On Sunday, July 7, one of the members of the Bulletin Editorial Board embarked on a bike ride to the grocery store. We left early enough that the heat hadn’t squatted across the air.

Love the biking. Adore the store. All was mostly good.

But morale dipped as the destination neared. A car heading in the opposite direction signaled it was turning left. Our biker was headed straight. The car’s body language was not comforting. It kept moving and angling toward us. Did it see us? Was it just impatient? We recognized this as an accident script.

Already in the intersection, we pedaled hard and swerved right. We cleared the car. The car went merrily on its way.

We, though, had swerved too far right. We suddenly came up on the curb, hit the brakes and swerved left. Maybe should have tried to jump it. Didn’t think of that.

Two images captured in our brain. We looked down to see the bike tire strike the curb at an angle more parallel than perpendicular. The resulting physics proved to be correct for flight. And then we have the image of looking down at the ground as we flew through the air, cleared the sidewalk and landed in some dirt.

The bike was unbothered. The human’s right side took a beating. Impact on the right leg, hip and right arm with some scrapes. No helmet thwack. Left wrist took a jolt. Right wrist was painful.

Brushed the dirt off. Right wrist did not appreciate the duty. Waited a moment for breathing to return to normal. Went to the store. Bought groceries. Biked home.

The pain set in once the adrenaline wore off. It was painful to walk, not terrible. The worst was in the right wrist. It swelled and was tender. It sure made it hard to type, get dressed, do everyday things. Right pants pockets became: Do not use.

In the days that followed, much got better but the right wrist lagged. We took the wise trip to some very nice and efficient urgent care professionals. Diagnosis was it was nothing serious.

So all good? Mostly.

When you bike, you must acknowledge that at some point you will likely go down. Maybe an unwanted aerial dismount. Maybe hard. Maybe not hard at all.

Some drivers go out of their way to give bicyclists consideration. Once, riding downtown when the snow was coming down, a person rolled down their window and applauded and cheered at us. We have had many more unpleasant bike/car experiences than ones like the applauder. And we have heard fellow bicyclists share such tales at Bend City Council meetings.

For some drivers, bicyclists achieve invisibility — or a kind of inconsequentialness — or are designated an annoyance. And that’s happening as the vulnerability for the bicyclists is set on high.

We don’t claim to be perfect drivers ourselves and not all bike riders are always touched by the better angels of their nature. Most of us could do better, whether we’re behind the wheel of a car or astride a bike.