Print edition: 
This is Bike to Work Day, Bike to Work Week and Bike Month in Wichita. The "I Bike Douglas" movement will kick off Saturday. Now, if only Wichita could become a bike town.
As the bicyclists at a community meeting Tuesday night described it, Wichita currently is a "car town" full of drivers with bad attitudes toward bikes.
Turning Wichita into a bike town would require more bike-friendly planning, including more bike lanes, paths and racks.
The proposed city ordinance updating bike rules will help, by junking the unused bicycle licensing system and, like state law, requiring bicyclists to "ride as near to the right side of the street ... as practicable" (rather than, as now, within 5 feet of the right hand of the curb or edge of the street).
Wichita also might want to imitate Hutchinson's new Public Bike Project, which will put specially painted bicycles around downtown for the sharing (or the taking, human nature being what it is).
Bicyclist solidarity will be served by Saturday's "I Bike Douglas" kickoff, sponsored by the Douglas Design District, Wichita Downtown Development Corp. and the Delano District. Events include maintenance and safety clinics, a vintage bike display and three guided hour-long tours focusing on architecture, art and photography-friendly sites. (For more information, visit the website www.dddwichita.com.) The Oz Bicycle Club and other groups promote bicycling in town and long distance year-round (ozbikeclub.com).
Of course, no ordinance or advocacy may help with the "bicycle haters," as Wichita City Council member Janet Miller called them, who either don't know or don't care that cars and bikes alike have legal rights to the roadways and the responsibility to share them with caution.
True, some bicyclists should stop giving their brethren a bad name by flouting the laws and generally acting as if they own both the streets and the sidewalks.
But bicyclists are simultaneously getting exercise and acting to curb air pollution and the nation's oil addiction. When they are on Wichita streets, they deserve respect, imitation and a wide berth. They do not deserve to be honked and hollered at as if they are somewhere they don't belong.
