The Virginian-Pilot
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Virginia Beach wants to become a "Bicycle-Friendly City" in the next six years.
Seriously.
Officials in my sprawling suburban city, a place ruled by the automobile, see the advantages of making Virginia Beach a safe place to bike.
It's an audacious goal, as any Hampton Roads cyclist - actually, anyone who read the paper last week - knows.
Before dawn last Saturday, a Navy lieutenant, trying to complete a bike ride before Shore Drive filled with traffic, was hit by a vehicle that never stopped. The car mirror, found later by the road in First Landing State Park, had apparently slammed into the cyclist's back, sending her over the handlebars, fracturing two vertebrae and breaking her leg.
Police haven't identified the driver, but it's the second time in a month they've had to investigate a hit-and-run crash on Shore Drive that seriously injured a cyclist. In the other case, also unresolved, as The Pilot's Kathy Adams has reported, a man was struck on the road near 83rd Street and was hospitalized for two weeks with nine broken ribs, a broken clavicle and a fractured pelvis.
Add to that the crash in April 2009 that killed veteran cyclist Daniel Hersh on an early-morning ride, and it's simple to conclude that scenic Shore Drive - the only road connecting northern Virginia Beach and the Oceanfront - is a dangerous place for bikes.
Many have suggested bikes should be banned there, giving up on the possibility that cyclists and motorists might ever be able to share the road, as the law demands.
Instead, Virginia Beach, in a nod toward making the city more navigable for all transportation modes, aims to improve its network of bike routes. Its goal: Earn the bicycle-friendly designation by 2017. The League of American Bicyclists bestows the honor on cities that meet criteria for safety. They include maintaining extensive and well-connected recreation and transportation corridors; providing training for law enforcement officers, motorists and cyclists; and passing and enforcing laws that protect motorists and cyclists equally.
Virginia's bike laws, some of the weakest in the country, won't help Virginia Beach's case. But Charlottesville, Roanoke, Arlington and Alexandria have managed in spite of them, educating motorists, providing safe places for cyclists to ride and even luring tourists who come just to bike.
Virginia Beach, with 106 crashes last year involving vehicles and bikes, has a long way to go.
Its bike lanes and paths don't connect, leaving no safe way to ride from Bayside to Lynnhaven or from Kempsville to the Oceanfront. Its sidewalks and multi-use paths serve children, skateboarders, runners, stroller-pushing families and casual bike riders traveling 8 to 10 mph. The Virginia Department of Transportation, the city's bikeways and trails plan says, discourages faster cyclists from using them.
I'd love nothing better than to walk out my front door, hop on my bike and ride 40 or 50 miles without putting my life in danger. In Virginia Beach, that's not possible. Instead, every Saturday, my husband and I load the bikes on the back of the car and drive 40 minutes or more to a safer biking destination.
In the past two months, we've spent our time and money on the Eastern Shore, in Smithfield, Williamsburg and Ashland. In a few weeks, we'll pedal around Lake Anna. After that, we'll grind up the hills around Floyd. It's a great way for us to see the state, stopping at country stores as we bike and eating at local pubs when we're done.
North Carolina estimates bike tourism on the Outer Banks generates about $60 million a year and supports 1,400 jobs.
If only Virginia Beach could tap that market.
The city deserves credit for its work on the 2011 Bikeways and Trails plan, for reducing the speed limit to 35 mph on Shore Drive and for its efforts - thwarted this year by Virginia Beach's delegates - to strengthen biking laws.
But until it invests in safety for all who use the roads, Virginia Beach will continue to see crashes on Shore Drive. And that bicycle-friendly label will remain elusive.
Candy Hatcher is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot. Email: candy.hatcher@pilotonline.com.
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It is really not a cyclist vs car thing.
Like most issues, it is a cost thing. A typical 12 foot lane is not wide enough for today's traffic and to share multiple uses. A truely bicycle friendly community would have a sixteen foot outside lane with four feet dedicated to bicycles, motorized wheelchairs and other slower moving traffic. That adds eight feet to the costs of right of way acquisition and construction costs.
