Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Day: January 21, 2006”

Reason check

January 21, 2006

That gangrene on our society called talk radio - it needn't and shouldn't be gangrenous, but too typically is - runs to its worst when the effort is to draw lines between the perfectly reasonable "us" and the out of line, irrational, zany "them." It's worst when it's subtle - alert listeners won't get what's being done surruptitiously.

Here's the background story (and the facts happen not to be disputed, because the incident was captured on Tri-Met cameras).

A Portland resident named Randy Albright was pedaling his bicycle (he happens to be an activist on bicycling issues) around Hawthorne Bridge, one of the bridges crossing the Willamette River in Portland. He was not riding in the bicycle lane (most Portland bicyclists are scrupulous about sticking to these) since it had extra garvel that day, but in the main lane.. A Tri-Met bus rolled up and passed him, narrowly, there being little space available. He shook his fist at the bus; he may have swung at it with his fist as well. Then he followed the bus and, when it arrived at its next stop, he tried to get the attention of the bus driver. He apparently either did not, or the driver ignored him. Albright then walked his bicycle in front of the bus and planted himself and it there.

Almost immediately, a man exited the bus, swung at Albright and pushed him back onto the sidewalk. (Albright has said he was battered.) The man then re-entered the bus, which promptly drove off. Albright has filed a complaint against the driver; the activist passenger evidently has not been identified.

Talk jock Lars Larson, whose home station is Portland's KXL, asks the following on his web site: "Bicyclist suing Tri Met for his own road rage. Was rider [presumably, the bus passenger] unreasonable?" (more…)

Cross-border

January 21, 2006

Those porous borders around the Northwest are super-sensitive to legislation, maybe more so than anywhere else in the states. Subtle distinctions can have a big effect on interstate traffic.

As a student at the University of Idaho at Moscow, I would watch from my form window toward the west, to the point where Idaho became Washington, and where cars slipped between the two on Highway 8. Early in the evening, especially on Friday and Saturday nights, I would watch the steady stream of white lights from Pullman - heavy traffic to Moscow. After midright, the lights would turn red, traffic headed back to Pullman, home of Washington State University. The reason? Idaho's drinking age then was 19, to Washington's 21.

Change now drinking to smoking, as reports now point to smokers flocking across the border from Washington - where almost all public places, including bars, are required to be smoke-free - to Idaho, where the rules aren't quite so strict. That's ironic, since Idaho did toughen its statewide smoking rules considerably just a couple of years back.

So expect to see some altered traffic flows on the Lewiston-Clarkston, Pullman-Moscow and Spokane-Coeur d'Alene lines. The legal marketplace at work.