Sharing the Road

Yep that's us approaching church curve; our car, approaching cars, and a cyclist. Donny & I don't mind riding behind a cyclist until the coast is clear, really clear. Because of the amount of traffic on our only way onto and off the islands, it took us until past church curve and over the bridge before we passed this guy. And this was a midday trip, no school letting out traffic, no end or beginning of the work day traffic, just plain midday traffic on any given day.

We could have passed the cyclist into on coming traffic. Vehicles in both directions and a cyclist can share the road with a few feet to spare, but why risk an accident to save a few minutes. Anything can happen any time, but when you are forced into close proximity and a driver gets distracted, the bike hits a rock, well that is just asking for trouble. Take the time to give the rider, the jogger, the mom with a stroller, space. It's only a few minutes.

The Dare County Planning Commission needs to implement a plan where any new development along the road must add a multi-use path section as part of the improvement. If this had been in place for even five years, Colington Road would be well on its way to have many sections of a multi-use path.

I have a note from a concerned cyclists with some concrete facts and ideas that I will post next time.