Letter: Give cyclists, pedestrians the right of way

Is Carbondale no longer a bicycle-friendly community? So far this spring, stop and yield signs have gone up all along the bike and pedestrian path on both sides of Highway 133. At nearly every driveway where automobiles turn off and onto the highway, pedestrians and bicyclists are required now to stop or yield to vehicular traffic as it crosses the (supposedly) protected pedestrian and bicycling corridor. Compare that to the Rio Grande Trail, where bicyclists, pedestrians and equestrians are genuinely protected from vehicular traffic for miles at a time without a stop. Is Carbondale instead a car-is-king community now and I simply didn’t get the memo? Because in a bicycle-friendly community, bicycles and pedestrians should have the right of way when cars turn off the road and cross the protected bicycle and pedestrian corridor. So let’s turn those stop and yield signs around and protect the bike-path users from turning cars rather than the other way around.

Willet Mather

Carbondale