'Bicycle rage' grows as more folk pedal to work
Published
Tensions are mounting as high fuel prices force US drivers to share city streets with a growing legion of cyclists - and each group blames the other for failing to find a peaceful balance.
A number of violent confrontations in recent weeks between cyclists and drivers have tarnished the reputation of Portland, Oregon as America's most bike-friendly city, while accidents and "road rage" incidents are prompting other cities to try and make the roads safer for bikes and ease the hostility.
An angry driver chased down a Portland cyclist in mid-July and carried him for several blocks on his car's bonnet - and a cyclist who was upset at a driver who yelled at him for riding through a stop sign threw his bike at the car and then attacked the driver.
Louisville, Kentucky transportation planner Dirk Gowin estimates the number of cyclists in the city has doubled or even tripled since 2007.
"Education is the real issue," he said. "We have cyclists riding against the traffic, on pavements and without helmets. They don't know what they're doing."
A common complaint from drivers is that cyclists don't obey traffic laws and ride recklessly while cyclists charge that drivers don't yield to them when required.
A protest by cyclists in Seattle, Washington turned violent when a car struck several riders blocking the road. According to Seattle police a group of riders surrounded the car, broke its windscreen, slashed its tyres and assaulted the driver.
Cyclists are undeterred, however, by these incidents since most rides are safe and uneventful. Biking to work, they say, has both health and environmental benefits.
League of American Bicyclists communications director Elizabeth Preston said: "A lot has happened since 1990; the facilities are there in many cities."
But pedal pushers are still a tiny minority in the US: only 0.4 percent of Americans cycle to work, compared with 2.5 percent who walk and 77 percent who drive alone, according to 2005 US census statistics.
However, six percent of people in Portland ride daily; workers commute and parents tuck kids into bike trailers and haul them to school or play dates. Riders pedal to the video store, grocery and restaurants.
Six cyclists were killed in accidents in the city in 2007 and local authorities are acting to make the city safer for both cyclists and drivers.
Education mission
Police targeted two heavily trafficked bicycle routes as part of a two-day "education mission" in July, 2008, blitzing cyclists and motorists with warnings when traffic laws were violated; 113 of the 128 warnings issued went to cyclists.
A police spokesman said more such enforcement actions were planned.
The city already has 275km of bike lanes and is experimenting with "bike boxes" - large painted areas at the front of an intersection allowing bikes to move to the front and stop in front of cars.
The boxes are designed to end the dreaded "right hook" when a bicyclist travelling straight is cut off by a car turning right across the bicycle lane. - Reuters