This letter is in response to the editorial titled “Whose Idea Was This?“
I agree that Long Island is a dangerous place to ride a bicycle, but unless you are a cyclist, I think it’s a bit unfair of you to judge people who do. By asking the question, “Do you want to ride along Sunrise Highway…with your soft tissue and bone exposed to the whims of maniacs that speed down those roads on a daily basis?” that is what you are, perhaps inadvertently, doing. Not to mention that you are also judging all people who drive cars, but I agree that most are maniacs, so let’s move on.
Anyway, I ride a bicycle to work every day in the fair weather and while I understand this is a risk, I also understand that riding a bicycle requires skill, good reflexes and the ability to pay 100 percent attention to the road at all times. As a result, I have been commuting by bicycle for almost 10 years without even a “close call.”
If more people rode bicycles on Long Island—and more people rode them like grown-ups rather than daredevils—the mere presence of so many bicycles on our roads would make it impossible for “maniac drivers” to ignore and whiz by us. And if opinion writers on Long Island would stop scaring people away from learning how to ride safely to work, to shop and to dine, there might be more people riding.
—Tom Montalbano
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