My girlfriend Katie recently moved back to Portland after finishing grad school on the East Coast. She came here without a car and will be riding her bike everywhere she needs to travel. We live in inner SE and yesterday we rode together to her new job in outer NE to become familiar with the bike route. Her job is close the Muchas Gracias Restaurant near Gateway Transit Center where the East Portland Action Plan Bike Committee holds their meetings.
On a map, the route is fine. There are a couple of bicyclist actuated signals for safe crossings, signed routes through neighborhood streets, and bike lanes on the busy streets. But on the street, something is missing. On the major streets east of 82nd Avenue there is marked shift in the speed of cars: fast. The pace becomes frenetic and the street environment feels threatening. The streets are wide and the painted bike lanes offer hope, but not much protection.
As we rode I thought about the recent announcement that our top level standard for national bike safety, access, and infrastructure just got higher, from Platinum to Diamond. I thought about how often we entertain groups of traveling transportation professionals and bike advocates to view the world class facilities in Portland. As we rode, all the talk of bike friendly communities fell away and I was left with the fact that the love of my life is going to be pedaling back and forth to work every day with speeding cars and trucks whizzing by her… mere feet away… inches perhaps.
I’m not going to use this post to describe the changes I want to see. We have long lists of bike plans and big battles over funding and policy change looming on the horizon. I’m going to draw from this experience that the every-day decisions we make about building and maintaining our streets, the everyday decisions we make about how we drive and how fast we drive are more than important. They are a reason to get up in the morning and work hard at creating a world where people, and our safety, come first.
Hey, there’s *always* another route – probably more than one really *sweet* route. You just have to take the time to explore. Maps are for home delivery work.
In fact no single route will be the best every day (not to mention get boring). Find shorter route segments, mix and match. Get an old Stumpjumper and put some fat slicks on it. Learn to bunnyhop curbs.
(The above published internet content sure seems to include a lot of pretty specific personal information.)
My husband drives to work (for many reasons I won’t outline) and I try to mostly bike to work. He told me once that he assumes every cyclist he drives near could be me.
If we all drove down neighborhood streets like our own child was playing on the corner, or traveled next to a bike lane like it was our own spouse on the bike three feet away, it would be a much safer place for all of us to get around.
A comforting thought, I guess (to some), but I don’t think the problem is people only care about their own and just go ahead and run over the rest (I *hope* not). Aren’t like 90% of murders committed by family members?
Come on – how ’bout just one or two of the may reasons
That probably came off badly. I sure didn’t mean to squash the ideal of a world where everyone loves each other (and consequently exercises responsibility and due care in the operation of their motor vehicles – Vroom, vroom!). I’ve always been totally in favor of all that.
Have you been around
Have you done your share of comin’ down
On different things that people do
Thanks for writing this, Gerik. It is a similar passion that drives my advocacy. Seeing the effecg of tragic crash deaths on families in California and Oregon, and knowing that could be me and my family, I wanted to work for a world where no one should has to fear for their loved ones every time they go out riding — or driving. There’s no reason the transportation system has to be deadly. It’s a choice we’ve made and we can change it.
This passion is why I am sometimes frustrated by the slow pace of change and the modesty of proposed improvements. It is about the people we all cherish. Why isn’t that important enough for a fast and comprehensive effort?
So it’s *you* guys who are motivated by caring about your own. Now I get it. Can we replace some of that naivete with altruism?