Elizabeth Song | Ending a vicious cycle

Hell hath no fury like a cyclist doored.

Last week, that cyclist was me. And that door was attached to the body of a black Chevy pick-up, which collided with my right knee.

For campus cyclists, the sound of a car door popping open is a lot like the sound of a cocked gun. You know it's coming; you try to dodge; and inevitably, you crash into the asphalt.

"I was riding my bike the other day, and I saw a woman kick her door open with her feet and back out butt first into the bike lane," said Andy Dyson, executive director of the Neighborhood Bike Works.

Last week, a College sophomore was biking to crew practice on 33rd Street when she got doored by a parked car. Her knee clipped the door, she went flying into traffic and a van ran over her left leg.

Cycling in Philly becomes a less-than-ideal experience when you're forced to negotiate large chunks of pebbles in the road, foot-deep cracks in the pavement and stray shards of broken glass. It's like mountain biking in an urban setting. You've got trucks unloading in the bike lanes, vans double parked on street corners and taxicabs who jostle for space on the roads.

"The problem is that there are too many parked cars - you can't build your way out of congestion, especially in an area so densely populated," said John Boyle, advocacy director for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

Clearly, cycling on campus is a dangerous proposition. But it doesn't need to be that way.

Philly should adopt a system of well-regulated bike lanes similar to those which characterize European cities, where cycling is safe and key to the streets' charm. We can reserve space on the edge of sidewalks, clearly mark off lanes for bikes and institute a cycling speed limit. Cyclists, motor vehicles and pedestrians can coexist.

But until that happens, Philly cyclists must show respect to get respect. The behavior of some cyclists is just as dangerous as motorists - if not worse. We run red lights, we mow down pedestrians and we cut off other vehicles.

Since campus streets are so hostile, cyclists have taken to using the sidewalks, which isn't much safer.

Over five years ago, according to a University official who wished to remain anonymous, a University Trustee making her way up the 38th Street bridge was run over by a biker on his way down. Needless to say, it was ugly, and bikers were forever expelled from Locust Walk during normal weekday hours.

Campus cyclists, myself included, like to think we're invincible. We deserve our own lanes and our own rights on the road. We're not holding back traffic. We are traffic.

But drivers aren't convinced.

"Most motorists don't actually think of bikers as part of traffic," said Lt. John Washington, director of the University Police bike- patrol unit.

If cyclists truly want to be respected as traffic, they need to act like they are traffic.

"Stop at red lights until that sucker turns green," said Dyson. "That's how it will be when we get what we want."

Obey the traffic laws, walk that bike during busy hours on Locust Walk and earn some street cred.

In return for these responsibilities, cyclists earn a real privilege. I risk my life on Philadelphia streets because cycling opens up the city for me. I can shop for fresh mozzarella on Saturdays at Claudio's in the Italian market, bike over the Ben Franklin Bridge into Camden and blaze down the river trail in Fairmount Park on glorious fall evenings.

I can make it from Bucks down to the Palestra before you finish waiting for that elevator in Harrison. I am my own engine, driver and passenger.

Philadelphia may have some mean roads, and the city needs to fix that. But don't expect me to budge an inch off the street.

Elizabeth Song is a College junior from Clemmons, N.C. Her e-mail address is song@dailypennsylvanian.com. Striking a chord appears on alternating Wednesdays.

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