Keep Calm and Ride On

When work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road. - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

When riding on a roadway, a cyclist has all the rights and responsibilities of a vehicle driver. - Washington State Law (RCW 46.61.755)

I n the Walla Walla

Union-Bulletin's Life- styles Magazine Sunday, there was an excellent ar- ticle about bicycling, and the rights and responsibilities of cyclists and automobile driv- ers toward each other.

I've been an enthusiastic adult road cyclist for more than 30 years. (I was an enthusiastic kid cyclist long before that.) I've also been a car driver for more than 40 years, and I've had plenty of experience being angry at people who slowed me down when I was driving.

Needless to say, I read that Lifestyles article with great interest. It was by a writer named Gillian Frew, and it was fair and balanced, and gave the views of several cyclists and several people who are annoyed by cyclists.

None of this was new to me, but a few of the quotes were still eye-openers.

One Milton-Freewater resident said she often drives to visit relatives in Waitsburg and Dayton, and thinks that rural roads are a bad place for cyclists.

"I'm used to watch- ing out for farm equip- ment and wildlife," she said, "but I think it's reckless and dangerous for cyclists to be using them, too."

After reading this I got up and paced around the house, checked my blood pressure, and then sat back down to finish the article.

Now I'm going to rant for a minute.

I'm sure this woman means well, buthellip;really? Will the effort of watching out for tractors and deer make it less likely you'll see a cyclist?

The people being reckless and dangerous are the small percentage of drivers who are selfish and think that ev- eryone else should stay out of their way.

I drive a car. I know how annoying it can be to be slowed down. But I deal with it.

As a driver, it's my re- sponsibility to make sure my car doesn't hit anything. It doesn't matter how irritating it may be that a combine or a cyclist or a small child is in my path, I have to drive in such a way that I don't endanger them.

If you're on a rural road and there's a curve up ahead and you're driving fast enough that you couldn't avoid hitting a fallen tree or a stalled car (or a cyclist) that was just around the bend, then you're driving too fast.

A number of people in the article said they thought cy- clists should be kept off rural roads. They need to read the legal statement that I quoted at the beginning of this col- umn. (It comes from www.wsdot.wa.gov/bike/laws.)

Saying cyclists should be kept off roads is like saying children should be kept off airplanes. It's like saying slow check-writers should be kept out of grocery check- out lines. It's like saying Kardashians should be kept off TV.

Sorry, but life is full of annoyances. (For instance, a few of the quotes in that article.)

Okay, I'm calm again.

I've ridden bicycles all over Washington, and in probably 10 or fifteen other states. I've ridden in Seattle and Portland. I've ridden in the San Juan Islands and in the foothills of the Cascades. I've ridden along the beach in Southern California and in the New Mexico desert. I even went on a group bicycle tour around Manhattan a few years ago.

I'm sorry to disappoint any annoyed drivers out there, but the rural roads in Walla Walla and Columbia Counties are probably the best places I've ever ridden. The scenery is beautiful, the traffic is light, there's a great mix of flat and hilly sections, and we have good riding weather most of the time.

And I'll say this as well: 99.999 percent of the driv- ers I encounter when I ride on our roads are great. They slow down, they move into the other lane when they pass and a lot of them give a wave.

And I'll also be the first to say that there are a small percentage of jerk cyclists out there. They need to read the law as well and live up to the "responsibilities" part of that statement.

All cyclists need to try to be as visible as they can, and they to stay to the right as much as they safely can.

Spring is coming, and the Tour of Walla Walla Bicycle race will be held on some of the rural roads nearby later this month. Cycling is an asset that should be celebrated in our area, not shunned.