Bike lanes in Florida are no longer places for bicyclists to ride based on their own judgment of conditions at the time.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has signed a bill into law that requires bicyclists to use the bike lanes if they are painted on a road. Failure to do so will lead to a ticket.
There are exceptions, such as when the bicyclist is making a left turn, or if there are potholes, or tire-trapping storm grates, or glass, or fallen tree limbs, or parked cars, or road construction signs, or a dead armadillo or whatever other kind of crap finds a home for itself in a bike lane in Florida.
Share the road?
But what bicyclist wants to explain those exceptions to a traffic cop or to an upset motorist who feels ownership of the road, the whole road, and everything on the road.
Segregating the bicyclists into the bike lanes puts them out of sight and out of mind for many motorists, who now believe they have the sole rights to the road.
Will they be looking for bicyclists swerving into the traffic lanes to avoid bike lane junk? Will they check for bicyclists before they make a right turn across a bike lane to get to the Gator Burger drive-thru?
The 81-page House Bill 971 includes other provisions for highway safety that weren't so controversial.
FBA position
The Florida Bicycle Association and about 2,500 others asked Gov. Crist not to sign the bill, but he did anyway earlier this month. It goes into effect Sept. 1. The association wrote at its blog:
“Thanks to all of you who expressed your concerns over this bill encouraging it to be vetoed. Yes, this is a defeat, but now we must rally together to plan our strategy for the 2011 Legislative Session.
“HB 971 isn’t all bad. At 81 pages, there are many good things in the bill and unfortunately the mandatory bike lane use was slipped in late in the Session, along with other pedestrian issues. This process is not unusual, but now FBA will be planning for it.”
According to federal highway safety statistics, Florida is the most deadly state for bicyclists in the U.S. In 2008, 125 bicyclists died in collisions with cars and trucks. Based on population, that's 2 to 6 times the rate of most other states.
Obviously, something's got to be done to make bicycling safer in Florida. I don't think this bill is it. This is another one of those precedents, like the bicycling ban in Black Hawk, Colorado, that needs to be stopped.
Other articles
BikingBis.com: The tough battle to make Florida roads safe for bicycles
Recent Comments