University alumnus Ross Baringer was run off of the road by a motorist on Valentine’s Day, damaging his bike and breaking two of his teeth.
Despite having an active taillight flashing toward the truck, as well as reflectors alerting the driver of his presence, Baringer was unceremoniously clipped by the truck and knocked out of the way.
The truck honked at him before passing, Baringer said, showing no concern for his lawful right to be in the road.
Baringer, who delivers for Jimmy John’s by bicycle in downtown Baton Rouge, faces the wrath of disgruntled motorists every day.
“I also know a couple of people who were hit recently and had much more serious injuries than me,” Baringer said.
The Dangers of Biking
Baringer’s story isn’t a new one to Louisiana by any means.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Louisiana ranked eighth in cyclist fatalities in 2010. Nationwide, there were 618 deaths and 52,000 injuries due to bicycling accidents in that year.
According to the Capitol Region Bicycle & Pedestrian Safety Campaign, in East and West Baton Rouge parishes alone there were 85 injuries and no fatalities in 2010.
Associate Librarian at Hill Memorial Mark Martin started Baton Rouge Advocates for Safe Streets (BRASS), recently rebranded as Bike Baton Rouge, seven years ago. The bicycling and walking advocacy organization was the first to exist in Baton Rouge.
Martin has been car-free for 22 years, 13 of which he has spent in Louisiana.
He said the dangers of bicycling often outweigh the benefits for people in Louisiana. Motorists are unaware and dismissive of cyclists’ rights, even on a pedestrian-friendly campus like LSU.
In order to cope with an infrastructure unsuited for their preferred mode of travel, a sect of vehicular cyclists has grown in number in Baton Rouge. Vehicular cyclists believe that cyclists should obey the law and learn how to ride effectively with traffic.
“The rules are very simple. It’s just like driving a car, and you’re the motor,” said Matthew Repp, a natural resources and ecology management sophomore and self-described vehicular cyclist.
Although Repp was nervous about accidents with vehicles when he first started biking and stuck to sidewalks, the horribly maintained sidewalks and bike paths in Baton Rouge changed his mind, he said. Repp said he busted tires several times on the uneven, crumpled surface of these relatively safer paths before deciding to take to the road as a vehicle.
Repp said he blames accidents on lapses of attention on the part of cyclists and motorists, as well as on Baton Rouge’s infrastructure, which, like most of America’s cities, is extremely urbanized and car-oriented.
The advantage this infrastructure gives motorists, as well as the resulting dismissive attitude of other travelers, is not going unnoticed.
Casual cyclist Doug Moore said he tells cyclists new to Baton Rouge that they cannot afford to give the benefit of the doubt to motorists.
Moore, a new member of Bike Baton Rouge, said he calls for respect for motorists while nursing the assumption that they do not respect cyclists, which he admitted sounds cynical.
“I haven’t sustained any serious injuries on my bike yet,” Moore said. “I have been hit by a car once, but I escaped with just scrapes and bruises. I have been almost hit a few other times, but after being hit before, I’m especially vigilant now.”
He said everyone he knows has either been hit by a car or has had close calls.
“People in cars treat each other in ways they never would if they weren’t in their own metal and glass bubbles,” Moore said.
“It’s ignorance on the part of people who are not familiar with bikes or biking,” Martin said. He explained that problems lie in the fact that Louisiana motorists assume superiority over cyclists in most situations.
Political science professor and cyclist Roseanne Scholl said she is careful to think about cyclists and motorists as people first, no matter which role she is playing in traffic. “Most cyclists have had trash thrown at them from cars, angry honkers following and catcalls, but I think it’s more important to remember that if everyone follows traffic laws, fewer people will get hurt,” she said.
Scholl even has a bumper sticker on her car that says, “Please be kind to cyclists.”
“[Baton Rouge cyclists] have a great sense of camaraderie. Baton Rouge doesn’t have very good infrastructure for cyclists, although it’s getting better all the time. One silver lining of those challenges is that people on bikes feel a sense of kinship to other people on bikes,” Scholl said.
The Movement
Critical Mass, a world-wide cycling event typically held once a month, is one response to the problems facing cyclists everywhere. The event has been described in New Yorker magazine as “monthly political-protest rides.”
Many vehicular cyclists consider Critical Mass a form of anarchic self-policing. Considering the widely-acknowledged motto for Critical Mass is “take back the streets,” this may not be too far of a leap.
Repp disagreed with this view and said Critical Mass is much more structured than it might appear. He said there are cyclists at the event who ride ahead and signal traffic for the other participants so they can cross a dangerous intersection safely.
Another, more localized response is Baton Rouge’s annual biking festival Velo Louisiane (VeloLA).
“The original vision for VeloLA was to have a state-wide celebration of all things cycling,” said Andy Larson, lead organizer of the festival. The fourth year of the festival is seeing some progress, Larson said.
Because of the enthusiasm of people just like those behind VeloLA, biking is no longer the underground movement it was when Critical Mass originated in the 1970s. Other biking festivals and events are starting to pop up around the state.
VeloLA, which takes place from April 14-15, is followed closely by Bike-to-Work Week from May 13-17, a League of American Bicyclists (LAB) event that is a part of National Bike Month.
National Bike Month, which originated in 1956, has grown to be a testament to the rising social movement surrounding the biking community in the United States.
“You can ride a bicycle at age 8, 80, or anywhere in between,” Martin said. The problem, Martin said, is that a bike is generally considered one of three things: “kid’s toy, rich man’s obsession [or] poor man’s last choice.”
Stalled Gears
Baringer only recently joined Bike Baton Rouge, despite following it on social networks for a while and finding his job through the organization’s Facebook page.
He said he joined because of the growing number of his cyclist friends being hit by cars, having had several close calls himself.
Bike Baton Rouge is a grassroots organization working for the safety and enjoyment of the biking community, as well as change in both legislation and general attitudes toward cyclists.
In 2009, Baton Rouge received the LAB Bicycle Friendly Communities Bronze Level Award. While the imposing logo looks impressive on Bike Baton Rouge’s web page, Martin said he is indifferent to the award.
He said the city only received the award because of a healthy city initiative, after receiving the equivalent of an honorable mention from LAB for years. Martin said real change will take political will, and up until now, there has only been a great deal of “political won’t.”
Since 1972, there has been a master plan in Baton Rouge for the expansion of greenways — or natural trails that connect communities and allow slower travel, like bicycling — updated each year but never enacted.
Bike Baton Rouge, along with other organizations, pushed heavily for the passage of the Colin Goodier Protection Act.
In June 2008, LSU Medical School graduate Colin Goodier was struck by a truck on River Road while training for his first triathlon. Goodier was instantly killed when a passing truck entered his path.
As a result, the Louisiana Senate signed the Colin Goodier Bicycle Protection Act into law in August 2009, establishing cyclists’ rights to share the roads and requiring automobiles to allow a three-foot safety zone when passing bicyclists on the road. The law also protects cyclists from harassment by motorists.
Bike Baton Rouge, along with other organizations supporting the biking community, is continuing to push for more development of plans to better the situation.
Although Martin praised the intent of plans presented at a recent public presentation on greenways, the organization is still struggling to implement more change.
Martin said one of the main struggles in getting real change for the biking community is that Baton Rouge agencies are not working together as well as they could.
Martin, who spoke about the joys of bicycling at TEDxLSU in March, said Bike Baton Rouge aims to make a community that can overcome the obstacles to biking until the problems can be improved.
