Sep 12, 2008 12:03 am US/Eastern
Bike Riders 'Curious' About The Rules Of The Road
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
Pat Eger bikes into Boston's Financial District. He says the stretch of Cambridge Street near City Hall is the worst. "It's a little nutty."
And you'll see that everyone is doing it.
Pata Syamoto is a teacher at the
Bicycle Riding School in Somerville. She's been very busy peddling the skill of pedaling to adults.
Pata says biking in Boston is dangerous. "You go down Mass. Ave. and you are taking your life into your hands."
So what is the city doing?
Nicole Freedman is a former Olympian and the city's so-called
"Bike Czar." "Boston has the potential to be absolutely world class as a biking city," she says.
The city is in the middle of putting in several miles of bike lanes. One was just created on Comm. Ave. There will be 250 bike racks installed as well. "When we look at making Boston bike friendly… It's for people like my mom or people like my neighbor who have to pull their kid in on a bike," Freedman says.
Convincing people is step two. A program called
"Bike Fridays" has police escorting people to work.
Biking Rules Of The Road
Joe in Nahant had his own
curiosities about biking. He wondered if they should be up on sidewalks with their bikes, should they be running red lights and what should be doing at crosswalks.
WBZ watched cyclists blowing right through red lights. But, "cyclists are supposed to stop at red lights," Freedman says.
And if there are people crossing at a crosswalk, you are supposed to stop.
For the sidewalk question: They're only for walking, not for biking. "We are a vehicle of the road," explains Syamoto. "We have to follow the rules of the road."
The city is hoping education will open the door to better biking. Let's just hope that door doesn't open into our new bike lane again.
So will adding bike lanes, racks, and programs like hub on wheels work?
Bicycling Magazine once named Boston the worst biking city in America, but recently it featured Boston as one of it's:
"5 for the Future." Mass. Biking Resources:
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