River Road bike lane is latest triumph for bicyclists

Dear Editor:
I congratulate Ted Semegran (Weehawken Reporter, July 15) for his diligence in achieving the bike lane on River Road. I look forward to the day when we can bicycle the length of the Hudson River waterfront from the Bayonne Bridge to the George Washington Bridge. My wife and I are inveterate cyclists. We have made trips in the Northeast United States and Canada, from the Delmarva Peninsula to Prince Edward Island to the Erie Canal, and three in France and Spain. All were planned and organized by us.
We also enjoy walking along Boulevard East in Hudson County, especially in Weehawken where we have an unobstructed view of the Hudson River and the New York skyline. Bicyclers and walkers do not mix. The bicyclers who use the walkway as if it were a bike path, which it is not, threaten walkers, often coming from behind with no warning. They do not belong on the sidewalks. The bicyclers should use the roadway. Properly outfitted with helmets and bright/reflective clothing and obeying the traffic regulations, it is safe. I know, because I have done it since the late 1960s.
The towns of Weehawken, West New York, Guttenberg, and North Bergen should get together and enact regulations before the inevitable accident occurs with a cyclist colliding with a pedestrian on the Boulevard East walkway.

James T. Dette

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