Tension on the Streets
Kyoto Ride Conflict Calls for New Transportation Ethic
By Bob Giordano, Guest Writer, 2-22-07
Photos by Chris Lombardi.
Guest writer Bob Giordano, well-known in Missoula as “Bicycle Bob,” is the executive director of the Missoula Institute for Sustainable Transportation (MIST), an organization advocating for an active walking and cycling culture in Missoula and beyond as part of its core mission of helping to create sustainable transportation systems.
Last Friday, over 130 cyclists rode together through Missoula to support the Kyoto Protocol, to raise awareness of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to show that bicycle riding is part of the solution. The ride was organized by GlobalWarmingSolution.org and MIST.
During that ride, several cyclists were hit by a motorist suffering from road rage. From initial accounts, it seemed like a cyclist may have provoked the driver, who then bumped a cyclist. We now are learning that the driver could not wait for the group of cyclists (the cyclists filled both southbound lanes of Higgins just south of Broadway) and started driving right through the group, knocking an older man from his bike in the process. The driver then crossed the double yellow lines to get around more bikes and hit a woman’s bicycle trailer. A group of cyclists caught the driver at the next red light where arguing then began. It looks as if the driver then purposely hit one or more bikers who were in front of her at the light.
The law says that a bike should “ride as far right as practicable.” The woman with the bike trailer, for instance, said that she could not bike in the right lane because she kept bumping into other bikers. So she moved into the left lane as did many cyclists.
This event illuminates the tension on the streets between bikes and cars. Two people died on Missoula’s streets the day before this bike ride—one cyclist at the Mullan and Reserve intersection and one car occupant at the Miller Creek Hwy 93 intersection.
A new transportation ethic is needed in order to keep these types of tragedies from happening.
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Bob- could you please outline some of the components of the proposed "new transporation ethic?"
My suggested components:
-Transportation is not about you. Transportation is about you getting from point a to point b. It is not about having a bigger car, a politically-correct car, a sweet bike, an iPod, a vanity plate, a cell phone, a bumper sticker, or a large sound system. Those are extras, they can get in the way of your safety and the safety of others. Way too much road rage is wrapped up in ego and the personalization of transportation i.e. "How dare he cut ME off?" He didn't cut "you" off, it's not about you. It's about getting from point a to point b safely.
-Know and follow all traffic laws (bike, car or pedestrian)
-Attempt to drive/walk/ride in a predictable manner and communicate your intentions to other drivers/riders/walkers around you. Make this a priority.
-Be sensitive to the limitations on sight, sound, hearing and mobility that each mode of transportation presents and drive/walk/ride accordingly.
-Realize that the size and configuration of your choesn mode of transportation does not afford you special rights. Don't plow bikes off the road because your car is bigger, don't ride your bike on the sidewalk because it fits there, and don't jaywalk because you don't feel like waiting for the next walk signal and you think you have time to sprint across the road.
I have no idea if this is what you envision in terms of a transportation ethic, but I'd love to watch the discussion develop.
Yes, some of the things you are talking about are needed for a new transportation ethic. Yet, I was thinking that A to B might not be the most important thing. But (and I'm thinking out loud) I might be referring more to a new "Public Spaces Ethic" than a new "Transportation Ethic". Because, as you asert, streets do connote more about getting from A to B. Yet, our streets are public spaces too. So maybe, simply put, we need a better balance of public spaces that are not streets, and public spaces that are streets. We seem to lack the former.
Even with a healthy dose of public spaces, like parks, community gardens, forests, piazzas, farmers' markets, peoples' markets, etc., streets should not strictly become highway-like. Most streets should have some of these elements: places to linger, to meet people, to exchange information, and so on.
With the advent of the car/truck, the street has become a place increasingly to sort of avoid or at least always be looking out to not get hit. That, in my mind, is part of the tradgedy which manifested itself in that one incident near the end of the Kyoto ride.
The one word I think works best for a new ethic is 'respect,' ('patience' might be a close second). Respect for other road users, for adjacent lands, for the earth, for other species of life. We should choose transportation modes that minimize impacts to others, and at the very least be mindful that we do have impacts on others.
Let's see if we can create a transportation system that is more cooperative than competitive.