If you’re lucky the story continues...

You can’t prevent or even plan for this sort of thing. One minute it’s a beautiful fall afternoon in the Wine Country of Northern California. Temperatures are moderate, the sky is blue and you’re out for a ride to shake off the “dust of the day.” The next minute you’re sprawled on the pavement bleeding next to a twisted bike. If you’re lucky the story continues, if you’re not... it ends there.

Last Monday afternoon I was out for a ride on my shiny new Trek Portland commuter bike. The route included a short portion of Santa Rosa’s Highway 12, a divided thoroughfare that further south is well-known to cyclists for its narrow shoulders, its higher proportion of senior-citizen drivers, and a couple of high-profile motor vehicle-on-bike collisions that ended tragically (for the cyclists). But on this stretch of roadway it was different. The sun was setting behind me, traffic was moderate and the shoulders beautifully wide. As I approached my intended left turn I glanced behind, first in my mirror and then by turning my head, to make sure that traffic would allow me to safely move from the shoulder into the marked left turn lane at an intersection controlled by a light. “Aha, a nice long gap,” I thought. So I cautiously extended my left arm to signal my intentions and trustingly changed lanes while maintaining my pedaling cadence. As I eased across the highway I breathed a sigh of relief. I made it into the relative “safety” of the left turn lane next to the planted median. “Home free,” I thought. Now my thoughts turned to meeting my fiancé at the pool where she is a competitive swimmer.

In the next instant, I got a fleeting glance of the Volvo that plowed into me from behind. No screeching tires… no evasive maneuvers… no shouts of “Look out!” ...just pow! And that’s about all I clearly remember until I found myself in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.

I was one of the very lucky ones. I’m able to write about it afterward. Many are not. What was the driver doing? Chatting on her cell phone? Checking her email? Stuffing a burrito into her mouth and dripping salsa on her blouse? Maybe she was distracted by a Chihuahua on her lap? Who knows? What drivers need to realize, take seriously and take responsibility for is that they are piloting 3000-4000 lb. steel projectiles on the same streets where defenseless cyclists ride, joggers run and children play. A moment of driver inattention is negligence that can result in serious injuries or worse. Still, they’ll be out there… babbling on their cell phones, curling their eyebrows, and stroking their lap dogs.

Ride defensively? Sometimes there’s simply nothing you can do. Your life is entirely in their hands.

SMART Train. How smart?

SMART is a proposed 70-mile passenger railroad and parallel bicycle-pedestrian path along the publicly owned Northwestern Pacific Railroad right of way through two counties. The rail line runs from Cloverdale, at the north-end of Sonoma County, to Larkspur, where the Golden Gate Ferry connects Marin County with San Francisco. Contiguous bike trails from Cloverdale to Larkspur... what's not to like? Well, I'm a taxpayer too.

The first problem that I see with the SMART train project is the in-excess-of half billion dollars that it will cost to develop. As an economics teacher I view everything from the perspective of choices and allocations. If a region (like ours) had a not-insignificant half billion dollars to spend should we ask, "Is this the best way to invest it given the many priorities we have?" In other words, we will be making a conscious decision to spend it on a train rather than health care, children, the elderly, etc.

Second, every time I see a public bus it is nearly empty with the exception of the bridge-subsidized Golden Gate buses headed to San Francisco, exactly where SMART won't go. Can you (or anyone else for that matter) honestly say that you will take the train to San Rafael, Novato or Larkspur rather than drive with enough frequency to even remotely approach SMART's ridership estimates? And when you get to San Rafael, Novato or Larkspur you do so on public transit's schedule not yours. "Darn! There goes the ferry! When's the next one?" Then, when you get to San Rafael do you wait for a bus to get you closer to your destination or do you rent a car or hire a taxi, walk maybe?

Lastly, SMART is being positioned by proponents as costing "only" a 1/4% increase in the sales tax. That works out to more than a regressive 3% increase in tax dollars paid. So if you buy $50,000 per year in taxable goods and services you will pay an incremental $125 per year for the next twenty years. Imagine getting a bill for $125 every year from SMART. Then imagine writing a check to pay the bill... and that's whether or not you ever buy a ticket.

Well, I still like the bike trails.