Joe, John, Ben, my dad and I all rode in the Seattle to Portland bike ride this weekend. It was the first for all of us, and we all made it. The ride was a lot of fun, and followed a really enjoyable and scenic route along many backroads and on a few major highways as well.
There was a rather horrible hit and run accident on Sunday hich has drawn a lot of attention, and it has been interesting to read comments in many of the local papers along the route. Opinions of the ride, the riders, and cyclists, cars, and “the law” vary wildly.
The Longview Daily News has some rather hostile remarks predominantly from the area’s inhabitants, but also a fair share of nasty remarks from cyclists. I can understand the annoyance that these people must feel having to deal with the delays, litter, and arrogance of many riders, but most seem to have a very loose grasp of the law regarding bicycle travel, and a surprising amount of pain considering the rather limited duration of the nuisance.
Changing the route might not be a bad idea, but lowering the cap on the number of riders would be a great good will effort on the part of the club. The number of riders was absurd, even from the participant’s standpoint.
I disagree on lowering the cap on riders. I think it should expand if anything. It was great to see so many different levels of people accomplishing the looong ride. I thought that the event was well organized and they did a great job of handling the mob and the traffic. When Seattle hosts marathons and half-marathons (which they do several a year) they close down entire streets for the day. For the most part, traffic was left open, however slowed a bit at some spots. The event took place on a non-holiday weekend. The few people that were inconvenienced, well, I dunno what to say; except that 9000 other people got to enjoy the ride. When traffic is let out of Seahawk Stadium or Safeco (on a winning year) the traffic cluster fudge is by far worse – but I guess that’s in the ‘big city’ where traffic is expected to be backed up.
Actually, I think I agree with you. But I chose to live in a city because I am able to deal with changes in my routine – in fact, I thrive on it.
I suspect you may be on to something regarding stadium sport traffice as opposed to yuppie sports like cycling. If the traffic was all cars coming from a Seahawks game, would it be viewed differently?
I really want to do another big ride now. I think the lady-folk are game for the Harvest century, but maybe there’s something sooner. Maybe the Portland Century? Joe, Greg and I have ridden the 50 route a number of times, so maybe we should tackle the 1 hundie?
http://www.portlandcentury.com/