A recent letter to the editor seemed to be, in part, an unsolicited attack on bicyclists wherein a couple of untruths were implied as fact that I would like to correct (“City opposition to UTV event is discriminatory,” Aug. 3-9, 2017 Moab Sun News”).
In the letter, it was implied that bicyclists are not allowed to ride on the sidewalk. If one takes the time to refer to the Moab City, Grand County and Utah bicycling laws, that person would find that, unlike in other states, bicyclists are, indeed, allowed to ride on the sidewalk. Two stipulations, however, are that pedestrians have the right of way and bicyclists must audibly announce themselves prior to passing a pedestrian.
Second, it was stated that UTVs are no less dangerous than other vehicles. However (and this is anecdotal evidence), as someone who bikes to work five days a week in addition to longer rides on the weekend, I have found that cars and trucks tend to be very conscientious of bicyclists. Yet, I have lost count of how many times I have almost been run over by UTVs running stop signs and not yielding to bicycles in the crosswalk. Not surprisingly, this only seems to happen during the months of April and May. Please remember, you are in a steel cage, but I am out in the open.
Hope to see you out on the street and if you have the right of way, I’ll yield to you and if I have the right of way, I hope you’ll do the same for me.
