The Wild Ones

In a scene that might have been found in a 21st Century Yuppie version of "The Wild One", a mob of bicyclists attacked a motorist in Seattle, Washington this weekend. They injured the driver and broke windows in his car when he had the temerity to leave a parking space as they were riding past.

According to an article in the Seattle Television Station KOMO website:

A mob of bicyclists riding in Seattle with the monthly Critical Mass * demonstration injured a motorist after an altercation.

Seattle Police spokesman Mark Jamieson says that on Friday between 100 and 300 bicyclists were riding down a street in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, blocking traffic on both lanes, when a man and a woman in a Subaru station wagon tried to pull out of a parking spot.

But some of the bicyclists blocked them, sat on the car and began banging on the vehicle. Words were exchanged between the male driver and the bicyclists.

The driver feared being assaulted and backed up, but bumped a biker and enraged the group. In response, some of the bikers smashed the windshield and rear window. He tried to drive away but hit another bicyclist.

The car stopped a block down and the bicyclists surrounded the car. One biker punched the driver through an open window and another used a knife to slash the tires.

When the driver got out of the car a male suspect struck him with an unknown object in the back of the head. The driver was later taken to the hospital. His female companion was not injured.

In a curious coincidence, this weekend the Albany (Oregon) Democrat Herald published an article about bicycles in my home town of Corvallis titled "Now more than ever: Share the road".

Corvallis has been at or near the top of the League of American Bicyclists’ list of bicycle-friendly communities since it started tracking such things in 2003. However, despite miles of bike lanes and public-awareness campaigns, crashes between bicyclists and motorists might be on the rise because of an increase in bicyclists on the road and carelessness by both drivers and bicyclists.



The mob violence in Seattle is without precedence, although one can understand that groups of bicyclists might be more sensitive to the disparity of damage between cyclists and motorists when they meet in a collision: it was only six weeks ago that a motorist slammed into a bike tour in a Mexican border town.

On the other hand, perhaps the Seattle mob isn't entirely without precedence. The Oregonian ran an article on July 10, 2008, discussing the recurring contretemps between cyclists and motorists.

Perception: In Portland, one of the great cycling cities of North America, bikers and motorists share the road with mutual respect and tolerance, like friends sitting around the campfire singing "Kumbaya."

Reality: There's an undercurrent of tension between cyclists and drivers that sometimes erupts into violence, like it did Sunday when police say a drunken man used his bike to attack a driver who chided him for running a stoplight.

The confrontation in Southeast Portland returned the spotlight to an ongoing and sometimes angry debate about how we share the road. In a city that prides itself on a broad-based and rapidly growing cycling culture, the fight struck a nerve

Online and elsewhere, motorists blamed cyclists for reckless and rude behavior, alleging that bikers frequently run red lights and stop signs and change lanes whether they have the right of way or not.

...

This is the third time in recent years that cyclists and motorists have engaged in a heated public debate about roadway etiquette and safety. Last fall, after two Portland cyclists were killed by turning trucks, there was an occasionally contentious citywide discussion about the rules of the road. A few years ago, a widely viewed online video showed a cyclist being attacked by a TriMet passenger after the cyclist parked his bike in front of a bus to protest a near-collision.

Who is to blame? The cyclists, or the motorists?

Probably both groups can share the blame for, at least, a lack of situational awareness. When I was a regular motorcyclist, I heard many stories of the "Stupid Shit That Drivers Do". Examples:

• They change lanes without warning, and without looking to see whether a bike was in the lane they're moving into.
• They will sit at a stop sign on a cross-street, look you right in the eye as you approach the intersection they're about to cross, and pull out right in front of you at the last moment.
• They will pass you on the freeway, and then pull right in front of you with minimal clearance ... and then slow way down.
• They will pass you on the freeway, and straddle the dotted line separating lanes forcing the bike to move to the shoulder of the road.

