Opinion

Time for cyclists to follow traffic laws

The last Friday of every month, people in cities around the world can find streets often dominated by cars suddenly overwhelmed by a herd of people on bicycles in an event known as Critical Mass.

While it was originally founded 20 years ago in San Francisco to draw attention to the city's unfriendly practices toward cyclists, Critical Mass has grown into more of a celebration of bicycle culture.

Even in Houston, drivers on a Friday night may find themselves surrounded by hundreds of people of all ages riding atop glowing contraptions, multiwheeled, multistory bicycle-like machines or even just your average Schwinn.

Drivers also often see groups of bicyclists blatantly running red lights at busy intersections, swerving through multiple lanes and leaving bars unable to walk but ready to bike.

This sort of in-your-face protest of a transportation system that does not accommodate bicyclists may have had its place when Critical Mass first began, but a lot has changed over the past two decades, and Critical Mass needs to change, too.

Houston is in the middle of fully embracing bicycles as a legitimate alternative to driving, spending millions of dollars to construct bicycle lanes that aren't just for recreation, but actually functional transportation. Bicyclists are being brought into the fold. At a certain level, Critical Mass has won.

But as in so many movements, this is the difficult part: The revolutionaries now have to become part of the system.

Critical Mass often does a good job self-policing the worst offenders, and Houston police officers sometimes join on their own bicycles. But the overall attitude of acting superior to traffic laws only makes people in cars more fearful of bicycles, bringing down the level of dialogue and undermining arguments that cyclists have a right to ride on Houston's streets.

While simple physics may justify adjusting the rules of the road for bicycles - treating stop signs more like yield signs, for example - neither arguments about driver aggression nor the lack of designated bike lanes justify some cyclists' reckless disregard not only for traffic laws, but simple common sense.

As Houston has extended a hand to bicyclists, with millions of dollars invested in bicycle lanes and millions more planned in upcoming bond votes, it is time for Critical Mass to return the favor. This means stopping at red lights, staying in the right lane and generally acting with courtesy toward people in cars.

And if bicyclists want to be able to zoom through the city, they can always apply for a parade permit and let the police direct traffic at intersections for them. But at the bottom line, if you wouldn't do it in a car, you shouldn't do it on a bike.