Street stress

Before going any further, I want to make one thing clear: I have nothing against bicycling. It’s good for you, it’s good for the environment, it reduces Bloomington’s perennial parking shortage, it gives the rest of us an excuse for a week’s worth of parties every April – all great things. There should be more bicyclists around here.

Thus, when I say this, it is not out of anti-bicyclist animus, but out of a concern for the safety of bicyclists and motorists combined: The roughly mile-and-a-half stretch on 10th Street from its intersection with North Jefferson Street to where it meets North Smith Road should be a no-bicycle zone.

Yes, I know 10th Street is a major artery through town. And I know the hills make for a good workout. And I know the city of Bloomington should do something to make this bit of road bicycle-friendly – widen it, put in bicycle lanes, refurbish the overpass, whatever. I’ll cheer once they do. But, until then, the presence of bicyclists on this treacherous bit of road is gumming up traffic and endangering lives, especially those of the bicyclists.

Let’s look at what faces bicyclists after traveling east from Jefferson and 10th Street, shall we?

First, 10th Street runs under a crumbling railway overpass that permits only two small passages for the eastbound and westbound lanes. Anyone slaloming through these passages (either way) faces a tight right turn and obscured vision of both what’s ahead of it and the oncoming lane. This is bad enough for a car, but with no space for a shoulder or bike lane, bicyclists are forced into the middle of this bottleneck with 20 pounds of carbon fiber to protect them instead of one ton of steel.

Next, this narrow part of 10th Street travels up a steep hill past Tulip Tree apartments. Bicyclists – even fit, experienced bicyclists – slow to a crawl as they struggle up this hill. Drivers, of course, have no such problem, and push their cars up to the 30 miles per hour speed limit. Again, there is no room for the bicyclist to get over, no room for passing, no way to see what’s coming in the opposite lane from the other side of the hill. There is only the faint hope that one will not be run over or sideswiped into the woods alongside the road.

At the intersection of 10th and the Bypass, the road widens, providing badly-needed space (although one will have to dodge potholes), but after passing the parking lot for the Stone Belt facility and the strip mall, we face another narrow road and another steep hill. But this time the speed limit is 40 miles per hour. Bicycles? Yeah, still traveling about five miles per hour.

And after that? Yup, another hill.

I’m sure that some people see this as a matter of individual rights. But then, why can’t I stand in my backyard and fire guns into the air? Oh, it’s because I’m risking my life and the lives of others? Funny that.