by Angelys Hernandez, William Rodriguez, & Scott Schaffer
This is about our need for a Bike Park: Bethlehem is one of the many known cities in Pennsylvania. The people of Bethlehem, love the environment and beauty of the city. With the culture and popularity of Bethlehem, many want to see us grow into even a better city. One group, and a large one is those who love the bike life. This is particularly important for us, the youth. We have to ride in the streets. (delete) Some bikers do tricks, like swerving or a wheelie, on the roads and drivers (delete) get angry (delete). By giving bikers an area to call their own, our community will be safer, happier, more friendly for our youth and moving in the direction away from polluting automobiles.
…cyclists should be able to have a place where they can ride their bikes without getting in trouble for it. I have seen this many times. Too often I’ve been with a group of cyclists on the road, following the road laws, and drivers start to get angry and become aggressive (delete). I have (delete) seen cyclists get stopped by police and cited for simply riding their bikes.
We face many problems in our community, (delete) but this issue is a real problem. Kids aren’t always perfect. That’s unavoidable. They often ride their bikes in the middle of the streets. This is (delete) dangerous plain and simple. (delete) Kids do wheelies in front of cars and ride out into traffic. I see this on my street everyday. My mom and other drivers almost hit them all the time. Something here needs to change.
Our solution to change this problem is to make something like a skate park …but for bikers. It’s something the community can do, along with designated and clearly marked bike lanes, to make sure that no bicyclists dangerously ride on the opposite side of the road.
The skaters had a similar dilemma. The skateboarders. They couldn’t freely skateboard around the city without some type of issue. They ended up getting a skatepark on the SouthSide of Bethlehem. We can find a new location for bikers to exist in Bethlehem and have a better and safer place to ride bikes. (delete) We need a dedicated, beautiful, safe place for bikers (delete) to do their tricks and not do them out in traffic.
We need to build a park we can go to that is not too far away from a neighborhood. Maybe near a community center or near a school. AND we need to enforce the rules of the road and safety rules of bikes die kids everywhere. This is important to us. The community can help out by paying to build it, and so we have somewhere cool to go.
Even though there are many interest groups that would support this project, (delete) Tax Payers. (delete) may not want their tax dollars (delete) spent on a bike park, but (delete) as a community we should work together and we can use a mix of tax dollars (delete) donations from the community, and cyclists can begin fundraising for the Cause. (delete). The money collected from fundraising would go to (delete) finding a place that cyclists can ride and making our city streets more bicycle friendly.
We’re prepared, and others too, to fight for this, not violently of course, but enough to get the word out. Everyone is human; we have our dreams and needs and hobbies. Why ignore us when you can help us live better, safer lives? (delete) The littlest things can help grow this place we happen to live into a real home.
Angelys Hernandez is a junior at Liberty High School.
“I am interested in the environment because it has many things that could be better for the community. Little by little, people can push to see a better future for us. A little bit of effort is what we need in life, to get somewhere.”
William Rodriguez ___
Scott Schaffer ___
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