Councilman: Bicyclist Packs Are Nuisance, Dangerous

Efforts are underway across the county to bring to encourage bicycle-related tourism and to create new bicycle-related amenities for residents and tourists alike.

But one county councilman says some bicyclists think they own the road, and that's it's creating dangerous situations.

During a recent planning retreat, Councilman Tom Ponder said he wanted officials to address “motor vehicle safety on county roads pertaining to bicyclists.”

“I'm getting calls, complaints,” Ponder said. “It's a nuisance. We've got an influx of people coming over here from Greenville in packs of twenties and thirties and forties.”

He said constituents are telling him they've been run off the road by bicyclists who are hogging the road.

“They're not abiding by state law,” Ponder said. “State law states that they don't have the full lane, that they ride from the center of the lane over, and that they have to yield to motor vehicle traffic. They can ride double file – two abreast - There are other laws that they're not following – they don't stop at stop signs, they don't yield.”

Ponder said he's not against bicyclists but he thinks the county should put a policy in place and enforce it.

“I don't have a problem with two or three or four people riding, but when they get into these big packs, they are obnoxious,” Ponder said.

He said he was run off the road by a large group of bicyclists twice last year.

“When I asked them to ride single file or double file, they shot me the bird and they cussed me and they jeered me,” Ponder said. “It was a pack of over 40, and they were overflowing out of the right lane. This car passing at a curve, and I had three choices, I could either hit the bicyclists, hit the car head on, or run off the road.”

He says some bike events bring as many as 200-300 riders to the area.

“They won't ride in one pack, they'll break up into twenty to a pack, but there may 6 to 8 packs,” Ponder said.

That's good for the economy – but riders need to remember to share the road and not block lanes.

“I don't have a problem with bicycles,” Ponder said. “But these people have an attitude that they're untouchable. They're very antagonistic.”

Not sharing the road on county roads can create dangerous situations for drivers and bicyclists alike, especially when drivers round a curve, only to come upon bikes stretched across both lanes of a two-lane county road.

Ponder said he heard from one man who was traveling down Highway 178 in the Rocky Bottom area.

“He got behind a line of cars,” Ponder said. “He said he counted 10 vehicles in front of him, he couldn't understand what the deal was. He went around a curve, where he could look down, and there were 3 bicyclists going down the mountain, across the road. He said there had to be 15-20 cars backed up, going down the mountain. They wouldn't let the cars go around them.”

Ponder said he'd also heard from a volunteer firefighter who was delayed in responding to a call by bicyclists refusing to let him by.

“We don't have any road policy (regarding bicyclists in groups) nor we have any policy concerning liability at these events?” Smith said.

“Well, we're going to,” Ponder said.

If you go to a city (to hold an event), you're going to have to provide a blanket insurance policy and some other things to do that,”” Smith said.

“If I'd have totalled my truck, that'd have been on me,” Ponder said.

“They're all over Glassy Mountain, they're all over … around Holly Springs and Highway 11, they're all over Dacusville,” Ponder said. “I don't have a problem with people riding bicycles, but some of these people, I've never met people who had so little concern for public safety and just courtesy. They've got these little bumper stickers that say, “Share the road – it ought to say, 'we own the road.'”

Ponder said he's spoken with Sen. Larry Martin, who said part of the problem is the Highway Patrol isn't enforcing state laws regarding bicyclists and how much of a highway lane they can take up.

Martin told Ponder legislative action could be taken pertaining to bicyclists on back-country road and enforcing single-file or double-file only regulations.

Ponder offered one way to solve the problem.

“In Dacusville, we're going to ban Spandex at the city limits,” he said.