Used to Be One

Ran into the STP bikers (bicycle-ers riding en-masse from Seattle to Portland) this weekend on my way to Portland myself in my car with my daughter.  I met them on the only road there is for me to take to I-5 South without driving over thirty miles out of my way to go north into Spanaway or an extra two plus hours if I were to have swung out east to Hwy 12.  Not exactly a green bean or environmentally savvy thing to do, even for just one day out of the year.

Mind you, before I throw my extra fit here, I want to make it clear that I used to pedal around the city (Tacoma) and surrounding areas myself.  For about a two year period I only commuted with my ten-speed bike, keeping my V-dub Bug for ski trips or for when I went up to Seattle for a pick up game of soccer.  Before that and for a couple of years after, if I could bike somewhere instead of being in a car, I did.

Back then it was a cheap method of transportation not a status symbol.  It also came in handy when it was time to head to the bar, hard to get a DUI on a bike.  It saved me a ton in gas money, back when gas was relatively cheap and saved a lot of trips to the mechanic.  This was in the time before bike lanes, before “trails” devoted to bicyclers, well before Lance Armstrong (he was probably about eight then).

So I understand the bicyclist that is irritated with cars, that feels like folks treat them like societal pariah using roads they don’t pay for.  In my years of cycling I had been run up off the road and up against a building by a car (and I still made it into classes and work that day).  I had been repeatedly spanked by a hand out a passenger window, flipped off, hollered at, and stuff thrown at me.  But in all that time I never crossed into a lane of traffic without looking, signaling, and always waiting for the car that was clearly traveling faster than I to go by.   I not only obeyed traffic laws but was overly courteous to the motor vehicles on the road.  It only made logical sense – they were a lot bigger than me.

I rarely biked with others in relation to the amount of time I spent on my bike seat but when I did “bike trips” around the San Juans or out in the countryside in one of the Puget Sound counties, we rarely rode side by side, only when the rode was completely empty.  Even on those “touring” trips, rules of the rode were obeyed and courtesy ruled.  We quietly enjoyed the scenery, saved up all our ooh’s and aw’s and “did you see that’s” for when we stopped for a break or ended for the day.

So I guess my irritation, my judgementalism, with the STP folks comes from a place of a certain amount of knowledge.  I know that they can pace themselves, all ten thousand of them, space themselves out and not bunch up.  Especially when they are coming up on spots on the road that are difficult and dangerous just for motor vehicles themselves on an ordinary day.  This is a touring event, not a race, no need to jocky for position at the expense of motor traffic. 

I know that the promoters and organizers could limit the size of the involvement if it were not for their egos.  There by making it easier to control the pace and spacing of riders.  I know that it is hard for people to not clump together, you see it on the freeway all the time, clusters of cars and then huge spaces of no cars in between the next clump of cars.  But in the case of the bikes, it really ought to be a factor that they focus on, practice, train towards, manage.  They need to spread out, fill in all those huge empty spaces, yes indeed, ride single file.  Passing a slower biker only when motor traffic would not be disturbed.  I know it can be done, I used to be able to do it, and I was just a silly hippy bike ridin’ blonde chick that didn’t belong to a bike club and get newletters about how to be a better rider.

As for the incredible disregard for rules of the road or lanes?  As a motor vehicle driver, I can’t all of a sudden decide I want to swing out in someone else’s lane right in front of them, going at a fourth or less than the speed they are, without signaling, without even looking, without a whoppin’ good cause.  Well at least without the possibility of being run off the road and shot.  As a motor vehicle I can not knowingly hold up traffic of five cars or more, let alone twenty-five and adding.  No matter what it is I am doing, like when we are hauling hay or haying equipment to feed cows and sheep that feed people. 

If I’m holding up traffic, I have to pull over where I can and let it go by.  And I sure as heck can’t pull out in the middle of some one else’s lane so that I can talk to my buddy in the other vehicle about the cool meat shop we just past and how we oughta drive out here sometime and get some of their famous jerky or whatever it was that those knuckle heads just had to talk to one another about, several groups of them, both times I had to drive through the same spot.

I know that for the most part the cyclers feel empowered to be jack rumps because the STP is a big deal, with signs everywhere, and special folks in special gear taking care of them.  It’s sooo cool, they are out enjoying the rolling countryside, quaint little farms and free fresh air , the air they’re not polluting.  Really?  Clean manufacturing of all those synthetics in all that fancy latest and greatest “necessary” gear strapped all over each byker and their natural bike?

Oh paleeze… Do not tell me that it is hard to pace and space out all those riders, that they bunch up through no fault of their own.  Really?  Is that why on a dangerous strip of highway I see them chatting with one another, all dressed the same, like a bike club, while riding five abreast taking up an entire lane of a two lane road?  Forcing the motor vehicles into on coming traffic that cannot see them coming?  Oh have a nice chat about the pretty farmland and old businesses your riding by, by all means.

And yes, it was only a momentary irritation in my day, times two.  But how many total irritating moments for others did this event cause on the 200 mile route?  How does this event make non-bike folks feel about bikes – including some used-to-be-cyclers?  How does this possibly make me as a tax payer feel generous toward these j-rumps and want to share my tax revenue by voting to  increase the miles of bike trails and bike lanes they don’t even bother to use when they are there?  How does the miles of irritating moments increase the awareness of bikes as a viable transportation consideration? 

Hear tell, some of the small towns along the way that have to endure the traffic on their roads and in their businesses with the pushy demanding time-sensitive cyclers would rather have their towns and hamlets invaded by bikers of the motorcycle type that these snobby, self-important, greeny, city dwellers.

Once out on the freeway and totally away from the ridiculousness of a group of rather self-absorbed folks, Bet saw a sign that said something about a tourist attraction.  She giggled to herself and I asked her to share her thoughts.  She went on to explain that when she was younger she often confused the term tourist with terrorist.  And was horrified at “tourist attractions” read that terrorist attraction.  Ahh that all relates back to the cyclers.  Most of them are not from the surrounding areas of their route but do indeed come from all over “drawing riders from across the nation and from other nations” and part of the draw, other than participating in an ego pumping ride is:   “The majority of the ride is on beautiful, rolling rural roads”.  I’d call that tourism.  Or now because of Bet, I’d be apt to confuse it indeed with Terrorism.