The biker dilemma

The other day while biking on North Jordan, I had a close call when I was almost forced to swerve into a parked car in order to avoid the black Honda Civic that passed too close on my left.

After a few expletives and some pondering of my mortality, I was left feeling like I wasn’t welcome on the road. As a biker, I felt I simply didn’t belong.

It isn’t easy being a biker. You are faced with a constant identity crisis: You are not in a car, so you don’t feel entirely at home on the road, but you can’t ride on the sidewalk either without risking taking out a slew of freshmen on the way. What’s a biker to do?

As if we bikers weren’t feeling Jan Brady-ed enough as it is, on Sept. 8 Sen. Jim DeMint from South Carolina dubbed spending for bike paths as “wasteful” and blamed bicycle spending in part for the pitfalls of the Highway Trust Fund.

The Highway Trust Fund that DeMint is referring to uses money from gas taxes to support Department of Transportation projects such as fixing roads, building bridges, oh, and maintaining those wasteful bike paths.

The trust fund is currently $8 billion dollars shy of what it needs to continue operation, and some, like DeMint, are quick to point the finger at bikers.

The truth is that the current lack of transportation funds is the direct result of fewer cars on the road. With rising gas prices, people are driving fewer places and filling up their tanks less often.

This translates to fewer gallons of gas bought and smaller gas-tax revenues. What DeMint overlooks is that the same high gas prices that are causing people to take up biking in record numbers make bike paths all the more necessary.

Moreover, bike paths account for less than 5 percent of the $15 billion dollars earmarked for high priority transportation products, not to mention the money that would be saved if fewer cars were on the road.

 A decrease in the number of drivers means less need for new highways and bridges. It also means less pollution, which contributes to allergies and chronic respiratory conditions.

Biking also makes for a more physically fit population that could help combat the obesity epidemic. With fewer people suffering from these ailments, health care costs would decrease.

Whether it comes from southern senators or drivers on North Jordan, there remains a pervasive misunderstanding of cyclists and the positive effects of cycling.

It is time to stop treating bikers like second-class citizens and recognize the benefits that bikers can bring to a community.

So the next time you are driving and you are frustrated by that biker you are stuck behind, or someone yells “on your right!” as you are walking by the Union, just smile and think of the millions of potential tax dollars they are saving you – or at least don’t curse and cut them off.