The Bicycle Super Highway
Ah, a nice peaceful morning stroll on the Ocean City boardwalk. Just you, the cool ocean breeze, morning sunshine .... and about a million bikes, surreys, joggers, and super-charged baby strollers with marathon mom pushing at a dead sprint! (When did they add body harnesses, crash helmets, and airbags to strollers)?

Have you seen it? It's insane!

As soon as they finish the 9th Street (Causway) road expansion project ... I think they need to get the road crews up on the boardwalk and widen this highway! They need on-ramps and traffic signals up there.

I would rather try to cross I-95 in Philly ... on foot ... at rush hour - than to try to get my beachchair and suntan lotion safely across the "boardwalk superspeedway" in the early morning!

The Rules
Us locals and frequent visitors see the "game" every day. It's like the wild west up there on the boardwalk in the morning ... then as it gets closer to lunch - it thins way out. By lunchtime, the bikes are supposed to be off the boardwalk ... but they're not. The voice from the speakers says "all bikes are to be off the boardwalk in 5 minutes ... bikes are not permitted on the boardwalk past 11am". (I think it's 11 ... at this point I filter the voice out - just like everybody else does).

Then the game starts ... the boardwalk cops start flagging people down, telling them to get off the boaredwalk with their bikes. The offenders look suprised, like they never heard this before ... like "the voice" didn't tell them ... like the rental dudes didn't tell them, like the signs aren't posted every block ... who could have known? In another 30 minutes ... the bikes are pretty much gone (except for the occassional 13 year old who's trying to get somewhere before being flagged ... it rarely works, but they'll still try.

I actually think the reason they clear the bikes in the morning is so no one gets injured as the lines start to form in front of Mack & Mancos - in about 5 minutes.