[leadin]If passed, Missouri House Bill 2046 would require “every bicycle operating on a lettered county road to be equipped with a fluorescent orange flag visible from the rear and suspended at least 15 feet above the roadway.”[/leadin]
On January 6 of this year, the Missouri state legislature took an unprecedented step toward making 20,000 miles of roads safer for all cyclists – the introduction of House Bill 2046.
Despite the best efforts of the bill’s author (Republican Representative Jay Houghton, who can be emailed here with feedback on the proposal) to make the streets a haven for safety-minded riders, diehard cyclists of the old guard are rallying against this “common sense” proposal for bike-friendly streets.
Response from the public and the media have been critical, deriding the proposal as a thinly veiled attempt to dissuade would-be bikers from ever commuting by bike. The nearly century-old network of farm-to-market rural roads are the primary arteries for many exurbs between homes, churches, schools, and shopping areas. According to the critics, flying a measly five-yard-long cable with a neon flap dangling on it is not just overkill – it’s stupid.
Not only is this idea entirely not stupid, it is in fact totally radical!
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It Looks Ridiculous, Just Ridiculous
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It’s Dangerous, What About Power Lines Or Lightning?
No One Can See The Little Flag – Isn’t It For Kids?!
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