BE NICE TO YOURSELF AND YOUR HOME PLANET: USE YOUR BICYCLE

May is National Bicycle Month, and an appropriate time to celebrate one of the great inventions of our time, and consider ways to increase its beneficial use in society.

The bicycle is often claimed to be the most efficient method of transportation yet devised, and important innovations, such as the pneumatic tire, accompanied its development.

The primitive roads encountered by the early cyclist earned bicycles the name "boneshakers," and from cycling's popularity arose the "good roads" movement, led by the League of American Wheelmen, or LAW, founded in 1880. LAW historian, Joe Surkiewicz, wrote that the name was chosen to stress conformity to the law and underscore cyclists' right to the road, a major issue then (and still sometimes today). Recently, LAW became the League of American Bicyclists (LAB).

As cars became more affordable bicycling declined. Despite a recent resurgence following the popularity of off-road mountain bicycling, bicycles tend to be viewed as children's toys, despite an estimated 4.5 million American adults using them for transportation. From a youngster's perspective, especially older children, a bicycle offers potentially very efficient personal mobility.

Bicycling is recognized as having many environmental and societal benefits so what is being done to make it more appealing in Missouri? At the state level, the Missouri Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee, with representatives from throughout the state, last year participated in approval of a new Missouri Department of Transportation policy guide which, for the first time, acknowledges the needs of bicycling and walking.

In St. Louis and Kansas City, the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is now giving more weight to federally funded road projects with bicycling (or pedestrian) elements.

Last August, St. Louis's MPO cosponsored the first St. Louis Bicycle Transportation Seminar, presented by bicycle transportation expert John S. Allen. Allen's subsequent detailed review of local bicycling and numerous recommendations for improvements, many of which are generally applicable, are available at http://home.postnet.com/~mpion/index.htm.

Local municipalities have also become more active. A project in which I'm personally involved as coordinator, sponsored by the City of Ferguson in North St. Louis County, aims to increase bicycle transportation at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and The Boeing Company.

Dennis Scott, Missouri's Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator, notes that Springfield Traffic Division is signing bike routes with future upgrades planned; Columbia has a Bicycle/Pedestrian Commission; and St. Joseph has Effective Cycling-trained bike mounted police who teach bike safety in grade schools.

Bicycling among motor vehicles can be unnerving. My own fear of cycling as an adult only subsided after I was introduced to the influential work of bicycle transportation engineer John Forester, author of "Effective Cycling." He determined that most car-bike collisions result from turning or crossing vehicle movements and concluded that "Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles." Unfortunately, some believe that bicyclists impede motor vehicles and are a danger to themselves even when riding legally and proficiently. A concerted effort is needed to overcome these prejudices and reach the goals LAW's founders set back in 1880.

Martin Pion of Ferguson, Mo., is a cycling instructor for the League of American Bicyclists.