The Perils of Cycling
Two incidents in the past month involving have reminded me just how unprepared America is to move forward as a society responsible for its health and environment. One of my friends has been carping on this issue for a while, and for once, I will join his refrain.
The bicycle is increasingly considered a legitimate mode of commuting; many employers provide showers and secure lockers for staff. As the environmental, health and cost benefits of biking are realized by more individuals, there is more contact between bicyclists and automobile commuters. This fact rears its head in some ugly ways. The first is that case of a Seattle commuter who was shot with BBs at point blank range this past week. He blogged about this and his situation described in a local paper. The thing was that he kept riding with a pneumothorax, got home, and told his wife in private so as not to concern his kids! One of the BBs lodged near his aorta, but he is okay and will be able to bike again soon. My other example doesn't have such a happy ending (yet).
When I first started working in the Murry lab (where I completed my dissertation work), I was drawn to certain of the experimental techniques used there - namely murine cardiac surgery. That a mouse heart the size of Roosevelt's head on a dime could be used to approximate human heart function was amazing to me, and that we could surgically induce heart attack was unbelievable. I learned how to do heart surgery from the skilled hands of Jitka Virag. Now an assistant professor at East Carolina University, Jitka was a post-doc in the Murry lab. When she left, I inherited her desktop computer, through which all of my science was done. On October 19, while bicycling home from work, she was struck by a motorist who was traveling as fast as 50 mph. Her helmet may have protected her head, but it could not prevent a T4-5 spinal cord transection. She has been recovering in the hospital since then. community of support has formed around her, reaching across the country and around the world. Some of the updates on the blog her husband keeps are in Hungarian for family members over there to keep up with the news. I am thankful that she is alive, but hope she can come off the ventilator soon.
Incidents like these make it hard for me to oppose groups like Critical Mass. Some of their tactics are belligerent, but they are not as belligerent as BBs shot at point blank. Their behavior may be irresponsible, but not as irresponsible as clipping a bicyclist at full speed.
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Biking safety
Scary stuff that can happen while biking. Some have no respect for us who ride for excercise as well as commuting. I like the new 2 mile challenge from Bicycling Magazine-where they ask any trip under 2 miles from home be made by bike. Though cycling and trails seem to be more readily available, there are still those intent on doing harm to the bikers on the streets.
Just thought I'd share a couple of my stories from St. Louis. One strange time was when an egg was thrown from a car. It was a good throw and the weird shape and weight made it spin strangely and look like a big white ball. I slowed down on my bike as I was kind of shocked trying to figure out what was coming at me. It hit my leg and splattered. The funny part was the carload of people who threw it had stopped to laugh and see what happened. After realizing it was just an egg broken all over my jeans, I got super-crazy mad and began chasing this car. The people in the back seat looked so horrified as this big guy full of anger and adrenaline chased their car at high speed. They had to run some stop signs and lights to get away but it felt good to scare the crap out of these jerks.
A stranger thing was when I noticed a car go slowly by and thought something weird was up. I felt something in my side but didn't think too much of it. Later I felt my pants and had a blow-dart lodged in my belt loop at the side of my waist. So some creepy freak had been driving around shooting blow darts- and I guess I was one of the lucky (that it just got stuck in my belt loop) victims of this strange prank. My question was did they dip the dart in anything weird to cause some later damage.
It takes an underhanded cruel person to pull these little pranks, and although usually nice I wish pain upon these f-ers. My final story is of a kid who flipped me off from a school bus. About 6 blocks later I realized I was at a stop light next to the bus with the finger-happy kid. I sort of yelled a little but felt hopeless at teaching this kid a lesson with the high-up open bus window, when I thought of my water bottle. I just wonder what this kid's Mom thought when he got home from school drenched in water. Would he tell her some mean biker did this for no reason or say he was mindlessly flipping people off? He looked pretty sad as I slowly sprayed my full water bottle all over him.
Let's try to be safe in the streets and don't forget the helmet.
Toby