To the Editor:
I must respond to Craig Elliot’s letter regarding bicyclists. Route 130 is one of the few local roads with a paved shoulder (most of the way to the Point), and is therefore favored by cyclists.
As daylight and weather allow, I ride early in the morning and weekends, during hours of light traffic. I ride according to the law, as far right as is safe. At times, pavement irregularities require riding inside the white line.
Drivers “crossing the yellow (line) to give (cyclists) their “damn three feet clearance” are obeying the law, rather than breaking it, as Mr. Elliott stated. The Mercedes convertible driver who crossed the double yellow lines on the “S” curves of Route 130 near “Robin’s Nest” Sunday to pass another car, and those ignoring speed limits, are the drivers of concern.
If the Department of Transportation would initially pave roads and shoulders to withstand normal use, and then maintain this pavement, all road travelers would be safer. I was “riding right” this spring when sun-dappled, very rough pavement near Miles Hospital cracked my wheel rim thereby puncturing the tube; causing a flat and the loss of my cyclocomputer.
The dangerously poor surface of the Bristol Road shoulder in Damariscotta inspires my family to motor across the Bristol line before cycling to the Point.
To address proper road behavior, the Bike Coalition of Maine and local school bus and teaching staff work with students each year to educate families about safe, legal bicycle use. Cycling improves health – physical, mental and emotional – and helps limit fossil fuel use while reducing degradation of paved surfaces and improving social and economic status of towns.
“Bikenomics,” available in our local bookstore, details positive effects of cycling across the country and globe.
The American Lung Association, Maine and many other groups concerned with health issues organize bike rides each year to raise funds, awareness of and participation in, cycling. I bike for fun, and to improve my own health, but also that of you, Mr. Elliott, and that of our children, grandchildren and their children. Happy cycling!
