By Edgar T. Numrich

For all the good (depending on one's point of view) that may be said of America's 21st-century drive at social engineering, at least one thing is still true: Oil and water don't mix.

And while this opinion is not a critique of same-sex marriage, there is something in common there with sharing the public roads as a matter of design and function. Take, for instance, the interaction between cars, trucks and bicycles -- and those who operate them.

Locally, at least, we are finding that newly found commuting diversity, when applied by those in political office, has unintended public consequences: confusion, impatience, frustration, anger -- and accidents that are too often fatal.

It's going to get worse.

In Portland, the City Hall mission to convert many principal streets and boulevards into high-speed, no-holds-barred expressways for "commuter" bicyclists is all but taken for granted. It's bad enough to have undisciplined rider observance of traffic laws and no common sense to look over your shoulder before changing lanes abruptly. Little uniformity in the placement and marking of bicycle lanes makes it worse. Putting some lanes at the curb while others are down the middle of the street (especially downtown) is confusing at best. There appears to be little rhyme or reason to "bike box" markings and "green lanes" that take no account of how automobile traffic actually flows (think freeway entrance ramps).

As well, some popular and well-traveled routes simply have no room (and are impossible to mark) let alone have a road shoulder, but are nonetheless very popular with bikers for some near-suicidal reason. Try Southwest Terwilliger Boulevard from Lewis & Clark College to Burlingame for some thrills.

Growing up in urban Portland decades ago, my bike took me all over town -- happily on the side streets, where there were few cars. Ride down Sandy Boulevard on the east side or Barbur Boulevard on the west, even then? Not a chance. Today, most bicyclists are determined to use those and other "main streets" -- Southeast Division, everyone? And they are encouraged to do so by ... you know who.

In a phrase, it's stupid -- not to encourage bicycle commuting as opposed to cars, but to insist on throwing them together willy-nilly on the busiest streets only encourages a witch's brew of "Us vs. Them."

This is a call to get at least some main thoroughfares, downtown streets and bridges marked as "bike-free" ... and strictly enforced as such.

The life saved might be yours.



Edgar T. Numrich lives in Lake Oswego.

