It helps to have ridden a bike as a kid in a large metro area like Chicago when streetcars still ruled. And our tires were wider.

I avoided them like the plague, (which they were!)

A pox on street car tracks!

Where does that leave us in a city where the volume of bicyclists and streetcars doubles every 20 minutes?

Ummm, wondering why their copy editor has that job and I don't ?

Seriously, that is one regret I have about leaving this sick, dying city. I won't be able to see the scores of bicyclists breaking their jaws on hard asphalt as a result of all the new streetcar lines.

Sorry, but I dodged the arrogant, suicidal cyclists of Portland at night for nearly a decade for a living. Every goddamn night, sans headlights and decked head to toe in trendy black fixie-wear, they would blow through red lights and stop signs at 30 mph, go down one way streets the wrong way, and appear as if by magic from cordoned off construction areas.

I would slam on the brakes to avoid killing them night after night after night, and be rewarded with the finger, a bunch of swear words and, sometimes, threats.

"Measure 11 Measure 11 Measure 11" I would chant to myself, to avoid springing from my taxicab and giving them the ass kicking they so royally required.

So, yeah, I hope dozens and dozens of them are seriously injured on those new streetcar tracks. I'll be scanning the Portland news from afar, just to have a hearty chuckle each and every time. Count on it.

Jam that up your self-righteous rear ends, cyclists of Portland. I commuted by bike all through the 90s...a solid decade...and you people made me ashamed to ride my bicycle any more.

"Self righteous...cyclists of Portland...made me ashamed to ride my bicycle." You hit that nail on the head.

Obviously, the quote in the article about everybody who bikes downtown having had an accident is just an expressive generalization, but in reflecting on the cyclists I know personally it's actually pretty true: run over by a car, surprised by a flung-open car door, slipping out on wet metal, clipped by a bus mirror, hitting the train tracks at the wrong angle, etc. I don't know if commuting by bike is itself statistically riskier than other modes of travel, but it certainly seems that there is a greater potential for slight errors to result in serious injury. At least to one's self.

Well that sucks, the best way to get rid of pesky bicyclist is to invite in pesky streetcars.

Oh, and I learned my lesson looong ago riding across cattle and railroad crossings. That was right after I learned to ride a bike at 5. Judging by how most these guys ride they must be slow learners.

Go by streetcar...and leave your bike at home. Take a book because you'll have lots of time to read.

Or you could just move out of Portland as I did.

Well Pat, walk in my shoes for 8 years, and tell me how you feel about the little darlings. And, no, I won't be hurrying back to this infamously corrupt little hell-hole.

Enjoy your pedophile mayor, your brutal, racist police force, your dying economy, your astronomically high taxes, your utterly asinine city government and it's Byzantine bureaucracy, and your giant army of scofflaw jerks on bikes.

As someone whose truck got T-boned by a speeding Radio Cab several years ago, I can confirm that bicyclists are not the only ones who break traffic laws. Cabs and civilian drivers trying to shave off a few seconds on their trips have been getting worse around here, too, even with ex-cabbie gone from the scene. And don't get me started about Tri-Met bus drivers that run red lights.

So all you self-righteous drivers, STFU. Half of everything that's wrong with this country is associated with the automobile--and I may be underestimating that. Bicyclists don't kill people.

I've been riding for about 20 years in Portland and yet a couple of months ago, I got caught in a streetcar rail for the first time and fortunately fell over slowly enough to not get hurt. These streetcars are an anathema to bicycling. In addition to the dangerous rails, the curb extensions make it practically impossible to bike around the tracks. I really can't understand why people get excited about a transportation mode that is slower than a brisk walk.

The estimate for the next expansion of the streetcar system is $117 million, for just one part of one line. That money would pay for about a huge chunk of the 20-year bike plan's improvements.

I got caught in a streetcar rail for the first time and fortunately fell over slowly enough to not get hurt.

And that "got caught" absolves you of any responsibility?

You just don't ride safely - that's what really happened - own it. Clue: You have to share the road with streetcar tracks if you choose to ride in streets with them.

Lucky you're a slow faller; shame that you're a slow learner.