As we continue to pedal through this Summer of Cycling in Southern California — still more than three weeks left — it’s apparent that one of the most vexing questions facing bicyclists, motorists and transit planners is whether cars and bicycles should even mix at all.

It also turns out that this is an age-old problem, or at least one as old as the modern world in which people-powered bikes and motorized vehicles together share the roads — more than 125 years.

In an academic paper published 12 years ago in Transportation Quarterly, scholar John Forester cited arguments from the 1930s, the ’70s and the ’90s:

“On one side are the lawful, competent cyclists, who say that ‘cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles,’ which is the basic principle of the traffic laws, and which is called the vehicular-cycling principle. On the other side are the bikeway advocates, who say that cyclists should ride on bikeways, preferably bike paths in the Dutch manner, without specifying how this should be done. Bikeway advocates oppose cycling on the road in accordance with the rules of the road by arguing that it requires mental skill, physical power and psychic temperament close to the limits of human abilities. Among bikeway advocates are both militant motorists, who want to clear the roadways of cyclists, and militant anti-motorists, transportation reformers, and urban planners, who believe that providing bikeways will cause many motorists to switch to bicycle transportation.”

Almost every cyclist is also a motorist, of course, and if the reverse isn’t entirely true, most of us at least rode bikes as kids.

What do you think?

In your experience, which is the right way for Southern California to go forward? Adult-powered bicycles used for commuting, not for mere fun, are proliferating here, and would seem to be no mere fad. So this is an important decision to make, perhaps too important to be left only to the bureaucrats and planners.

Send your thoughts to opinion@langnews.com. Please include your full name and city or community of residence. Also, provide a daytime phone number so we can verify the comment. Or, if you prefer, share your views in the comments section that accompanies this article online.