Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
Last year, the young biker Magnus White was killed while training in Boulder County. This year his death was memorialized by over 3,000 bikes following a course that included the location of his demise: Ghost Bike (Memorial Ride for Magnus – Sunday 11, 2024, from The White Line)
While this post gives a personal perspective, the web site dedicated to work being done in honor of Magnus (and all bicyclists) provides information and opportunities for involvement for all who are concerned about auto-related deaths and injuries in this country. The site’s name, The White Line, echos both the last name of Magnus and the terrible consequences of crossing the white line on the shoulder of a roadway. (The site is worth visiting—the banner photograph of the white bike and the rainbow is remarkable, let alone the content.)
Among The White Line’s valuable resources are a series of videos documenting Lives Worth Remembering. The first video, “Episode 1: Christian and Michelle Deaton” demonstrates the sensitivity and relevance with which this series focuses on the humanity of the victims.
The ~13 mile ride signified for the moment the triumph of self-propulsion. It moved slowly and with only one significant hill (up Folsom to the CU Campus), so that nearly anybody could participate. This participation included at least two penny farthings, along with some cargo bikes, e-bikes, countless road bikes, mountain bikes, cruisers, gravel bikes, and the bikes I didn’t notice.
Afterward, a ceremony included talks by Magnus’ parents, Michael and Jill, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, and others (listed in Boulder ReportingLab”).
For me (and likely thousands) the memorial ride was like a dream…imagine it, riding down Diagonal Highway, the wrong way, without a moment of worry!
Pre-ride staging in a parking lot at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Photo taken by a guy named Don.Map of the out-and-back ride. The sky was wonderfully overcast the duration of the ride!
Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
The Golden Age of the Pandemic
The corona virus pandemic has been wholly bad for public health, and nearly as bad for social media. The one thing it benefited for a while was the environment. Birds could be heard singing. The air cleared in cities that are typically smothered in smog. Roads and highways were happily barren. Bicyclists, runners, and pedestrians enjoyed moving about, free from the anxiety of becoming an accident statistic.
Life for the self-propelled was truly good.
And those who did drive were safer, too. According to a recent article in the New York Times, “By 2019, the annual death rate from crashes was near its lowest level since cars became a mass item in the 1920s” (Vehicle Crashes, Surging [pay-walled]).
Life for the driver was good.
The Traffic Plague
Unfortunately, all that has changed. Not only do cars and trucks dominate public thoroughfares, but they do so recklessly. Yes, traffic accidents and deaths are on the increase.
The pandemic taught drivers bad habits. They …
learned that they could get away with speeding more easily… fewer cars to compete with and fewer police pulling drivers over
could text more
could drive while intoxicated with less chance of being caught (and drinking was surging throughout the pandemic)
could run red lights, self-assured that no other cars were in the vicinity
could forego the seatbelt—less risk of being hit, less risk of being pulled over for the previous offenses
might drive while angry and stressed about the pandemic and its discontents
While the conditions that encouraged these habits have disappeared, the habits remain strong.
Even though people drove less in 2020, “NHTSA’s early estimates show that an estimated 38,680 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes—the largest projected number of fatalities since 2007. This represents an increase of about 7.2 percent as compared to the 36,096 fatalities reported in 2019.” (2020 Fatality Data Show Increased Traffic Fatalities During Pandemic)
Things only got worse in 2021. Click on the image to see the percentage of increased traffic fatalities in your state, red being bad, green being good: The percentages show the increase in traffic fatalities in 2021, with only one region experiencing a decrease. (source: https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/813240)
Optional, for your listening pleasure: a 32-minute talk from NPR that reiterates the problem and emphasizes how blacks and native Americans share a greater portion of fatalities. They comprise a greater proportion of essential workers (more time on the road), they are more likely to be on bike or foot, and they often live in areas with neglected infrastructure.
Today’s Bollard
As promised, these posts will customarily conclude with a bollard, now that I know they are such serviceable creatures. A bollard can garner affection, sometimes tragically, sometimes happily.
This particular one deserves to be clicked since it displays better on Twitter (to see the orange blood):
Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
The New Commuter Frustration
In the previous Incidents #1, I led with a biking fatality. This time I’ll mend my ways and start out on a happier note, wrapping up with a pedestrian fatality. I’m sorry, but as a serious pedestrian (a luxury, I know, although I used to run 8 miles to work…so I’m not fully unqualified to speak)…ahem, as a serious pedestrian, I have a privileged point of view on how the tire and engine noise, size, and sheer mass of cars is disproportionate to the tiny beings they transport, insulating the beings from the true external effects of the vehicles. Ok, said that.
