[JHoward88]

For some the bike is a vital transportation device. For some it is a recreation device. For some it is both. When I was a teenager, my family didn't have a car. We lived on the rural outskirts of Buckley, a small town on the fringe of the greater Seattle Metro area. I relied heavily on my bicycle to get to work, sometimes to get groceries, and to explore. It was a 45 minute bicycle trip to the nearest bus route. For me, it was - without any doubt - a transportation device. If I didn't have my bike, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere.

As an adult living in suburban Tacoma with a vehicle, the concept of bicycling to work or bicycling to the store is nolonger practical. I bicycle only for the exercise and recreation, when I want to explore the streets in a way that wouldn't be possible driving. Over the course of the last few years, the bicycle has played an important role in my life. My usage started off being entirely utilitarian, and eventually became entirely recreational.

As pertaining to bicycle lanes, cyclists are lucky. They have the right to use the road much like a motor vehicle (whereas a pedestrian does not) as well as the right to use the sidewalk/shoulder like a pedestrian (whereas a motor vehicle does not). I have bicycled many miles throughout cities and rural areas in my region, and I have never encountered a part of the city which I regarded as unfriendly to cycling.

I think that bicycle lanes are nice, but possibly over-rated. The places where I have found that it is actually dangerous to bicycle are usually rural arterials/state routes without proper shoulders; but ultimately, nobody has proposed installing bike lanes in those obscure places anyway.