It’s not that swerving around bikes takes a few seconds longer, although that can be annoying. It’s not that I have to pay attention when I drive. I do that already. It’s knowing that, if anything went wrong, someone would be seriously injured or worse – and I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.

The Iowa Department of Transportation reports that, in 2006, there were 443 crashes between a bicycle and a motor vehicle in the state, up 55 from the year before. In only approximately eight of the 443 crashes did the bicyclist walk away, physically unharmed. In five of them, the bicyclist died.

Those drivers will have to live with that forever.

It’s easy to point the finger: The drivers weren’t paying attention, they were going too fast, they were under the influence. It’s harder to admit that tragic things happen and sometimes bicyclists could do more to prevent them.

According to the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute, “the average careful bike rider may still crash about every 4,500 miles.”

In town, that crash may only be a little problem. If the average bike goes 18 miles per hour, then that’s not a lot slower than most cars. Drivers in town are on the lookout for bicycles. Also, roads in town typically don’t have a lot of hills and curves.

Country highways are different. There are usually a fair number of bicycles out on rural main roads, but with Ragbrai coming up, there are more every day.

Cars on those roads are going a lot faster. The roads themselves are curvy and hilly. The bicyclists I’ve seen are usually riding in the middle of the road or barely off to the side.

Drivers aren’t mind readers. There’s no way to know that a bike’s on the other side of a particularly steep hill or curve.

It’s bad enough that someone would put their own life in danger like that, but it’s also selfish to put someone else in the position to harm or kill without being able to do a thing about it.

Some people think these cyclists are going to work. In spandex? Five miles away from town at 2 o’clock in the afternoon? What kind of job do they have? Unlikely.

Others say these bicyclists are exercising. The state of Iowa uses our tax money to build and maintain hundreds of miles of bike trails. They’re even searchable by name or location on the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation’s Web site.

Ragbrai is coming up and people are training. However, if a bicyclist absolutely has to be on a winding country highway, they shouldn’t ride directly in the middle of the road. They need to be all the way over on the side. Otherwise, they are potentially in a blind spot.

Ten bike-car accidents occurred in Ames in 2007 between the months of April and June, according to Cmdr. Jim Robinson of the Ames Police Department. In the same time frame this year, there were 15 bike-car accidents.

That’s in town, where there are many more bikes and drivers than on country highways. But every time a car hits a bike, there’s potential for injury and worse.

A helmet will only help so much when an open, lightweight, slow-moving piece of metal is struck by a closed-in, heavy, speedy one. Even the most careful of bikers can’t be guaranteed not to crash, especially if surprised or something goes wrong. Even the most careful of drivers can’t do much when they come over a hill and find themselves 10 feet from a bicycle they never knew was there.  

– Bailey Lewis is a junior in English from Indianola.