Is biking to work really better? Many would say ‘no’
The editorial, “Bike lanes work in Cambridge, why not Baltimore?” completely overlooks the most important overriding reasons to their query, as though the authors and those quoted are blinded by the light.
In Baltimore, those physically able to ride bicycles to commute to work are very limited. Riding a bicycle is dangerous for a lot of reasons. And is it really healthier to ride a bike to work? Many people cannot afford to take a fall from a bike, to hit the road or even be grazed by a car. People with existing health concerns; heart issues, seniors with osteoporosis, those who are pregnant or obese, and anyone with any kind of knee, foot or leg issue, just to name a few would say riding a bike is not “healthier.”
The typical work commuter usually tries to combine other necessary daily tasks. Children cannot be transported to or from day care via bicycles. A week’s load of groceries for a family cannot be transported home via a bicycle. Working late into the evening and riding home after dark increases the danger, especially in Baltimore City.
Is it healthy and safe for people to ride bicycles in the wintery mix of sleet and snow often falling in Baltimore? Or even just a heavy downpour, when it is difficult to see without windshield wipers? How about when the Baltimore temperature is cracking 100° and the black asphalt would cause a first-degree burn to touch?
There are rarely-interviewed dedicated bicycle riders who would tell you they have no intention of ever using the bike lanes because they are littered with trash and broken glass. The city’s vehicular street sweepers can’t get to the curbs due to all the posts now in the roadways. And riding on main arteries into or out of the metropolitan area is dangerous as there are so many intersections to cross, where crashes occur.
Decades ago, people bought into the city neighborhoods along the main routes, with the idea of being close to everything and making a quick commute, as opposed to living out in the counties. where they would be setting themselves up for a long daily drives. All bike lanes do is subtract more time from families’ lives at home, because like it or not, it takes more time to commute via bike. Maybe bike riders just don’t want
to go home? For drivers, it encourages multitasking behind the wheel while inching along, just trying to get to the end of their journey.
The Department of Transportation doesn’t really care if the bike lanes are used by bicyclers. They just delight in investing huge funds in these “road diets.” It would be interesting to follow the money, because it is puzzling how simply painting lines on the street and installing some posts and bollards ends up costing the taxpayers millions and millions. Doesn’t the City of Baltimore have more pressing needs? The DOT keeps reiterating how car crashes are reduced by bike lanes, but conveniently omits admitting that traffic in general was drastically reduced by COVID19, when they took advantage of the confusion of the pandemic and started installing these bike lanes and then started the comparative counts. Working remotely has changed the amount of traffic commuting to work, so of course the numbers are down, but I doubt it’s because of bike lanes.
The vast majority of Baltimore who cannot ride a bicycle or do not wish to ride a bicycle are tired of having their lives “calmed” for this ridiculous fantasy.