(The following guest column recently appeared in The Oregonian. I admire cyclists, but I worry about them. I’ve seen more than a few of the kamikaze variety around Portland. I’d ride my bike to work if I could do so safely. It’s 10 miles one way and would be a great workout, save money, help the environment and probably end badly – there are no shoulders on the roads, much less bike paths, so I’d be forcing polite drivers into the oncoming lane. And I don’t want to think about what impolite drivers might do to me.)
I was saddened to hear that Hudson’s Bay High School teacher Gordon Patterson was killed in an accident recently. Patterson was riding his bicycle, which he used to commute, when he was struck and killed by a former student in Vancouver.
My heart goes out to Patterson — by all accounts, a fine teacher and person — and his family. But I must admit I don’t understand how anyone would choose to ride a bike on city streets. Millions do, every day, all over the world.
I applaud cyclists and their environmental awareness. I’ve pedaled a bike to work myself in years past when I lived in a small city with bike paths. But riding alongside — or worse yet, within — auto traffic? I think that’s complete madness.
In addition to helping the environment and saving money on fuel, cyclists often cite health as a reason to pedal. Do they not see the irony here? That in trying to improve health they are endangering life?
In 1989, I planned to run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. Friends warned me that was crazy. Yet I would’ve done it but for one small detail: I couldn’t get a ride from Barcelona to Pamplona and was too short of funds to take public transportation.
I think I would’ve enjoyed Pamplona and those bulls that Hemingway made famous. They weigh an average of 1,500 pounds and are certainly dangerous, having killed 13 runners between 1926 and the present.
Compare that to some other statistics: About 43,000 people die in auto accidents each year in the U.S., and 2.9 million are injured. The average car weighs 4,000 pounds. I’m not sure what the average bicycle weighs, but it’s a helluva lot less.
Ride your bicycle on a path or don’t ride. For your sake and the sake of your family. It’s not fair, it’s not right — but most of all, it’s not worth your life to ride with the mechanical bulls.