I find it strange that your editorial in the Aug. 7-10 issue was devoted to trail bike safety when coronavirus has killed nearly 200 people in Sussex County, and the front-page news story in that same issue details the difficulty Rehoboth Beach police have enforcing face mask regulations. I think it better to dedicate your editorials to the need and benefit of 100 percent mask compliance until that is achieved. If everyone wears a mask whenever they‘re in public, we could save the next 200 lives.
Please hammer it home. Repetition is a good teaching tool. This is a public safety issue, like driving on the right side of the road or stopping at red lights. Traffic laws are not discretionary; they keep us from killing each other. That’s what ordinary masks do, they protect the other person. And theirs protect us. So we save each other.
Which is not to poo-poo trail safety, just to put it in line behind more serious problems.
When its turn does come up, I would advocate against a bicycle speed limit (for folks who won’t wear a mask?) which is an enforcement nightmare out on a trail or any other “good” ideas that are unenforceable or contradict existing laws (presently - and appropriately - bicyclists can treat stop signs as yields).
Instead, try this regulation: bikes must be walked across roadways at trail crossings.
Tremendous benefits immediately ensue. No stops signs needed in any direction. End of bikes dashing pell-mell through traffic. Violations easily detected and summonsed or reported. Better still, motor vehicles have to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks. And a bike walker is a pedestrian. Again, vehicles not stopping would be easily observed and cited or reported.
Then there’s the added benefit that the motoring public - plus many bikers (which includes me) - would complain enough to pressure DelDOT to create bridge-overs (or -unders). Without that pressure, this issue will endure longer than I will. With it, an optimal solution will result.
But remember, first let’s save 200 corona deaths and then we can get bikers across roadways safely.
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