No cars go
The problem with riding a bike in Portland is that, there are too many cars on the road
By: Jesse Thiessen
Issue date: 11/2/07 Section: Opinion
It's been a week since Brett Robert Jarolimek, 31, was killed by a truck making a right-hand turn at the intersection of North Interstate and North Greeley. It's been almost three weeks since Tracey Sparling, 19, was killed in the same situation (known as the "right hook") at Southwest 14th and West Burnside streets.
These two tragic deaths in the past month underline what we have known for quite a while now: Something's gotta give. As the number of cyclists in Portland continues to shoot up, tensions with drivers are obviously at a dangerous point. It is clear that action needs to be taken for everyone's safety, and something has to be done to lower the vitriol spewed between cyclists and drivers.
(And if you think one side is to blame more than the other, you might want to think harder. Of the 221 detailed cyclist-crash investigations that the Portland Police Bureau completed between 2002 and 2006, the number one type of crash was the "right hook" kind, with number two being cyclists running stop signs.)
City Commissioner and mayoral candidate Sam Adams jumped right in, and last Friday declared an "emergency meeting to discuss the issues and brainstorm solutions to improve bike safety in our city," reported www.bikeportland.org's Jonathan Maus. A lot of higher-ups attended, including Police Chief Rosie Sizer and Multnomah County District Attorney Charles Sparks. Maus generally praised the meeting, saying that he felt the meeting "was a solid first step."
Addressing these concerns is tough, because our road system simply wasn't designed with bikes in mind. Mere bike lanes are, as this month's events have shown, not going to be enough. Oregon traffic law dictates that in most situations, cyclists are subject to the same rules as motor vehicles. But cyclists are not motor vehicles, nor are they pedestrians. And while the rate of cyclist accidents in Portland is actually going down, these deaths and the mudslinging that's resulted has shown that we are in need of an aggregate paradigm shift.
These two tragic deaths in the past month underline what we have known for quite a while now: Something's gotta give. As the number of cyclists in Portland continues to shoot up, tensions with drivers are obviously at a dangerous point. It is clear that action needs to be taken for everyone's safety, and something has to be done to lower the vitriol spewed between cyclists and drivers.
(And if you think one side is to blame more than the other, you might want to think harder. Of the 221 detailed cyclist-crash investigations that the Portland Police Bureau completed between 2002 and 2006, the number one type of crash was the "right hook" kind, with number two being cyclists running stop signs.)
City Commissioner and mayoral candidate Sam Adams jumped right in, and last Friday declared an "emergency meeting to discuss the issues and brainstorm solutions to improve bike safety in our city," reported www.bikeportland.org's Jonathan Maus. A lot of higher-ups attended, including Police Chief Rosie Sizer and Multnomah County District Attorney Charles Sparks. Maus generally praised the meeting, saying that he felt the meeting "was a solid first step."
Addressing these concerns is tough, because our road system simply wasn't designed with bikes in mind. Mere bike lanes are, as this month's events have shown, not going to be enough. Oregon traffic law dictates that in most situations, cyclists are subject to the same rules as motor vehicles. But cyclists are not motor vehicles, nor are they pedestrians. And while the rate of cyclist accidents in Portland is actually going down, these deaths and the mudslinging that's resulted has shown that we are in need of an aggregate paradigm shift.
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