By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
I was bicycling up the Alta Boulevard hill approaching the Rainbow Boulevard intersection when I saw a snazzy-looking bicycle rack on the back of the Subaru hatchback. It was a red light at the Rainbow intersection, which meant it would take a while to wait for the traffic signal to turn green. The motorist had the passenger side window rolled down, so I thought I’d kill the red light with some friendly chatter with the driver.
“That’s a nice bike rack you have on your car,” I told the driver.
He smiled and told me the rack can handle bicycles with 26-inch tires and 29-inch tires. And then he launched into eye-opening chatter.
“I don’t bike on the roads. Too many people drinking,” he said, pointing this right hand’s thumb and punkie in opposite directions. “I was a problem myself with DUIs. Now I’m sober.”
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I was bicycling home from the 2021 Honor Ride, an inspiring bicycle ride of injured veterans, military service members, first responders and everyday bicyclists that I try to report on every year. It’s typically held in early November and the bicyclists have many stories to tell about how the bicycle has helped them overcome a hardship.
When you ride a bicycle by yourself on roads that are designed with a priority of moving cars over the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians, sometimes you feel alone on a two-wheeler.
Not so today when hundreds of bicyclists, many wearing the Honor Ride and older Ride 2 Recovery bike jerseys, pedaled down a closed Strip and around the Las Vegas Valley and rejoiced in the pure joy of moving with power generated from your legs and your will.
Only a half-day earlier on Friday evening in downtown Las Vegas, dozens of bicycle mural painting fans used brushes and rollers to apply colors on a parking lot wall to create awareness about bicycling in Las Vegas.
It was an inspiring cross-section of bicyclists and downtown backers who came to a lot on Casino Center Boulevard to paint the mural, with a short urban bike ride that ended at the Art District.
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The headlines about the increase in deadly crashes on the roads in Clark County have been coming all year long. The scale of the deaths have also made people cry and shake their heads.
In December, a truck driver on meth killed five bicyclists south of metro Las Vegas. It was a horrific crash that many are still coping with. A five-person ghost bike was installed at various sites as a memorial reminder about the loss of bicyclists’ lives.
And while the Las Vegas Raiders traveled to metro New York City to play the Giants Sunday, back in Las Vegas people are still trying to understand why a former Raiders player drive as fast at 156 mph on a local surface street that ended with the death of 23-year-old woman and her dog on Rainbow Boulevard at 3:40AM Tuesday.
“It’s a terrible lapse in judgment of the most horrific kind, it’s something that he will have to live with the rest of his life,” Raiders interim coach Rich Bisaccia said of Henry Ruggs, the former Raiders player charged with multiple felonies. “The gravity of the situation is not lost on anyone here and we understand and respect the loss of life.”
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Amid all this pain from deaths on our roads, Las Vegas has come together. That’s what we do. We close ranks, link arms and find a way to move forward.
We continue to ride our bicyclists while never forgetting our losses. We bring candles and create memorials.