I'm not silent about the "Ride of Silence"

The following post is about the "Ride of Silence," if you don't know what I'm talking about, please go here and quickly read the post, then come back here and read this post (I ask so much, don't I).

Before I alienate everyone who organized or participated in today's ride of silence, let me compliment it for a while. I thought the idea of the ride was great, I think that anything that increases the visibility of bicyclists in the community (especially the Cedar Rapids area) is great. And raising awareness of cyclists who have been injured on public roads is a very important cause (I hope someone has a ride for me if I get hit by a car).

That being said, there were many things in the execution of this ride that seemed to me to have missed the mark. The most glaring was the fact that at two points along to rout (north end of Oakland and the north end of Center Point) It was loudly announced that we needed to "get single file and get over, there are cars behind us" (announced by a fellow cyclist, not by a passing car).

Now don't get me wrong, I think that sharing the road is just that, sharing, and sharing goes both ways. However, I believe that the main issue in the bike/car relationship, is that drivers don't realize that the bicycle has the same right to the lane as the car, because bicycles don't act like the lane belongs to them. On my daily commute to work, I have stopped riding on the right side of the lane, and I found cars stopped trying to take the left portion of the lane. By riding in the center of the lane I clearly communicate to the cars around me that this is my lane and they need to act in such a manor. And I don't think there is a better venue to reinforce this behavior than on a large group ride.

There is protection in numbers, so I think that people who might not feel comfortable riding in the middle of their lane while alone, would be more comfortable if riding with a large group who were all behaving similarly. And I think that the more cyclists on the roads who behave like the lane belongs to them, the more drivers will behave in a similar manor (but I might be wrong and we might just end up with more people to commemorate with bicycle rides).

I don't want to rant too much about it, and I will participate on any similar rides in the future. I just hope that the organizers think about what they are communicating to the drivers on the road as carefully as they think about the message they are making to the cycling community.