Tragedy – and the debate it generates.

Photo Credit - Tulsa World Newspaper

I hope I never see a scene like that pictured above.  When I was on the Oklahoma Freewheel trip, tragedy occurred in Tulsa when a drunk driver hit three cyclists.  Two were killed instantly, and the third injured badly.

Unfortunately, it appears that the community is now becoming embroiled in a bikes vs. cars argument.  You can see comments here and here and here is a bloggers view.  This bothers me.  You see an occasional comment relating to the original problem (drunken driving), but most of the attention to the root cause is being deflected by a debate that goes nowhere.

Yeah, I agree that a lot of education is still necessary on the part of both drivers and cyclists in order to provide a safe environment where the two share the road amicably.   Until that day occurs, I’m afraid that tragedies like this will continue to generate the kind of community fracture I see in the Tulsa press instead of the community rallying to support the injured and address the root cause.

On a happier note, my commute in this morning was pleasant and safe.  At lunch, I needed to run some errands, so I ended up riding an additional 5 miles around downtown Springfield at lunch hour and felt completely at ease and comfortable doing so. 

I haven’t done anything out of the ordinary this week, but will end up with somewhere around 180 miles under my butt in spite of the heat we’ve been experiencing.  That’s my kind of work week!  How was yours?

God bless….

TW