The biggest annual community bike event in Clark County is set for Saturday, and sponsors say they’re excited for a fun outing — but more than a little worried about cyclist safety.
The Ride Around Clark County, sponsored by the Vancouver Bicycle Club, usually sees hundreds of cyclists — or more — swarming city streets and country roads as they follow scenic routes for either a few easy miles or a whole lot of strenuous, zigzagging and up-and-down ones.
As they gear up for a great day of two-wheeled tourism, local cyclists are urging motorists to remember to slow down, share the road and leave lots of room while passing people on bikes.
“Just like cars, bicycles are legal vehicles on the road,” said Israel Lopez of Cycle Vancouver, a local advocacy group. “We follow the same traffic rules and have the same right to use the road.”
While safety is always on responsible cyclists’ minds, local worries have intensified in recent weeks because of a serious car-versus-bike collision July 4 near Ridgefield. That’s where a driver approached a group of riders along a rural road and struck cyclist Ken O’Day, according to eyewitnesses.
“A longtime resident of Clark County, friend to many in the cycling community and a very experienced, talented rider, Ken O’Day was on a small group ride that morning, when he was struck from behind by a car and suffered critical injuries,” wrote Debbi Krichko, who was on the ride. “This happened in an instant.”
O’Day wound up in the intensive care unit at a local hospital, where he has spent most of July, Krichko said. He recently moved to a rehabilitation facility, and his family is considering either interim housing or modifications to his family home — along with ongoing physical therapy — when he is released sometime next month.
“What happened to Ken was absolutely senseless and careless, and the sentiment and lack of remorse held by the motorist was absurd,” club volunteer coordinator Donna Richardson said. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating the collision, Krichko said.
Bikes do belong
If anything positive can come from such a tragedy, Krichko and Richardson both said, it would be greater motorist awareness of how to share the road safely with bicycles. (There’s also a community fundraising page to help with O’Day’s medical bills and recovery at https://bit.ly/3WiQ1If.)
“I hate to say it, but most drivers are ignorant of how they should treat cyclists,” Richardson said. “They don’t treat us like legitimate vehicles on the road. Sometimes, there are very respectful drivers, but others seem like they’re out to get us — like they’re targeting us or punishing us for being on their road.
Bicycles have every right to be on local roads, Richardson stressed, and motorists need to learn to accommodate them safely and legally. “It really comes down to educating motorists (about) the laws.”
It also comes down to remembering that we’re all just people, Cycle Vancouver founder Jason Cromer said.
“We’re all just trying to get where we want to go,” Cromer said. “We shouldn’t be dehumanizing each other. We all have to respect each other’s modes of transport.”
Because many roadways offer no protected bike lane or shoulder — no place at all for bikes to go, other than the main travel lane — motorists may have no choice but simply to exercise patience, Cromer said.
“The thing we see most often is people are in a hurry and they pass in an unsafe way,” said Joe Cote, past president of the Vancouver Bicycle Club. He said he’s seen some bad crashes result from nothing more than driver frustration with going slowly. “If they’d waited literally two seconds, they could pass safely.”
Slow down, make room
A 2012 Washington traffic law used to require that motorists pass cyclists “at a safe distance.” That requirement was vague enough to prove more or less unenforceable, according to the Washington Bikes, a political advocacy group that pressed for changes. Those came in 2020, with legislation that’s both broader and tighter. Here’s the latest that motorists should know about sharing the road with cyclists.
Two lanes? Give one. When there are two or more lanes traveling in the same direction, the driver must move over completely — at least one whole lane to the left — to pass the cyclist.
One lane? Slow down, give 3 feet. When there is just one travel lane, the passing driver must slow down and give the cyclist at least 3 feet of space.
One lane, space in the opposite lane? Move all the way over. If there’s just one travel lane but space in the opposite-direction lane, the passing driver must — when it’s safe — move all the way left into the opposite-direction lane, providing an entire lane of space for the cyclist.
Drivers should also be aware that state law protects bikes’ wiggle room in the roadway. While cyclists should avoid blocking faster traffic by staying as far right as possible, they needn’t hug the right when it’s unsafe to do so. Motorists may not realize that roadway edges, shoulders and even supposedly safe bike lanes can be obstacle courses of gravel, trash, broken glass and even sunken storm drains. To avoid all that, cyclists have the right to move left and occupy the center of the lane, and drivers must allow for that.
Meanwhile, cyclists should remember that Washington law says they may ride no more than two abreast on the road.
It’s also Washington law that a cyclist approaching a stop sign can do a “safety stop” rather than a full stop — treating the stop sign as a yield sign. After slowing down and looking for cross traffic, cyclists may keep pedaling, as long as there’s none. This applies only to bikes — not to pedestrians and certainly not to cars. (It does not apply to stop signs on school buses; all vehicles must stop completely for those.)
The big ride
Now that you’ve been primed about the rules and risks, don’t forget the joys and rewards of the Ride Around Clark County. There’s still time to register for any one of the event’s four planned, marked routes, which vary between a flat, easy 18 miles and a very hilly, strenuous 104 miles in a big loop around the county. All routes stop and start in downtown Vancouver. Your registration fee pays for rolling emergency support if you need it, lavishly catered rest stops and a celebratory post-ride lunch.
Learn more about routes, prices, food and festivities at vbc-usa.com.
