By STEVE ABEL
For The Beachcomber

I’ve been riding my bicycle around Vashon and Maury for many years. Vashon is simply the best cycling anywhere in the Puget Sound region. The roads are scenic; the traffic is light; most drivers are respectful, and the hills are good for the heart. There are a lot of us who ride year-round.  The beautiful warm weather has brought out many more cyclists— many islanders and many from Seattle and Tacoma.

But cycling on Vashon, with its winding and sometimes narrow roads, can also be dangerous. Bicycles and cars, trucks and motorcycles share the roads in an uneasy fashion. Bicycles are slow moving and sometimes impede the motorized traffic and require that cars and trucks make adjustments to pass. Cars and trucks are fast moving and scare the bicyclists, walkers and joggers because of the obvious potential for disaster.

To get it out of the way, let’s review what the law of the state of Washington says. RCW 46.61.755 reads: “Every person riding a bicycle upon a roadway shall be granted all of the rights and shall be subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle.”

The RCW goes on to state, and here I paraphrase, that cyclists should ride as near the right side of the road as is safe and that cyclists may ride two abreast. Yes, cyclists have to follow the rules of the road. That said, I’ll be the first to admit to rolling through stop signs on occasion. As with motorists, there are cyclists who don’t follow the rules all the time. As for the two abreast, most cyclists will “single up” when they know that a car is coming up behind. On the backroads, however, it is easy to get into a reverie and not notice the rare car coming up.

More important than what the law says, however, are common sense, courtesy and the ethos of sharing the road. The rule of thumb is to give cyclists a 3-foot berth and more if possible. Three feet of separation gives both the car drivers and the cyclists a minimum margin for error or for unexpected road hazards such as broken glass or gravel. Most of us on Vashon and Maury pride ourselves on our sense of community. These cyclists are our friends and neighbors. It’s a rare situation where cyclists delay a car more than 10 seconds.

As much as possible, cyclists try to stay well out of the way of cars and trucks. However, there are a number of pinch points and a lot places where the pavement has degraded so that it isn’t rideable on bicycles. When there are cars parked right up to the fog line or there are pedestrians, cyclists have to ride out into the roadway. On Dockton Road, there are long stretches where the shoulder and roadway itself are crumbling, so cyclists have to ride well out into the roadway. On Bank Road, east of town, there is a hill with no shoulders, creating a pinch point where cyclists have to ride along the fog line. On most of the back roads of the island, there are hills and curves that limit visibility.   We simply ask motorists to look ahead and anticipate problems.

Then, of course, there are the rumble strips. I promise not to belabor the point; the rumble strips got plenty of attention last summer. In simplest terms, the rumble strips have created 10 miles of road hazard for cyclists. When riding alone and with no parked cars or pedestrians, the rumble strips are no big deal other than taking away the best and cleanest riding surface just outside the fog line. When there are parked cars or pedestrians or other cyclists and the cyclist has to dodge the rumble strip and move out into the highway, motorists just have to respect the law of the land.

My favorite short ride for a hot summer day? The Maury viewing platform and Luana Beach: From Portage, ride out Dockton Road to 248th (south side of the golf course), uphill to the viewing platform (highest point on Vashon or Maury, about 485 feet). Continue around and downhill on 59th S.W. to Point Robinson Road, turn right, up a little hill, down the long hill, left on Luana Beach Road and follow it back to Point Robinson Road and back downhill to Portage.

— Steve Abel is a retired teacher, small business owner anavid cyclist.