Framing the News About Bicycling? Let’s Try ‘Safety First’

By Kate Callen

Shortly before 12 noon on May 4, I nearly killed a bicyclist.

After I made a full stop at the 30th & Upas four-way stop sign, I stepped on the accelerator to start moving through the intersection. Within seconds, a speeding cyclist ran the stop sign meant for him and flew past the front of my car.

If I hadn’t slammed on the brakes, I would have crashed into him, and it’s doubtful he would have survived. News stories would have accurately reported that I hit him. Biking activists would have vilified me as a murderer.

This awful scenario happens all too frequently in neighborhoods across San Diego because too many cyclists think stop signs and stoplights are a nuisance.

They will literally bet their lives that they can frighten motorists into giving them the right-of-way that the law doesn’t grant them. If they lose the bet, motorists who obeyed the law can still face criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits.

Bicycling activists often talk about “bike safety.” For them, the term seems to mean that drivers should always be deferential to the needs of cyclists.

I’ve never seen Circulate San Diego or the San Diego Bike Coalition mount a public awareness campaign, like Mothers Against Drunk Driving did, to promote safe cycling habits. The responsibility for safeguarding cyclists appears to fall entirely on motorists.

Bike safety propaganda was the topic of a recent Rag newsroom conversation after several of us received a letter from Ian Hembree, Bike Coalition Advocacy and Community Manager, cautioning reporters about their coverage of bike-car accidents.

Hembree begins by saying that he is “reaching out today not to criticize but … to [help] meaningfully improve how your coverage serves the public.”

He goes on to school us about how we should report collisions, citing “a recent example from a local outlet that ‘a bicycle collided with a motor vehicle.’ Framing a collision this way implies that the person on the bicycle was the cause, when in reality the circumstances had not yet been determined by law enforcement.”

(If reporters held back stories until law enforcement issued official determinations, news gathering would move at a glacial pace. Deadline pressures require us to report evidence from eyewitnesses and other sources, and we cite those sources.)

Hembree continues: “When collisions are routinely framed in ways that suggest cyclists or pedestrians are at fault, it contributes to a broader cultural narrative that treats people walking and biking as liabilities on our streets rather than as equal users of our shared public infrastructure.”

“Leading journalism organizations,” Hembree notes, “and transportation safety advocates have increasingly adopted clearer standards around this.” He cites examples:

“Use ‘crash’ or ‘collision’ instead of ‘accident,’ which implies no one is at fault and no action could have prevented the incident.

“Avoid constructions that make the vehicle or bicycle the grammatical subject when a person was driving or riding. ‘A driver struck a cyclist’ is more precise than ‘a car struck a bicycle.’”

“When a person is seriously injured or killed, lead with their humanity rather than their mode of transportation.”

Journalists are acutely aware of the humanity of people who are injured or killed. Such stories haunt us. We believe that if our work pinpoints the facts behind the tragedy, we are informing the public in a way that may prevent future tragedies.

So, let’s agree that we all must strive to heighten awareness of the contributing factors to these “crashes” or “collisions.” To that end, I’d like to offer two suggestions to biking activists that would meaningfully improve how their work serves the public.

Begin by acknowledging that high-risk biking practices, like running stop signs and stoplights, lead to a significant number of bike-related fatalities. You will build credibility by recognizing what we all see. Bicycling activists should focus less on promoting their rights and more on accepting their responsibilities.

Then embark on a vigorous and sustained public education safety campaign to remind cyclists that they must obey the law, if only for their own sake.

The Bike Coalition does offer courses in bike safety. But I doubt the young man I nearly killed would sign up for safety training. He’s the one at the greatest risk, and he’s the one you need to reach.

Instead of lecturing reporters on how to do our jobs, instruct cyclists like him on how to safeguard their lives.