I am writing this as a heartbroken and hopeful member of our Grant County community.
I have been riding my bike in Grant County for 39 years. I have watched the sun rise and set over the Gila from the saddle of my bike. This land has always asked us to slow down and pay attention — not because it is dangerous, but because it is alive.
For over 40 years, cyclists have been woven into the life of Silver City. These are not strangers. They are your doctors, your teachers, your veterans, your neighbors. They are my friends. And one by one, I have watched them get hurt — bikes destroyed, bodies broken, and spirits carrying wounds that don't show up on an x-ray. PTSD is real, and it follows people home long after the road has been cleared.
The riders I speak of are not newcomers finding their footing. They are decades-deep in this community, riding predictably, carefully, respectfully — the same roads, the same shoulders, the same love for this place that so many of us share.
When your eyes are on the road — truly on the road — you will see us. We are part of the landscape. We belong to it just as much as anything else moving through it does.
Silver City was never meant to be carved up into who belongs and who doesn't. This land, these roads, this community — they were always meant to be shared.
So please. Eyes up. Phones down! Slow down through town. In town and on the open road pay attention! The only reason our roads and streets are unsafe is because of unsafe drivers. Please don't be one of them!
In June alone 2 riders (that I know of) were needlessly hit. One on Highway 90. Senselessly injured. How do you hit a cyclist when he is on the shoulder of a 4-lane good visibility highway with little traffic in broad daylight? The other right in town on Pope and College. Yes, that's a busy intersection but that does not mean that drivers can senselessly race through the intersection and hit a rider in the crosswalk. The last time I looked, hitting anyone in a crosswalk is a crime. On both accounts and the sad accounts of many others that have either lost their lives or received painful injuries, the Silver City Police blamed the cyclist. We are not at fault. We are allowed to ride our bikes on these roads.
Drivers need to PAY ATTENTION so we can go on riding safely on the roads we all travel.
We are not asking to be resented or debated. We are just asking to come home. Consider this: what if one of the many bike accidents that have happened in Silver City was your child, your family member, what then?
Let's make Silver City a safe place to ride and recreate!
Sincerely,
Patricia Bernal
A cyclist, a neighbor, a member of this community Silver City
