Blue Oregon: Open season on bicycles

Yesterday, another Portland bicyclist died for no reason other than a big truck neglected to take care when turning — and because our bike lanes are safe only when the nearest motorized vehicle is at least two blocks away.

A cyclist was killed in North Portland on Monday after being pinned by a garbage truck making a right turn — a near replay of another fatal crash that occurred downtown less than two weeks ago.Brett Robert Jarolimek, 31, of Southeast Portland was going straight in a bike lane as the truck, with its turn signal on, turned. Although skid marks at the scene show the cyclist tried to brake, he hit the truck, fell underneath and was crushed by the rear set of tires. The cyclist, who was wearing a helmet, was pronounced dead at the scene.

With the death of 19-year-old cyclist Tracey Sparling not even two weeks old, Monday’s collision is heightening frustration over how vehicles and bikes share the road. Sparling was killed when a cement truck turned right as she proceeded straight after a stoplight had turned green.

Frustration? Are you fucking kidding me? How about terror? Horror? Disgust? I’m frustrated with my bills, with the Ducks’ defensive backs. This is life-and-death, and it’s affecting people who choose to do a good thing: exercise and take a car off the street. Riding your bike to school, work or play should not be a rolling version of Russian Roulette.

And what about the Portland police? What’s their response? First, regarding Tracey Sparling, run over by a truck that swung through the bike lane despite being unable to see if anyone was there or not.

Although Sparling may have had the right of way, she was in the truck’s blind spot, police said. The driver has not been cited, and the investigation is continuing.”I’m really absolutely fed up with the idea that we have to abdicate our rights in order to have safety on the streets,” said Robert Reid, a Portland attorney who stopped at the scene as he biked up North Interstate Avenue. The police, he said, need to cite drivers who don’t yield the right of way to cyclists in a bike lane.

But Portland Police Lt. Mark Kruger said solving the problem requires more than just faulting drivers.

“It’s a terrible tragedy for everybody involved,” he said, adding that he couldn’t comment on the specifics of Monday’s collision. Cyclists need to ride defensively and be aware if they are moving too fast or are in a place where motorists can’t see them, he said. “You can be right, and you can be dead right.”

Is Lt Kruger serious? He’s saying the bicyclists riding safely and legally are somehow to blame? It was Sparling’s responsibility to not be in the truck’s blind spot? How dare he! This isn’t about the morons who ride without helmets, who zoom through traffic signals and dare cars to make them pay; those are assholes who should have their bikes confiscated and be sent to safety school. This is about now are people who obeyed the law and still died. And Lt Kruger, on behalf of the Portland Police Bureau, refuses to acknowledge this simple fact.

The police cannot acknowledge their complicity, of course, because there are too few of them and too many shitty drivers. The city could plant cops at almost any downtown intersection and make tons of money on a daily basis. They could target the people who ignore crosswalks and stop signs, who fly through residential neighborhoods at 35 and above, who slide around corners with no regard for the frail human bodies they push out of the way; they could make an honest effort to stem the lawlessness of those in cars, and there would be two outcomes.

One, they’d have a minimal effect. Drivers don’t care. They are in a car because it’s convenient, fun, powerful (penis substitute), cool and goddammit they’re in a hurry. Until the laws truly punish drivers, tickets won’t matter.

And two, they’d piss off the drivers, and that would get the attention of City Hall, Metro and the Police Bureau more than anything we bikers (and pedestrians) will ever manage. We are out-numbered, and we don’t have the clout. AAA would weigh in, not to mention the Libertarians, desperate Republicans seeking any possible ass-saving issue and the Cascade Policy Institute. All of whom fall into shameful silence when another law-abiding bicyclist is killed by a moving vehicle.

When I got my drivers license back in high school, my driving test was perfect but for one error I made twice: I changed lanes without looking over my right shoulder to see if anyone was there. It nearly cost me my license, and I’ve rarely repeated the mistake since. The few times I have, it was almost tragic: close calls on I5. You cannot, you must not, drive into a space you cannot see. It’s that simple, and if I had caused a collision by making that mistake, I would have been (rightfully) charged with a crime. Driving where you cannot see is “failure to drive in a careful and prudent manner” — if not worse.

I have tremendous sympathy for the two truck drivers. I’m sure they are devestated by the terrible harm done by their carelessness. I truly hope they can find peace in the days to come; one of the evils of the automobile is the magnification of the harm caused by “small” errors. I don’t really want to see those two people punished. They do need to face legal action, of course, but I’m not condemning them.

I am condemning our local governments that have become smug about what a great bicycling city Portland is (and it really is) and has not acted to get ahead of this problem before it was too late. Anyone going into or out of downtown during the week (I get a great view from the #4 bus over the Hawthorne Bridge) knows how crazy traffic is, and bikes are forced by the official flow of traffic to weave in and out of motorized traffic lanes. Tri-Met, to their credit, has done a good job of making their drivers aware of bike lanes (I don’t think I’ve seen a driver ignore them yet), but the cars and various trucks are another story. I just can’t escape the thought that one morning, instead of going to work I’ll end up helping a bicyclist who’s been cut down by an office worker in a hurry.

It’s time for the City, Metro and other governments to recognize that the needs of area bicyclists cannot wait for studies or transportation plans (especially when Metro’s upcoming 30-day public comment period has no evening sessions: you go in the day, or you don’t get to go at all). Changes have to happen now. The risk is too great, and someone tell me I’m wrong. Two people doing absolutely nothing wrong are dead, and the police are scolding bikes for not being big enough for a truck driver in a hurry to see with a casual glance.

The police need to get out and start nailing both scofflaw bikers — like I said, confiscate their damn bikes and give them to kids whose parents can’t afford a good bike — and careless, hurrying drivers. Let’s see fines that are punitive. Make drivers mad; I don’t give a damn. We are a nation of laws, and being late to work or having trouble managing a latte while talking on your cell while taking a corner at 20 mph is no excuse to disregard some of the most common and sensible laws we have. The city and county need to pass laws that give the police power to raise hell with those who use the streets with no regard for others, no matter how many wheels they are on.

And those of us who bike and walk, we have to make our safety our own issue. Anyone who has been paying attention for the past 250 years should realize that it’s only grassroots action that brings real change in this country. I lit a number of options in the comments, things we can do to make a change. We have to do these things. Just like we have to end the war, we have to bring equal rights to all Oregonians, we have to hold our governments responsible for their failings. There are organizations we can join. We have many options for effective action.

Start by being smart, safe and respectful. Don’t trust the cars; don’t even trust the laws. Assume the worst, and ride/walk that way. Be ready to dive for cover. Wear a helmet and use lights!

And do not let anyone off the hook on this: the Police Bureau, the City of Portland, Metro, your county. They are all complicit in these deaths, and we have to force them to act now — too late as it is, we must force them to take responsibility. This has to go up to the top of the list; there are few public safety issues as critical as the safety of Portland’s growing, and vulnerable, bicycling and pedestrian population (which includes those who ride buses and even those who park their cars and walk the rest of the way, however short).

Two ghost bikes are two too many. But with winter on the way and our streets more crowded than ever, number three seems inevitable. It takes only a few seconds, an act of carelessness, and another person dies needlessly. This is not, as some said after the first death, just a tragic accident. This is the result of government, and community, doing too little to protect the vulnerable.

But we’re used to that in America, aren’t we? It’s called “business as usual.”