Jenny,

Thank you for speaking out on behalf of bicyclists at tonight's city council meeting after Terry Hough announced without explanation that the new light at Mountaineer Station will not detect bicyclists.  Please be aware that both the Traffic Commission and the MPO recommended that the light detect bicyclists.  I do not know who made the decision to repudiate the Traffic Commission's and the MPO's recommendations.  Perhaps Ms. Hough was speaking on behalf of the WVDOH.

I am concerned that we're not talking with the right people or that those making the decisions don't understand what we're recommending.  I understand that there will be some kind of detection mechanism, inductive or optical that determines whether a vehicle is waiting at the intersection.  There are detectors that detect bicycles and there are detectors that do not detect bicycles.  Our recommendation was simply to select a detector that detects bicycles as well as motor vehicles.  The article at http://www.humantransport.org/bicycledriving/library/signals/detection.htm might help in selecting an inductive detector.

As I explained at the Traffic Commission and MPO meetings, if the detector does not detect a bicyclist waiting at the red light, that forces the cyclist to wait forever or to run the light.  Deliberately selecting a detector that does not recognize bicyclists when detectors are available that do detect bicyclists, especially if all other factors such as cost are similar, is tantamount to deliberately denying bicyclists their equal right to the road as granted by WV 17C-11-2.  It also forces bicyclists to violate the law and puts them in greater peril than if the light were not installed.

Mountaineer Station is often referred to as multi-modal.  It has arguably the most wonderful bicycle parking facility in Morgantown.  It is currently underutilized because cyclists don't know it's there, they don't know how to get into it and few have the skills to contend with the traffic to get to it.  I should think we would want to make it easier for cyclists to use rather than erecting additional barriers to its use.

Since you spoke out on cyclists' behalf tonight, will you get this message to the right people so that we can help them make informed decisions?

Morgantown is only 5 miles across.  If enough people rode their bicycles over that almost easy-to-ride distance, we wouldn't have the congestion that some city councilors say is Morgantown's biggest problem.

Frank D. Gmeindl
Chairman, Morgantown Municipal Bicycle Board
LCI #1703
491 WilsonAvenue
Morgantown, WV 26501
304-376-0446
Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles

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