The reemergence of the bicycle as a means of both exercise and transportation in the United States is also being experienced here in Kansas City. Most of the time it is met with honking by motorists at inappropriate and inopportune times (the ones most likely to startle the cyclist into a dangerous swerve that could cause an accident), or by comments like the one I received earlier this week — “Go buy a ****ing car!”. More rarely you get greeted by motorist with an encouraging honk or comments like the “keep it up” I received a few weeks ago.
This resurgence, part of a green and environmentally friendly trend by cities and other municipalities, has led to more bike routes and bicycle lanes here in Kansas City. The bridges across the Missouri River have been reworked so the Heart of America Bridge and the Chouteau Bridge both have walking/bicycle paths on them. Redesigns of North Brighton and Chouteau Trafficway in the past couple of years have added well-designed bike lanes. It would seem that the culture is supporting the cyclist culture.
Yes, and no. Bicycle Routes are nice things to ride on, but they are routes from nowhere to nowhere. If you actually want to go somewhere, you have to take a regular road, with or without the bike lane.
And what is the problem with the bike lane? Think about your regular road. Cars go down the road, their speed and weight throwing any debris toward the side of the road. Where is the bike lane? On the side of the road. Thus every object that is a potential hazard for thy cyclist, a threat to puncture a tire, or throw the bicyclist off-balance to have a crash and injury, finds itself migrating to the one space the reserved for the cyclist. It can be a lot of fun, and requires a lot of concentration to ride in the fast bike trash lane.
The obvious solution is to have frequent cleaning of bike paths and bike lanes. But glass is a regular hazard on the bridges here in Kansas City — cleaning isn’t done. On Chouteau Trafficway the landscapers for the renovation project saw the bike lane as a storage lane for their potted plant trays, and left mounds of dirt behind which haven’t been cleaned. As for North Brighton, the whole length of the revised stretch, from Pleasant Valley Road to Vivion Road, is one series of bolts, nails, and the remains of blown out tires (nice, fine tire pieces compared to the big pieces usually seen on Interstate Highways, but still a definite hazard to the cyclist).
I assume city budgets aren’t made to consider the necessary perpetual cleaning necessary for the bicycle culture. It is always easier to build the new than to budget for maintenance. Infrastructure improvements always have a better profile to the public than cleaning up. But it is an issue that must be addressed, if people are to continue to choose the bike over the car for transportation, and if the liability for accidents isn’t to come back to haunt the municipalities.
At The Rainbow 