Sometimes I’m sure my coffee compulsion will get me in trouble.
I ride my bicycle to work as much as I can in the summer, and I could easily bypass Fairview Avenue on the commute from my West Boise home. Cycling might tone my quads but my judgment remains flabby; many mornings, I still hit the Starbucks at Fairview and Cole Road to pick up a coffee.
This decision places me in the teeth of Ada County’s second-worst cycling intersection. As Patrick Orr reported Sunday, 10 car-bicycle accidents occurred at Fairview and Cole from 2007 to 2011. The worst intersection, with 11 accidents, is up the road a few miles, where Fairview meets Meridian Road and Cherry Lane.
I’m going to focus on Fairview and Cole — because I know it firsthand, and because it nicely illustrates some of Boise’s cycle commuting problems.
The most glaring problem is infrastructure. Fairview and Cole were not designed for cyclists. Bike lanes are non-existent; shoulders are narrow. Even if everybody does everything right, following the rules and extending common courtesy, the roads put two-wheelers and four-wheelers in close proximity. You can ride Fairview, but it is by no means relaxing.
Some help is on the way, at least at the intersection. A $5.6 million widening project is scheduled for 2017. The project will include bicycle lanes, said Matt Edmond, a senior transportation planner with the Ada County Highway District. As for widening Fairview, and adding bike lanes on either side of Cole, that work won’t begin for at least a decade.
That’s a long wait, and it dovetails with another problem. Bicycle commuters, like motorists, have a destination that usually requires them to take a main road. Even when I’m giving in to my coffee cravings, I spend as little time on Fairview as possible. But it’s unrealistic to expect cyclists to do all their commuting on quiet, cycling-friendly side streets; it doesn’t always work that way.
What’s the answer? It all comes back to a few basics.
• Know the rules of the road. There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what the laws allow cyclists to do, and I’m not surprised. The laws are confusing — and cyclists have their own set of rules.
If you take away anything from today’s column, let’s start here. To a cyclist, a red light is like a stop sign; cyclists can proceed after stopping and yielding right of way. A stop sign is akin to a yield sign; cyclists can proceed after slowing down and yielding right of way. If motorists and cyclists could just get on the same page about the rules, that would be a good start.
• Don’t be stupid. This goes for cyclists and motorists alike. I’ve seen plenty of dumb decisions on both sides. Not just a disregard for the law, but a disregard of common sense.
Considering that the odds don’t favor cyclists who crash with cars, it baffles me when riders treat the commute like their own personal time trial (that’s Kristin Armstrong’s forte, not yours).
• Don’t be rude. Most cyclists and motorists just want to get along. For every motorist who honks, yells or otherwise hassles a cyclist, countless others ease over to provide space or wave a cyclist in at an intersection. But it’s the rude motorists and the jerks on two wheels who leave a lasting impression.
Confusion over the laws and reckless decisions lead to bad feelings. That doesn’t excuse bad behavior.
On Fairview, cyclists and motorists are in for a long hard ride. Lots of morning commutes in tight quarters. We’d best get used to each other.
MIRACLE WORKERS?
Another committee took a look at Idaho’s health insurance exchange predicament Thursday, and the prognosis wasn’t good.
If Idaho is going to create an exchange — an online marketplace where individuals and small businesses can shop for insurance — the state must submit its framework to the feds by November. Will it happen? From Emilie Ritter Saunders of StateImpact Idaho, here’s the grim assessment delivered by Penny Schweibert, project manager for the state Department of Insurance: “It would almost have to be a miracle.”
There is a flurry of discussion about this issue — and I can attest that it’s tough to keep the players straight. A legislative panel discussed the issue Monday. On Thursday, Gov. Butch Otter’s task force took its first look at the situation. I mixed up the two groups in a Wednesday editorial.
The lineup is confusing, but the Insurance Department’s message is clear. On Monday, department head Bill Deal told lawmakers that the state may not have enough time to set up an exchange.
If the state doesn’t do this, the feds will — as prescribed by the federal health care law. That gives the state little control over the framework.
The matter falls to Otter’s task force, which appears determined to move quickly and make its recommendations. A do-nothing 2012 Legislature has left no alternative.
Kevin Richert: 377-6437, Twitter: @KevinRichert
