Celebration Life

There’s an ongoing and animated conversation happening on the Celebration residents-only web forum regarding the State of the Union, so to speak, of the treatment of bicyclists in Celebration. The main topic is whether cyclists must observe the same traffic laws as motor vehicles.

Resident Lee Clark posted an informative and well-composed message that summarizes things better than I could. That message is posted below with permission:

As a car and cycle enthusiast I hope to shed some light on the subject so more people understand cyclist.

The simple answer is yes if they are in the street cyclist must obey all traffic rules and operate just as a motor vehicle would. And ALL cyclist should stop at stop signs and red lights (even though they might feel that they have a much better view of the street/traffic/hazards etc., since they aren’t enclosed in a car, and think they have more stopping power than a car to stop at the last minute) b/c: A. it’s the law B. it’s just the smart thing to do and C. it would improve cycle/motorist relations.

So non-cyclist understand… most cyclist that live here choose to ride on the street b/c the sidewalks are too dangerous and too expensive to use. Keep in mind that some bikes can cost over 10 grand and a pair of good cycle rims alone can cost 3 grand. A simple incident could cost a cyclist a ton of cash for cycle repairs as well as injuries they incur. Too much debris (sand/rocks/sticks) and too many uneven edges/lips of concrete sidewalks not lining up and hard transitions when going from sidewalk to cross streets as well as the general amount of foot traffic of joggers, walkers, dogs on leashes and strollers, and kids walking sporadically make it really hard and dangerous to use the sidewalks. It’s hard to ride a bike 20-30mph on a sidewalk where at any second you can hit a patch of sand or a crack, have a dog attached to a leash and a person jump out in front of you etc. and be throw from your bike (as there is no room for run off or error). It’s kind of a suicide mission health-wise, and even when it’s quiet and you do you try it you end up messing up a 3 thousand dollar pair of rims each time you ride… so since it is the lawful, safer and more cost effective than riding on sidewalks, cyclist often choose to ride in the street. Another less important thing to note is that road bikes don’t have suspensions or soft seats and the ride is very harsh. So even just the little lines in the concrete are jarring enough to makes a cyclist hands/fingers/rear end numb after just a few minutes. It’s really hard to go ride for 4 hours and not use the streets here. Some areas have real bike paths that are smooth and clean/safe. Without getting in your car and driving for an hour each way every day, though, it really isn’t an option to find such terrain in this area.

Having said that… I have to say that I’m shocked at how terrible the drivers are here to cyclist. I’ve lived all over the country and Celebration is by far the worst place I’ve ever ridden and I’ve lived in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. =( It seems that most motorist here don’t understand the Florida laws and that cyclist are within their rights to operate a cycle on the street and even occupy an entire lane when the lane is less than 12 feet wide (which most of the lanes here are are narrow enough for this rule to apply). I use to ride the stripe but since I’ve been hit twice since moving here I now understand that Celebration motorist don’t get it and I now occupy an entire lane so the motorist has to use the passing lane to pass me. It works pretty well but you’d be surprised at how many times a motorist will aggressively pass a cyclist and come within inches of hitting them to make their point (aka demonstrate that they don’t understand the FL DMV laws and shouldn’t be driving in the first place). Little do they know… at any instant a cycle can be blown a foot in any direction from a side wind so trying to come as close as possible to swiping them to scare them off the road could easily kill them if the wind just happens to blow a gust or if the motorist miscalculates the distance.

The sad thing here is we’re not talking about the interstate but rather neighborhood roads. Kids live here and are in the streets. It’s also pretty common for motorist to violently yell things like “get on the f&%$#*g bike path”, honk at and swerve at cyclist, and or flick cyclist off and threaten them and say things like you’re breaking the law. I’ve even seen on 3 occasions a motorist stop, get out of their vehicle and try to attack cyclist/knock them off their bikes. Lots of cyclist now ride with lipstick-sized helmet cameras now so when a hit and run occurs they have video evidence of the accident (especially for if they don’t survive it). So before you decide threaten a cyclist just know you might be on a camera that is wirelessly broadcasting real-time footage from their helmet to a computer hard drive a few miles away. I also know several cyclist in our area who have conceal carry permits and carry a weapon when they ride b/c the road rage problem is so bad here.

Having said all that… as a motorist (even when I see a cyclist abusing the laws) I slow down while passing them and give them ample room just incase a wind shift takes place as I am passing them so I don’t end up killing them. It’s also nice if to give cyclist a little distance once you pass them before you dive back into the right hand lane… that way you don’t pelt them in the face with whatever rocks/glass/rain water spray/road debris your car might be digging out of the road and throwing behind you. At the end of the day there are 4 lane divided roads here and cyclist are allowed to lawfully use the right lane. I really have a hard time understanding how motorist can get so violently upset at cyclists when there is ample room to get in the left hand passing lane and make an easy/safe pass. Motorist don’t get that mad about making a routine pass of another motor vehicle. I really haven’t seen cyclist holding up traffic here. It isn’t L.A., after all. You’d think that it’s common sense that a cyclist can easily be killed if hit. At any rate I hope that helps people understand cyclist more and we can all recognize that Celebration is a neighborhood where kids live and play and adults exercise and that we aren’t out on the Autobahn or at Sebring and that taking an extra second or two to give a cyclist a little extra room isn’t going to cost you a trophy or mess your schedule up… but it just might prevent you from going to jail for manslaughter.

A thank you to Lee for permission to repost.