 Jake Gill |
Jake Gill is a 28-year-old shoeshine man at Nordstrom and the single father of a 7-year-old boy. He has more than a dozen tattoos, including black-and-white representations of locomotives on each of his shins. He gets around town on a Specialized road bike.
Asked whether he wears a helmet, Gill says, "What helmet? I'm a professional bike rider." Professional, he means, as in riding to work every day from his home on Southeast Belmont Street.
Of course, professional bike riders can't control the actions of people driving cars and buses. Last year, joyriding teens sideswiped a pedaling Gill, knocking him into a parked car. He sprained both of his wrists and got a gash in his head that required 12 staples.
But Gill might reconsider his helmetless ways after a recent encounter with a TriMet bus driver, which resulted in one of the 93 bus complaints filed by local cyclists so far this year with the transit agency. While that works out to about one complaint every three days, the total number to date is actually down from the most recent two years (see chart).
Gill's problems began in downtown Portland a little before 8:45 am on Wednesday, Sept. 6. Riding west on Southwest Main Street, he became alarmed when he noticed a bus approaching quickly from behind. He says he made a push-back motion with his left hand, signaling the driver to get off his tail. Gill swears he didn't make any other gestures.
The bus, he says, did not slow down. It sped up, and the driver motioned for him to get out of the way. So Gill pulled slightly to the side of Southwest Main Street near 4th Avenue, hopped off his bike and dialed 911. While on hold, he says, he realized the driver had also stopped and was coming down the bus steps to confront him.
Gill says the driver yelled, "Motherfucker, you better get the fuck out of my way." Gill, standing in front of the bus, didn't move.
He says the driver, whom he identified as a heavyset African-American man, climbed back into his seat and drove forward, straight into him. The bike rack pushed into Gill's torso, he stepped back and the bus surged into him again, he says. He says he then hurried to get out of the way, hanging up on the 911 operator.
A nearby police officer called TriMet for Gill, who was uninjured. The officer had to leave for another court appointment, and Gill ended up waiting on the sidewalk for 45 minutes until a TriMet representative showed up and gave him the number for the complaint line.
Gill called from the sidewalk. And when he got home later that day, he also rang up lawyer Mark Ginsberg, who often works with aggrieved cyclists.
Now Gill wonders why no passenger intervened on his side.
"I was just shocked," he says. "I just felt like everyone was looking the other direction. To have a city bus do that, it's pretty extreme."
TriMet officials say the incident is under investigation but won't release the name of the driver or the number of his bus. Spokeswoman Mary Fetsch says it's a definite violation of agency rules for a driver to get out of the bus. She says most of the cyclist complaints tend to be things like the "bus tried to intimidate me."
Bicycle Transportation Alliance director Evan Manvel says his organization gets roughly a dozen calls about hell-bent bus drivers each year. Manvel says that's probably only a fraction of the actual number of bike-bus confrontations, which he attributes to "a few bad apples"—some of whom, he guesses, get frustrated and takes their stress out on cyclists.
Bikers' Gripes
Cyclist complaints received by TriMet about buses so far this year, compared with the same point in 2005 and 2004.
2006:93
2005:99
2004:102
Source: Trimet
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I don't own a vehicle or a bicycle, so the majority of my commuting from place to place is by walking (with public transportation ranking second). In the 15-odd years that I've been walking everywhere to get anywhere, one thing has remained the same: people on ANY wheeled vehicle have no fucking clue as to the impact they have on their surroundings. It doesn't matter whether it's the Mr. Magoo-like drivers talking on their cellphones while ignoring the traffic light, skateboarding wannabes throwing people off of walkways in the name of childish rebellion, or bike messengers in emo glasses who just had to cut across the sidewalk because it's quicker than obeying traffic laws. It's like Goofy's Mr. Walker/Mr. Wheeler transformation in the Disney cartoons: as soon as mild-mannered pedestrian Mr. Walker enters a vehicle he transforms into Mr. Wheeler: an adrenaline-pumping, gear-minded vicar of rubber-lined RAGE.
Just in the last week I've nearly been assaulted by someone in a vehicle, and the majority of those close shaves come from bicyclists who can't bother to use the clearly marked bike lane and instead choose to cruise down the sidewalk because using their designated traffic lane is "too dangerous." Downtown it's even worse because apparently traffic signals are completely OPTIONAL if you have a Schwinn between your legs. The only times I feel truly safe walking anywhere in the Portland Metro Area is around 3 IN THE GODDAMNED MORNING. Why? Because the only thing likely to kill me at that time of night while I'm on foot is someone trying to steal my wallet instead of an idiot on wheels.
Whenever I read some tear-laden article about an "innocent cyclist" who got gored by a CARELESS YUPPIE in his HUGE, FUEL WASTING S.U.V. I keep thinking "This never would've made Willy-Week if the victim had been a pedestrian." My brother got t-boned by a jackass in a Cadillac while pushing a stroller that had my daughter in it. They had to be rushed to the hospital and the aforementioned jackass STILL hasn't been found. Where's my brother's forum to complain about it? Where's his supportive community of multi-pierced/tattooed Zoobomber poseurs in their checkered Vans and Legendary Pink Dots concert shirts to stand beside him? Or is it just another form of social Republicanism? "It's not our problem if they can't afford a second-hand Mongoose."
So until the vocal minority of responsible bicyclists help police the visible MAJORITY of uncaring ones, I'll keep regarding them with an air of contempt.
(BTW: To any of you in the geared community who decide to repost this on some freepress.org forum where it'll be replied with scores of "That asshole better watch out because we're gonna SO PWNZOR HIM": Thank you for proving my point.)
Your articulate and well thought-out message is greatly appreciated. I pity the poor bus drivers having to negotiate the crowded streets while cyclists move in and out of traffic and in front of the buses like porpoises in front of a ship. This situation reminds me of something that needs to be addressed in the upcoming election season. Licensing bicycles and cyclists. Not only would it create needed revenue for the city's transportation department, but, it would help to create more responsible cycling. We need to attach some sort of I.D. to this mode of transportation. And, while were at it, why not require cycling insurance? If a bicyclist causes damage to person or property, how does one obtain restitution? We no longer live in a society where the majority of bicyclists are ten-year-olds in their neighborhoods. Cycling is now a viable means of transportation and it is time that they bore some of the same responsibilities that motorists do.
All the professional bike riders that I know, as in those who are actually paid to ride their bikes, wear helmets. In fact, all the bike riders I know that have any grey matter, and want to keep their grey matter, wear helmets.
I hope Mr. Gill's profession provides him with enough health insurance to cover the enormous cost of hospitalization and rehabilitation if and when he suffers a head injury that could have been prevented or diminished simply by wearing a helmet.