Route 1 dangerous for bikers
We've all merged right, merged left, slowed, and threaded our way through Route 1 the past few months, watching road construction crews start up a long period of traffic-twisting projects that are scheduled to continue through next spring -- all to move vehicles more quickly up and down the resorts. It's a hassle in a car. But it's sheer torture on a bicycle: The cars on the biker's left are packed in ever closer, the roughed-up pavement makes steering a gamble and flat tires a certainty. Which is why many of the bicyclists who venture onto Route 1 these days don't even try to ride in the construction zones; they disembark, and that's when we see them walking along grassy, sloped medians or narrow curbs, trying to get to the next open stretch of road.
Route 1 has never been exactly biker-friendly. It's hard to see how it ever could be. The road carries thousands of people in cars and trucks every day. While bicyclists do have the legal right to ride with traffic on Route 1 -- they are, in the law's eyes, vehicles just like cars are -- as a practical matter, riding on Route 1 is simply dangerous.
What makes the situation worse is that the tourism industry of Rehoboth Beach, Lewes and Dewey relies on summer laborers who very often spend their months here without a car, foreign workers and American students on summer break alike. There is a need for safe bike transport here. DelDOT's planning for Route 1 does what little it can to make a busy thoroughfare safe for bikers. It's not enough.