During the first covid–19 surge last Spring, birds could be heard in cities, nature began to clap her hands, and self-propelled people breathed a sigh of relief. With this current surge, not so, at all. And, yes, the economy needs lots of people to commute to work and shop.
Happily, a new but different problem has arisen that belies a psychological demand, not an economic one. In a recent article in The Washington Post, we discover that,
Even when Shayne Swift works from home, the high school principal ends her day behind the wheel of her forest-green Jeep Liberty, chatting by phone with family and friends.
But Swift isn’t driving. Usually, she said, she sits parked in her driveway in Northwest Washington — the closest she often gets to something she has dearly missed during the pandemic: her commute.[1]
In the case of Shayne Swift, the psychological need for cars would be on my side. After all, cars are great as mini-houses that are probably safer than a huge home during a lightening storm. In addition, a few good speakers and a good stereo can sound better than much more expensive equipment in a big home.
The rest of the article details how some kind of distance (more temporal than spatial) is genuinely helpful to insulate people from feeling like captives either at home or at work. Walking from one’s bedroom to one’s study and back, along with the need to nurture children, just does not provide a break.
If sitting in one’s driveway is too conspicuous (to the family members), drive halfway around the block or to the neighborhood park. Want to use your cell phone in your car? This is the perfect way. Talk or text away. The American love affair with cars can be consummated safely, inexpensively, and with a small carbon footprint.
Another Obituary Item, Sorry to Report
The web site of the Denver television station KDVR reports that on January 19th, 2021, Chris Baker, 36, was crossing Federal near 70th when he was fatally hit by a car that promptly drove away. Fortunately for the wheels of justice, several people reported the driver’s identity to the police and he was later arrested.[2] The article continues, “The crash was the third hit-and-run on Federal Boulevard since the new year, and the second to turn deadly.”
We know that this street is dangerous by design, and these deaths are going to continue to happen until we make changes to the street. . . . Every single traffic fatality, it’s not just a number, it’s a person, who had friends and family members who mourn that loss, and it just breaks my heart, because I know we can prevent that hurt from happening in our community.
The good news is that Denver Streets Partnership is a coalition looking out for the self-propelled. May they be blessed in their work. 36-year old, Chris Baker
Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
In 1965, Ralph Nader published Unsafe at Any Speed, the book that tackled the unsafe practices of the auto industry and launched the modern consumer protection movement. This is a short post that recognizes the merits of Nader’s efforts.
Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
For those who follow cycling, the answer is no doubt obvious, just as “Who is Frank Shorter?” would be for a runner.[1] But for me, Chris Boardman is a new-found national treasure, albeit one that belongs to Britain. From the current home page of his web log: https://www.chrisboardman.com Continue reading “Who is Chris Boardman?”
Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
The honeymoon is over: even a pandemic cannot clear the streets for long. I know, I know, it’s a sign that national economies are surviving. But, my, for those who spend most of their time on their feet or on their bikes, the quiet, clear streets were wonderful.
Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
Collision
My friend Charles visited Spain in 2016. On the evening of September 14th, he and his friend Robert were walking through Bilbao. They were in a densely packed area, crossing a cobblestone street. Robert was walking a few feet ahead. Suddenly, he saw a body come over his head and fall in front of him. It was Charles. Continue reading “Man vs. Motorcycle”
Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
[Don Bushey, owner of Wilderness Exchange and, along those lines, quite active in rock climbing and skiing, wrote the following in an email.]
I honestly think that recreational road riding is the most dangerous activity I engage in—at least statistically this seems true. The main difference is that with the other dangerous things I do—rock climbing, backcountry skiing, and surfing—there are behaviors and actions that can minimize and reduce my risk. With road biking, it is entirely out of my control (except for wiping out), and getting hit by a car from behind is a purely objective danger. I should tell you sometime about my near death experience that I had on a road bike up Sunshine Canyon . . .
Mission: To promote driving less so all may live more.
Smart phone usage prompts this post. Nearly every driver knows the dangers, but not every driver feels the dangers. Hence the advantage of being a pedestrian. Frankly I’m surprised there are not more car-to-car, car-to-bike, and car-to-pedestrian collisions. The human body and mind are wonderfully made.
The underlying problem is of course distraction. Drivers were instructed to “keep your eyes on the road” long before the mobile phone. But somehow people like myself hone in on texting and map reading as the biggest threat. Continue reading “Driving with a Distracted Mind”
The White Line’s 
