Today, I’m a disgruntled cyclist making the case for peace on the road. The epic saga of car vs. bike has raged on for centuries (right?) and has left in its wake unnecessary stress, turmoil, dented bumpers, cracked frames, injury, death and sadness.
Recently, I’ve been markedly endangered by a car while riding my bicycle and am disappointed to say that one incident was clearly intentional. But I’m not writing to proclaim the inherent evil of driving. I drive a car, too, on occasion. I would rather disclose my faults in the two situations, and thus make the case for empathy for our fellow commuter.
In my first brush with eternity, I was dangerously cut off in a roundabout and, after screaming an obscenity at the car, was chased down, nearly side-swiped and told that I’d better “watch my mouth.” Reflecting on the situation, I now recognize that it was getting dark, I was riding a black bike, in a black sweater and chances were good that I wasn’t visible to the driver. It wasn’t the first time that I would’ve benefited from watching my mouth, either.
My second incident involved an older couple who thought it best to drive as close as possible to my friend and I to tell us to “move over!” instead of graciously using the lane to their left to pass. In retrospect, we were riding abreast, and though we hadn’t seen a car for thirty minutes, we probably should have been riding closer to the non-existent shoulder on Fryrear Road.
Case and point: if I can empathize with my four-wheeled predators, so can you. In this time of unjustifiable war, songs about nothing, generalized impatience and fights over the last ocean roll, lets craft a little peace in doing the thing we all do everyday, like travel.
Next time that car pulls a mulligan or that cyclist “J-bikes” right in front of you (because come on, you HAVE to stop), try hard to smile and wave. It’s going to sting a little at the time, but I promise you’ll feel better than you would otherwise. Oh, and please stop leaving Stars VIP passes in my bike’s milk crate. We’ve got plenty.
Live peace today!
Thanks,
– Kelley Morris, Bend
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2010.
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Bend pretends to be a sporty town, and you can sure as heck bike most anywhere in this town in less than half an hour. But as we found out in Bruce Miller’s recent post, the right wing thinks bicycles are for communists. Cuz they see all those pictures of Chinese riding bicycles, I’m guessing. Bicycles and cars wouldn’t be much in contention if bicycles were the vast majority on the roads of Bend, the way they oughtta be in the summer months. I bet ya the town would be best off looking a little more European, and closing its downtown streets to all but cyclists, pedestrians, and emergency and delivery vehicles. But no sirree, uselessly burning gasoline is the American way, so people with nothing to haul except their fat butts drive to the movies, drive to McDonalds, drive to work, and try and run down any bicyclist who gets in their way. I’ve been hit by cars twice hereabouts, and been nearly run down more times than I can count.
How about let’s share the roads? Easier said than done I’m afraid. I have encountered many cycle riders on the road. Most abide by the “rules”. However, I must say that of late, many have been out of line. This is not to say that those in cars are any better.
This past weekend as we drove our out of town family to Drake park for the car show we encountered two riding abreast on the busy road. Clearly the event at Drake Park was highly attended as evident by cars parked on both side of the road leaving just enough room for cars in each lane and one cyclist. So why was it that the two riding abreast thought it was o.k to do so? A sense of entitlement? Who knows? It was not as though they didn’t see me or the other cars on the road. With so many cars and people it made for a dangerous situation for both cycle riders and cars. Expecting me to move over into on coming traffic was not an option….riding their bikes in single file was.
This afternoon on third street a bicycle using the bike lane was inadvertantly cut off by a car making a right turn into a fast food joint. Traffic was stopped at a light–the car started to move with traffic when the light changed got to the entry of the restaurant and turned right. The bike had approached the car from the rear–moving in the bike lane. The auto driver had no awareness of the cyclist’s approach and began her turn. He yelled, she slammed on her brakes–no contact no harm no foul.
Wait…did I say no foul? The cyclist launched into a sting of f-word laced invective at the top of his voice–grabbed his water bottle from his bike and threw it as hard as he could at the stopped vehicle.
Can't We All Just Ride Along?
Obviously, not.
I very much appreciate Kelley’s taking the perspective of the driver as a disgruntled cyclist. Really what it comes down to is a healthy respect of one for the other, like she said. And not getting one’s panties in a bunch nor boxers hershey-stained over discrepancies on the road. Just watch out. Drive and ride carefully. My perspective is one that comes from a once-daily bike commuter (now I max it in the pdx-can’t wait to get back to Bend by the way) who collided with a vehicle and sustained a significant head injury in the process. I don’t know if there’s a name for it, but it was one of those instances where the biker’s going strait through a green and the car is turning right and doesn’t use the blinker. Some LOC, inappropriate behavior and intracranial swelling later, harm and a flagrant foul are inflicted. I called the driver some days later, about insurance or something and he sounded like he felt so horrible. So, I could have avoided a nock in the head (you can’t afford too many of those, you know) and he could have avoided a big dent, hurt feelings and an insurance deductible if I’d taken it easy through the light and he’d used his blinker and checked the right side. Funny, I’m revisiting it 6 years later to the day. So instead of getting so mad at one another, be cautiously aware of one another. As Kelley says, share it y’all. Bikers, most of you drive sometimes too. Drivers, bikers reduce congestion and reduce demand for your fuel and thus make it cheaper. C’mon.