Spokes persons, continued

by Laura A. Siegel

"Bicyclists need to know that they belong on the road and need to follow the rules for drivers of vehicles," Schimeck says. "That's a basic point of safe and efficient operation that seems to be lost on most bicyclists."

By law, bicyclists must follow the same rules of the road that cars do. And they can ride on any road a car can, except for some highways.

Rack lack No matter how safe the ride, you won't bike around the city if there's nowhere secure to put your bicycle when you arrive. And Boston's bike-parking facilities are woefully inadequate. "They ask us to park our bikes where you wouldn't park your car," says bicycle commuter Maria Saiz. "Places that aren't physically safe for our bikes, or often our bodies." In a recent survey by bike-lock manufacturer Kryptonite, Boston was rated the seventh-worst city in the country for bike thefts. The Bicycle Advisory Committee wants more bike racks. "We're trying to work toward bike-parking requirements in agreements with developers," says the committee's chair, Erin Gorden. There's movement in that direction already. "A lot of the new developments are providing bike racks, showers, and lockers for people who commute by bicycle," says John Seward, a board member of pedestrian-advocacy group WalkBoston. And, after long delays, the city is finally about to install more than 300 bicycle racks in public places throughout Boston, using an $80,000 federal grant funneled through the state. Cambridge already has 500 racks. Advocates would also like more-secure bike cages, possibly with a human attendant, especially at transit stops. -- Laura A. Siegel

"I'm on Storrow Drive," recalls bike messenger Owen McGonagle. "A Boston Police patrolmen's car pulls up on my left and the sergeant says to me, `You are taking this exit, aren't you? Because you know better than to be out here.' I say, `Bicycles are allowed on Storrow Drive.' He says, `What?!' I told him I'm a member of the Bicycle Advisory Committee and well versed in bicycle law. He just looked at me like, `Huh? Bikes are allowed on Storrow Drive?' "

It may be legal to bike on Storrow Drive, but that doesn't mean it's smart. A car provides the driver with tons of protective steel. A bike doesn't. "Drivers have no idea what it's like to be on two wheels, and nothing between you and them but your skin," says Maria Saiz. But they do understand that if they hit you, they'll hurt you -- and most drivers don't want to do that. A lot of drivers resent bicyclists for putting themselves in danger and thus putting drivers in a difficult position.

Doug Mink was rear-ended once in a rotary late at night, landed on his knees, and had to be rushed to the hospital. "This is what led me to believe there are places and times bicyclists shouldn't be," he says. "You shouldn't be in rotaries at night in fog. There are good routes and bad routes."

AND THERE are good roads and bad roads -- though in Boston, they seem to be mainly bad. Bad roads caused bike messenger McGonagle's worst accident, on Huntington Avenue. "There's metal expansion joints that cross at various angles on the road, and they're badly maintained," he says. "I got caught up in one of these expansion joints in a rainstorm, and that caused me to fall to my left hip. Before I could roll out of the street, a pick-up truck skidding to avoid me hit me. This caused three broken vertebrae in my lower back. Road hazards that do not get in the way of a car have a whole different effect on a bicycle."

Most bike crashes, in fact, don't involve cars at all. Bikers can fall over potholes, cracks, debris -- and, in Jamaica Plain, unused trolley tracks. "There are so many little things that the city does not do that just make [biking] a pain in the neck," says Anne McKinnon, an urban planner who commutes by bike between Jamaica Plain and downtown. "They don't sweep the gutter. They don't enforce double-parking on Columbus Ave. They don't make sure that the drain grates are turned so they won't catch a bicycle wheel."

PROBLEM SOLVER: Erin Gorden, chair of the Bicycle Advisory Committee, champions the "three E's" -- education, engineering, and enforcement.

The T doesn't do much for bikers either. More people who don't live or work right near a T stop might leave their cars behind if they could bike to a station, get on the T, hop off, and bike to work. "It's what the transportation planners call an `intermodal issue' -- being able to connect two modes of transportation and have them work hand in hand," explains John Crisley, president of the board of directors of MassBike.

But right now, the T doesn't make it easy. A three-year bike pass costs only $5, but a confusing schedule governs exactly when and where you can buy one -- or use one. For example, passes are sold at Government Center on the first and last four business days of the month between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., but at South Station every weekday except the first five and last three business days of the month, between 9:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. -- and not from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Bikes are never allowed on the Green Line, and they're allowed on the other lines only from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and after 7:30 p.m. on weekdays -- and not at all on evenings of FleetCenter events or Red Sox games.

"The way it's designed, I really think it's to discourage you from taking your bike on the T, or to limit the number of people who might do it," says Bill Reyelt, a BAC member who works for the state Department of Housing and Urban Development. The T is already overcrowded, and more bikes would inconvenience other riders. But there are solutions, such as bike racks on the T and on buses -- like those used in the transit systems of San Francisco, Seattle, and many European cities (see "Rack Lack," above).

The solutions seem simple. "It's the three E's that are equally important: education, engineering, and enforcement," says BAC chair Erin Gorden. The details get tricky, though. "Things are divided into the `educate people to bike on streets better' camp and the `build more bike paths' camp," says Mink. Even people who agree we should do both still don't agree how.

Bike lanes -- marked lanes in the road that are dedicated to bicycles -- seem like an inoffensive idea, but they can arouse passionate controversy. Do they really make the streets safer for bicyclists? Do they change drivers' attitudes for better or for worse?

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Laura A. Siegel can be reached at lsiegel[a]phx.com.