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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!microsoft!uw-beaver!cornell!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!ihnp4!ixn5c!inuxc!pur-ee!CSvax:Pucc-H:aeq
From: CSvax:Pucc-H:aeq@pur-ee.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.bicycle
Subject: Re: bikes and cars
Message-ID: <311@pucc-h>
Date: Mon, 26-Sep-83 19:16:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.311
Posted: Mon Sep 26 19:16:19 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 28-Sep-83 07:49:28 EDT
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 25

One general rule that I, as a biker, follow:  Avoid major streets if at all
possible.  In West Lafayette, IN (where I work), there is one street which
carries the majority of the east-west traffic in the southern part of town
(including the Purdue campus).  When I am on my bicycle, I stick to parallel
streets if at all possible; the only case where it isn't possible is when I
am approaching the bridge over the Wabash whereby I can reach my home in
Lafayette, and then I wait until there is minimal traffic heading my way
before I start out into that street.

I do this because, as a driver on that same busy street, I am quintessentially
annoyed to have to share that street with bikers.  There are no bike lanes.
Particularly in one stretch, the street is so narrow as to be just barely able
to accommodate two lines of cars each way.  If I come up behind a biker on
that stretch, I must wait until the crush of cars in the left lane breaks
long enough to let me around the bike and back into the right lane (the street
turns about 30 degrees, and those who wish to follow it must be in the right
lane).  If bikers would use parallel streets, they would cause much less
annoyance to drivers and endure MUCH less risk to life & limb.  Those are the
reasons I use other streets; I know what it's like as a driver, and I wish to
minimize my already-great risk of disabling injury (e.g. death).  (The risk is
great because I've never had the patience to go buy and install a light and a
helmet; I hope that a fellow Purdue netter will be kind enough to send my
obituary over the net if needed.)

-- Jeff Sargent/pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq