The scars on Kate Dunning’s knees run about six inches from her kneecap to the top of her shin. She is neither shy nor self-conscious about the marks, which are indicative of 17 days in the hospital, three months in a wheelchair, six months of missed work, and four surgeries.
The scars are most precisely a reminder of July 2, 2002 – the day Dunning was hit by a car while riding her road bicycle through Tumalo on Highway 20. The Ford sports utility vehicle crossed the highway, its teenage driver never seeing Dunning until it was too late to stop. Both of her legs were broken (including her left femur) and to this day she still can’t run, which was once a passion of hers.
Whether it’s on the front page of the Oregonian or in the form of
impassioned blog posts on the Source website, the discussion of
“sharing the road” between cyclists and motorists has been nearly
ubiquitous in recent months. And if Dunning’s experience proves
anything, it’s the seriousness of what can happen when bicycles and
cars fail to coexist on Central Oregon roads.
“This was kind of a
freak accident, the guy was looking to cross a busy highway and just
didn’t see me,” said Dunning, an accountant who’s lived in Bend for 12
years. She continues, however, to say that although she’s returned to
her bike, she still is continually baffled by cyclists who ignore even
the most basic riding etiquette. She is equally miffed by the faction
of motorists who seem to have it out for cyclists, including the
youngsters who once tossed a Coke with ice at her as they drove past.
Mike McMackin is the general manager of Hutch’s Bicycles, the popular Bend bike shop, and doesn’t beat around the bush when discussing the stigma surrounding road cyclists, especially those riding in group outings.
“We earned this reputation,” McMackin says sharply. “Sure there’s the one bad apple card, but that gets used far too often,” he says.
McMackin has been riding in Central Oregon for 25 years – since the days when men in pickup trucks would spy his riding gear and tell him, “You better get back to wherever you came from.” One might expect him to hold a high-minded view of his fellow athletes, blaming motorists for any perceived conflict. This is hardly the case.
“We all know the rules of the road, so why are we exempt when we hop on our bikes? If you’re an adult and you hold a drivers license, you should know the rules,” he says.
A few weeks ago, a group from Hutch’s was out on a group ride on a highway route where a vehicle accident occurred. A sheriff’s deputy was under the impression that the Hutch’s group had caused the accident and followed the group, and when they eventually ran through a stop sign, the deputy stopped them. While Hutch’s riders were ultimately cleared of causing the accident, McMackin didn’t waste any time in tackling the issue.
He sent an e-mail to his entire team, a portion of which appeared in the Outdoors column of the Source. In the sternly worded message, McMackin told the riders that if they couldn’t refrain from blowing stop signs and riding more than two riders abreast, they would be removed from the team roster. Not a single rider responded negatively to the message.
While the issue between recreational cyclists on semi-rural roads seems to be the crux of the motorist/cyclist conflict in Central Oregon, issues involving cars and bicycle commuters have also arisen with more frequency. This pales in comparison to the perceived battle in Portland where a cyclist attacked a motorist with a bike who chided the him for running a red light or the motorist who drove two city blocks with a cyclist clinging to his hood (which was caught on video).
Steve Esselstyn, the Bend Police Department’s community liaison, says that sort of insanity has yet to be seen in Bend, but that there has certainly been an influx of complaints by both motorists and cyclists this spring and summer.
“With people trying to save gas, you’re of course going to see more bikes on the road and people are becoming more aware of them,” Esselstyn says.
While talking on the phone, Esselstyn looks out the window from his office and says, “There’s a guy riding down the road on the wrong side of the street out my window right now.”
And this probably isn’t surprising to anyone who’s driven, walked or biked around Bend this summer. Cyclists, many of them seemingly new to commuting by human power, can be seen on all sides of town, sometimes breaking even the most obvious of laws, like stopping at a stop sign or riding in single file in the bike lane, according to Esselstyn, who says there are also motorists who don’t know how to (or want to) acommodate cyclists on the road. When asked if the majority of complaints come from outraged cyclists or frustrated motorists, Esselstyn says motorists probably have the edge, but he suspects this is due to the fact that they “inevitably have a cell phone on them.”
“With the cyclists, they probably give the single finger salute and are on their way,” he says jokingly.
As expected, more bicycles on the road means more chances of bicycle-related accidents. According to Esselstyn, an elderly man died after he was struck by a car on Purcell Boulevard, on Bend’s Eastside at the beginning of this month. Only a matter of days later, a cyclist riding the wrong way down Highway 20 was injured when he was hit by a pickup truck, the driver of which fled the scene. In early June, a cyclist was struck by a car whose driver turned across Skyliners Road wihtout seeing the man; he suffered a broken leg.
“The more population of bikes there are, the more this issue becomes valid. Is there an easy long-term solution? No,” says Esselstyn, continuing on to say that pounding bicycle rules into the minds of drivers and cyclists is the best plan.
Ray Thomas is a self-described “bicycle attorney” with the Portland-based firm Swanson, Thomas & Coon and is coming to Bend on August 5 (6pm at the REI in the Old Mill) to present a “Bicycle Legal Rights Clinic.”
“I’m an unabashed cycling advocate,” Thomas says right off the bat. “There are a lot of laws that give us rights that cyclists and motorists don’t know exist. But there’s also laws that we don’t like to follow.”
Thomas shares Esselstyn’s view that the solution to reducing conflict between motorists and cyclists is educating both factions as to the rules that each are expected to follow. As Thomas points out, it’s important to note that most cyclists are also licensed drivers and many drivers are cyclists.
