Thursday, July 10, 2008

Alice Swanson

It's been a few days since Alice Swanson died in Dupont Circle when she was hit by a garbage truck while riding her bike. There was a ghost bike memorial for her last night. Wish I could have gone, but I was with my daughter at her swim meet.

The way she was struck while going forward across a street when the truck turned right reminds me of a time I was jogging along Route 1 in Alexandria. A guy in a pickup turned from the main road onto a side street right as I left the sidewalk and stepped onto the pavement of that side road. I was going forward, he turned right without yielding to me, nearly clipping me. What's really incredible is that he was coming up behind me, so it's not as if I were in a blind spot. And then he stopped his truck and started yelling at me. He seriously thought I was in the wrong. Where do people get the idea that their car is allowed to go anywhere they point it, with no consideration for what may be in the way? "Get out of my way" is the credo here.

When the Washington Post published the initial story of the accident, there were many comments left by hateful and/or frustrated motorists who felt bikes have no place on roads. Of course there was the common complaint that cyclists are scofflaws, running red lights and such, similar to what Dave Moulton referred to in his post "Cyclists and POBs" (People on Bikes). Moulton believes that POBs are a problem, as they are not trained in proper bike handling and rules-following, therefore creating the animosity between drivers and cyclists. But a major bone of contention I hear from drivers is that cyclists make motorists slow down. And I'm not talking about the 2-abreast cyclists. Drivers get irritated when they approach a cyclist. There's not much a cyclist can do about this other than ride as safely and predictably as possible while observing the rules of the road. Even doing this, drivers are going to get mad at us. We're an inconvenience to them.

The other theme in the Post's comments was how dangerous cycling is, and how we should just give it up due to the dangers. I'll admit that when I went for a ride yesterday I was hyper-aware, even paranoid, due to the fatal accident in DC. But no one commenting on the Post's story picked up this line: "Traffic fatalities have claimed 20 lives this year in the District." Two of them were cyclists. It doesn't mention pedestrians, who likely are among those 20 lives lost, but the message to me is clear: don't think you're so safe in your car while you scoff at the "foolish" cyclist.

I'm really sorry Ms. Swanson died. I didn't know her, but I'll bet a lot of people are really going to miss her.

No comments: