opinion

Editorial: Groups of cyclists belong on streets

The cyclists avoided the streets.

They gathered by the dozens on Wednesday, to remember Gregary “Wade” Franck. The 41-year-old cyclist was struck by a drunken driver in Des Moines on Sunday while he was riding in the Urban Assault Ride, police said. He died from his injuries Tuesday.

His employer, Kyle’s Bike Shop in Ankeny, hosts a ride every Wednesday at 5:30. But this week, shop managers asked central Iowa riders not to converge on the shop. “We want everyone to be safe and we cannot keep a crowd that large safe on the roads and trails near the store,” the shop’s Facebook site implored.

So bikers responded, gathering in West Des Moines, Ames, Altoona and even Afghanistan -- wherever else the social media hashtag #RideForWade inspired people, whether they knew Franck or not. And to honor Kyle’s call to be safe, they stuck to the recreation trails as much as possible (which, despite the expansion of many trails, still is limited).

Not that they had to stay on trails. Cyclists have every right to ride on the roads, according to Iowa law.

Sadly, that fact is too often forgotten. As happens in other vehicle-bike accidents, the automatic response by too many car-loving Iowans is to blame the victim.

After the accident, Kandi Reindl, assistant city manager and special events coordinator, was quoted in a Register story that suggested Urban Assault Ride organizers didn’t do enough to safeguard riders. She said the city may require organizers to get permits and take extra precautions in the future.

That’s even though riders shared the road with motorists, so no permit was required. That’s even though organizers said they informed police of the plans and prohibited participants from taking busy streets.

After many citizens complained that Reindl seemed to blaming organizers for the death, she clarified her comments. She said the ride probably would not have needed a permit, but that it is helpful for city, public safety and DART officials to know when there will be hundreds of bicyclists on city streets during an event.

“This is not to suggest that better coordination would have prevented this accident from occurring, but hopefully better communication and collaboration will lead to safer travels for bicyclists on city streets moving forward,” Reindl said in a statement.

That’s a reasonable request for events with hundreds of riders. The last thing city officials should suggest, however, is that groups of riders need official permission to be on city streets.

After Sunday’s tragedy, three points must be emphasized:

Cyclists gather every day and ride in groups on city streets and rural roads. No permit is required. They do so because there is safety in numbers. They ride two abreast in many cases because a line of side-by-side cyclists is shorter and easier for a vehicle to pass.

Franck died because, police say, a motorist committed a criminal act. Franck died, police say, because a driver’s blood was flooded with alcohol, at 10 on a Sunday morning.

Motorists can do a better job of sharing the road. What happened to Franck happens too often. Cyclists encounter motorists drunk with rage, if not booze. They honk, curse, follow too closely and fail to give cyclists at least three feet of clearance when passing -- which is the law in several states, but not in Iowa.

Every person who rides Iowa’s roads has a story about a close call, or they know a fellow rider who wasn’t so fortunate.

Before a moment of silence Wednesday, Sterling Heise of Rasmussen Bike Shop reminded those gathered: “It could have been any one of us.”

Many of those who rode Wednesday didn’t know Franck. But as members of a close-knit community, they shared their sadness and their anger.

Don’t expect them to be silent. Don’t expect them to avoid the streets again. #RideForWade