No Bikes Allowed - Skate Parks
It's early Saturday morning and the local skate park appears to be empty? It just so happens that your BMX bike is in the back of your car, how lucky! A quick U-turn and your car grinds to a halt in the skate park lot. With great excitement, the car door flings open and your bike hits the gravel parking lot. You ride through the gate and take one last glance, nope - the park is empty. Selecting your first line, your front tire leaves the lip as you enter the park. Suddenly, you hear screams from the back fence, "no bikes allowed"! Chills climb down your back and your heart sinks. Looking back, two kids just over 10 years old are screaming at you while holding their skateboards. Been there?
"No Bikes Allowed" at public skate parks is a growing issue across the country. Tax payer money is spent every year to the "tune" of hundreds of thousands of dollars to support one sport and exclude another. Is this really fair? Worst yet, is there a legitimate reason? When challenging skaters and public officials about the no bikes policy, they express concern regarding damage, safety, and user conflicts. Is this accurate?
Damage Caused by Bikes is the number one response that we continually hear from skateboarders. We can believe this statement to be true for older parks that have not been designed for BMX use. However, what about all of the new parks being built? In some parts of the country, cities are building parks that co-integrate bikes and skateboards. These cities spend a little extra money to construct a higher density cement to withstand pegs and pedals. This is the solution and the way to spend tax payer money. Also, there are pegs and pedals that are designed to be "skate park friendly". So, obviously there are solutions for reducing damage at newer skate parks.
Safety Concerns are a major worry expressed by most municipalities. It is believed by many that the speed and weight of a BMX bike would cause collisions to be more severe. This is a perceived liability for most cities. While we can't say that collisions will not happen, we can say that collisions can be avoided by teaching simple skate park etiquette. For example, users should call out their line verses entering blindly. Most skateboarders hate to admit that when an experienced BMX freestyle rider is present, they get along just fine. The problem tends not to be the type of user, but the experience of the user. Collisions, whether they be skateboard to BMX or skateboard to skateboard are typically caused by a young or inexperienced user jumping blindly into someone's line or run. By simply dedicating a few hours a week, new riders and skaters can be introduced to skate park etiquette and learn how to ride and skate safely.
Another method used by some cities is to share time between skaters and bikers. Typically, bikes are allowed every other hour. This also seems to be a successful way of managing time between skaters and bikers.
The last conflict seems to be the growing "turf war" between BMX riders and skaters. Most skaters feel strongly that BMX freestyle riders are infringing on the efforts put forth by the skating community to get the municipalities to construct skate parks. These strong emotional efforts often give skaters a strong sense of ownership over these parks. As BMX riders who share these parks, we owe these skaters a big thank you for all of their efforts. The truth is that a decade ago, the sport of skating was in the minority. These skaters have fought their whole lives to have legitimate places to skate. What skaters need to realize is that BMX freestyle riders are now facing the same difficulties that skaters dealt with a decade ago. This is good reason for BMX riders to gain the support of local skating communities to aid in constructing high density concrete parks and establish sharing guidelines so that all users can enjoy these parks.
The bottom line is that a public skate park is paid for by the public via tax payer dollars. Tax payers are not only skateboarders, but also BMX freestyle riders. We often hear that skateboarding is not just a sport, but a way of life. Well, BMX freestyle riders and other aggressive bike riders feel that same passion.
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