[CMI-CM] Portland Bike Movies, Tues 9/20 noon at Art Theater

[Paul Riismandel]

Spencer,

Well, the deaths this year are very sad and shouldn't be ignored. But 
one thing I think you have to take into account is that the amount of 
bike traffic in Portland is significantly larger, especially as a 
percentage of traffic, than in most cities.

There are major bike-only routes that connect up various neighborhoods 
with downtown. Downtown there is a city-run bike locker and shower 
facility, so you can commute in on bike, get cleaned up and dressed, and 
store your bicycle securely.

Even the article below notes that city officials are supportive of 
cyclists and wish to encourage a bike-friendly city.

Have you ever been to Portland? When I go it amazes me just how many 
people are on bikes, and how serious and organized cyclists are.

--Paul

Spencer Schaffner wrote:

> Hey Paul,
> 
> This looks like an interesting event. I'm surprised, though, to hear you say
> that "Portland is one of the country's most bike-friendly cities" -- several
> cyclists have been hit by cars in Portland just this year, resulting in at
> least two deaths. A total of nine (9) pedestrians and cyclists have been
> killed in Portland just this year.
> 
> For more on the dangers of riding in Portland, see the article here:
> 
> http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=31055
> 
> (text pasted below)
> 
> Spencer
> 
> ......................
> 
>  Walk, ride at your peril
>  After four pedestrian and bicyclist deaths in 12 days, city takes stock
>   By JACOB QUINN SANDERS     Issue date: Fri, Jul 29, 2005
> 
> The Tribune 
>     There are nine names on the list so far this year, each belonging to a
> pedestrian or bicyclist killed on a Portland street.
>     John Willard Wolfe Jr.
>     Barbara Tucker
>     Timothy Allen Barrow
>     Ruzica Jovinovic
>     Noah Jacob Madison Cardamon
>     Dianna Avery
>     Kristine Okins
>     Kirk McGuire
>     Robert Beloof
>     The list is only one name longer than it was at this time last year,
> though it can seem like more: Four of them died in the 12 days between June
> 23 and July 5. Of the nine, seven were pedestrians and two were on bicycles.
> The stories of others who survived such crashes ‹ including that of a deaf,
> mute, pregnant 39-year-old bicyclist hit in May ‹ add more faces to the
> gallery of victims.
>     City commissioners, bureaucrats, civil servants and cops all largely
> support efforts to increase the ranks of walkers and riders who work and
> play in Portland and to keep them safe when they do. Some who work in the
> city credit those attitudes for creating an environment that embraces, for
> example, recent distribution ofwalking and biking neighborhood maps and
> public events that preach safety practices.
>     It also raises the stakes when something goes wrong.
>     ³If you were to come in here on a day when a pedestrian or cyclist dies,
> it¹s like we lost a family member,² Mary Volm, the city¹s communications
> director, said recently. ³Seriously, people are crying in here when it
> happens.²
>     For Jacque Authier, Cardamon¹s death May 30 at age 23 hit even closer to
> home. Her children went to school with him and she has ridden on and off
> with Critical Mass, the group of bicycle activists. She no longer owns a
> car, though she is not militant toward them and drives a family car in an
> emergency.
>     Last month, she helped organize a ³memorial ride² that drew about 200
> people who biked together to three spots where cyclists died in recent
> years.
>     They rode to Southeast 37th Avenue and Taylor Street, where Matt Schekel
> died in 1998. Then to Southeast 40th Avenue and Belmont Street, where Orion
> Satushek and Angela Leazenby died in 2003. And finally to Southeast 49th
> Avenue and Stark Street, where Cardamon died.
>     ³My consciousness has changed because of my experiences with Critical
> Mass and now after Noah has died,² Authier, 50, said. ³When I drive now, I
> really feel like I¹m in a machine that can kill people.²
>     Rarely do these crashes result in criminal charges.
>     ³A lot of times we have fatalities out here without prosecutions,² said
> Portland police Lt. Vince Jarmer of the Traffic Division. ³The reason for
> that a lot of times is that the person determined to be at fault, for lack
> of a better term, is the person who died.²
>     Police Bureau numbers this year though show a different picture.
>     So far, two of the seven pedestrian fatalities were the fault of the
