How Do We Stop the Carnage?

Hannah Rapp. Photo: Harry Aaron/Most Valuable Promotions

Last week, 26 year old Hannah Rapp, a daughter, a fiancée, a decorated USA boxer,
and so much more, was deliberately run down while out riding – a driver passed her, pulled his vehicle in front of her, and purposely backed into her. She died at the hospital.

It so infuriated and upset me that I wrote an op-ed for the bicycle industry’s trade journal, Bicycle Retailer & Industry News. BR&IN’s editor, Steve Frothingham published it.

I posted a link to an industry group and the conversation was off and running.

In the ensuing 24 hours, I found myself in a lengthy dialog with a variety of bicycle industry folks about what we can, should, and must do in making bicycling safer for everyone. (FYI it’s a closed group, but we’ll get the gist of it covered here.)

Over the years, the industry has struggled to figure out exactly what the public facing message(s) should be - should it be competition, or recreation, or transportation or?

For the most part, manufacturing chases the racing market, driving innovation and following the Continental competition scene, so what you see from them are expensive, fancy carbon fiber bikes with fit, Lycra^TM-clad guys.

Unfortunately, there is a major disconnect here – most people who ride bicycles, from children up to and including seniors, just want to ride their bicycles for pleasure or adventure.

And here is a big part of the industry dilemma. The local bike shop, which is the public face of the industry, is caught in a conundrum – buy and sell what their suppliers have to offer offer to a minuscule part of the market or try to figure out how to compete with big box stores such as Walmart and Dick’s, since that’s where the bicycles the other 90% of the market is forced to go. But, bike shops cannot buy and then sell those same bikes profitably. (That isn’t the whole story, to be sure, but it’s a pretty good snapshot of it and how the problems reveal themselves.)

As you will notice in my op-ed, it starts right out by saying… it’s not just about selling bikes. And, that brings us to the crux of the discussion I’ve been having, because pretty much everyone agrees that there is a serious problem for cyclists – they are in mortal danger when they ride and it is decimating the new bike buyer market.

What to do about it is of course the real question and that conversation has been running the gamut from lack of proper law enforcement to the current infrastructure issues, to “that’s why we all ride gravel now.” No one is wrong and there are many other issues, but there isn’t any consensus.

Then, in answer to one comment, I found myself writing the following and it suddenly occurred to me that by stating the problem clearly and objectively, answers might just start revealing themselves.

There is a societal problem here. It seems to be rooted in some sort of anger - hostility - that ends up being directed at cyclists because we are the vulnerable - easy targets.

So, how do you change the mindset that results in what we are experiencing; that mindset that either doesn’t see us, doesn’t care that we are there, or worse, is angry that we are riding in front of them on the “their” roads?

If we can figure that out - we can start to make some headway.

It’s a big ask getting people to stop running down cyclists when they are distracted, angry, or impaired. There needs to be a seismic shift in attitude and that is asking a lot these days.

Big problems sometimes need big answers – and in this case, I think there is no one answer. It is a multi-pronged problem and needs to be tackled on every possible front.

That’s going to take everyone – manufacturers, bike shops, lawyers and the legal system, and those who want to ride their bikes safety – to come together to start to find some solutions.

What we need is a groundswell of support to get noticed and make that change. I think maybe we’ve made a start.

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