Bicycles in Parks

Re “Bicycles in Parks,” Letters to the Valley Edition, March 24.

In countless human activities, individuals make errors in judgment that result in injury to themselves or others. Motorists, boaters, pilots, equestrians, skiers and even hikers make mistakes and fall from trails or become lost. The death of a mountain biker should not be used as an excuse to bar riders from “where it is not safe for them to be at all,” as Daphne Elliot suggests. Using Elliot’s logic, a single incidence of a hiker being mauled by a cougar or bitten by a snake should result in all hikers being banned from the trails.

As a mountain bike rider (47-year-old professor), I know, like all riders, that I am making a personal choice to challenge the environment that involves some risk. It is risk, at some level, that is the inherent appeal of sport and recreational activities. An accident should not be used to advance the agenda of returning the trails to the exclusive use of hikers and horsemen.

KAREN ROY

Van Nuys