> pedestrians, according to police.
>     Only one of the pedestrian and bicyclist deaths in Portland so far this
> year has resulted in criminal prosecution. Samuel Chad Parish, 27, of
> Tualatin, was charged July 3 with second-degree manslaughter and felony
> hit-and-run in the death of McGuire, 46. Parish¹s trial is pending. McGuire
> was crossing the street at Southeast 125th Avenue and Powell Boulevard that
> morning when Parish¹s green Hyundai Accent plowed into him. He died the same
> day.
>     Police also charged Dana Abdullah, 18, with criminally negligent
> homicide for driving the car that hit Cardamon. Her passenger, Shana Dawn
> Foster, 19, was charged with one count each of hindering prosecution and
> interfering with a police officer for allegedly lying to police about
> hitting Cardamon. A Multnomah County grand jury declined to pursue the
> charges, and the two women were released.
>     ³We had an obvious inability to prosecute that case,² said Rod
> Underhill, the deputy district attorney in charge of vehicular assault and
> homicide cases. ³The question of who hit who was very up in the air.²
>     Cardamon had a blood-alcohol level of .33, well over the legal limit of
> .08. Toxicology reports after his death found marijuana in his system and
> police found marijuana in a bag he carried the night he died.
>     Abdullah, however, admitted to drinking underage but had a blood-alcohol
> level of .02.
>     ³The threshold for a criminal responsibility in a crash is very high,²
> Traffic Division Cmdr. Bill Sinnott said. ³We¹re better off directing our
> resources and energy toward raising people¹s awareness that the roads are,
> and have to be, shared.²
>     Those who died in Portland this year came from different places at
> different times and at different ages.
>     Beloof, 81, was up from Berkeley, Calif., visiting his sons when he was
> hit just after 3:30 p.m. July 5 near Southeast 31st Avenue and Hawthorne
> Boulevard.
>     Okins, 24, was on a morning ride downtown on June 27 when a truck ran
> over her and her bike. She died the next day.
>     Avery, 41, had just left an east Portland bar crying the night of June
> 23 and wanted to walk home along Southeast Stark Street to think something
> over when she was hit.
>     The Department of Motor Vehicles is tracking a spike in the number of
> deaths of pedestrians and bicyclists statewide this year after vehicles
> crashed into them.
>     There were 32 fatalities through July 26 this year, an increase of 39.1
> percent over the same time last year. As in Portland, most are pedestrians.
>     That the increase has not found its way into Portland gives Mark Lear
> pause. As the city¹s traffic investigations manager, he has scoured his own
> data and that of the state¹s Department of Transportation looking for signs
> it has manifested here.
>     ³I¹ve been asking my peers at ODOT, and I haven¹t heard any details from
> them,² he said, ³so I don¹t know yet what it means for us here.²
>     Data for Portland bicycle crashes ‹ officials eschew the word ³accident²
> because most crashes are deemed avoidable ‹ is remarkably consistent since
> 1990, even as the number of trips taken by bicycle across city bridges has
> increased dramatically. In 1990, riders reported 159 crashes while the city
> recorded about 1,600 trips. In 2002, the year before the city changed how it
> measured trips and crashes, 173 crashes were reported on 8,200 trips. In
> between, Portland riders reported an average of 167.9 crashes a year as the
> number of trips rose in exponential leaps.
>     The number of fatal crashes floated between zero and five for the entire
> period.
>     Pedestrian injuries ‹ excluding deaths ‹ showed a similar pattern,
> staying annually between 223 and 280 from 1990 through 2000.
>     Such figures lead some city officials to argue that the crashes have, in
> fact, decreased dramatically.
>     ³The crashes measured against the population have gone down
> considerably,² said Linda Ginenthal, program manager for the city¹s
> Transportation Options division, who rides her bike to work.
>     Pedestrian deaths, however, have fluctuated from 20 in 1993 to 15 in
> 1994 to 8 in 1995, before totaling 18 in 1996 and shrinking to 9 in 1997.
>     ³And this year looks the same as last year, but not the year before,²
> Sinnott said. ³It¹s not a predictable event. Usually, in fact, it¹s an
> avoidable event and we have to look at how best to get people to avoid it.²
>