Should El Paso Try to Be More Bike Friendly?
We hear from Buzz frequently that it is difficult to go for a bike ride over by where he lives. The 'bike lane' is actually just the road that you have to share with cars, and you only have to be on the streets of El Paso for a few minutes to realize it's like Thunderdome out there. Survival of the fittest.
There is no easy solution to the question, "How do you make a city more bike friendly?" Portland, OR is considered one of the more bike friendly cities in the United States. It's still mayhem out there because not everyone abides by the rules of the road. One thing cyclists don't remember is they have to follow the same rules of the road as automobiles. That means signaling when turning (yes, you have to use your arm), stop at red lights, and not impede traffic.
Who is in charge of allocating resources to make a city safer for bike riders? I mean barriers between car traffic and bicycle traffic. If anyone has ever been to Seattle, Copenhagen or Netherlands you know how much more pleasant a city feels if it has that infrastructure. We are decades behind because we prioritize cars in this country but if we could have at least one major street like Mesa to have one dedicated bike lane for its 10 miles connecting country club to downtown I think it could be great for our city.
One response said:
I’ve lived in cities where they do a “critical mass” thing to promote bike safety. There’d be huge swarms of bike riders just taking over the city streets and all cars can do is stop and let it pass. Kind of annoying for a day but a decent form of protest I guess.
I can’t see that happening here at all though. Ep is such a sprawling suburb with no density to speak of that I don’t even think anyone would notice lol.
It would be nice to see some bike-friendly, driver awareness program though. I see most drivers here have no idea what to do when they see a bike in the road haha. It can get pretty scary.
Another person on Reddit responded:
On the westside of El Paso there's a long bike path one could take from Helen of Troy all the way to Anthony and another one that also connects you from Helen of troy all the way to Sunland Park close to the casino. a 98% of it you are not on the same road as cars. It would be amazing if we could feel that safety all over the city.
So what say you? Should El Paso try to become more bike friendly?