CYCLISTS: A few bad ones spoil road

After 20 years of avid cycling on the streets and trails of northern Idaho with plenty of races under my belt, I found myself honking my car horn in frustration at a cyclist in downtown Coeur d’Alene recently. Every spring, I worry about hitting the streets again on my bike after winter months of indoor training. Drivers here, for the most part, are great and work well with cyclists, until they encounter the types that shared Lakeside Avenue with me today.

These were cyclists dressed in the latest gear with high tech road bikes. They should have known what they were doing. Instead, on a busy street at lunchtime with cars parked on both sides of the street, they decided to ride side by side and talk.

They were going no more than 15 miles per hour and probably slower than that. One of the cyclists rode in the middle of the lane, leaving no room for cars to pass safely. In frustration I honked because those are the non-thinking cyclists that drivers remember when they see me and other cyclists on the road. Those cyclists endanger every other cyclist out there with their entitlement attitudes.

They gestured crudely to me, which was no surprise. How do I convince drivers to share the road with bikes when cyclists like those three spoil it for the rest of us?

CYNTHIA TAGGART

Coeur d’Alene