The recent attacks on Susan Tellem by various cyclists in our city divert everyone’s attention from the real issue: bicycle safety on PCH.
One only has to read today’s Malibu Times and see the carnage caused by one deranged driver and then see another upside car on the following page to get an idea of what I think Susan was trying to address. PCH is a very dangerous highway even when one is protected by thousands of pounds of steel and thousands (or hundreds of millions) of dollars of technology, yet alone a 20-pound composite bicycle and spandex shorts.
The issue isn’t legal right of way when the cyclist is laying in a pool of blood under a mangled bike and a devastated driver, who for whatever reason misjudged distance, is sitting in the back of a sheriff’s car distraught and in trouble. Susan’s solution was partly greater enforcement of traffic laws for cyclists. It might help a little -and by this I mean save a few lives-but it won’t counter the aggressive attitude of some cyclists who insist on their legal right of way. Cars are too big and too fast and bikes and bodies are too fragile, and the outcome is too predictable.
As a police officer once lamented to me, people come to the beach and leave their minds at home. They are looking at the waves and the beaches and the babes (or guys) and not focused on their driving. Similarly, most cyclists exist in their own little world. It’s a prescription for continued disaster.
I used to ride my bike a lot on PCH traveling from one canyon to another. I tried to stay as far on the shoulder as possible-not on the edge of traffic lanes and never two or three abreast. But I knew it was rolling the dice every time. And a friend was hit-perhaps intentionally-while doing all the right things so I’m pretty skeptical thinking we’re going to make drivers safer or more bike conscious. Maybe instead of “share the road” signs we need warning signs telling cyclist how many have been killed riding on PCH in the last year.
Scott Dittrich