The April 23 For The Record regarding Smith Level Road says, “The fact that such a heavily traveled road and key artery into town is unsafe for bicyclists…†If it is a “fact†there ought to be collision statistics supporting that assertion, but there are not. Further, collisions don’t prove a road is unsafe because the collisions could be due to foolish bicyclist behavior, an all-too-common problem.
If a motorist assaults a bicyclist is the road dangerous? So the “fact†is actually merely the oft-repeated false perception that a road is dangerous if it doesn’t have bike lanes (or shoulders) and safe if it does. Can we get past the silliness that roads are dangerous when it comes to bicycling, and admit that any danger is really behaviorally based?
Wayne Pein
Chapel Hill