Bikes Jun 4, 2014 at 4:00 pm

I Have a Bike. I Don't Ride It. Here's Why.

Comments

1
My commute doesn't allow me to bike to work as it once did.
The weather is a biggie too.
You are also neglecting the fact that not everyone is in our 20's anymore, and it ain't as easy as it used to be when I'd bike 15 miles to work.
Good article. (and to think all I thought you were good for was some good reviews and insights into film...)
2
I no longer ride my bike in traffic. When I lived in SE and worked downtown, I could count on nearly dying once during my morning ride and at least once again on the way back. Fuck that.

Would the obliviousness/possible bloodthirst of drivers be counteracted by more of us riding in traffic? I'm not sure that follows. There'd be more of us there to serve as witnesses, I guess.
3
In the same boat, down to ambitiously buying a bike, then riding it twice. Carrying around a helmet everywhere I go? Ugh. (I will not be biking without a helmet anytime soon either.) The invisibility factor is a definite truth -- we're a city of people who only dress in earth tones, and with all of our tree cover or narrow streets, other cars can be tough to see in anything other than bright daylight, much less people on two wheels.

My biggest personal concern is competing with cars -- and I don't blame drivers for that. But if I'm going to be sharing the roads, I feel like I need to be going as fast as I can, which takes a lot of the leisure out of riding and adds a lot of stress. If we had protected bike lanes, I would be more likely to ride. But if I'm sharing traffic roads, I just... don't really see it happening.
4
Erik - I would encourage you to find a bike buddy in your neighborhood or use a tool like stickk.com to force yourself to bike every day for a week and see how you like it.

Your intuition that more bikers will make biking better is backed by research - in European cities, the more bikers you get the less injuries per miles biked (some get over 50% bikers and scoff at our measly 6%. BTW - if you haven't heard the 6%, you must not have talked to or read about anything related to biking in Portland because that is pretty much always in the first sentence). It appears that when there are more bikers around, cars get more used to seeing them, making the bikers magically more visible.

Presumably these cities are also building more bike infrastructure to cater to their near-majority commute mode -- bikers -- thus helping everyone be more predictable. Bikes may sometimes be unpredictable because they are dicks, but often it is because the infrastructure doesn't lend itself to bike predictability. Streets are built for cars, and it is clear how cars are *supposed* to act. Not so for bikes. I'm a mom and usually have my toddler on my bike, so I am pretty careful and try my best to follow the rules. But there are many situations where it just isn't clear what the best behavior is. Technically, I am a vehicle, so I should cross an intersection just like a car. But I can't get across fast and cars don't see me as a car, so I usually cross in the cross walk like a pedestrian. Unpredictable? Intersection improvements can help solve this for me and the cars.
5
Need more separated bike lanes. That will make things a lot safer. Less sharrows. For those who need some help on the hills try an electric assist bike. I have over 10,000 miles on mine. Its great!
6
I am 60 years old, and even I (partly) commute pretty often. I drive to Sellwood with the bike on my car, and ride the Springwater Corridor and Esplanade to town. Then I park the bike near the waterfront and walk in town (except for Oak Street and Stark Street) No cars. We need more completely separated bike lanes.
7
God bless you, Erik Henriksen. For the longest time I've felt like the only resident of inner SE who cringes over the current Portlandia bike love-in. I was car-less for years at a time in Portland when seeing another lone cyclist on the street was cause to exchange friendly bell-rings of solidarity. But these days it's strictly amateur hour as hordes of unpredictable, clueless, entitled, helmetless, unlit, slow-ass cyclists rule the streets. (Or so it seems to me.) "Bike-friendly" does not mean ride anywhere you want, however you want. Thanks for offering a critical (and hopeful) perspective when everyone else is chugging Kool-Aid.
8
I'm amused by people telling Erik what he forgot to include in his list of reasons why he doesn't ride his bike. Those people are way more in-tune with Erik's life than he is, obviously.
9
Guys, I've been a bike nut since Greg LeMond was a young hopeful; I rode almost daily for fifteen years all over LOS ANGELES, fer chrissake, and I've never even had a particularly frightening close call.

If Portland's bike corridors scare you, you might want to stay off of the freeways in your car – the cocoon of safety you feel you're in there is almost entirely an illusion. If one of those semis does something stupid enough, you are going to die, period. Your side-curtain airbag will get squashed just as flat as your gooey, dead-ass torso. It is –statistically– the most dangerous thing you do with any regularity, yet you take a few precautions, stay aware, and get on these death factories all the time without a second thought.

Feeling naked and defenseless on a bike is natural. But the idea you're any better defended in your car against a tanker truck than you are on a bike against an Escalade is based more on your feelings than the laws of physics.

Part of my spotless bike record is luck, yes, but so is your (and my) ability to survive I-5. But most of my staying upright is due to following a few simple principles of safety and staying in a high state of mindfulness. Also, if a part of your regular route is stressful and gnarly, find a way around it. The extra few minutes are usually more than worth the peace of mind, and it is NOT hard to find mellow alternates in PDX. And really, y'all, if breezing down Ankeny or Clinton is your idea of terror, you need to harden up in a general sense. I mean, come on.
10
"I don't ride my bike because some bikers are dicks."

^a lame, illogical excuse by a lazy person.
11
Well, I don't "need" to do anything, actually. I just don't feel like riding in traffic anymore, so I don't. Not least because I got tired of that repeated interaction where someone in a car nearly kills me, this makes me mad so I yell, they get all hurt about it and make it seem like nearly killing me is somehow a lesser bad act than me screaming, "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Because they're embarrassed now, so they're defensive, and then their ego comes back with: "Well, it is right and good that you nearly killed this person. He uses profanity on strangers." As I said; fuck that.

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