Archive for the 'Speaking Up' Category

I had a most frightening experience the other day.  I almost hit a bicyclist.  It was by sheer luck if not some greater power that I didn’t run over this guy.

It was about 30 or 45 minutes before total darkness, with the sun already below the horizon, and I just got off the freeway.  (This is the freeway exit closest to my house and one I use all the time.)  At this exit, there is a traffic signal if you want to turn left and if you want to turn right, you’re sent into a right turn lane that comes to a yield sign.  Regular users of the right turn lane tend to first look left to see if there’s any oncoming traffic from the left, slow down or stop if there is, but keep going if there’s no one coming.  That’s what I did, but just as I turned my head to the right before going out into the street, immediately in front of me was a guy on a bike.

I’m not sure about the guy on the bike who was stopped frozen in front of me, but I know I was scared out of my wits when I noticed him at the last split-second.  He had a helmet on and was pretty much dressed to ride.  What made things even more disturbing was that he had an adult riding partner and a couple kids in tow right behind him.  There was a whole family of people going up the wrong side of the street on a sloping hill where cars are barreling down at 45 to 50 mph, if not faster.

This experience reminded me of when I was first learning to drive, and my father telling me to always look both ways before turning into a one-way street, because according to his explanation, there always the chance that some not-too-bright person was driving the wrong way down a one-way street and you would crash into him.  While my dad’s lesson may not be quite the same situation as cyclists riding on the wrong side of the street, I’m going to have to pay attention to cyclists coming from unexpected directions not just for my own sake but the folks riding on the wrong side of the street.

And yes, for those of you who are curious, I did caution him in a friendly way that he should be riding on the other side of the street.  He looked at me like I was crazy.

This is an update to a blog entry from October 16. You’ll recall that Mr. Thomas Lynch was alleged to have caused a 16-bike pileup which resulted in numerous injuries in Lake County, Illinois on September 22. The original blog entry can be found here.

On December 3, Mr. Lynch appeared in court, where the original traffic violations were dismissed.  But, that is not bad news, because a couple weeks earlier on November 15, a warrant was issued for his arrest, on four felony charges: 2 counts of Aggravated Battery, 1 count Leaving the Scene of an Accident Involving Personal Injury, and 1 count Reckless Driving. He made a court appearance on November 26 and was subsequently released on a recognizance bond. His next court date related to the felony charges will be December 11 on procedural matters and the victims and witnesses are now being contacted by the State’s Attorney’s staff as they continue to develop their case.

When we first learned of this incident, the League’s executive director Andy Clarke wrote a letter to the Lake County State’s Attorney urging him to vigorously investigate and prosecute this case. Our collective voice has been heard. Thanks to all of you who also wrote Lake County State’s Attorney Michael J. Waller, who seems to agree that this was not simply a minor traffic violation but a very serious offense.

Updates on this case will be provided as we receive additional information.

As I was riding along Route 28 in Rockville several Sundays ago, I was hit in the back wheel by a driver.  The driver obviously wasn’t paying attention and skidded and was about to come to a complete stop just before she hit me.  I lunged forward when I got hit but didn’t get knocked off my bike, and amazingly there was no damage to the wheel.  The driver was totally unapologetic and if anything was annoyed that I was there getting in her way.  Since it was a busy intersection, I asked her to meet me past the intersection so we could exchange information.  Well, guess what?  She took off!

An unapologetic driver taking off on me was the right combination of factors to report the incident to the local police as a hit-and-run.  Luckily the driver behind her saw the whole thing, wrote down the license plate number and gave it to me.  I need to mention here that the driver had a temporary license plate on her car.  I called the Montgomery County Police and reported the incident.  The indignity of getting hit by an arrogant driver was about to be made worse.  The officer told me that they can’t trace temporary license plates back to a specific driver.  I asked if he was going to file a report, and he said that he “could” if I made the request for it but it probably wouldn’t lead to anything.

I didn’t get hurt.  I didn’t even have any damage to my bike.  But I consider hit-and-run to be a serious offense, and according to the law, it IS a serious offense.  Now that I think about it, I probably should’ve filed the report just to press the issue with the police officer and so that I would have something on the record.  If I had suffered serious physical injury as a result of the collision or had been killed, would the officer been a bit more determined to find the offender?  This is just a wild guess but if a Montgomery County Police Officer had been injured or just struck by a hit-and-run driver, I get the feeling that somehow, they would track down the owner of the vehicle if all they had was the temporary tag number.

On September 22, Thomas Lynch, driving a pickup truck, is alleged to have caused a 16-bike crash in Lake County, Illinois causing injury to several of the riders and sending at least one rider to the local hospital for emergency treatment.  Based on the information available through third-party eye witnesses, statements made by members of the cycling group and confirmed by the Lake County Sheriff’s office, the driver first drove alongside the riders, who were lawfully riding single-file, then drove in front of them and suddenly hit the brakes causing the pileup.  He fled the scene, but then returned to the crash site where he was questioned by a county deputy sheriff.

