Year: 2017

I only have week to go before I can get on my bicycles. I am not just looking forward to the naked bike ride but really looking forward to rolling through the air on my two wheels. The Why: the accident, the surgery, the recovery are my personal equivalent to the good, the bad, and the ugly in reverse order. I had shoulder surgery on Mar 24 and my orthopedist-surgeon told me multiple times you cannot bicycle for three months.

The cost of a bicycle accident triggers many thoughts about dollars, aging, and attitudes. The top muscle (supraspinatus) was completely torn from the bone. With age, this muscle (as well as many other ones) develops micro-tears. As one ages, more tears become larger, pain increases, and accidents have greater consequences pushing up the cost of medical treatments. For me it was simply a fall-over with a cargo bicycle caused this big rip.

Citylab.com published an article by John Metcalf at the beginning of June describing the increasing costs of bike injuries. He stated that there has been an increment of a 120% ‘bump’ in hospital visits featuring bicycle crashes since 1990. More than 800 deaths from car-on-bike crashes occurred in 2015 in the US. He reported that a serious non fatal ‘accident’ in 1997 cost an average of $52,495 which included medical expenses, missed work, and reduced quality of life. This figure jumped to $77K in 2013.

Metcalf went on to report that the total bike injuries costs have increased nearly $789 million per year from the late 1990s and to near total of $24 billion in 2013 (yes 24 billion). Additionally, there are more older-cyclists. There were nearly 2 million bicyclists in 2001 over the age 45 and in 2009 this number reached 3.6 million. I could not find the number of these riders in this decade. Federal data shows biking rates among people between the ages of 60 and 79 are soaring. ‘New trips by seniors account for 22 percent of the nation’s growth in adult biking,’ according to People for Bikes. Growth rates of older bicyclists are larger than younger age groups of new bicyclists.

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Every day, millions of people move throughout greater Portland’s communities. This is a journey we share: Shoulder to shoulder on transit, lane by lane on streets and highways. Wheels turning, feet stepping, we go many miles — or just down the block.

Our ability to get around -– to cross bridges, travel highways and streets, catch a bus or MAX, walk or bike to our destinations -– is something we often take for granted.

But every mile we travel depends on the decisions and investments of past generations of Oregonians. Those investments have shaped the community we’ve become.

As we grow and greet a changing world, how can we ensure the region’s streets, roads, transit and bridges still work for everyone? What are the top challenges we face? What can we learn from elsewhere?

Metro’s latest Regional Snapshot takes a look at the transportation system we’ve built together, and the future we could create next. With stats, maps, videos, personal stories and more, it’s a detailed exploration of the connections that knit the region together and the people who use them. Take a look at http://oregonmetro.gov/snapshot.