Safety on Rural Roads
Portland Bicycling Club is primarily focused on bicycling. We club members just want a good ride. I know I do. I think you do too.
But, as your current president, I am privy to issues from the road that generate concern about safety. YOUR safety. MY safety. We have a fun time at the annual awards banquet handing out “COMEBACK” awards (scroll down to #6) to our friends who have crashed on their bikes but “come back” to ride with us again. We celebrate their recovery and their return to the PBC peloton. Ideally, there would be no COMEBACK awards because there wouldn’t have been any crashes. We don’t want our friends injured. We don’t want them to suffer through recovery time off the bike. We want them all to be safe. ✎
Our club has a landline telephone. No one has seen it for years now, but it takes messages. We received a message in August in which “Carlo” kindly expressed concern over some riding behavior that he felt could lead to injury.
Todd McCollum followed up by phone, and Carlo shared that he had been driving some large farming equipment in the Tualatin area on a curvy road. Carlo noted that the big rig he was driving has significant blind spots. He said he had signaled to turn left, and as he did so, narrowly missed hitting with the spray boom some riders coming from behind. Carlo was quite shaken. He did stop and speak to one of the riders who was trailing the group; she told him she had dropped back as she was uncomfortable with the way some in the group were riding, passing a car on both sides.
PLEASE! Ride safely. Respect those who are working along the route.
Our recording secretary, Jan Oestereich, shared some insights about this very topic in her April Quick Releases article, Safety: To Pass or Not to Pass. Please double back to read it, and heed the advice contained therein.
I know some of you want to ride fast and furiously, and challenge each other on the road. At what cost? Your life? Your quality of life? There are other organizations that facilitate REAL racing and competition. We want you to ride safely, and preserve your health and wellbeing. Secondly, your club’s reputation and cycling’s in general gets tarnished when others observe your unsafe actions.
Thank you for your consideration.
Ann Morrow, President