Guest Opinion: Crossing the centerline... both literally and figuratively
The impact was violent. Under sunny skies at 11:43 am on January 5 on my way up to Mt. Bachelor, a spinning Ford F-350 coming down the mountain crossed over into my lane at high-speed, plowing into the front driver side of my Sprinter van. I painfully experienced Newton's 3rd law, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, but unlike my college physics course, I was unable to take notes. Instead, the lesson was visceral, confusing and surreal and more importantly in my opinion... avoidable.
Just seconds before the impact real-time compressed my entire life story, played out in milliseconds. Once my biopic ran its course, I recognized individuals knocking on both my driver's side window and the passenger side window yelling if I was OK, along with a woman's voice emitting from the Sprinter's SOS system to check on my status and assured me emergency vehicles were on the way. This deluge of human concern brought me back to the reality of the situation.
I walked away essentially unscathed. The airbags deployed flawlessly, cocooning my body into a pillowy state of safety. I was driving solo and made a last-minute decision not to take our Lab with me. I shudder to think what might have happened to her. The F-350 ended up in the ditch behind me and the driver walked away. Both vehicles totaled beyond repair.
Obviously, the vehicles can be replaced, but I can't stop thinking about how the outcome could have been devastating if the impact was head-on or the F-350 had hit multiple vehicles. Without warning from time to time over the past week a mini-reel of the crash plays out in my head featuring the "what ifs?" Gratitude follows to normalize my state of mind. The State Trooper explained to me that the elevated front seats and robust chassis structure of my Sprinter saved me from serious injury, or even death.
Here's my concern. I can say with confidence that on every trip up to the mountain I experience someone driving recklessly, either passing in challenging conditions or speeding. And it's getting worse as our Bend population grows.
More trips to mountain, therefore more individuals attempting to get to, or down the mountain faster, selflessly putting others at risk. At best on this 19-mile stretch of highway you might be able to shave 4 or 5 minutes off your drive time by passing or driving at unsafe speeds. Do the math. I would assume you'd rather be recreating on the mountain than spending the day in E.R. followed by exasperating days of paperwork and phone calls with your insurance company.
In this divided and chaotic world in which we live I find my recent experience an opportunity to challenge others to look beyond self-interest to create a safer commute to Bachelor. Mother Nature has finally given us the winter we all wished for, therefore let's not squander this gift with reckless driving.
—Ron Penner-Ash lives in Bend.
RE: Is Tom McCall's Vision Coming True? Opinion, 1/4
Tom McCall, Hector McPherson and all the other great Oregonians who gave us our far sighted and universally heralded (except perhaps by the real estate industries) land use planning platform SB100 (1973) are probably rolling over in their graves (young ingrates they are no doubt mumbling). For a publication that claims to espouse sustainability, environmental stewardship and livable communities to trash their singular work was somewhat shocking to me. To lay the blame on them for the mess we are in today due to overdevelopment, poor planning and encouraging and subsidizing population movement to Oregon is a gross misunderstanding. Or was it? Your editorial could have been written by the developers, homebuilders and realtors. Maybe it was. You hit all their decades old well used buzzwords: "NIMBY", "Drawbridge mentality", "it's about jobs and the economy". You forgot "close the gate behind you". It's an old tired playbook, believe me. I'm wondering if this piece was due to a lack of understanding of Oregon history and what real land use planning looks like. Or, perhaps, simple hypocrisy. Or, maybe, just maybe, plain old sucking up to your biggest advertisers.
PS: I recommend "Fire at Eden's Gate: Tom McCall & The Oregon Story by Brent Walth" for you folks too young or from places too far away to know The Oregon story.
—Dan Puffinberger
Building Belonging through Walking and Biking
I wanted to echo Mr. Purdy's letter to the editor in the 1/4/24 Source. We've got a lot of great infrastructure. Thanks to everyone who has created all these spaces for bikes!
Along those same lines, we have spent tens upon tens of millions of dollars on something else...sidewalks.
Yet, whenever I'm walking to a grocery store, there aren't too many if any others walking on them. In general, the state of sidewalk use seems pretty similar to the state of bike use.
However, let's think in terms of solutions. Instead of us individually feeling like someone just added another item to our overloaded individual to-do list, let's think about how we can turn walking and biking into communal activities. Let's think about how bike- or walk-to-workday can be done with friends, neighbors, co-workers and others.
When people see individuals doing something alone (like me, the lone walker going to Fred Meyer), that's not enticing. But if people see a group of five people laughing and walking to pick up some more milk, that sends a very different message.
So I encourage everyone to grab a neighbor or think how your business can make the next company luncheon walkable/bikeable. Because doing so can create a sense of belonging, validate all the time and money put into bike lanes and sidewalks, and create a next wonderful phase in the culture of Bend's community.
—Jim Tolles
Letter of the Week:
Sounds like a great suggestion, Jim! You get letter of the week.
—Nicole Vulcan
