closed #166298
Scooters, Bike-share and Related Issues
- Case Date:
- 10/24/2018
Every day I am nearly hit by a bicycle speeding along the sidewalk on Indiana Avenue from Henderson Street parking garage towards Sample Gates. Every day I cross through those gates and am nearly hit by more bikes speeding and zipping and failing to give way at all to pedestrians. Every day I see mechanized scooters zipping between pedestrians and nearly hitting them and each other, in opposite directions, no one wearing a helmet, no signs explaining the rules, no one enforcing anything. Every day I pray i won't have to see a toddler take a half step to the right as one of these two-wheeled objects zips past them from behind, without warning, and gets hit. Or that I might be that person, because I've come so close so many times. Every day I drive down 3rd and pray I won't be the one who hits a scooter zipping out without warning, or have to see a cyclist ram into the back of a car illegally parked in the bike path (again, NEVER policed) like one of my students a couple of semesters back. And yet I am supposed to believe that "Bloomington is a pedestrian and bike friendly community committed to the integration of active and sustainable forms of transportation." The bike paths need to be segregated and not just by white lines. They need to be two-way. The scooters need to go until some meaningful infrastructure has been put in place for them, including signage that makes clear the rules, because no one has gotten the memo that they're not supposed to be on the sidewalks -- publishing regulations prominently on this website would be a start. It feels like the scooters were just dumped here and then the owners ran away. Let me be clear. I am a huge fan of bikes and walking. I've spent half my life walking everywhere, just not in this country. For example, I lived in Berlin for two years 25 years ago, and rode my bike everywhere. That was a genuinely bike friendly city, safe for pedestrians. it had designated bike paths with their own traffic lights, and policed regulations that penalized everyone for breaking the rules, including pedestrians. imagine how much money the city could make -- and how much safer it would be for everyone -- if we actually implemented such regulations. i will not let my kids out on their bikes. I have been here just four years and personally know two people who've been hit by cars, one who was maimed for life while walking, another who was badly hurt while riding. i know a cyclist who's been hit by a car while legally crossing a cross walk. the lack of transparent regulation and absence of enforcement has created a toxic mess that is going to end in tragedy for someone. Please, the city needs to act. Pedestrians shouldn't have to police the sidewalks themselves. Please make our city safe for walkers again, and give our cyclists proper paths they are obligated to use without endangering life and limb -- their own and others'. And do the same for the scooters. But only if you must. They are no alternative to safe public transportation and without enforcement we are going to continue to have horrible accidents like the one last week that left a student with a head injury. I know the student health center is counting injuries. Everyone I know has a scooter story. I saw someone having a horrible fall right in front of Franklin Hall just a week or two ago, and a few days later, four young lads zooming in drunken formation past Kilroy's, taking up both sides of the road, no helmets. i'm still trying to decide whether that was better or worse than the careful young student I followed riding his scooter, without a helmet, sandwiched between cars on 10th, with his nice backpack and pressed Chino's. It has to stop.