Hidden Dangers Of Road Cycling
This post illustrates the ever increasing dangers of road cycling. As traffic increases governments struggle with infrastructure and legislative improvements to safely allow the coexistence of all means of transport. Safely sharing the resources is very challenging as the disparity between the types of transportation utilized are vast — ranging from walkers and all sorts of e-transers, to the straight jobs and semis. These long term issues are slowly being addressed through many advocates and their actions.
This situation however is different. Problems that stem from pure lack of common curtesy or just abiding by the basic norms of a society that maintains its own environment — are just inexcusable. Here we have narrow state highway where most property owners and government don’t do the basic maintenance of the roadway shoulders. If your property, residential or commercial contributes to debris on the road shoulders you should clean it. If you are the state or local government who are aware of the heavy traffic and lack of alternative passages, you should see to a better plan than just a quarterly sweeping schedule.
Illustrated here is a NJ State Highway that serves as the only exit and entry to a National Park (Sandy Hook, part of The Gateway National Recreation Area)) yet has no bike lane markings or even sharrows as travelers exit Southbound into the Borough of Sea Bright. Entering the park or heading northbound on NJ Hwy 36 is just harrowing. Typical of all conversations regarding safety and the integration of low speed traffic there are local nuances. But the idea of performing basic road maintenance for the safety of all forms of transit shouldn’t be up for question.
