The City Council’s failure to protect all East and West Mercer Way users from the increasing hazard of joint auto-bicycle (Mercer Island dismisses ordinance to ban groups of bikers on city streets) was disappointing.

It does not take a Ph.D. in road engineering or political science to recognize the Council’s abandonment of two basic “R’s” — reality and responsibility — not grasping (1) that East and West Mercer, built in the ’20s with horse and mule-drawn equipment, now present extreme danger when filled with bicyclists, especially on weekends with summer weather approaching, and (2) that vocal opponents of something will always noisily attend and pack legislative meetings; in this case, successfully making the Council grovel to their objections.

A tragic accident, probably on one of many East and West Mercer’s blind curves, hopefully not a fatal one, will sadly be the impetus for genuine corrective measures, reinforced by a huge money judgment against the city, which has a non-delegable duty to provide safe roads. The protesters won’t be around when judgment payment time comes.

Don Gulliford