Sunday, April 19, 2009

Of Bikes And Sharing The Road

A week ago, a group of cyclists were out on a ride on the roads of Madison County Iowa. One of them, Doug Smith was struck and seriously injured by a truck that was towing a trailer. I've read the stories from the folks that were there. A number of my friends were on that ride. It's time that the folks behind the wheel, treat the folks behind the handlebars with the same respect that they insist on having. There have been calls for new laws to give cyclists "special rights". The only special right that cyclists need in law is to be acknowledged as legitimate users of the road. I've buried too many friends over the years. No more.

The little clip here is of the several hundred cyclists that gather of the west steps of Iowa's Capitol building riding to voice their opinion. I'm on that ride every time I'm on the bike and I think of Chris, Block, and Dave.

2 comments:

Ann said...

OMG! (Not the good kind of OMG).

Is your friend okay???? This is really scary!!!

Drivers of cars can be insane. I'm not sure why they try to be all territorial of the road and try to claim it over cyclists, runners, motorcycles, etc. We all pay for it and people in cars need to be more careful! More than likely, they will be okay...the others, probably not so much. Grrrrr....

Z said...

I don't know Doug, but I know folks that were in the group that was with him and folks that were in a group behind the group that he was in. The short list of of big injuries is: fractured skull, a broken pelvis, a torn urethra. He should recover pretty much ok. He was very very lucky.