Species that adapt, survive. Species that don't, die. Boiled down to its simplest terms, this is Charles Darwin's well-established theory of natural selection.
Yet every year about this time, large numbers of ordinarily intelligent people who wouldn't jump out of a plane without a parachute get on the wrong side of Darwin. They defy science when riding a bicycle or skateboard, or when traveling by car.
Those who travel by car have the least visible clash with Darwin—until there's a crash. Emergency workers say there are only two kinds of crash victims—the ones who live and the ones who die. Most often, the ones who live are wearing seatbelts at the time of the collision. The ones who die are the ones ejected from their seats, sliced to shreds by twisted metal or crushed by a tumbling vehicle.
The defiance of Darwin by folks on bicycles is a lot more visible.
The first indication of their defiance of basic laws of physics as well as evolution is that they wear no helmets. Other clues include practices like running stop signs, traveling in the wrong lane of traffic, failure to light bicycles at night and failure to protect children in bike trailers by providing them with helmets and posting orange flags on the trailer.
Idahoans have a deep antipathy to government telling them what to do, so the chances that helmet laws for cyclists are ever approved are slim to none.
However, that doesn't mean that gentle reminders and a little remedial education wouldn't save lives and reduce the potential carnage.
The Sun Valley area has one of the best bike trail systems in the country, paved and unpaved. Government entities, including the Blaine County Recreation District and the cities of Sun Valley and Ketchum, have poured a lot of money into paving and maintaining bike trails and painting routes on major streets. In addition to the public that uses the trails, local bike shops are direct beneficiaries of the investment.
It's time all of the stakeholders in the local trails system got together and devised an educational outreach program for cyclists. No "rider education" programs exist, so education on the rules of the road and how to safely ride on trails and in traffic must come from other sources. Logically, such sources should include bike shops or volunteer patrols like the ones the rec district fields on cross-country ski trails in the winter.
A few basic rules and reminders offered by friendly people could prevent deaths and injuries. Backed by friendly stops and warning tickets from local police, the program could make the valley and its cities safe and sane places to ride—and drive.
