Cyclists: Our own worst enemy

Today I came upon a bike accident that had just happened. I was traveling south on Broadway downtown and found this scene at Couch street. I asked other cyclists standing there and they said it was a crash of two bikes. Here's how I reconstruct the event from what people said. One was zooming along Broadway, as one does, Broadway being a main arterial. The other apparently tried to dart across Broadway at a gap in the cars, but neglected to wait for a gap in the bikes.

I have had this same problem. You're waiting and waiting, you're focusing on the cars, you finally get your chance, and your gap is filled with bikes. By the time the slow-mo bikes go by, you've got another wave of cars to wait for. This happens to me all the time when I'm headed home from my hidey-hole across the river and I'm on Thompson trying to cross Vancouver and Williams. Both of those streets have heavily used bike lanes and a ton of cars.

The other factor besides the weird timing is that you sort of use one kind of eyes to watch for cars and then you have to shift your eyes into a different gear to watch for bikes -- ever notice that? which is precisely why car drivers have trouble seeing bikes at all.

The number of cyclists in Portland is increasing so exponentially that soon there'll be enough of us to kill each other, independently of the car drivers.

Back to the accident on Broadway -- one cyclist, who was out of view behind the ambulance, was said to be in better shape than the other one, who was sitting on the pavement looking totally smackered talking to medics before finally being taken away in the ambulance. These are the only photos I had the gall to take. No mangled people, no bodies, no blood -- sorry. No can do.

If anyone reading this saw it happen, feel free to post a comment with a more eye-witness account of the accident.

the scene of the accident

Just to show how easy it is to wipe out, I went back and snapped a picture of the seemingly insignificant patch of dirt I slipped on last week. It was mud at the time, after a day of heavy rain.

Here’s my technique: I approach the end of the cul-de-sac and whip left up this curb-cut, then immediately make a fun-filled, sharp flip to the right, proceed straight ahead and down the next curb-cut, then curve to the left and I'm there, on that next street – a shortcut limited to bikes and peds. Only this time I didn't get further than my first left turn because of that mudpatch.

This is a route I’ve taken hundreds of times, so take note: don’t get overconfident. You know what they say: “Most accidents happen within three miles of home.”

Another head-banger….

…only this was harder than the last one. No cars in sight, I managed to wipe out all by myself at a speed of about three miles an hour. I was turning onto a curb cut at the end of a cul-de-sac along my very regular route to the gym. The only thing different was a patch of mud, or rotted leaves there, that my front tire slipped on. My head hit the slope of the concrete so hard, and made such a loud whack, that a passerby said she was about to call 911 the minute she heard it, she was so sure I wouldn’t be getting up.

Fortunately, these super nice people happened to be walking by just then and saw the whole thing. It helps so much to have another human being around when you’re a wreck. Mary and Laurel with two little girls Katerina and Elena walking home from school in their school uniforms just like the one I used to wear. They stood around with me for a good ten minutes offering all kinds of help – could they call someone for me, could they lend me their cell phone, could they walk me to where I was going, would I like some water, etc etc.

Like last time when I fell, people are very kind and concerned. And everybody seems to realize that just because a hurt person looks ok and says they are ok, it doesn’t necessarily mean they really are ok. Mary and Laurel really wanted to make sure. I appreciated that so much. It makes me feel like I live in a kind world -- which is a hopeful feeling given how much evidence there is to the contrary. I hope those kids will remember seeing this and always take care of their heads.

Yes, this is another commercial for helmets. Don’t think that just because you’re avoiding the busy streets you’re fine. Since 5:30 yesterday afternoon when this happened, I am periodically visited by the thought that I could very well be dead now. That smack was so hard that I couldn’t stop crying for about ten minutes. Way harder than the time I fell over from a standing position last year. I think it’s very possible that without the helmet it would have killed me. At least it would have seriously injured me, possibly to the point where Lindi might not have had the same Kate that she had before.

And let me just add this note to you people who are too footloose and fancyfree to be bothered by the possibility of an accident – and excuse me, I don’t usually sermonize, but -- If you can’t be sensible enough to think of your own life, think of the people that love you. Think about your partner, your mother or your sister your brother, etc ---which one of those people would you like to stick with the job of taking care of a head-injury victim for the rest of your days? If you can’t put a shell on your head for yourself, do it for them.

Grrrr. I’m starting to feel angry at people I see without helmets. And aside from the emotional toll, head injuries are very expensive financially to the whole community. Even people you don’t know pick up part of the tab in one way or another.

Today I have a slight recurring headache. I think I bruised my brain. It seems to be working properly, however. This is how it felt last time, and it went away after a few days. Ow. I hope nothing’s wrong. I need every single brain cell I have.

Tomorrow I will resume my report on Saturday’s cycling tour of Portland’s wells.

Another reason to wear a helmet

This week's Newsweek quotes a bicyclist who got his head run over by a delivery truck. He said, “I didn’t see it coming but I sure felt it roll over my head. It feels really strange to have a truck run over your head.”

I’ve often thought that if you somehow fell over in a bike lane or from a sidewalk on a busy street, you could easily land in the path of an oncoming car. That’s why I avoid these shared arteries like Broadway. In my opinion, that was not the brainiest traffic planning idea in the world. I use the little residential side streets as much as possible.

The guy’s name was Ryan Lipscomb. He suffered only a concussion. It didn’t say what brand of helmet he wore, but his story would make good ad copy for the helmet maker -- like those luggage ads that showed the suitcases falling off the top of a car on the freeway and surviving.

That actually happened to me, about 20 years ago – same brand of suitcase, fell off top of car on I-5, no lie, run over by a semi. My parents still have it in their basement. One of these days I’m going to send it back to the company for a refund. The ad claimed it wouldn’t be squished, and it is too squished. It didn’t open and spill my stuff all over the road, though, which really impressed me. I think that’s what’s holding me up. I’m conflicted about whether my experience differs from the ad enough to warrant a false advertising claim. I can’t decide. Maybe a lawyer could help me.