GAG RIDE SHOWS THE CHARMING SIDE OF CYCLING
Most Motorists Courteous, Cautious, Helpful
People often go out of their way to help cyclists they've never met--instead of hazing or cursing them. Now there's something you don't see in the news very often, if ever, right?By Bill Schneider, 8-20-08
Wild Bill on Logan Pass. Photo by Don Harris.
My cycling buddies wanted me to write about what happened on this year’s GAG Ride, which stands for Geezers Around Glacier, but I had decided not to do it.
Until I read all the recent negative news about the escalating conflict between cyclists and motorists on our roadways, that is.
Everyday, it seems, I read a horror story. Here are a few recent examples:
- A video of a driver crossing the centerline and smashing into the lead pack in a Texas road race.
- A road-raged motorist in California pulling in front of two cyclists on a steep descent and slamming on his brakes, sending both to the hospital.
- A frontier throwback sheriff in Colorado telling cyclists to stay out his county unless they want to spend a night in jail.
- A Portland motorist running down a cyclist and then driving around at high speed with him hanging on his hood for his life, all caught on a cell-phone video.
- Numerous conflicts in Colorado powerfully detailed by NewWest.Net’s Richard Martin.
- A long article in the New York Times about conflicts breaking out from coast to coast as more cyclists hit the roads to save energy and get fit.
That’s not all--just all I can remember today and more than enough to prompt me write this. The truth is, most motorists accept cyclists as legitimate users of our highways, but you’ll never see a headline like this on the front page: Millions of Motorists and Cyclists Went to Work Today with No Conflicts.
Which brings me back to the GAG Ride.
Every year we geezers try to convince ourselves we aren’t really old, so we take a little mission up to Glacier National Park for a long ride or two, one always being the route over Going-to-the-Sun Road from West Glacier to East Glacier.
This year, near the end of the ride as we approached East Glacier and I happened to be last in line, I flatted. Being the veteran of hundreds of tire changes, it was a no-big-deal until I discovered I was indeed a geezer because I’d forgotten to pack my tire tools and couldn’t change my tire. By the time I had that ugly moment of reality, my fellow geezers were long gone, down at the vehicle cracking a cold beer while I walked my bike down the road looking for a good place to wait for them to come looking for me. (No, cell phones don’t work in Glacier.)
I’d walked less than a minute when a rental car pulled over and a guy asked me if I needed help, and I said, “yes, but I’d need a tire tool.”
“I have a tire tool,” the tourist from Memphis, Tennessee, replied.
“No, I mean a bicycle tire tool,” I said, thinking he would be bringing out the one he uses to change car tires.
“No, I have one,” he insisted, asking his buddy to pull over, so he could show me his bicycle neatly stuffed in the trunk. Fortunately, he was young enough to remember his tools, so after a quick change, and a heartfelt thank you, I caught up with my group, feeling charmed.
The next day, I had another puncture on our trip around Lake Koocanusa. We hadn’t seen a car for two hours, but as we debated if I needed a new tire, a car came around the corner and stopped. A lady looked at us checking out my back tire and asked, “Do you need a new tire?”
We all had the same thought--does she mean bicycle tire? Until we looked in the backseat of her sedan where we saw two brand new, top-of-the-line bicycle tires. Turns out she was supporting her husband as he rode the northern route across America. How lucky can you get?
Later that day, four hours into our ride and out of water, we stopped at a campground at the south end of the reservoir where we’d been told was the only source of water on this route. But there was none.
As we cursed and tried to decide where to get water, along came two geezers driving a Forest Service pickup. We asked them about water, and they politely told us we were at the wrong campground and could find water two miles down the road.
Thanking them, we departed and as we rode into that campground, the same two guys, who called themselves “toilet rangers,” came up behind us to tell us they forgot (proving geezers are everywhere you look) to tell us they’d shut the water off, but they went out of their way to take us to a closed area with water, a place we never would have found on our own.
The point is, all three incidents tell us people often go out to their way to help cyclists they’ve never met--instead of hazing or cursing them. Now there’s something you don’t see in the news very often, if ever, right?
Most of the time when I’m out on my bike, I have no conflicts with motorists, and I should to force myself to think that instead of concentrating on the few conflicts I do have.
I’ve written extensively about how cyclists and motorists can peacefully coexist on our roadways but obviously, a few drivers will persist in doing what they can to intimidate bicyclists back into their SUVs. I frankly don’t know what else can be written about this thoughtless, reckless, road-raged minority, but as our GAG ride proves, most of the time cyclists can have enjoy riding without feeling the fear or scorn you see so often in the headlines.
Related Articles:
I Can Feel the Scorn, 4-15-05
Taking a Giant Step Toward Solving the Conflict Between Cyclists and Motorists, 7-27-06
Cyclists and Motorists: Where the Rubber Hits the Road, 8-3-06
How to Drive a Motor Vehicle, 5-15-08
Montana Adds Section on Driving with Cyclists to New Driver’s Manual, 5-15-08
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Hey non cyclists! Despite what you see in the slow-news summer media, cycling is actually fun, safer than driving, and a totally normal sport to engage in. People ride bikes while wearing normal clothes, people ride bikes that cost less than their cars, people in cars often help out people in bikes when they get a flat or run out of water or whatever. There are bike shops out there full of non-snobby, friendly staff who will help you find the most economical solution to a particular mechanical problem rather than try to sell you a brand new bike! You don't have to be super-fit to start riding, and you don't have to ride fast to have fun. You don't have to ride your bike to work every day to be a bike commuter, and you don't have to wear fancy shoes to be an all-day road cyclist.
