Mr. Rees was right. There are many good reasons to ride a bicycle; however, there are also many good reasons to ride a bicycle on the street. Riding a bicycle on public roadways is legal in every country in the world, including the United States. Not only is it legal, but bicyclists have also had the right to the road longer than motorists.

I won’t play Rees’ silly blame game of who is responsible for bad drivers on the road. There are just as many motorists as bicyclists that don’t adhere to traffic regulations.

Just because bicyclists may or may not inconvenience motorists is no reason to force them off the road. Red lights are also a hindrance from getting from point A to B, so maybe we should get rid of those as well.

Also, embarrassingly, bicyclists do get pulled over by the police and are held accountable for disobeying the law. Trust me, I know firsthand. One night, I forgot my bike lights and was pulled over while riding on the street, just like any other person operating a vehicle that forgot to turn on their lights would be. The officer told me that I could ride on the street only if I obeyed the same laws as motor vehicle operator.

Motorists don’t pay taxes in order to have exclusive use of the roadways. Maybe Mr. Rees’ was opposed to last week’s Veishea celebrations because a few of the roads he personally paid for with his tax dollars were blockaded. Sorry, but I doubt they charged everyone that watched the parade a road tax, and what about those horses?

Taxes are paid on vehicles for a number of valid reasons but primarily for upkeep of the roads from damage: the kind of damage caused by heavy cars and “fossil-fuel burning pickup trucks,” not bikes. I am not naïve enough to think that by writing this I will end the “who drives worse” debate, but as much as people in their tall trucks hate looking down onto environmentally conscious bicyclists, we have just as much of a right to the road as any other vehicle.

Here is a much simpler equation, Mr. Rees:

Bikes + Motorists + Respect = Effective and Equitable Use of Our Roadways

Nathan Bond is a senior in environmental science.