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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review August 12, 2009 / 22 Menachem-Av 5769

It's time for cyclists and motorists to reconcile

By Michael Smerconish


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Bill Clinton facilitated the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee in North Korea. Professor Henry Gates and Sgt. James Crowley had beers at the White House. Footballers David Beckham and Landon Donovan agreed to an on-field truce in Los Angeles.

Before we lose this detente mojo, we need to tackle one more area of controversy: Let's negotiate a peaceful coexistence of bicyclists and motorists.

You know the dispute. No doubt you've encountered it during your commute to work or in the middle of your morning ride. The bikers think drivers are aggressive and self-centered. The drivers think bikers are bottleneck-inducing traffic-law violators.

The conflict exists all over the world, according to Joe Mizereck, a cycling enthusiast and founder of 3 Feet Please, an organization that advocates for laws to ensure biker safety. "There are a lot of people who think they're in control," Mizereck told me. "Certainly for the past 60 years, motorists have been in control. Vehicles are certainly the big guys on the block. But there are some changes taking place here, and we've got to get along."

And soon. Hundreds of Ride of Silence events have popped up throughout the world to honor the increasing number of cyclists injured or killed in accidents with motorists. In Doylestown, Pa., Bev Bongiorno worked to establish a ride in memory of her sister Valerie, who was killed more than three years ago after she was struck during a ride by a trailer attached to a passing truck.

I used to side with the motorists. I remember thinking bikers had a sense of entitlement that seemed to grow out of their Spandex shorts. They were posers — Lance Armstrong wannabes with expensive carbon-framed bikes, designer shirts, padded pants, and flashy helmets. They took up too much space, seemed to relish slowing down traffic, and thought nothing of blowing through stop signs and red lights. And the more their ranks grew, the more they thought the road was built for them.

Then, three years ago, I was invited (well, shamed is more like it) to ride my bicycle from Philadelphia to Atlantic City, N.J., as part of the Irish Pub Tour de Shore, which benefits police charities. The tour is one of many local bike tours with a charitable purpose. They appear to be growing in number and popularity, which is another reason we need to set some standards.

My bike experience until then was largely confined to a green number with a banana seat and monkey handlebars, which I used to pedal around my neighborhood in the Nixon era. For the Pub Tour, my gear included gym shorts, a T-shirt, sneakers, and a bike that had been a wedding gift 10 years earlier. Real men, I thought, never wear clip-on shoes. But by the time we reached Camden, I was no longer snickering at the better-equipped riders. As with so many other part-time pursuits, if you want to bike right, you need to have the proper equipment.

By now, three Tours de Shore have afforded me a whole new perspective from the bicycle seat. I now know, for example, that many bikers ride along the white line because it offers the smoothest surface — a far safer path than the field of potholes and debris often found a few feet to the right. I also recognize the alarm that the blowing of a horn can cause for a biker. And I understand the hazard that a closely passing car can present.

I also acknowledge bad behavior on the part of bikers and confess to having contributed to it. Cruising along some bucolic farm roads about 15 miles from Atlantic City, I have drifted through a few stop signs based on a fatigue-induced sense of entitlement. That was wrong. But I now understand what causes some to behave similarly.

I'm also convinced that bikers have a legitimate right to use the roadways. But ending the kerfuffle between them and motorists is going to take some compromise on both sides.

Here's a starting point: Bikers should recognize that hitting the road means obeying laws as every other vehicle does. So ride with traffic, stop at lights, and yield when appropriate. Recognize that not all roads are meant to be pedaled.

And stick to single-file lines. That doesn't mean hugging the guardrail or the side of the road. Cyclists who give themselves a couple of feet will make it more likely that drivers do the same.

Drivers, meanwhile, should give cyclists at least three feet of clearance when passing. They should stay off the shoulder, even when the car in front of them is making a left; it's meant for bikers and emergencies.

And stop honking at bikers to make a point. Treating them like vehicles on equal footing with cars will go a long way toward keeping everyone safe and civil.

"Still, to this day, every time I see a rider while driving, or even when walking the dog, I can't help but think about Valerie," Bev Bongiorno told me. "I hope that bikers are riding safely and that all the drivers on the road are watching out for everybody else on the road, but especially the bikers."

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Previously:

08/05/09 Faces have changed, but vitriol remains
06/25/09 Fair comment or foul? Warm up the Muzzle Meter
06/08/09 Believability is key in crime-hoax villains
05/14/09 Did Hollywood inspire the meltdown men?
04/20/09 Let's give killers their due: Anonymity
03/12/09 Uninsured who can't afford medical care lose a lot more
02/06/09 My debate with Musharraf on hunt for bin Laden
01/29/09 Torture must remain an option
01/15/09 Making a case for suing Madoff
12/22/08 A difficult but rational chat about ‘plans’
12/17/08 Facebook epidemic: More than 120 million have joined, many too old for this nonsense
12/01/08 The high price of downsizing the news biz
11/14/08 Prescience on greed, arrogance of a system
09/29/08 Closer look at party lines
08/26/08 Obama's pick creates GOP opportunity
08/21/08 Fishing with the Angry Everyman
07/31/08 The perils of e-mail: Ponder, then click
05/22/08 Two very different sides of the Internet
02/12/08 Sublimely ridiculous suits
11/28/08 Cell phones cut out secondary circle of kinship
09/26/07 What do we owe those who have died in Iraq?
08/30/07 A Navy SEAL's gut-wrenching tale of survival
07/30/07 First it was a faux pas, now it's a new word


© 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

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