So I made it out of the city alive and am back in Seattle. The first thing I did was get my knee checked out since it was (and still is) bothering me. I went to the Virginia Mason Sports Medicine Clinic, which I was super impressed by. Apparently, I bruised my kneecap. I’m not sure is this was a progressive injury or arose out of simply kicking too many steps on my 4th of July ski trip. Whatever the case, the doctor informed me that bone bruises are extremely slow to heal and it wouldn’t be 100% for about three month. Thursday will mark two months since the injury and although it still is a bit sore, I have been able to get back on my bike.
Seattle is my first real experience with urban biking. I had gotten accustomed to being able to spin a full 40 or 50 miles without stopping and maybe only seeing one car. Walla Walla, WA and Bozeman, MT both were sure to deliver this experience on any given day.
Now in Seattle, it is like urban combat. Constantly checking your lane, sprinting to keep the driver behind you from running you over, getting held up at red lights. But, all that is pretty tame. Its the verbal assault from some drivers that gets me–like yesterday. I was riding across the Ballad drawbridge and it happens to be up. Over the PA, the drawbridge operator tells me, “the biker,” to come forward and to cross first. I thread my way through the cars to the front and cross the line where cars are supposed to stop. Almost immediately, some driver cranes his head out the window to tell me to “Respect the line!” I ignore him an continue across the bridge as I was instructed to. He proceeds to follow me for a few (purposely circuitous) blocks before yelling some insult I didn’t catch and turning off.
As luck would have it I heard a repeat of KUOW’s The Conversation today where they were discussing the conflict behind motorists and cyclists. The tensions have been rising between bikers and motorists in the city in the recent months. These tensions exploded last month during a Ciritical Mass ride. The Seattle PI reported:
The driver tried to back up, he said, and struck a bike.
That’s when bicyclists really began attacking the vehicle.
“They broke his windshield and they broke the rear window and did some additional body damage,” Jamieson said.
The driver told officers he feared for his safety and that of his girlfriend, so he sped off, hitting other bikes and riders.
Braun was one of the bicyclists who were struck, but he disputed the official version of events, saying that the only thing happening before the driver sped off was a lot of shouting.
A frequent bicycle commuter participating in the protest ride for the first time in years, Braun said he rode up just as voices were being raised.
He was still trying to figure out what the trouble was, he said, when the driver drove through the group, hitting him on his bike.
“I didn’t have time to get out of the way,” Braun said.
He was dragged along briefly, got loose, and then the car ran over his leg. Braun said he saw another man sprawled on the hood of the car as it drove off.
Less than a block away, the driver stopped and was surrounded by bicyclists. Some spat on the vehicle, some hit it. One man punched the driver through an open window. Another took a knife and slashed the tires.
The driver got out of the vehicle, Jamieson said, and when he did so, someone behind him hit him with an object, cutting the man’s head.
Okay, so everyone’s actions in this situation were terrible. The driver shouldn’t have sped through a group of cyclists and the cyclists shouldn’t have slashed his tires or hit him with a bicycle chain (as was later reported).
But, in the end, the reason that cyclists can’t and shouldn’t be held to the exact same standards as cars on the rode is that in a collision between a bike and a car, the cyclist always loses–between a cyclist and pedestrian, the outcome is more uncertain, but it is unlikely to be a fatal event. So when a cyclist determines it is “safe” to run a redlight or roll through a stop sign, they are basically implicitly recognizing the risk with their life and only their life. A cyclist’s judgment has no airbag as a safety mechanism. If they are wrong, they die. So the next time you see a cyclist making an illegal traffic maneuver, take note that they are betting their life on it.
This argument isn’t an excuse to break the law. On the contrary, I obey traffic signs and rules while on my bike because I don’t have the confidence in my urban riding judgment to bet my life on it. If others feel they do, then go for it, but try not to be stupid about it.
