During my five months in Seattle, I noticed two things about bicyclists. One, around the University District in particular, there were a lot of bikers wearing racing gear. It appears that for many people who commute by bike in Seattle, wearing lycra and padded shorts is de rigeur. Especially those who use the Burke-Gilham Trail, which I can understand: this allows them to use the ride for exercise and training. Or maybe I was just seeing a lot of people training and exercising on the Trail and I assumed they wer off to work.

Of course, in Seattle, being utterly cool is utterly important. Wearing the uniform of a seriously cool bicylist would be necessary, I guess, if you needed to be seriously cool.

The second thing is that the vast majority of bicyclists wore helmets. I know I feel that biking without a helmet is a game of Russion roulette. It takes the slightest accident to go head-first, and without a helmet, you're toast. Seattle being the living hell of automobiles that it is, the bicyclists up there know the score. Death is lurking on every street in Seattle; even on the Trail, with so many people walking and running and riding, near-accidents are plentiful.

But Portland isn't that much safer. We've better bike paths for the most part, but the cars and trucks are just as bloodthirsty, and the opportunity to slip and smash your brains are more than sufficient. Yet Portland bicyclists have a much lower percentage of helmet-wearers. I don't for one second believe bikers here are better, more skillful or more lucky. They're just stupider. Many more riders in Portland seem to think the risk is low &mash; or perhaps they think they can get away with it. Whatever. It's a risk not worth taking, and more riders in Seattle than in Portland have figured that out.

Of course, living in Seattle in the first place calls your basic intelligence into question. So I guess the helmet-wearing bikers up there deserve even more credit for finding a well of intelligence that might otherwise be absent. Well done.

Portland, stop being stupid. Put on your damn helmet and save your precious brains.