A Plea For Action...

[K'Tesh]

Today I heard about another cyclist who crashed due to a failure in infrastructure in Portland. Jonathan Maus covered this crash on his blog bikeportland.org.



I wonder how many bicyclists went by the bump that brought this rider down? How many said anything to themselves like "Boy, I'm glad I didn't hit that..." or "Glad I know about that bump there... someone could get hurt."? How many said a word to the agencies available to get that kind of thing dealt with?

The fix would have taken only a small crew a few minutes to resolve (grind it flat), but now we have another pool of blood, and a person with a serious head injury lying in a hospital bed with people worrying over him. This crash was preventable, had a person who crossed paths with that bump just taken a few moments out of their busy life, this may have been only a hypothetical situation rather than a real one.

For all our sake's people, if you see something that is wrong, something that could hurt you, or another person behind you, for HEAVEN'S SAKE, Say something to SOMEONE! Take pictures, send emails, make a phone call. Hell, if you have to, call the media, use spray paint, or a saw to fix it on your own. It's not hard, I've demonstrated this over and over and over again... just check it out in my Advocacy Thread...What Have YOU Done Today? post

The life you save, could be your own.

[lovedoctor]

Sometimes mass-action is needed. If you do actually bike along N Vancouver at this intersection, PLEASE email PBOT at safe@portlandoregon.gov with your concern. If you bike somewhere else within the city and there is a similar concern, share that. (Doing some sort of safety-bomb email campaign for non-users wouldn't be honest). If enough folks report the same problem, it then becomes a potential source of litigation with a paper trail, and the proper resources might actually do something. I think K'Tesh has alluded to this in his other thread, but it bears repeating. Only the squeakiest wheels get the blah, blah, blah.

BTW, if your point of concern is on a state highway (i.e. Barbur/99/etc.) the contact is http://highway.odot.state.or.us/cf/c...s/comments.cfm

Safe travels.

[Spiffy]

next time I ride by 82nd and Holgate I'll get pics of the one at the bus stop on the Holgate side of the Walgreen's and send them in... it's a pretty bad rift and I guess I just learned to tune it out... shame on me...

[wsbob]

Sure...fix the pavement bubble...and every other pavement problem across the city that could adversely affect bike travel. Fundamentally though, this crash should be raising in people's minds, the importance of improving their ability to watch the road far enough in advance so as to be able to see hazards like this one, and safely ride around them.

I'll be interested in reading further information, should it come along, about just what labor and expense will be involved in eliminating this N Vancouver pavement deformity. If it's really just a few minutes grinding time...great! Looking at the pictures, there may be more involved.

[Spiffy]

Originally Posted by wsbob

...the importance of improving their ability to watch the road far enough in advance so as to be able to see hazards like this one, and safely ride around them...

maybe the sun was in their eyes...

or does that excuse only work when you're driving a car? c(:

...

I've been staying much more aware of my speed and work hard to stay below the speed limit and not go faster than I can see...

I was riding my scooter over Germantown and it's insane that it's a 45mph road on the south side... there are very few spots where it's actually safe to drive that fast due to all the curves...

riding my bike so much the last few years has helped me not feel guilty about slowing motor vehicles down in the name of safety...

[wsbob]

Originally Posted by Spiffy

maybe the sun was in their eyes...

or does that excuse only work when you're driving a car? c(:

...

Doesn't work so well when the person with the sun in their eyes is the one that's injured. Sun in the persons' eyes, or lighting conditions on the pavement effectively hiding the pavement deflection could have been contributing factors. Hard to say for certain.

Pictures show the pavement deflection was off to the right of the roadway rather than to the center of the main lane of travel. And also, close to the big concrete lane divider. Both of them not particularly unusual road hazards it's advisable to generally stay away from, if at all possible. Defensive riding calls for people to be looking ahead to hopefully be able to see in advance and take the lane as these kinds of problems present themselves.