I recently had a new experience that opened my eyes to the way novice cyclists must feel when they first start out.  Traffic can be scary, especially when it’s fast moving and you’re in the middle of it.

Honolulu has several nice bike paths and many roads with bike lanes.  However, they are completely disjointed, with a couple miles here or there and stretches of unfriendly roads in between.  I normally can hold my own keeping up with traffic through these stretches (a fast Schwinn Paramount as a commuter certainly helps).  However, a couple things came together this fall that put me in the slow lane.

First, my bike was stolen (which is a long story in its own right) and I was riding my old mountain bike.  Let’s just say that there’s a bit of a speed difference between those two bikes.  Second, I had a week of training at a hotel in Waikiki.  I never care how sweaty I get on the way to work because I shower and change before my shift starts.  However, for this week I tried something new, riding in the clothes I’d wear for the day like a normal commuter does.  So, I found myself on a slower, less efficient bike while also trying to keep from working up a sweat.

To say the least, this was an eye-opening experience.  Traffic feels completely different when you’re used to going along at 20-25 mph but instead find yourself going about 12 mph.  I can’t imagine how an older person or a new cyclist going even slower would feel.  Not safe, that’s for certain.  Even with my experience I was scared to ride down a couple stretches of road, given the amount of traffic and how much our speed differential had increased.  At one intersection I routinely waited for the green light, crossed through to the other side, then waited for the light to turn red and stop the bulk of the traffic before continuing on my way.

After this experience, I have a new understanding of (and sympathy for) people who avoid biking around town because they don’t feel safe.  To get more people out there, we need to fill the gaps in our infrastructure by connecting all the disjointed bike paths and bike lanes.  Once we have this minimum grid, people will be able to ride from where they live to where they need to go and still feel safe.