The sweet smell of victory

Seattle gets five more blocks of bike lanes

Posted by biodiversivist (Guest Contributor) at 2:44 PM on 02 Apr 2008

Read more about: bikes | cars | green living | placemaking | Seattle

In this post, I talked about Seattle's efforts to improve bicycle safety. I mentioned that the busiest part of a key road was not striped, thanks to pressure from a local real estate baron who didn't want business disrupted. This created a dangerous gauntlet to run as bikers left the bike lane to start their long, hard slog uphill. I'm happy to report that the city has since reconsidered, and it has made a world of difference for safety.

Which gives me the opportunity to tell the story of how I got hit by a car.

A young man was killed a few months ago by a right-turning truck just four blocks from where I was nailed. It was raining, and the driver just didn't see me. I'm usually careful not to let myself get in a position where a driver can hit me even if he or she wants to. I was in the wrong place at exactly the wrong time.

The driver stopped for a few seconds after the collision, but then she just drove off without even getting out of the car. This didn't sit well with me, so I followed her. What ensued next was a low-speed chase through the neighborhood. However, thanks to traffic, stoplights, and a hybrid electric bike that can do over 30 mph in a pinch, she was unable to shake me. She finally gave it up and parked just a few blocks from where the chase had started. I pulled up behind her and waited.

Apparently, she had been thinking all the while about how she was going to explain this -- and she decided not to try. She got out of the car, managing not to look in my direction, and quickly walked into a nearby house. I got the picture and let it go. I also got a chance to inspect the dent I had put in her car just above the gas cap. I don't blame her for hitting me. It was an accident. I probably should have reported her for leaving, but what the hey. I doubt she slept well, wondering if I had reported her.

I'm not going to sugarcoat the reality. Without the political will and foresight to create safe bicycle infrastructure, bicycle fatalities will climb right along with the number of cyclists.

For story: The sweet smell of victory
5 Comments | Post a Comment

Go All The Way

I've been hit a few times here in Kent.

But now that I'm on the Kent Bicycle Advisory Board, I do not hestitate to use my "official" standing to throw my weight around.

Example: When crossing the very wide 212th Avenue near the Boeing Space Center, using the crosswalk for the Interurban trail, a cargo truck in one lane, ignored the crosswalk and speed through on to the next traffic light right before my eyes.

As with you, adrenaline kicked in and I went in pursuit (only 100 yards in this case). I went up to the truck and rapped on the drivers window with my knuckles. The woman driver was futzing with a cell phone and looking at some papers on the passenger seat, oblivious until I came a knocking.

She rolled down the window and I went into my spiel about running a red light. By the look on her face I could see she was stunned. I also realized that I was wearing a lot of black and blue (helmet, jacket) and had a few flashing yellow and blue clip-on lights on me courtesy of the City of Kent planning division.

I suspected she though I was a cop! And I happily let her continue thinking that as I told her to not talk, listen, as I berated her and "let her off with a waring".

Man, that felt good.

Texeme.Construct(function(x)=Participation(x))

by jabailo at 2:58 PM on 02 Apr 2008

By the way, I want to thank whoever it was in

the city of Seattle for making this section of road safer. Every little bit helps, and this section was particularly important. Keep up the good work, whoever you are.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 3:03 PM on 02 Apr 2008

Avoid passive constructions

The passive voice is the language of non-responsibility, the language that big institutions and guilty individuals instinctively adopt to fog the issues and obscure their culpability.

Write "A truck driver turning right killed a bicyclist ..." rather than "A young man was killed ...."

You can add modifiers like "grossly negligent" or even "homicidal" if you wish, but put the responsibility with the killer and put the killer in the sentence.

The way you phrase it now, it looks like the kid on the bike was the one responsible for what happened.

The 5% Project

by JMG at 3:55 PM on 02 Apr 2008

Bicycle/Motor Cycle Hood Ornaments

Although not entirely green many choose to ride scooters weather permitting. Some have 50 to 60 miles per gallon advertised consumption. They are an attractive alternative until something more practical comes along. Although not nearly attractive as bike use when possible.

Motorcycle deaths in all catagories are on the rise. I believe the emergency room attendants affectionately call us organ donors.

Motorcyle, bike safety should be taken up in a national awareness campaign such as seat belts.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

by Pompey Road at 8:02 PM on 02 Apr 2008

Seattle narratives

I do not know Seattle at all (I was once in Victoria, and Vancouver, BC, but that is not the same thing, is it), so I cannot fully appreciate your story, BioD, and the interesting one that John Bailo provided. (Yes, I admit, I have a strange fondness for John Bailo's amusing offerings.)

Bravo to JMG, for his advice on writing with power. In this particular case, what BioD wrote was clear enough. But I certainly see JMG's point, that the passive construction allows the interpretation, "Well, these things happen, and the truck-driver is not to blame"; the active construction would have made us suspect, "That driver did something wrong."

This may sound hard-hearted, but my feeling is that what must come first is getting many more people to use bikes, for everyday activities, as in Amsterdam, even if it means putting them in harm's way; only later will traffic safety provisions come to be instituted.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 10:59 AM on 03 Apr 2008

ADVERTISING POLICY

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have an account, log in. If you don't have an account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.