To the editor:

Americans have had a love affair with bicycles since the 1880s when a bicycling fad swept the country. It was clear to everyone then as it is now that bicycling was an efficient and healthy form of transportation and recreation.

When automobiles came along, bicycle drivers learned to share the roads with them and the two have existed in a sometimes uneasy relationship ever since (witness Alicia Cote’s June 15 letter, “Share the road costs”).

Bicycle drivers are not required to be licensed in Maine — though this might not be a bad idea — but it is important for everyone to know that they are nonetheless governed by the same vehicular laws and have the same rights and responsibilities as licensed automobile drivers.

Automobile drivers have an additional legal responsibility to give bicycle drivers three feet of clearance when overtaking.

Like all adult Americans, bicycle drivers also pay their share of taxes through the gas tax (since almost all of them also drive cars), through income tax, sales tax, excise tax and property tax. The letter writer is correct in saying that bicycle drivers do not have to register their vehicles, but unless they are children they already pay registration fees for their automobiles, boats and other motorized vehicles.

As for bicycle lanes, which Cote seemed particularly concerned about, Mid-coast Maine has almost no designated bicycle lanes. Bicycle lanes must be of a minimum width and marked by a bicycle logo.

What she perhaps imagines as bicycle lanes are actually paved shoulders set off by the white fog lines meant to aid drivers and not designed for bicycles.

It would certainly be nice if there were more designated bicycle lanes, but given current budget restrictions and the need to keep existing roadways and bridges in a minimal state of repair, new designated bicycle lanes are not likely anywhere in the immediate future. Thus “share the road” should be the driver’s — whether bicycle or automobile — golden rule.

We can all get along if we try.

Robert McChesney
Bath
Robert McChesney chairs the
Bath Bicycle and Pedestrian
Committee.