There are many good reasons to cycle, and more than a couple right ways to do it. Biking is good for your health, the environment and reduces parking lot congestion. A biker can choose to be a pedestrian and take the sidewalk or bike trails, be a recreationalist and take the ramps or dirt tracks or even be a vehicle and cruise the streets. With all of the positives, what could go wrong?

How about the way many bicyclists choose to use the streets? You know what I am talking about. You have seen them weave through traffic, ignore stop signs and switch seamlessly from sidewalk to roadway in the blink of an eye.

This is a blatant lack of respect for other people on the road and is in violation of the law.

Are there consequences to bicyclists other than the occasional death by splat? Not usually. I don’t think I have ever seen a bicyclist pulled over.

So, besides the fact they are endangering themselves and others, why care? They are an inconvenience to my chosen mode of transportation, a fossil-fuel burning pickup truck — in addition, community resources are spent making sure they have bike trails and bike lanes. I pay taxes to make sure that I have an efficient system of roads to take me from A to B. Bicyclists don’t pay registration or attach license plates; therefore, they don’t have a right to the roads and no accountability for how they use them.

Legislation needs to get on this immediately, if they want to ensure fair roadway utilization and safety. Some drivers will swerve to miss a stray biker moving at half the speed limit, and others won’t or can’t; either way, someone gets hurt.

Here is the math involved with a biker crossing in front of a truck [perpendicular]:

• Mass of truck = 6,400 pounds = 2,800 kg
• Velocity of truck = 30 mph = 13 m/s
• Mass of man and bike = 220 pounds = 100 kg
• Velocity of man and bike = 0 mph = 0 m/s
• Kinetic Energy = (1/2)*m*(v^2) and energy in = energy out
• Momentum = m*v and momentum in = momentum out
• Final velocity of the combined masses of the truck, bike and bicyclist = 12.5 m/s = 28 mph
• This means that you will be exerted to nearly 1.3 g’s.
• The change in kinetic energy of the bike and bicyclist = 7200 kg*m/s^2 = 7.2 kJ
• Assuming the collision lasts one second, the bike and bicyclist will feel 7.2 kW

But this is not important. What is important is what happens after: You get run over and die, or worse, the innocent driver of the car wrecks and gets paralyzed or dies.

Tom Rees is a senior in economics.