"What's Your Point?"

Riding a bike is one of the most fun and basic things a child can do. It is a slice of freedom combined with easy, healthy exercise. Imagination soars while riding a pretend motorcycle, racing in le Tour de France, flying in the sky on a two wheeled Pegasus. Even for adults, bicycling can help maintain health and fitness while giving a release from the every day care and concerns faced in our grown up lives.

Biking is fun and healthy...and it is also something that can be dangerous and deadly.

I was riding on a converted rail bed trail this week on two different occasions and saw things that were chilling. Riders with no helmets, riders entering the main path from the side paths at high speed without looking, parents not teaching their young children how to hold their line and staying to the right when riding, and people riding two and three across and NOT paying attention to oncoming riders.

At various times I said something, okay, shouted something like, "Hold your line!", or "Bike up!" I always let walkers, runners, and slower bicyclists know I was approaching them from behind and then would say, "Passing your left" just as I would overtake them.

During one ride this week a family of about six just ahead of us, two adults and four young children, veered sharply from the right of the path to their left and landed in a thud on the ground on the other side of the path. None of them wore head gear. One of the boys actually took the turn so sharply that he crashed onto the grass but seemed okay. We were about 10 to 15 yards behind them when this happened and as I passed the crashed boy one of the other children looked up at me.

I asked him, "Did you look over your shoulder before you did that?" He had no answer and a few yards further down the path I heard the mother shout, "What's your point?"

What's the point mom? Really?

Bike safety is the point. People die from bike accidents, people suffer concussions, neck injuries, broken bones, and dislocated shoulders from bike accidents.

The first thing we taught Robert and Esther after they learned to get and keep a bike moving was to ride in a straight line and stay to the right. We taught them to always wear a helmet and be respectful of other riders and anyone else on the bike path.

What's my point in writing any of this?

I just want people to totally enjoy the simple joy of riding without feeling they have to worry about inconsiderate riders. It's said that it takes all kinds of people to make up the world. The microcosm of the bike path certainly reflects that. There are few uniformed police on most bike paths, the Mount Vernon trail in Northern Virginia being one exception. Riders have to police themselves.

And when it's clear that adults are not teaching their children proper bicycling safety sometimes someone else has to draw attention to that fact.

That's my point, lady.