While not practical for all roadways, this should be incorporated into comprehensive planning strategies for roadways that are expected to see significant bicycle traffic.
same road, same rules
In the call to ban on-road bicycling you hear that roads are only for cars. Others decry having incurred an alleged injustice by having to wait on a cyclist. Some cite a safety argument.
First, non-interstate roads are there for use on a first come first served basis. My trip or purpose is no more important than yours or anyone elses. One's choice of mode is dictated by the government.
Only interstate highways are for the exclusive use of motorists. Even some of those have sections designated for use by cyclists, typically in areas where no viable alterative exists.
Second, according to the National Household Transportation Survey (nhts.ornl.gov) during rush hour about 1/3 to 1/2 of the drivers around you are heading somewhere other than a job. Their presence greatly aggrevates congestion and delays, far more than those caused by cyclists. Yet no one is calling for a ban on these road users.
Cyclists are just one of many road users that a motorist may encounter, including mail trucks, school buses, transit, farm equipment, delivery vehicles, construction equipment, horses, pedestrians, mom and pop on their weekly grocery trip and many others. By the rationale of some we should ban everything that unduly impedes a driver. In short, more government regulation of our lives.
Last, cyclists operating under "same road, same rules, same rights and responsibilities" have an excellent safety record. Our road system works best when all users each do their part as equals.
Bike rider
Mr Drees you are correct in what you say. The only things you left out are bike riders ride free and all other vehicles pay fees and taxes to use the roads. And any one who rides a bike on a road with sped limits of 45 MPH needs their head examined. Would you drive a VW bug in the Indy 500. I Will answer it for you. NO because you would be a hazard or get killed
correction
Pls insert the word "not" into "One's choice of mode is not dictated by the government."
The probelm with sharing the road
Is that cyclists who see it as perfectly reasonable to expect motorists to slow from 55mph to 18mph to accommodate them also see it as totally unacceptable to expect them to slow from 18mph to 10mph to accommodate slower users of the side paths provided for them at great expense.
Of course, even if the slower users were banned from the side paths, they still wouldn't use them because they would have to yield to traffic on crossing streets, and cyclists don't yield.
Just yesterday morning going fishing, I had to follow cyclists at 15mph on 45mph stretches of North Landing Road, Indian River Road, and West Neck Road. All of those roads are high speed roads with no shoulders, an in some places, blind curves. That was in just one trip. None of these cyclists was aware of the number of times motorists have to slow to accommodate cyclists getting across VA Beach on a Saturday morning, so it doesn't seem like much of an imposition to them, but the collectively they are a huge hindrance to traffic.
I would have to say that considering the difference in speeds, the sheer number of encounters between highway traffic and cyclists, and the inappropriate choices of cycling routes we see in Virginia Beach that the number of accidents is amazingly low, and a testament to the skills, awareness, consideration and judgment of local motorists.
Some bikers do not follow rules
Another problem is some bikers show a total disdain for the rules of the road. Just yesterday I was going 35 down the road. passing through a green light I almost hit a bike rider that had disregarded the red light and was speeding through the intersection in his helmet and biker shorts. This looked to be a 30-40 year old man not some young kid. As I passed about 2 feet in front of him I saw a look that clearly said "why are you in my road". Even more than motorcyclists bike riders need to be aware of and avoid other vehicles because the consequences to them are more severe than to any other vehicle. That means use mirrors and be aware of your surroundings. As most motorcyclists know many drivers are distracted or not paying attention so you avoid them. If I were riding a bike I would rather stop or go in the ditch to avoid a distracted driver than get hit by a several thousnd pound car. The reality is that as a bike rider YOU will suffer the consequences of trying to claim a portion of the roadway or your right of way if the other driver hits you. You may be right but don't be DEAD and right.