As a child who rides my bike around town a lot, I was excited to see a pop-up bike lane installed on Junction Street, where I ride to and from my house. Although these may have worked to create a barrier between cars and bicyclists when they were first installed, I now feel extremely disappointed in all the drivers who have carelessly run them over. I’ve watched more and more of them come down every day since they were installed.
I just want to put this into perspective: What if those were children, like me, on their way to school?
For a town where much of the population rides bikes for fun or commuting, I feel the city needs to work much harder to create safe bike routes and increase driver awareness. This is even more important now because of gas prices and climate change, which make it necessary to rely less on cars.
In conclusion, I just want to put it out there that people, in general, need to be better drivers so all bicyclists – especially children – can feel safe while commuting and having fun.
Silas Wenger, age 11
Durango
