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Show Bike Regulations Urged To Help Me Youngsters Safety Conscious Thousands of youngsters take to their bicycles every year, swelling the ranks of America's cyclists to well over 9,000,000. On the basis of past records, it seems tragically certain that unless un-less measures are taken for their protection, more than 25,000 cycling cy-cling youngsters will be killed or injured some of them crippled crip-pled for life in the coming-year. coming-year. The responsibility for the chaotic cha-otic state of bicycle traffic does not rest on any single agent, nor can it be shifted about from one set of shoulders to another. The responsibility is ours parents, teachers, motorists, city officials, cyclists and the power, too, is ours to eliminate these accidents. acci-dents. Legislation and education are the weapons by which this war against tragedy must be waged. Too many drivers automatical ly label the boy or girl behind the handlebars a nuisance, with no rights on the streets. Thoughtless Thought-less motorists tend to' consider the highways their own private domain, and would deprive bicycle bi-cycle operators of the rights and courtesies to which they are fairly entitled. Although there has been a growing interest in bicycle legislation leg-islation in many communities, the number of programs adopted has lagged far behind the ever-increasing ever-increasing needs. Legislators are understandably understand-ably reluctant to summon juveniles juven-iles to court with adult criminals. As an alternative method, a new approach toward ultimate solution solu-tion of the enforcement problem has been advanced and successfully success-fully carried out in cities of varying populations all over the country. Taking the form of city ordinances, ordi-nances, the regulations are designed de-signed to compel . cyclists to maintain their vehicles in good mechanical "condition and to observe ob-serve the traffic laws. Many cyclists, too, consider themselves privileged characters, entitled to ride on the wrong- side of the street, to zigzag in and out of traffic, to violate traffic lights and to ride on the highways high-ways at night without adequate lights. To combat these dangerous attitudes, alert city officials have adopted programs that call for the registration and licensing of bicycles. for police powers to Impound bicycles and suspend and revoke licenses, and also for special bicycle courts, conducted under the direction of the police department's public safety section, sec-tion, The need for such a program is obvious; the results achieved in areas where they have been undertaken, substantiates its value. |