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Why do cars park in bikes lanes?

Well, I’d say it’s because the person driving needs a handy parking spot and they don’t particularly care if they’re blocking one lane and half of another.

I first got mad about the problem this fall when I transferred to Eastern and rode my bike everyday to class. I found that the postman, an office supply delivery truck, students, professors and residents of Pemberton Hall all parked in the bike lane.

The problem increased when students had to get textbooks and when they had to move in and out of the residents halls, holidays and so on.

I ride to class about five miles each way and when I finally get to a point where I have a road specifically designed for my mode of transportation, it’s nice — really nice.

It just steams me when someone is parked there because it saves them a step.

Let me explain.

I enjoy riding, but waking up early, get dressed special and carrying everything I need for the day on my back shows me how important planning, organization and safety is.

As I ride, I have to constantly watch out for inattentive motorists and ride defensively to make up for my occasional disregard for the rules of the road. I feel like I’m the minority that is swept to the side. For example, on Fourth Street north of Lincoln, bikes are not allowed and it’s illegal to ride on the side walk in Charleston.

What does this mean? It is illegal to ride a bike on Fourth Street.

Weird law, since state and federal laws allow bikes to use the same roads as cars, and even give them more rights to determine how to ride in a safe way.

But the signs still stand and I still ride on Fourth Street like a rebel with a dorky helmet dodging frat boys and pick up trucks. When I finally cross Lincoln, into the bikers haven that is Eastern, with its many racks close the buildings and bikes lanes, it drives me nuts to see a car parked in the road, my road made for me.

It’s not a big deal. The bike path is only a three foot wide section of the road next to the curb. But it offers the easy hassle of free riding, safer riding.

The problem is, if I have to veer out into traffic which expects me to be in my own lane to get around a car, a car I can’t see around it endangers me and others.

The cars have to swerve into the oncoming lane to get around, and if there is a truck parked there, like a big office supply truck that comes on many mornings, it is very dangerous.

Recently while going to the Greg Technology Center to work on a paper, I saw not one but two cars parked in the bike lane.

Bikes are a serious form of transportation, and the solution to this problem is all on you, Eastern.

Don’t park in the middle of my road and I won’t ride down the middle of yours. It’s a trade-off.

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