In explaining how he caused the collision, he first said that he thought that that a bicyclist had punched his truck.  He later explained that he braked suddenly in front of the bikers to avoid hitting a squirrel.

The driver of the truck has been charged with improper lane usage and failure to provide aid and information, both misdemeanors, and was initially ordered to appear in Lake County court on October 29.  I’ve been in communication with one of the cyclists who was involved in the collision, and he tells me that Lynch’s court appearance date has been pushed back to December, but that the Lake County Sheriff has called back several of the people who were involved for more detailed statements.  We are grateful for the work of the Lake County Sheriff’s Department for thoroughly investigating the facts of this incident, and particularly Deputy Sheriff Alan Burns, the deputy on the scene who took this matter very seriously and professionally as he investigated and recorded everyone’s statements.

This was not an “accident.”  This was an act of violence by a driver forcing himself against law-abiding bicyclists with the weight of a pickup truck weighing thousands of pounds.  He fled the scene.  His account to the authorities of what happened is ridiculous and shows blatant disregard for the safety of others on the road.

The League of American Bicyclists is watching this case with great concern.  League executive director Andy Clarke has written to Mr. Michael J. Waller, the Lake County State’s Attorney, urging him to vigorously investigate the case and where appropriate press charges to the fullest extent of the law.  A copy of Andy Clarke’s letter to the State’s Attorney Michael Waller can be viewed here.

More articles on the story:
http://dailyherald.com/story/?id=46661
http://dailyherald.com/story/?id=47086
http://www.chicagoaa.com/news/xxxcrash07news.html

I encourage you to contact the Lake County State’s Attorney and let him know that cyclists locally, regionally, and nationwide are watching this case, and that a message needs to be sent to drivers like Thomas Lynch that they do not own the road and they are not at liberty to commit acts of physical violence to others on the road, motorized or not.

State’s Attorney Michael Waller’s contact information:
Michael J. Waller
State’s Attorney Office
18 North County St., 4th Floor
Waukegan, IL 60085
Phone: 847-377-3000
Fax: 847-360-1538
Email: StatesAttorney@co.lake.il.us

After all the words that have been written and conjecture and perspective that has been thrown around related to this year’s Tour, leave it to the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, to sum it all up perfectly. Here’s what the Mayor said in a story about his efforts to get the Tour back in London again soon. “It is a unique event, and I do not think a handful of riders breaking the rules diminishes the achievements of those who do not.”

That’s it. It really IS a totally unique event with its own lore and unwritten rules. Each day pits rider against rider at the limits of their endurance (drug-enhanced or not!) and their will to push on through the pain. It’s compelling TV and it’s a drag when the actors change, but the next episode is always worth watching. I can’t wait for le Tour 2008.

We all remember that feeling.  It’s that sensation of speed, freedom, and mobility we got when we first started riding.  It’s what we remember about riding a bike as a kid, and in many ways what continues to fuel our desire to ride as adults.  As a father, one of the next best things to that childhood sensation is the thrill I see on my son’s face as we ride together in our neighborhood.

My son is eleven years old and like others his age he usually doesn’t go out biking any extended amount of time.  Usually, he just rides around the neighborhood with his buds, or hops on his bike to go visit someone down the street.  I used to ask him if he wanted to go riding with me, but about a year ago I stopped asking because usually he said no.  But in the last couple weeks, he’s been asking if he can come along when I’m going out for my regular after-work ride.  I figure that a ride with my son will always be more fulfilling for the both of us—and certainly for me—than a ride on my own even though I might sacrifice the workout I would get if I were on my own.  (And actually, I’ve figured out how I can get the workout I want and still not leave him behind.)

From the moment he got on a bike at about five or six years old, I told him that someone had to be outside when he’s riding, and “don’t go out into the street!”  While well intentioned, that regularly-blurted warning may have served us well back then but is now coming back to challenge us.  Telling a child this over and over again, and cautioning them about the dangers of cars and the need to pay attention, is pretty much telling them, “ride on the sidewalk!”  But as we ride now on our neighborhood streets, and as I have over the years become a more experienced rider of the road, it is becoming obvious—at least to me if not my son—that riding on the sidewalk is not a safe thing to be doing.

On our ride yesterday, I started cautioning him when a good examples arose that, for example, when that particular car backed out of the driveway, if he was about another thirty feet in front, the driver might not have been able to see him in time, or that he might not have been able to stop his bike.  I’m not going to force him to do the entire ride with me on the street because I don’t want to scare him to death either, but he has started to ride certain parts with me on the road.

All the while, I’m thinking, I don’t want to kill the thrill for him.  Of course, I want him to pick up good riding skills.  But, I want him to stay in touch with that feeling that got so many of us to be life-long riders.

