Bicycle Spoken Here: The State's Role in Safer Cycling

The Oregon DMV manual has a 900 word section on bicycling safety, and writes frequently about the motorist in relation to other traffic; bicycles, pedestrians, motorcycles, children.

Repeatedly, the Oregon manual emphasizes the message to use caution for bicyclists.

This specific phrase appears several times, "Be especially alert for bicycles and motorcycles as they are narrower than most other vehicles and can’t be easily seen."

Bicycle safety has its own section, titled "Sharing the Road," which details best practices for multimodal transportation.

In it are listed five, very specific examples of errors that cause people to strike a bicyclist:

• Turning left without noticing an oncoming bicyclist.
• Turning right at an intersection or driveway without checking for a bicyclist on the right who is continuing straight ahead or a bicyclist coming from the opposite direction in front of you.
• Entering or crossing a street without checking for a bicyclist in the street or on the sidewalk.
• Opening a vehicle door into the path of a bicyclist or swerving into a bicycle lane.
• Trucks, RVs, and vehicles pulling trailers with wide mirrors passing too close to a bicyclist

"We would also like to amend and add improvements to the DMV Bicycle Safety webpage," Gilbert said. "The Virginia DMV has a unique power: that of educating every single driver to be in the state."

"...Bicyclists are bound by nearly identical laws, and many people who drive also bicycle," Gilbert said. "Therefore, additional information in either the Virginia Driving Manual itself, or another medium, would be extremely beneficial."

I gained the perspective of a cyclist through commuting, and in turn became a more conscious motorist. Yet, a majority of people claim that they don’t want to try bicycling or commuting because of the danger they feel on the road—a Catch 22.