In a column from the Salina Journal, columnist Gordon D. Fiedler Jr. writes about a recent trip to Boulder, Colorado, and how that experience differs from Salina, where residents are “pinched black and blue by buck-a-quart gasoline”:
But once in Boulder these days, one’s transportation options expand. There are cars, taxis, buses, just like any bustling metropolis — and bicycles. Lots and lots of bicycles. By the numbers of two-wheelers whizzing this way and that, I calculated that only foreign countries such as China, Denmark and Oregon have more bicycles per capita.
There were bicycles in front of me, bicycles behind me, bicycles to the right of me, bicycles to the left of me, and on one particular morning, a bicycle underneath me.
For a couple of hours, I had gone native.
Astride my rental steed, I pedaled up Boulder Creek trail, a paved thoroughfare that even at that early hour was crowded with walkers, joggers, and, of course, other cyclists.
This tree-lined, narrow ribbon of pavement runs from one end of town to the other, dipping under streets so there are no lights to wait for or traffic to dodge. But bikers don’t confine themselves to this dedicated path. They brave busy city streets on which they obey local traffic laws and appear to have the respect of motorists who probably are bikers themselves.
Even Boulder’s public transit system caters to bicycles. More than once I saw cyclists muscling their bikes either on or off city buses.
His conclusion: “If Boulder is, in fact, the trend-setting municipality it wants us all to believe it is, then Salinans can foresee a day when our fair city becomes a more bicycle-friendly place. As gas continues its climb from the unbelievable to the unimaginable and heads toward the unaffordable, we Salinans may someday embrace non-car transportation in all its forms.”
Hopeful words from central Kansas…
Read more: Salina Journal
Post tags: Bicycle Friendly, Salina
