Another Bike Death

I’ve been fuming all week over Monday’s fatal bike accident: an experienced cyclist was killed in a collision with a garbage truck turning right across the bike lane at Interstate and Greeley, an intersection I ride through twice a day, four or five days a week. Jonathon Maus at BikePortland.org has done great work covering the accident and its aftermath: the cyclist was a competitive racer and Bike Gallery employee; apparently, the driver of the truck has a distressingly long and varied record of traffic violations and other illegal activities. That’s the second person killed by a large truck while riding in a bike lane in the last three weeks.

I first heard about this accident while in the computer lab, fine-tuning my thesis proposal. Procrastinating, I decided to check my blog stats, and in the recent search terms, I saw that someone had found my site by searching “biker killed on interstate and greeley” (I write about those streets a lot, since they are part of my regular commute). I immediately ran the Google search myself, and sure enough, BikePortland had posted a breaking news story an hour earlier.

There have been a lot of accidents lately, which I chalked up to the return of the rain: decreased visibility, slick conditions, fewer daylight hours, drivers who have forgotten to watch for bikes beyond the range of the windshield wipers, and new cyclists who don’t have a lot of winter riding experience all add up to an increase in collisions. However, Monday was a beautiful, clear day, and this accident happened at 12:30 in the afternoon.

Biking home in the dark on Monday evening, the intersection of Interstate and Greeley was desolate and quiet. I pedaled past warily, half-afraid there would still be blood stains or pieces of bicycle on the road. I stopped at the crosswalk a few dozen feet from the corner where it happened and pushed the activation button once, then several times fast, eager to get over onto Greeley and away. Suddenly, the overhead street light winked out, plunging the intersection into darkness. As I stood there blinking, a whistle from the nearly trainyard began to howl, close. Finally, the walk sign lit up, and I rode over the MAX tracks, spooked out and doubly anxious about not having a red light on the back of my bike.

Over the last few days, I’ve watched the monument evolving on that corner. Within 24 hours there was a Ghost Bike on the scene, to which people have been adding flowers and other mementos. Last night, there was lit candle and a red bike light flickering on the sidewalk beneath the Ghost Bike, a lonely vigil in the dark. On Tuesday a statue of a cyclist made out of scrap metal, the kind you see on the roof of the River City bike shop on MLK, appeared on the corner as well, I hope permanently.

The titanium lining to all of this is that City Hall is convening emergency meetings to address some of the issues (such as failure-to-yield violations across bike lanes) raised by the accidents. Still, I wish bicycle safety didn’t require martyrs to get attention.

Please wear your helmets, and ride defensively.