Confrontational Bicycling

I'm wondering if Portland has reached a critical mass of bikers yet? I ask the question because it appears that associated complaints, run-ins, accidents and fatalities are eerily frequent. We passed a biker laying on the ground after being hit just yesterday (no car in sight, which said to me hit and run) and the paper this morning talked about some major road rage where the bicyclist actually hit the driver of the car and then climbed up on top of the hood of the car for four blocks. I guess he made his point, which was that the driver was going too fast.

It isn't that I think we could actually have to many biking, it's more that I'm not sure the city is set up to accommodate as many as we have. Specifically, do we have enough bike lanes, enough bridges open to bikes, enough blue boxes, enough bike racks or any other bike accommodations that would make the coexistence thing more pleasant and healthy for all involved?

I don't know if anyone is looking into these issues or if I'm the only one asking the questions. It seems like there are times when the questions don't get asked until we have reached a sufficient death toll, that's what I want to prevent. I know I see a huddle of probably 50-70 cyclists at the west end of the Hawthorne Bridge each morning; I'm sure they're talking about issues such as these. The trick is how to get the non-bike riding public to sit up and pay attention, before they're on the wrong end of a bumper incident with a non-auto body.

Of all the times I've been in Europe, I've never witnessed a bike/car incident and they have exponentially more on the road as well as more motorcycles and scooters. Although, from what I understand, we have a larger scooter population than anywhere else in the country. I'm kind of proud of that even though I don't have one, at least I'm related to one.

On that note, it's time to go practice. Welcome back to me!