“Many of these disputes are about ignorance as to what the law requires people to do,” Thomas says.
When asked about the possibility of cyclists being required to undergo a licensing process similar to that of motorists, Thomas says the notion is worth contemplating but wholly unrealistic. He says such a process would be overwhelmingly expensive to put in place and difficult to enforce.
Eric Chu volunteers with the Bicycle Transit Alliance, a non-profit bicycle advocacy group. He agrees that education would likely quell some of the problems on our roads.
“Hardly any of us have had any sort of bike safety classes since grade school. It’s a matter of the entire community, local media and law enforcement reaching out,” he says.
The conversation, at least among these law enforcement, riders and safety advocates, seems to always steer toward a lack of knowledge amongst all those who use our roads – both rural stretches of open road as well as congested downtown byways. Sure, there will always be motorists who get an ego boost out of dangerously buzzing a road cyclist with their monster trucks and there will also be a few riders who can’t seem to resist riding three across on a narrow road, but at the very least, there are voices looking to calm any impending battle between those who choose human power and those who prefer combustion engines.
Six years later, Dunning is back on her bike. Considering her lengthy recovery, it seems logical that she would have forsaken the sport that issued her the scars on her knees, but she is still out there pedaling. She might not be as fast as she once was, but she’s certainly more careful.
The Law: Some basic Oregon bicycling laws and motorist responsibilities
* Bicyclists must yield to pedestrians
* Passing motorists must leave enough space to miss a cyclist if he/she falls.
* Cyclists may ride up to two abreast at the “normal speed of traffic”
* When riding slower, cyclists must ride as far to the right as is safe.
* Motorists must yield to cyclists in bike lanes, crosswalks and sidewalks
Source: Swanson, Thomas & Coon
6-7:30pm Tuesday, August 5. REI 380 Powerhouse Dr. Call 385-0954 to register. Free.
This article appears in Jul 24-30, 2008.
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BlaBla Bla… Same old complaints from both sides. Cyclist riding in a peleton blocking the road, Joe small penis in his mega lifted 4×4 driving too close to a cyclist. We are just too unhappy. I say we put about 45 of those peleton riders in an arena and let MR small penis try to run them down! Now that would sell some tickets! Seriously bikers need to obey the law and the morons that try to side swipe the cyclist should be charge with attemted murder. STOP being a bunch of dumb asses and all of you DO THE RIGHT THING.
nice issue overall. good info. for everyone. but what’s with the cover photo? what car hit her? oh wait….she biffed while mountain biking. misleading.
“Sure, there will always be motorists who get an ego boost out of dangerously buzzing a road cyclist with their monster trucks and there will also be a few riders who canâ ™t seem to resist riding three across on a narrow road…”
I would just as soon bet that the number of motorists who get a kick out of buzzing cyclists is FAR exceeded by the number of cyclists riding three abreast. I would hazard that if anyone saw the former they would, if possible, report the offender. We are talking about assault with a deadly weapon! At the same time, the latter is considered a lack of consideration or manners and generally accepted as just another group of assholes on bikes.
Although general licensing might not be feasible (according to everyone who owns a bicycle), perhaps requiring every ticketed violator to complete a class in cycle safety and laws would help.
When I learned to drive, defensive driving techniques were stressed. Everyone talks about it–but when they fail to drive defensively and pay the price, they have no one to blame but themselves. (Cliche alert!!) Accidents don’t happen. They are caused. Good to see Kate is back on her bike.
There are a lot of sensible things said in the above comments. The whole issue is caused by the extreme of both groups of people. Normal drivers always watch out for bikers and normal bikers follow the rules and blend in well. The problem is with bikers that act like they own the road and don’t follow the same rules that drivers do. You are either sharing the road or claiming it. I’m tired of arrogant bikers that pretend like they are all about sharing the road but have a chip on their shoulder.
Aggressive driving is not ok whether it is with other motorists or bikers.
It’s all common sense really. As with everything else there is a large group on both sides that feel entitled to the road. I’m actually emberassed for those that can’t accomplish such a simple task as sharing the road.
I’ve seen both. In fact I had a guy riding down Brookswood Ave in the center of the road recently. I patiently sat behind him for a minute and when he didn’t move gave him a quick polite tap of the horn to let him know he was blocking traffic. His response? To pull up next to me and flip me off and try to pick a fight. In a car or on a bike that guy is a piece of crap. Those kinds of people are the problem, not what they are using for transportation. I hope that idiot is reading right now. You are lucky you flipped off a reasonable guy that isn’t a hot headed ass like you. If not for that I assure you that I would have wiped your face all over the road with your bike. You might want to take a better look at who you flip off next time or it will catch up with you really soon moron.
I have an enormous penis and a Subaru, and still get irritated by the idiot bikers in my driving lane. Save the spandex for the race. You look very, very silly. Stay in the bike lane!
We all share the same darned road. We should act like adults and stop this liberal/conservative garbage. I ride a Bike and Drive a car and I have see idiots on both sides. You share the road…It is not a sandbox.
When we are riding or driving we look at each other as the problem. We rarely look at the road as being the problem. In the early 1990’s ODOT was looking into it. In June of 1995 the Oregon Transportation Commission adopted the Oregon Bicyle and Pedestrian Plan.
http://egov.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/BIKEPED/planproc.shtml
In it you will find a win/win answer to the problem.