Mr. Mayne's editorial only reflects his disdain for having to share the road with cyclists.
His exaggerated claim of following a cyclist up a hill at 1 mph is nonsense. It's quite difficult to actually keep your balance at that speed. Perhaps behind a wheel of a car does 5 or 10 mph feel like 1 mph. The fact that the cyclist took the middle of the lane clearly shows that the cyclist knew where they're going. While a driver may be inconvenienced by following a much slower vehicle, it is really the safest and proper way for a cyclist to share the road when a safe shoulder does not exist. And forcing cyclists from taking advantage of the sidewalk is only Mr. Mayne's way of avoiding to have to pass the cyclist again.
Licensing every cyclist would only discourage cyclists from using the roads and would seriously reduce the need to even have a master bicycle plan, not to mention the bureaucratic nightmare it would create. The real problem a majority of the time when there are driver/cyclist conflicts is not the lack of skills with the cyclists; rather it's the lack of knowledge from the driver.
Because a cyclist's life depends on it, most would take the time to learn how to properly interact with cars. However, no driver is going to spend additional time learning how to share the road with cyclists. It's not in their interest because their lives aren't in danger. So instead of requiring licenses for cyclists, the state of Washington should send out educational material on how drivers and cyclists should interact to every licensed driver every two or three years (staggering, preferably). The most visible part of the material can be a poster and should clearly illustrate the basic ways cyclists and drivers should share the road.
And, nearly all cyclists have a driver's license, so the education material would reach them as well. You can even offer to reduce the automobile registration by 10 percent if they attend educational classes on this topic.
The educational program will be much cheaper than starting up license programs for bicyclists and it will encourage safer sharing of the road between drivers and cyclists.
Adam Kim
Seattle
