I had a scare to top all scares while riding my bike downtown a last summer. The experience has left me mortified and biking hasn’t been the same since. In fact, I avoided biking downtown entirely for 2 months after that horrid day.  So, when Cascade bicycle club sent me an email, I felt like they were talking to me:

Anyone who has ridden a bicycle in the street understands the anxiety of being passed by a speeding vehicle. For some, it is enough to keep them off a bike for good

Yikes! My scare wasn't a speeding vehicle, but still, I don’t want to be off my bike for good. What is this all about? It’s about lowering Seattle’s speed limits. This change may result in improved safety, but I don’t like it. Seattle is growing rapidly and the roads are getting more clogged and more difficult every day. And the city’s focus is on “traffic calming.” I hate this word. Seattle is already too calm. The only improvements I’ve seen to roads since I’ve moved here are more roundabouts, more stop signs, narrower roads, and more potholes. As a cyclist, I should be thrilled with the new bike infrastructure that’s been added. I am, but it doesn’t take away from this focus on “calming” for vehicles. How much more calm can we get? The Seattle driving collective comes across as passive aggressive to me. Drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians alike seem to have this slow, it’s all good, demeanor where they allow everyone to go their way. Until. They’ve had enough. Then they are honking and yelling and blocking off as many people as they can. I get the data that says driving slower is safer, but this overall calming effort rubs me the wrong way and I wonder how many Seattleites will comply. Seattle is growing. At some point it's going to take forever to get from point A to point B if our only solution is to drive slower.

I would much rather see a focus on the inattentive and distracted driver. While I've had a co-worker killed by a texting driver, I think the issue is more complex than making laws against texting (texting is ubiquitous in our culture. Telling people they can't text is like telling a dog it can't eat the food in front of it. Sure, you can make it stop but it takes constant vigilance). Also, texting is only one method of distraction. People are often exhausted, emotionally drained, attending to children, unsure of where to go and so on. All of these are facts of our life and aren't going to easily go away.

.