The terms “bike safety” and “bike etiquette” are most often used in reference to the many challenges of biking on roads alongside cars and other motor vehicles. It wasn’t until I began spending summer evenings biking on the Custis Trail, a popular bike path in Northern Virginia, that I started considering the complexities of biker to biker and biker to pedestrian interactions.

On a narrow and twisty trail like the Custis, passing is the foremost issue for all users. With an abundance of joggers, walkers, people with dogs and mothers pushing strollers, bikers are inevitably the biggest passers (one would hope). When passing other cyclists or any of the aforementioned slower moving users, bikers have three options: they can remain silent, call out a simple “on your left,” or ring a bell.

It seems that the best possible option is to cause as little disturbance as possible. If someone is using the trail properly on the right side and appears to be maintaining a direct line of movement, it makes little sense to announce your presence loudly and abruptly upon reaching them. Chances are they have heard your bike chains behind them, so only if completely necessary a very calm “on your left” should ensure that your path will not be obstructed.

Ringing a bell makes little sense for a number of reasons. First, just as getting honked at while driving can make a person unnecessarily flustered and anxious, a bell can be equally as shell-shocking to a trail user. Having someone ring their bell at me while I’m biking makes me immediately assume I am doing something wrong or am about to get rear-ended by the cyclists. Common sense will tell you that ringing a bell provides no direction or specific information. Do you want someone to get out of your way? Do they need to move more right? Or are you really just trying to say “I know you’re slowly jogging well to the right of the trail, but I just wanted to announce to everyone that I am flying by you.”

As bicycle advocates we should encourage all types of people to use urban trails and not make them feel that they are moving too slowly or are a hindrance to bicyclists.

Research summaries often state trends or “facts” in overly-simplified terms, using measures that are easy for us to grasp. About five years ago, I recall hearing in a public radio piece that more than half the households in the world do not have access to a telephone. Later, because this “fact” seemed hard to believe, I did some hunting on the internet and learned that this generalization was not based on any research, but the story wound up becoming something of an urban legend that started getting mentioned in numerous broadcasts and publications.

I read a similar generalization, and couldn’t help but wonder if it was true or was another urban legend getting tossed around by cycling enthusiasts. The generalization: there are more people in the world who commute to work by bicycle than by automobile. There were no ratios, no numbers, trends, nothing. And, if it is true, is that ratio of bike commuters to car commuters increasing or decreasing?

Here’s one more “fact” that I heard last week. In a report about a joint World Bank/Chinese government research project on health and pollution in China, it was said that each day a thousand new cars are introduced into the streets of Beijing. In the aggregate, I suspect that a certain number of cars are being taken out of circulation each day because they’re no longer operable or people are moving out of the city, etc. But, it is a significant number of cars for each day in the year. For a city known in the past for its “river of bicycles” I can’t help but think that if bicycle commuters outnumber car commuters now, it won’t be for long.

You won’t often see me write these words, even though I’m a [new] Virginian. We don’t have the most progressive state legislature or DOT or transportation commission in the country (and that massive understatement confirms my English upbringing), but for once the state is making me proud.
You may have read this week that penalties for serious traffic violations have gone up significantly – particularly in the form of administrative fees and penalties attached to various driving offences such as speeding and drinking and driving. So now a speeding ticket in Virginia might cost you $3,000 if you were way above the speed limit and driving erratically or too close etc.

Personally, I love it. For the first time in the 15 years I’ve lived in Virginia people are actually talking about having to behave behind the wheel of their car! I think that’s good news for cyclists in the state.

The only down side I can see is that the fees were levied to raise funds for a transportation funding package that will “improve” roads all over the state. Based on VDOT’s track record, and that of most local agencies in the state, that isn’t going to be so good for bicyclists. But, we can do something about…we can “stick it to the man” by not speeding or running red lights or driving too close or driving under the influence.

This morning’s Washington Post Business Section almost made me choke on my cereal.

The lead story documents the billions and billions of dollars with which we subsidize the blending of ethanol into our gasoline supply. It’s currently around $5 billion annually and will rise to more than $18 billion 15 years from now. And that’s just from the 51-cent tax credit the oil industry gets for every gallon of ethanol they add to the mix. That doesn’t include the agricultural subsidies lavished on farmers to grow the corn for the ethanol.

At the same time, the same Congress can’t find it within itself to spend the $6 million already authorized to fund a few programs to test what would encourage more people to ride or walk instead of driving, or the less than $10 million annual cost of a tax-break for bicycle commuters.

According to the most recent National Household Travel Survey, bicyclists rode about 6.5 billion miles in 2001, a number that has surely increased given rising gas prices and the obesity crisis headlines of recent years. Conservatively, that saved around 300 million gallons of gas from being burned. And remember that’s with bicycling making up a paltry 1 percent of trips in this country. We could double or triple the levels of bicycling in US cities with just a fraction of the money being spent to sustain our driving habit.

Biofuels certainly have their place in the mix of solutions to combat climate change – but I hope at least some of that corn is still left to make my morning cereal.