One of my favorite TV shows from the late-’70s, early ’80s was “Hill Street Blues,” cops in an anonymous big city at a time when places like NY City were being crushed by crime. Some of the characters were unforgettable.
One was the sergeant who did the shift roll call lecture played by Michael Conrad. He would end each talk with “… and let’s be careful out there” and it would send a portentous chill through you because you knew that by the end of the shift one or more of the cops would be dangerously, perhaps fatally, challenged.
We should be given the same admonition before every bike ride. It’s dangerous and unpredictable out there, and sometimes we forget just how much we are threatened and over-matched on the roadway.
We all know people who are terrified to ride on roads shared with motorists, some flatly refuse. We tend to think that they’re overly timid but I often wonder whether they are just more sensible and realistic than the rest of us.
Nearly every day when I scan the news across the country there is a bicycle major injury or fatality reported somewhere. A few days ago it was the mayor of Los Angeles. Yesterday it was a former TV sportcaster from Waco, TX. Sometimes it’s a careless child, sometimes a seasoned rider.
A couple of times recently, one of them today, I’m reminded of the nearness of oblivian on the road. Several months ago a few of us were having coffee in Los Osos when there was a horrendous rear-end crash just a few yards away. The offending driver never even hit the breaks, and the victim never left the vehicle in the time we watched. We each had our private thoughts, mine included wondering what would have happened if the vehicle had been a bicycle.
Then today I caught another whiff of the danger, riding in Eugene along a busy road, but one with a generous bike lane. Another rear-ender, not quite as brutal an impact, this one we both saw happen because we first heard the squeel of brakes. Someone woke up or became alert just a second too late.
Another reminder that we’re inches, seconds, milli-seconds away from trajedy. Some can be avoided if we stay alert and ride defensively. Some cannot.
“Let’s be careful out there.”