I wish this stuff got communicated more often. Most of us ride because of the overwhelmingly positive experience it gives us. For more positive bike vibes, Google up Rivendell bikes, Sheldon Brown, Masi Guy, Urban Velo, Swobo, Commute By Bike, Blue Collar Mountain Biking, and any number of other shops, blogs, and individuals who have put so much into spreading the love of cycling in all of its wonderful permutations.
Nice article. Glad to hear your fellow park travelers were so kind to you.
Be careful out there and enjoy the ride!
I later realized that the guy shouldn't have been riding on the sidewalk and against traffic. (And neither of the cyclists were wearing helmets.) However, I accept responsibility, too.
My point in telling this story is that not all motorists are evil -- some of us try our best to protect cyclists -- but cyclists also have a responsibility to follow the laws and protect themselves.
Patia-
The girl who took forever to pass you (on the right, I assume) was probably following her natural instincts to not "ride up on the right" of a turning vehicle. The "right hook" is one of the most common and injurious ways for a cyclist on the street to get run over. My personal rule is that once a car has passed me, I don't pass it on the right, even if it has slowed, and I stay far enough back to be out of that car's blind spot. The sidewalk rider was very much at fault for being on the sidewalk, especially if riding any faster than walking pace.
On helmets: A cyclist's choice to wear or not wear a helmet is his or her own and will never have an impact on the safety of anyone else on the road. Among the things that have had the greatest negative impact on the adoption of cycling as a viable mode of transportation, the idea that cycling simply cannot be done safely without a helmet is one of the top three. (Along with bad drivers and the cultural norm that cycling is for children and those who cannot drive.) It drives me nuts to read a story of a cyclist run over by a semi truck and killed, always with the added sentence "the cyclist was not wearing a helmet," which is used only to moralize and to imply some great lack of judgment on the cyclist's part. "If he wasn't wearing a helmet, what OTHER risks was he taking when that semi ran him over?"
Finally, on the Road Diet. As a cyclist, the Road Diet has made riding on Broadway, which I do for transportation purposes, 100% more safe and enjoyable, as the removal of one lane of cars has allowed for ample, well-marked bicycle lanes along the length of the Diet. Is it worth the stress and impact on vehicular traffic? I'm not sure, but I sure like being able to ride safely on Broadway, as I do not have the option of using the Highway to get from North Reserve to Downtown, as all motorists do.
I'd also agree that the Broadway Diet is now a much safer road for all involved. Most complaints seem to be about the transitions, and not the 3-lane section.
MM and Bob: The Broadway diet may have made the road marginally safer for peds and bicyclists, but I would really love to see the stats on car accidents before and after. I have seen many, many close calls and an awful lot of shattered car parts on the road. The two westbound blocks leading up to the Broadway and Orange intersection are terrible.
"Vanishingly" isn't quite zero, unfortunately, but that's life.
Once upon a time, I was bicycling through Montana with a back tire that was about to give up the ghost. Being a former Boy Scout, I bought a new tire to pack along. However, I was not an Eagle Scout, and I did not have a spare TUBE to replace the one that was about to blow an unpatchable hole.
There I was, up from the Powder River with a Big Sky view and no one around for miles. After a while, a Highway Patrolman came along and stopped to ask how I was doing. I said fine, I was just going to hitchhike to the next town and get a new tube. He said he'd be back this way in a half hour or 45 minutes, and if I was still waiting, he'd give me a ride.
Now it really was a beautiful day, and I proceeded to enjoy it, free from any distractions of traffic. A couple cars passed, I imagined, and then here comes somebody... and Smokey, on his tail. The cop pulled the guy over... checking his temporary registration on the new car, some pretense... and then talked him into giving me a ride. :-)
That's how I met the fellow who told me his name was "Rip" Van Winkle.
I also modified a Schwinn Varsity to use on trails to get to my fishing spots faster....in 1977, when I was 14. (How's that for "ahead of the curve" for mountain bikes?) If you've ever hiked to Avalanche Lake in Glacier, I used to ride that trail, among others. There weren't rules against it then, obviously. Less time hiking = more time fishing. :)
With that said:
Cyclists, try actually stopping at stop signs and red lights when traffic is coming. A 3,000 pound vehicle doesn't stop all that quickly when you blast out 20 feet in front of me... and then flip ME off.
Remember that first grade song? STOP, LOOK and LISTEN.
For criminy's sake, ride single file. I really don't need a logging truck up my ass because you feel the need to chit chat or prove your "manliness" by slowing motor vehicle traffic.
YOU have to stop for pedestrians, as well. A bicycle is a vehicle and subject to the same rules as motor vehicles.
SIGNAL DAMMIT, I can't read your mind.
Do pedestrians a favor and don't ride on sidewalks (unless you are escorting younger children) even if it is legal where you live.
If you MUST insist on riding on sidewalks, try using the same courtesy skiers use when overtaking and WARN THE PEDESTRIAN YOU ARE ABOUT TO PASS.