For more than a year, Jane Fadgen had been commuting by bicycle from her Germantown home to her job as a registered nurse at St. Francis-Bartlett.
As she would leave early in the morning, well before sunrise, her husband Danny would ride halfway there with her and then return home. Her reasons for making the 10-mile one-way trip by bike were simple: the cost of gas, a love of cycling, and "we're environmentally tuned in."
A few weeks ago, at 4:45 a.m., Jane and Danny Fadgen were riding north on Germantown Parkway. They had just passed the Chick-fil-A on the right-hand side of the road and were crossing the bridge over the Wolf River.
Their bikes were outfitted with blinking red tail lights and each wore reflective helmets. Jane also had on a reflective vest.
"Doing everything we can to be safe," Danny said.
The driver of the car that struck Danny apparently didn't notice. Danny estimates he flew 25 yards after being launched from his seat.
"The soles of my shoes ripped off and were still on the bike," said Danny, who suffered two compression fractures in his back and is in a brace. "I could hear the brakes squealing the whole time I was flying around."
Two vs. four wheels
Danny Fadgen, 47, has been riding road bikes for 30 years. In many respects, the squealing brakes he heard echo throughout Memphis' cycling community and serve as a warning signal to anyone who rides two wheels on the same streets dominated by drivers with four wheels.
By Tennessee law, drivers of motorized vehicles are required to maintain at least a three-foot distance from bicycles.
It's a good law, but it's broken all the time.
"It frightens me when experienced riders are getting hurt," said Clark Butcher, a 24-year-old associate broker with Marx & Bensdorf who rides for an elite cycling team sponsored by the company.
Jimmy Reed, 51, who is president at Marx & Bensdorf and an experienced competitive cyclist, said that metro Memphis drivers, in general, are not cyclist-friendly. "It's just odd," Reed said. "We're viewed as the enemy."
Said Butcher: "In the average driver's mind, the cyclist is in the way and he's using a bike because he doesn't have any money."
Money isn't what motivates Reed and Butcher to ride, and the desire to save a little gas money wasn't the only thing motivating the Fadgens.
But paying more at the pump has begun to have a tangible effect on who is willing to use pedal power to get to and from the office, and more people are viewing their bicycles as means of transportation and not just as an avenue for recreation.
Kyle Wagenschutz, who lives in the Cooper-Young neighborhood and works in the White Station Tower in East Memphis, is readying a bike for daily commutes. He also volunteers at Revolutions Community Bicycle Shop at First Congressional Church.
"We've seen a huge increase in the past six months in the number of bicycles being repaired or built up," Wagenschutz said, adding that bicycle riding seems to be gaining traction in this economic recession.
"Age, gender, race . . . it doesn't seem to be escaping any demographic," he said.
Count Brent Berry, 34, among those committed to commuting by bicycle.
Three days a week Berry commutes from his home in Cordova to his job as a sales manager at Bluff City Sports in Midtown. He leaves at 6 a.m.
"On my morning route, I usually see 10 other bikes," Berry said. "A month ago, I probably saw three."
It's a 16-mile trip one way and his is not a route for the faint of heart -- especially when returning home during rush hour.
"I probably hit three of the five busiest streets in Memphis," he said. "And if you're an experienced rider, not timid, it's not a bad route."
Berry's homeward path has him starting out in Cooper-Young, making a right on Central Avenue and then a left onto Goodlett, which is almost always highly congested.
He makes a right turn onto Tuckahoe which turns into Shady Grove, and then turns right on Humphreys Blvd. Humphreys becomes Wolf River Parkway, from which he turns left onto Germantown Parkway -- the busiest and probably the most dangerous intersection on his route.
Next, he travels across the very bridge where Danny Fadgen was hit. Berry makes a right on River Bend, a right on Walnut Grove, where the speed of traffic is fast and there's nowhere for a bike to hide, and follows that to North Forest Hill Irene and his home in Cordova. "Friday afternoon's the worst time," he said. "Everybody's ready to get home."
On the road again . . .
Reed said the three most important reminders for any cyclist are: wear a helmet, wear bright clothing and pick the safest routes possible. It's also crucial to know when you have to maintain speed.
Jane Fadgen learned this lesson riding home on Germantown Parkway. She won't ride during rush hour, but even in the mid-afternoon Germantown Parkway is hazardous: Some portions have no shoulder.
"I'll sprint as hard as I can" to get through those spots, Jane said. Once, as she was pushing to get to the next stretch of shoulder, a woman behind her hit the horn.
"There was nothing either of us could do," Jane recalls, "but she didn't want to wait 50 yards."
Since Danny's accident, Jane has not been able to bring herself to ride. But Danny, with a generally good prognosis that does not include surgery, still speaks of the two of them making cross-country bike trips in the next few years and taking their son, now 11.
Danny said with confidence: "You can't be scared by one freak accident."
But you can be educated.
So, Jane wonders if some of the very people who honk at cyclists now might opt for two wheels if gas climbs to $5 or more a gallon.
"I'd like to think I'd see them on the road one day," she said. "Maybe they'll be a little more sympathetic."
The economic crunch
This is another in an occasional series looking at the effects of the economy on everyday people. Know someone, or a business, hurting or benefiting from the current economic climate? We'd like to hear about it. Contact reporter Don Wade at dwade@commercialappeal.com or by calling 529-2358.
