A Bicycle-Friendly City?

By Nichole Seitz
Contributing Writer

A line of cars is backed up on a small stretch of road. Impatient honking, yelling and vulgar words assault the person at the head of the line. After growing increasingly intolerant, motorists start to pass the person at the head of the line, despite the fact that it may not be the safest or smartest option. At the head of the line is a bicyclist, the focus of all the anger, insults and road rage.

“It’s a little bothersome,” said Brandon Shiwal, an avid bicyclist. “I had a guy, a couple of weeks ago, who was encouraging his ten-year-old daughter to yell at me. He rolled down his window so she could yell at me and tell me to get on the sidewalk.”

In April, the city of Fargo took the 46th spot on a list of 50 of the top bicycle-friendly cities in the United States, according to Bicycling Magazine. Shiwal, like other cyclists in the area, saw an article in The Forum. “I said how can Fargo be on this list when I have seen these other cities that have a better dynamic that we do?” said Shiwal.

A couple of weeks later, in a letter to the editor, he wrote that bicyclists riding on a sidewalk are 25 times more likely to get hit by an oncoming car than if they were riding in the road. “There’s data that says that right-turning motorized traffic will oftentimes not see bicycles on the sidewalks. That is what they call a right hook,” said Justin Kristan, the Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for Fargo Metro COG.

According to the Web site http://www.bicyclesafe.com, there are two types of right hooks. The first is when “a car passes you and then tries to make a right turn directly in front of you, or right into you.” The second type of right hook happens when “you’re passing a slow-moving car (or even another bike) on the right, when it unexpectedly makes a right turn right into you, trying to get to a parking lot, driveway or side street.”

Nowadays drivers are more distracted than ever. The growing connectivity of the public to their cell phones often means that people are texting and driving, or at the very least lost in a conversation. After having a couple of accidents Shiwal decided to take a proactive step, and start protecting himself while riding. “If I know it’s not safe for someone to pass me, I ride on the inside of the lane and when I can see that it’s safe I will pull over and let the cars pass. People think that I am holding up traffic and stopping them,” said Shiwal. “They don’t like what I am doing. But really what I am doing is making it safer for me and making sure I am not going to be injured, because I have been hit a couple of times.”

Currently there is no specific, in-depth set of laws or rights that bicyclists have other than what is stated in any transportation handbook. Just search the Internet however, and you can find a bill of rights drafted by a group called Bicycle Writers Collective. Some cities have gone so far as to adopt it.

North Dakota state laws allow bicyclists to ride in the roadway as long as the rider stays as far to the right side of the road as possible. In downtown Fargo, there are stretches of road with specialized striping that indicates the road can be used for bicycles. “The city went ahead with putting the shared lane-use markings on Broadway specifically to address the issue of how do you remove bicyclists from the sidewalk and provide a very defined space on the road way. Bicyclists in N.D. and Minn. have the legal right to use the roadway,” said Kristan.

The downtown area is about the only place you currently see the specialized bicycle-friendly striping. “I think the one issue that we have with anything at this point is that the bike lanes that they are trying to put in are for the most part Downtown. Downtown is definitely a place to start, but it does need to go out from there and encompass the city as a whole,” said Shiwal.

There are a number of bike paths throughout the Fargo-Moorhead and West Fargo areas, but those paths do not cater to the needs of those who use bicycles as a main form of transportation. On May 11, the city held a public meeting to discuss the striping of on-street bike lanes. City staff were on hand to field questions and listen to the concerns of the bicycling community.

“If you look at the bike paths we do have, a lot of them are not based on transportation, that’s more so for leisure. That’s the issue that we (cyclists) do have, you can’t really get anywhere fast,” said Shiwal. “If you go anywhere you are meandering in so many different directions, it’s not worth it to ride it unless you are off of work for a leisurely ride.”

Also presented at the meeting was a list of roads that are tentatively scheduled to be re-striped. This striping project would create a bicycle lane, which is different from the shared use markings located on Broadway. “We’ve got miles of bike paths that are recreational but these will be our first dedicated bike lanes in the street,” said Fargo City Commissioner Mike Williams. This sudden change was spurred by a 2005 study. “In 2005, the metropolitan areas—Dilworth, Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo—all hired a study to be done to ask the residents what is most important to them. Do they want more arenas or what would they like to see? At the top of those lists was more walking and biking availability.”

The six different stretches of roadway planned to be re-striped are part of a larger list called the Transportation Improvement Program, which will be worked on in a period of four years, and is a federally funded program. Different jurisdictions suggest projects to Metro COG, which sends it to the State Department of Transportation for an ultimate decision.

However, the primary funding opportunity for bicycle pedestrian projects comes from a program called the Transportation Enhancement Program. But getting a project on this list is easier said than done. To even get a project considered for the TEP, an application must first be filled out. “The application process is fairly expensive because you’re involving engineers, planners and there are serious administrative costs,” said Kristan. “We are hearing, ‘Hey the project is under $100,000, we want projects that are $200,000 to $300,000. We want to make it more worth our while.’”

Because most of the funding is for larger projects, Metro COG tries to attach bicycle-friendly add-ons to the front ends of other projects. “As we go through the update of the Metropolitan Bicycle Pedestrian Plan, we are going to definitely think about how projects are applied through the TE funding opportunity. As a roadway is constructed we may see an opportunity to put in a bicycle lane,” said Kristan. “The understanding in the planning and engineering communities is that when you put your projects in, such as a bicycle lane, in the front end of a project, it is much more affordable.”

Hitching these projects to the front end of other roadway projects is just the start of Fargo earning its spot on the list of bicycle-friendly cities. With new striping projects just starting and more to be completed later this summer, maybe avid cyclists will finally feel that their voices are being heard.

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Cyclists Bill of Rights According to the Bicycle Writers Collective

· WHEREAS, cyclists have the right to ride the streets of our communities and this right is formally articulated in the California Vehicle Code; and
· WHEREAS, cyclists are considered to be the “indicator species” of a healthy community; and
· WHEREAS, cyclists are both environmental and traffic congestion solutions; and
· WHEREAS, cyclists are, first and foremost, people - with all of the rights and privileges that come from being members of this great society; and
· NOW, THEREFORE, WE THE CYCLING COMMUNITY, do hereby claim the following rights:
· Cyclists have the right to travel safely and free of fear.
· Cyclists have the right to equal access to our public streets and to sufficient and significant road space.
· Cyclists have the right to the full support of educated law enforcement.
· Cyclists have the right to the full support of our judicial system and the right to expect that those who endanger, injure or kill cyclists be dealt with to the full extent of the law.
· Cyclists have the right to routine accommodations in all roadway projects and improvements.
· Cyclists have the right to urban and roadway planning, development and design that enable and support safe cycling.
· Cyclists have the right to traffic signals, signage and maintenance standards that enable and support safe cycling.
· Cyclists have the right to be actively engaged as a constituent group in the organization and administration of our communities
· Cyclists have the right to full access for themselves and their bicycles on all mass transit with no limitations
· Cyclists have the right to end-of-trip amenities that include safe and secure opportunities to park their bicycles.
· Cyclists have the right to be secure in their persons and property, and be free from unreasonable search and seizure, as guaranteed by the 4th Amendment.
· Cyclists have the right to peaceably assemble in the public space, as guaranteed by the 1st Amendment.
· And further, we claim and assert these rights by taking to the streets and riding our bicycles, all in an expression of our inalienable right to ride!