City Ordinance Betrays Bikers

Though Cambridge is known for its leftist politics, it still callously throws some of its residents out into the streets. The city has recently passed an ordinance which took effect on May 1st and carries a $20 fine for transgressors, banning bicycling on all side-walks in Harvard Square. Since bicycle paths have not yet been created for most Cambridge streets--nor is there room to create them--bikers will be forced to weave their way through automotive traffic.

City officials defend the ordinance as necessary to prevent collisions between pedestrians and bikers. It seems they believe that the danger posed to pedestrians by slow-moving, 50 pound bikes is much greater than the danger posed to bikers by fast-moving, 3000 pound cars. Not only does the ordinance put lives at risk, but it will annoy both bikers and drivers. In Harvard Square, traffic is often bumper-to-bumper and cars are always parked along the sides of streets, so bikers will often have no place to ride, giving students who live in the Quad nowhere to go.

Drivers will also lose under the ordinance because the narrowness of Cambridge's streets will often trap them behind bikers moving at school zone speeds. While we are touched that Cambridge cares so much about pedestrians who are too slow to dodge slow-moving bicycles, we ask that it repeal this ordinance to accommodate the ecologically and aerobically sound activity of biking.