THE CASE FOR SAFER CYCLING: From inconsiderate bikers to near misses, residents speak out

Inconsiderate cyclists and reclaiming paradise

Kudos to Vivian O’Keefe for openly stating in last week’s Sun what many of us using the 30A path have been thinking.

Although I am a full time resident, I have stopped using the path due to the inconsiderate cyclists. I cannot tell you how many times I have almost been run over or run into  by a cyclist who refuses to let me know they are coming. I purposely have walked on one side of the path to allow cyclists through. 

However, this does not appear to be enough of a concession as many of them have come within an inch of crashing into me.

It is particularly disconcerting when they are riding at very high speeds. I truly appreciate the cyclists who yell “on the right” or ring their bell to notify me of their imminent approach. This is such a small concession on their part.

Maybe this is just a reflection of the basic inconsiderate behavior we witness today.

One only has to look to the beach to see how some visitors treat it. For some, it is a garbage disposal and ash tray; for others the dunes are their children's playground. Add all that to the dog owners whose dogs are running loose on the beach and who fail to retrieve their dog's deposit.

Being considerate should be a basic instinct in all of us. Maybe if  more people were like Ms. O’Keefe  and took a stand against behaviors such as mentioned above, we would truly live in paradise.

I remain hopeful.

Sheila Wachsman

Santa Rosa Beach

I could have killed two people that night …

This past Friday night, July 15, at 8:30 p.m., I left my mother's townhouse at Seacliffs on Blue Mountain Road with my wife and 6-year-old son. We were in the tail end of a thunderstorm, but still pitch black dark and raining.

As I pulled up to the stop sign at the intersection of Blue Mountain Road and County Road 30A, across the street from Sally's By the Sea Store, I looked to the left ... no traffic coming ... I looked to the right … no traffic coming ... as I began to pull out, two bicyclists flew past the front of my car in the bike/walking path traveling from my right to left, headed west. 

I hit the brakes just in time. There was NO WAY that my wife, who was in the front passenger seat, or I could have seen them approaching. They had no lights on the front of their bikes, and because there was no car approaching from the eastbound lane, there was no light to pick up any reflector on the front of their bikes. 

Disaster was avoided. Barely.

Please, bicyclists, if you are going to ride at night on the bike paths, be aware of the intersections that you are approaching, and please put some type of light on the front of your bikes so as to let us know you are out there.

I was shaking all the way home to Sandestin. I could have seriously injured or killed two people that night.

Jay DeVaughn

Sandestin