Road Sage

On the road or off, everyone hates bicyclists.

by Bruce Schimmel

At 6 feet, my spousal unit, Kate, can take up a bit of space. Except when she's tooling around in her Mini Cooper — a baby sportster whose modest footprint barely fills a car lane.

Still, for some road hogs, even a vehicle the size of a clown car isn't small enough to accommodate their swinish ways.

Kate will be gliding down Spruce, propelled by vapors, when suddenly from nowhere, out pops a bicyclist — who's headed straight for her.

Thus, my gentle wife becomes animated: "Do they have some kind of death wish?" she inquires, "or are they just fucking stupid?"

JOHN BOYLE'S LAW: A guide to civility in the streets. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

It's a question that many are asking, as more bicyclists take to — if not take over — the city's streets.

Look, all cyclists need to obey the law. Period. But having said that, you have to admit that the rigors of the road are stacked against bicyclists.

Cyclists must dodge potholes, scan for car doors and watch for walkers, even as they suck down fumes from jackrabbitting jerks. And while sidewalks might offer cyclists sanctuary, they're currently forbidden to adults — and hold hazards of their own.

Simply put: On the road or off, everyone hates bicyclists. And being so universally despised — I suggest to my wife — some bicyclists choose a path that's familiar to other pariahs: the low road to incivility. As in, "Since you've left no place for me, fuck you, I'll make my own."

SIGNS OF THE TIMES: Street Etiquette for a New Age, courtesy Maskar Design. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Sounds bad, if even — according to official stats — the conflict between cars and bikes doesn't appear all that dire. Car/bike smackdowns, says the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, account for just 2 percent of all accidents. Between 2003 and 2007, there were fewer than 2,500 recorded — though officials caution that bike/car incidents are grossly under-reported.

Meanwhile, say city officials, complaints from motorists and pedestrians about bicyclists are starting to spiral up.

So, what to do to keep peace in the streets? Laws, if ignored, won't help. And strict enforcement is pretty impractical.

Bike advocates, like John Boyle, from the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, take heart, saying that with more bicyclists comes more safety.

But that still doesn't solve the basic, human issue of bringing civility to our streets.

So Boyle recently created a traffic sign that assigns a simple pecking order — which he says is already enshrined in law (see illustration). Motorists must yield to cyclists, both of whom give way to pedestrians — the less vulnerable to the more vulnerable.

My wife loves the idea. Inspired, a couple of graphic designers from her company cooked up some classy variations of Boyle's law.

But however it's expressed, this hierarchy has brought greater civility to streets in Europe, especially Copenhagen. It's a simple scheme that could make peace here — and which may bring some errant cyclists in from the cold.

(bruce@schimmel.com)

Got an idea to make peace in the streets? Share it through a survey, or at a public meeting about the city's upcoming pedestrian/bicyclist master plan. For more info, visit philaplanning.org, or call 215-683-4643.