Bikes are part of the overall plan

The car-versus-bicycle debate continues in Glendale (“‘Road diet’ plan a recipe for disaster,” Feb. 10) with our current chapter, the Honolulu Avenue “road diet.” Lots of good potential puns on that one.

So far, responses have been from drivers who don’t want to lose what they consider their paved turf, and this is the crux of the debate: turf wars. Streets aren’t about cars or bicycles, they are about transportation, and transportation comes in many forms: legs, buses, skateboards, scooters, bicycles and cars.

So if transportation comes in many forms, and if any city’s job is to facilitate transportation, why do some car drivers have such an exclusive sense of entitlement to everyone’s means of transportation?

It is a missed opportunity that bicycles are being touted only as vehicles of recreation or health when they are really one part of an overall, forward-moving transportation plan.

Populations will only increase, and eventually even the widest streets will clog. Diversifying transportation is a necessity, not a luxury of recreation.

Jen Heaslip

Glendale