behavior.

check it out:

http://www.bikeiowa.com/asp/hotnews/newsdisplay.asp?NewsID=2059

Your thoughts? Good idea or not to open dialoge between both sides?

[Tom Stormcrowe]

Now maybe both sides will open up a respectfull, logical & understanding dialoge on the matter. Especially after each side has finished resorting to childish behavior.

check it out:

http://www.bikeiowa.com/asp/hotnews/newsdisplay.asp?NewsID=2059

Your thoughts? Good idea or not to open dialoge between both sides?
Good link, N_C!

As to a dialog? Great concept, but it might be a bit fiery from both sides at first, at least until the radical element on BOTH sides get over their mad! Long haul, though? I think it would be extremely helpful!

[joejack951]

Full text of link to follow. I've highlighted what I feel is interesting about it and commented in brackets.

"Monday couldn't come soon enough for Steve Rudin. After a long winter, Rudin started his daily bicycle commute to work from his North Liberty home.

"I've been a commuter for six or seven years and overall, I've had good luck riding in Iowa City," said Rudin, who works at the VA Iowa City Health Care System and also is president of the Bicyclists of Iowa City club. "I've had just as many incidents inside the Iowa City area as I've had outside. I don't really have any complaints with Iowa City."

[Good luck? Quite the traffic cycling strategy. Pretty common among cyclists if you ask me.]

As the weather warms up and spring nears, you can expect to see more bicycles on the roads. While some bicyclists, such as Rudin, ride in harmony with motorists, there are others who say there is friction between drivers and bikers.

Some cyclists say drivers go too fast around them or don't give them enough room. On the other hand, some drivers accuse bicyclists of taking up too much space, not paying attention to traffic around them and disobeying traffic laws.

"I'm sure there are probably frustrations on both sides," Iowa City Police Sgt. Kevin Heick said of the relationship between drivers and bicyclists. "People get worked up about things that probably aren't a big deal if they would slow down and think about them."

The friction sometimes has led to heated confrontations over who belongs on the road.

Some recent cases include University Heights resident Donald Baxter who was arrested last month for assault causing bodily injury after he allegedly bit the finger of a driver in early January. Bicyclist Maria H. Conzemius of Iowa City was arrested for disorderly conduct following a run-in with a driver and an alleged confrontation with a police officer Sunday afternoon on Mall Drive.

"I would say it's survival of the fittest, survival of the biggest," Conzemius said of the relationship between cyclists and drivers. "I feel pushed off the road a lot. It's not a good relationship."

[I rarely if ever feel pushed off the road. The times I have felt pushed off the road were due to me moving right to intentionally occupy less space.]

Elizabeth Preston, spokeswoman for the League of American Bicyclists, said there often is a misunderstanding between cyclists and motorists.

"We think the most important thing that both motorists and bicyclists need to do is understand that they both have an equal right to the road and both need to behave as motor vehicles and follow the law and rules of the road," Preston said. "That usually makes for much better negotiation between the two."

[Pet peeve. Cyclists have rights. Motorists have priviledges.]

The League of American Bicyclists recognizes nearly 60 American cities as "bicycle friendly." Preston said cities are selected based on driver, biker education; road designs, infrastructure geared toward cyclists and pedestrians; regular evaluation of bicycling initiatives and programs; enforcement of traffic laws; and encouragement of bicycling through bike festivals and ride to work programs.

Iowa City is not on the list.

Johnson County Council of Governments assistant transportation planner John Yapp said Iowa City does have striped lanes for bicycles on a few city streets, but not as many as 10 years ago. In the mid-1990s, some advocated removing the bicycle lanes because of safety concerns and maintenance issues such as cleaning sand and gravel from the lanes, Yapp said.

"It was considered a safety issue," Yapp said. "The pavement width is still there and that's when Iowa City went to a share the road concept."

[Interesting. Now why can Iowa City figure this out but bike lane advocates can not?]

Iowa City associate planner Karen Howard said there was a central district planning last week where bicycling and pedestrian issues were talked about, including ways to improve enforcement and increasing education for drivers and cyclists.

"We tried to get people to think outside the box a little bit, throw out ideas even if they might not end up working in the end, just to get some ideas on the table," Howard said.

Judith Pascoe, a University of Iowa English professor, said she has ridden her bicycle to work almost every day during her 13 years in Iowa City. Pascoe said she doesn't think all drivers are hostile toward bicyclists, but said there are some who aren't looking out for cyclists or pedestrians at all.

Pascoe said she's had several close calls with cars while riding her bicycle and thinks improvements are needed to make Iowa City more bicycle friendly.

"I suspect there are some bicyclists out there who aren't as law abiding as they should be," Pascoe said. "But the problem is the bicyclists are much more endangered than the person in the car no matter what the bicyclist does."

[Remember that "responsibility" thread? Typical blame the motorist comment here.]

Nancy Davin said she doesn't ride a bicycle, but does respect those who do ride, "as long as they ride safely for themselves and for drivers." Davin said she's had several negative encounters with riders on IWV Road in west Johnson County, including cyclists riding side by side, ignoring her and not allowing her space to pass.

[Pet peeve again. Unless it's a wide lane and riding single file will allow a motorist to pass without leaving the lane, riding side by side is perfectly legal and is not "not allowing [someone] space to pass." If it was, driving a full width car is doing the same thing.]

"I think drivers would respect cyclists more if cyclists would acknowledge the drivers and allow both participants to travel safely," Davin wrote in an e-mail. "I can respect the fact that they are a vehicle, but they need to respect the fact that sometimes road conditions might require them to ride single file, move over to the right side of the lane and drive in a safe manner to allow both the driver and the cyclist to be safe."

[As much as I doubted this acknowledgement thing often touted by HH, I've found it very useful. It does seem to have a calming affect on motorists as they now know you know they are there. Once they know that, they know to look for signals that it's ok to pass, instead of simply being left to guess. It's not 100% effective but not much is.]

[N_C]

Good link, N_C!

As to a dialog? Great concept, but it might be a bit fiery from both sides at first, at least until the radical element on BOTH sides get over their mad! Long haul, though? I think it would be extremely helpful!

But if there are overly zealous advicates like JF they will never get over being mad. For that reason, if it is known ahead of time, people like him should not be invited to such dialog sessions because they can not control themselves.

Long Haul? Yes this will take time, there should never be a time retriction on something like this

I'm a passionate advocate myself & admittingly my emotions do play a role in what I do. But I do not allow them to cloud my judgement. I thought I was "bad" at times when it comes to advocacy. But my GOD, I've never seen someone as overly zealous as JF who let emotions get in the way way to often.

Iowa City is a great example that they are attempting to going about resolve the issues the right way after everyone has gotten over being mad at one another.

[bigpedaler]

i contacted the author of the piece, and politely raised a few points that seemed to be, well, less than fully represented. any response i receive will make its way here.

the lady quoted at the end (highlighted in another post), is just more polite than most of the boneheads we get in our ear almost daily. she still embraces the supremacy of the almighty automobile. and although i disagree with her, i do not and will not hate on her, as she truly believes she is being reasonable, rather than huffily demanding her rights over those of everyone else. it's truly refreshing!

i believe that she would be one to modify her view if shown the actual laws of her state & locality, as well as the reasonable stance of a GOOD cycling advocate -- JF, do me a favor and order up that double order of pad thai and sesame chicken....