Bicyclists want to share roads, trails responsibly

Tim Ostrander's letter to the editor on Saturday, May 2, on the lack of trail etiquette especially hit home for me. As he noted, many lack any sense of safety etiquette when overtaking a jogger, walker or even another cyclist on trails and sidewalks. They give safety-conscious bike riders like me and those in the Bike Palatine Club a bad name. With more and more people taking to their bikes in this pandemic situation, the idea of safely sharing the road becomes even more important.

As Bike Palatine Club treasurer, I have led numerous group rides over the years and have focused on safety first. How? At the start of each outing, I make our riders CLAP their hands with the reminders: be Conspicuous, ride Legally, stayAware of others and remain Predictable. Then I give examples of how to accomplish each of those. In 5,000-plus accumulated rider-miles over the last two summers, our club's group events have not registered a single serious mishap.

Unfortunately, the club has had to cancel several events this spring including our weekly group rides. We want to continue to reach out to the cycling community so we recently launched a bike blog on the bikepalatine.com website. Our initial focus is to help families with young riders as well as adult cyclists with tips and suggestions to make riding safer.

We are all in this together whether on two wheels, four wheels or on foot.

Tom Lucas

Hoffman Estates