Keep cars and bike separate

The City of Olympia’s recent move to turn Seventh Avenue into a bicycle priority street is a recipe for disaster.

Bicycles and cars should never be on the same streets.   The bike lanes along our city streets are accidents just waiting to happen.   There’s no way a 200-pound pedal driven bicycle should share a road with a 2000-pound engine driven vehicle.

Bike riders say they have a right to be on the road and that communities should make allowances on city streets for bike riders.

Perhaps they should.

But bike riders make mistakes and automobile drivers make mistakes.   And when the two of them collide the bike rider always suffers – – even if he is in the right.

I say – – keep them separate.

Build a hundred more miles of bike trails.   Build two hundred miles if you have to.  But, keep bikes off of city streets.

Turning Seventh Avenue into a bicycle priority street is just asking for trouble.   Cars and bikes don’t belong on the same roadway.