As Warsaw continues to develop a bike-walk program, local bicycle enthusiasts are doing what they can to help bring awareness to motorists and cyclists alike about the safety of sharing the roads.

The city of Warsaw has obtained grants to create bicycle lanes along Smith Street and are continuing to expand the bike routes along McKinley Street, where a trailhead park will also be created.

The KCV Cycling Club of Warsaw is wasting no time in promoting the safety and wants the public to know what is fact and what is fiction where bicyclists sharing the roads are concerned.

Fact or Fiction: You are safer if you ride facing traffic rather than with traffic? FICTION!

While you might think you are safer because you can see the cars that are approaching you, in reality you put yourself and others at risk by riding against traffic. Remember you are a vehicle so consider the following:

When traveling in the wrong direction a car driver is not expecting to find traffic moving toward them.  This confusion reduces the driver’s ability to react as they adjust to the unusual situation. In fact a driver will have more time to react if you are traveling in the same direction.

If the car is moving at 40 mph and you at 15 mph there is 1.5 seconds of extra time for every 100 feet of distance. And that is extra time to react to an EXPECTED situation verses 1.5 fewer seconds to react to an UNEXPECTED one.