by Allisence Y. Chang

A member of the Mass. Bicycle Coalition spoke at the contributors meeting of The Somerville News on May 13 before riding across the Longfellow Bridge with hundreds of other bikes to her office in Boston.

“What’s amazing is that what children are taught at a very young age is completely wrong when it comes to bike riding in metro Boston,” said Dory R. Clark, executive director of MassBike, who joined with the 28-year old organization after working as the communications director of Howard Dean’s 2004 primary campaign in the N.H.

MassBike is a statewide program which advocates the use of bicycles as healthy for the environment and society and defends cyclists’ rights by working with legislators, she said. MassBike is currently pushing for two bills: the Bike Bill of Rights and Responsibilities and the Safe Routes to School bill, sponsored by State Rep. Carl M. Sciortino Jr., D-Somerville.

“Biking is a great form of exercise and it decreases the number of cars and population in the city,” saiState Rep. Patricia D. Jehlen, D-Somerville, a member of Somerville’s Beacon Hill delegation who cosponsored the bill.

The Bill of Rights and Responsibilities is due for a second hearing with the Public Safety Committee in June. If passed, the bill demands law enforcement officials training on bike laws and will also require drivers to check before opening car doors, Clark said.

Bikers hit by car doors, or doored, is the most common cause of car-bike accidents when in fact bikes are under the same laws and rights as cars except on highways, Clark said.

“As an organization, we encourage bikers to think like a car because cars are looking for other cars,” she said.

“Hard statistics, however, are hard to come by because most accidents are not reported, she said. 

MassBike works to change the climate of driver-cyclist relations so that injury will not occur. Reporting requirements, though, are not specified in the bill itself as most accidents do not arise to that level of seriousness, she said.

MassBike is also working intensely with the MBTA’s restrictive bicycle policy, she said. “It’s essentially a size issue but an exception to the hourly ban is the folding bike which is very popular in Europe.”

MassBike’s victory in November increased bike hours and bike racks at T-stations, overall making it a lot easier to bring bikes onto the MBTA, she said. “We are expecting more progress in the next few months; we’re very optimistic.”

Bike usage has increased tremendously in the past couple of years, she said. Just this past week, the Central Transportation Planning Staff received federal money to count and survey the increase of bikes in the city, she said.

Clark said it was important to warn bikers of  locks and their circular keys made by the Canton-based company, Kryptonite. “Last year, it was found that these gold standard U-locks had keyholes the same size and shape as a Bic pen,” she said.

Kryptonite is offering to replace all locks with these circular keys for free, she said. Information about the exchange program is available at the company’s Web site: kryptonitelock.com.

The number of bikers has grown steadily and there is a strong correlation between bikes on the road and the increase of gas prices, Clark said.

MassBike is working strong to promote Bike to Work Week starting May 16 and the month of May as National Bike Month.