[NOTE: There's one more specific bone of contention between motorcyclists and motorists: Motorcyclists take advantage of the practice of "Lane Splitting". That is, when traffic on a multi-lane road is at a standstill, motorcyclists will drive between stopped cars to move forward in traffic. This is actually legal in Oregon, at least partly because it's difficult for a motorcyclist to maintain a heavy motorcycle up by putting one foot on the pavement for long waiting periods. Also, many motorcycles can overheat when sitting idle for long periods of time in hot weather. (I burned out a water pump one August afternoon in heavy city traffic trying to 'be a nice guy' by not lane-splitting.) But most motorists aren't aware of the law, and in the frustration of the moment it is not uncommon for motorists to open their car doors to block lane-splitting motorcycles ... usually at the last moment.]

Yes, I understand the irrational actions which both motorists and cyclists may inflict on each other, and although I deplore it I certainly understand that even "nice people" may turn into someone they don't recognize under the right ... or the wrong ... circumstances.

But violence, even if understandable, is not excused by frustration.

To make this discussion "fair and balanced", let's look at some anecdotal stories of "Stupid Shit that Bicyclists Do".

• They ride in "The Blind Spot" of a car on multi-lane streets.
• They dart across lanes without signaling, and often without looking for traffic.
• They ride faster than they can stop safely in both traffic and in places where they are riding on sidewalks ... where they endanger and alarm pedestrian traffic.
• They often prefer to ride on sidewalks than on the available bike paths in the street.
• They obey neither the rules of vehicles nor the rules for pedestrians, as if they are a law unto themselves.
• They are unaware of danger to themselves and others, expecting everyone else to watch out for them.

This last is perhaps the most dangerous situation in which cyclists indulge themselves. Personal experiences: I've seen pedestrians hit by bicyclists. Is there any excuse for this? I've seen bicyclists crossing streets on pedestrian walkways, ignoring the "Don't Walk" signal, just as the traffic light changes. When they realize that motorists are prevented from moving (even though they legally have the Right-Of-Way", they give a finger-wave accompanied by a lop-sided grin, and regally take the consideration of motorists as if it is their right. (I've seen or personally experienced this as a motorist, at least three times in the past month. Summer is a difficult time for motorists in a "bicycle friendly" town.)

Yeah, this sounds like a rant against bicycles. But it's not. Rather, it's a rant against stupid people who do stupid things ... and when they get off their bikes they're probably "nice people".

The thing is, a lot of my friends and co-workers use bicycles for commuting to and from work. They're mature adults and they spend more time riding in cars than they do riding their bikes. The problem is typically with children and young adults (there are a lot of bicycle-riding young adults in a college town) who haven't yet understood that their responsibilities as a bike rider are almost equally as vital as the responsibility of a motorist. They need to be visible and predictable, and to be situationally aware, and they need to be aware of the possibility that they will injure a pedestrian. All too often, they consider the bicycle to be a mode of transportation from Point A to Point B, and they pay no attention to the Journey because children, adolescents and young adults are typically more focused on the Goal than on the Journey.

When I read a blog like Xavier Thoughts, who has recently spent almost as much time talking about Bicycling as he has talking about Shooting Sports, I'm impressed by his appreciation for bicycle riding as much as a healthy and fun activity (almost in a Zen sense) as an efficient, economical way of ... here it is again ... "getting from Point A to Point B".

The difference is, I doubt if Xavier would ignore the demands of self-survival while riding.

I wish someone like Xavier would come to Corvallis and provide safety training to the cyclists here.

On the other hand, I hope that people from Critical Mass never choose Corvallis for a road tour.
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* quotes from the Critical Mass website:

Critical Mass is a monthly bicycle ride to celebrate cycling and to assert cyclists' right to the road. The idea started in San Francisco in September 1992 and quickly spread to cities all over the world. This site attempts to be the most complete guide to all Critical Mass rides around the globe.

Critical Mass has a different flavor from city to city -- there's a big variety in size, respect of traffic laws (or lack thereof), interaction with motorists, and intervention by police. So if you want to know more about Critical Mass, you'll really need to find out what your local ride is like. For those who must know more right now, here's a link to Chicago CM, which I suppose is a "typical" CM ride, if there is such a thing.

Critical Mass has no leaders, and no central organization licenses rides. In every city that has a CM ride, some locals simply picked a date, time, and location for the ride and publicized it, and thus the ride was born.

CM is an idea and an event, not an organization. You can't write to "Critical Mass" -- certainly not by writing to me.