write your elected officials: bike lanes are safer for everyone

It seems intuitive, but even obvious things ought to be measured.

The Center for Transportation Research at UT Austin discovered that bike lanes are safer for bikers. You might be saying "it took $114,00 of research money to figure that out?"

What's interesting is that it's safer for the cars as well. Without bike lanes, cars swerved out of their own lanes nine out of ten times. With bike lanes, they did so only six out of ten times, and they encroached only 40% as far. And to think it didn't even measure the number of drivers who yelled "get on the sidewalk."

So write your local elected officials asking for bike lanes, and back it up with a study. It's not just safer for cyclists, but safer for drivers as well. If you can work the phrase "think of the children" in there, you get bonus points.