September 1, 2002

To the Oregonian,

The following is for Letters from readers, (or In My Opinion) column.

I am Sixty Years Old, I am a Woman, I live in the country, to the West of Portland, in the United States of America, and I ride a bicycle.

I ride a bicycle not only for exercise and pleasure, but to do my part to help our planet, by riding instead of driving whenever possible.

For the first time I attended a Critical Mass bicycle ride, on Friday August 30. This ride is held the last Friday of every month. This particular Critical Mass ride was during the month long Bike Summer event, which Portland, Oregon was hosting.

What I witnessed and what was reported was not the same thing.

I witnessed first hand this celebration of the bicycle. This coming together of people who for a few hours a month take possession of the roads which should always be shared with bicycles, but are not.

It worries me that police see this as a bad thing.

Why do the police say there were 200 participants when anyone who attended knew there were MANY more than that.

Why is the police side put on front pages, and the bicyclists side buried in inside pages?

I personally experienced a very large group of friendly, energetic, mannerly bicycle riders coming together waving at car drivers and people along the streets, ringing their bike bells and celebrating the hope of our future.

It became tense when all of a sudden out of a side street many police cars and motorcycle police with lights flashing and sirens blaring blasted into the group. They stopped their cars in the middle of the road and were writing tickets.

I did not witness any vandalism or rock throwing as was reported by the police.

I have witnessed many times in my life cars blocking intersections when traffic is heavy, but I have never seen police come in mass because the streets are full of automobiles on a busy Friday evening.

I am fearful of what will happen to our children who are bombarded by sensationalism instead of reality.

Our children are afraid to go out into the world. They are afraid to walk down the streets. Are our police adding to this fear, or are they using their time wisely to encourage things that will HELP us.

Imagine this: Instead of police cars with lights and sirens, police on bicycles showed up with smiles and encouragement, helping the masses of bicycles move quickly through intersections, instead of slowing them down.

From what I saw the police only escalated this celebration into something that was sensational for them. They came into a peaceful event and turned it ugly. Priorities are out of balance in the Portland Police Dept.

We MUST educate not only automobile drivers, but the police. We must focus on getting cars off the roads, by providing everyone with streets that are safe for other modes of transportation, and not exclusively the automobile.

The mentality of the Portland Police must be changed to reflect the benefits of the bicycle, and the reason bicycle riders show up for Critical Mass. To encourage all who are attempting to help with the problem of too many cars, too much asphalt, too much road rage. To encourage those whose only motive is to help our world, and the spiraling-out-of-control use of the automobile, rather than finding a way to put fear into our hearts.

Bike Riders do have the law (but not the backing) that states automobiles must share the roads with bicycles. But maybe the time has come to change our laws to state that the automobile must yield to bicyclists as they must do now to pedestrians.

When it comes to the point where this many police are sent with such a combative attitude to confront a large gathering of bicycle riders, with bike riders being seen as the enemy, then something is terribly wrong.

If time was spent assuring that bicycles were given their rights to the road, and more signage on our streets educating car drivers to the fact that autos do not have exclusive use of the roads, but to share the roads with all who are not given a safe segment of that road, then our money would be well spent.

We were shown Friday evening what happens when the car drivers for a moment were denied their rights to the road, but the bicycle rider is denied this right on a daily basis.

Automobile drivers DO believe they own the roads. They don't. We must all work together to educate and help each other. Confronting bicycle riders with pepper spray when the riders are peacefully assembling to get this message across is not helping Portland, our quality of life, or the world for that matter. I learned at the Critical Mass assembly their moto: We are not blocking traffic, we are traffic. We must work together to get this message to all.

More people need to get out there and find out what is truly going on. And those driving automobiles must realize the person on the bicycle is only that, a person, just like them. It is not the enemy, but only a person traveling on the roads provided for all our use.

Connie McAyeal
ohyesbent@hotmail.com