Hi All!
Bicycle licensing (for revenue generation, hopefully to be plowed back into bike-related things) and extending the Youth Helmet law from age 16 and below to 18 and below are currently under consideration by the Oregon legislature in the current session.
So far, the greatest opposition to extending the youth helmet law has come from organized bicycle groups in the state, who fear it will increase the perception that cycling is a "dangerous" sport and will have a cooling effect on participation, amounting to an anti-cycling law.
As it is, the current law here is not enforced with any sort of consistency if at all. I see little kids (really little!) riding around all the time without helmets, right past police officers who do nothing in response. At the same time, I'll see parents without helmets take great care to put on on their child. The (half-facetious) question begs: Who has the most to lose here? The adult with a head full of knowledge, parental responsibilities and a wage-earner and contributing member of society...or a little kid with a lifetime of experiences yet to go?
I hope this won't start the Great (and always unwinnable) Helmet Debate on the Forum (
Please! As Forum member and Administrator, I beg you all on bended knee!).
However, such laws are symptomatic of efforts toward greater overall regulation of cycling. A good part of it (here in 'Merka) is related to our penchant for tort claims and monetary awards for damages. Part of it is related to insurance premiums and risk categories for "dangerous" pursuits. Part of it is...well, maybe we know more about the sad consequences of being Unsafe and the bankrupting personal medical costs that can now result. When I was a little kid, my father owned a 1949 Willys Jeep. It didn't have enough seating for all, and the preferred seat was an unsecured wooden house chair sliding around on the wood-slatted deck in the covered cargo area. Corners and panic stops were fun from my chair-skittering perspective and nothing Bad ever happened, thank goodness. Neither the Jeep or the other car (we kept them for decades, it was a 1957 Mercury Montclair...and this was in the early 1970s) had a single seatbelt and all interior contact surfaces were steel. Now, of course, I latch the seatbelt/shoulder harness before I turn the key and worry the '89 Honda doesn't have a single airbag. It is a jungle Out There on the road.
My fellow drivers (I drive too!) aren't as careful as they once were. Every day the evening news carries horrific stories of cars crossing the center line and taking out oncoming traffic and innocent trees and utility poles. Cyclists and pedestrians are being run over at alarming rates, and in-car distractions are growing by the day. Riding along in traffic and stopping at traffic lights allows me to see inside. People are watching televisions on flip-down sun visors or half-silvered rearview mirror monitors, texting or talking on cell phones (and submitting eBay bids!), eating, shaving, applying makeup, swatting kids in the back seat...everything, it seems, but driving or watching out for cyclists like myself and others. On several occasions in the last year, I've been forced to leave the road and take to the ditch when my rearview mirror showed a closing SUV approaching from the rear, two wheels over the fog line onto the shoulder where I was riding. If I hadn't done so, I wouldn't be writing this now.
And, some of the cyclists I've seen can hardly be held blameless for their behavior. Riding wrong-way against traffic, lane-splitting, darting unsignalled across cars' right of way, and blowing stop signs and traffic lights. behaviors like this tend to alarm and inflame and don't exactly help the cyclists' cause. It seems endemic among riders based near the local uni. Hurried cyclists carving through pedestrians on sidewalks aren't a happy mix either. There's enough blame to go 'round.
So, where does it end? Here, the daily newspaper carries frequent letters to the editor endorsing bicycle licensing as a means to Make Cyclists Pay Their Own Way...forgetting most American cyclists also own and operate cars and so fund road taxes via registration fees and gas (petrol) taxes. I think part of the problem here is bicycles are still viewed by many as (sometimes expensive) toys that belong on the sidewalk or in parks. A young Portland driver recently Tweeted this photo:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BArU7i2CIAAwqFa.jpg with the caption, "Bikers that bike in the middle of the street like this are so annoying. Like have you ever heard of a sidewalk?" Mmmno, the rider is following safe procedure, establishing his intent to proceed straight through the intersection and preventing a car from turning right over him. There's no bike lanes pictured, and his intent is in letter-perfect compliance with procedure listed in the Oregon State Cycle Operator's Manual. Still, it bothered her enough to photograph and post her complaint. A car driver recently rolled down her passenger-side window to upbraid me for riding in the curbside cycle lane. "Get off the road!", she screamed, "Would you play tennis in the middle of the street? Ride on the sidewalk where you belong!" and roared away when the light changed, giving me a single-fingered salute in parting.
A friend in the insurance business recently warned me to think twice about posting bike ride-related photos and material on my Facebook page, saying it is now standard procedure for some of the larger companies to do a Google search for Facebook and Twitter posts that could reveal "undue risk behaviors" among clients and use these as a means for setting rates and deductibles. Yikes. I'm a goner there if they ever find my Thorn Forum posts.
There's times I'd like to see more evidence of personal responsibility, as I saw in The Netherlands. I was touring a windmill and talking with the miller on an unfenced deck after climbing a very steep spiral staircase absent a handrail. Pretty soon, I heard children's voices and a couple very small kids raced up the stairs ahead of their parents. I voiced some concern to the miller and wondered about liability in the event of a fall or accident. His response? A shrug and "If they fall, perhaps they were't holding on tightly enough. They have parents". Brought me back to childhood.
Putting oneself in the other person's place and sharing -- really sharing -- (like we were taught in kindergarten) would go a long ways toward alleviating many bike-car conflicts.
Best,
Dan.
