ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : A Biker’s Plea to Motorists: Help End the Cycle of Death : Too many recreational riders are dying under the wheels of careless drivers. A little courtesy by all concerned could save lives.

Charles Bright recently died in the heat of the afternoon, not far from his home, riding a bicycle at the age of 51. They said he started as a Jungle Cruise guide and rose to a top corporate position at Disney. A friend called Bright “a dreamer, a doer.”

Kenneth Lundie was 66 when he died. Someone slammed into him and his bike on Santa Ana Canyon Road, and whoever it was didn’t even bother to stop. Lundie’s wife said he rode because “he loved it.”

The deaths of these men, and others like them, were reported in the pages of this newspaper. Men and women, of all ages, out on a bike for fun or exercise, enjoying the weather that has drawn us all here, killed in an instant of sheer negligence or recklessness or just plain bad luck. The statistics speak for themselves: During the past decade, bicycle fatalities in Orange County have doubled. Injuries have climbed sharply too.

If you ride bicycles at all, and I do--four, five times a week--it’s not really surprising. People are in a rush, always in a hurry to go somewhere, anywhere, and sometimes bikers just get in their way.

Ride your bike sometime and see what I mean. It doesn’t take long before you get the look : the icy glare of a motorist who resents having to share the road. Sometimes they’ll flip you the finger, or honk, or if they’re bold or reckless enough, veer into the bike lane just to give you a little scare. Just to show you who’s boss.

But mostly it’s just the look, one of impatience, of having to slow for a group of cyclists. Certainly there are considerate, drivers out there who give bikers a little space, who recognize the inherent dangers. But all it takes is one, late for work, in a rush to pick up the kids, and we here at the newspaper will be writing another obituary--and updating the grim statistics.

The problem is there is a lot of blame to go around. It’s not always the motorist at fault. Some bikers run lights like the law doesn’t apply to them, ride three abreast in the road, ride too fast for traffic, weave in and out of traffic, neglect their responsibility to let motorists know their intentions.

These cyclists should know better, and no one can be held at fault if a hot-rod biker decides not to stop for the light because it will slow his momentum.

But most serious bikers I know recognize the dangers and wisely ride in a way to cut the odds of the unthinkable. We ride 21-pound bicycles with a 6- to 8-ounce piece of pressed Styrofoam on our heads. We take the risk because we love to ride, but we do what we can to reduce the risks.

Cyclists ride because we love the sport, the freedom it offers, the sheer fun of it, the release from the stress of work. We enjoy the camaraderie of the pack, the physical demands.

We ride on the road because that’s what the law says we must do. And if we’re not riding next to the curb, but near the bike-lane stripe, it’s because it is the safest place to be. A lot of motorists don’t seem to understand this. But slow down sometime and take a look at the debris littering the bike lane--rocks, broken glass-- not to mention the drainage gates. Ride in the gutter and you won’t be riding for long.

I suspect that many accidents are caused not by the anger of a motorist trying to get even, but by negligence, and ignorance. It’s easy to misjudge the speed of cyclists. Many drivers pass you and then veer into the bike lane to make a right turn. By the time they slow for the turn, you’re often closing in on their rear bumper, and the only way to avoid impact is to slide by on the left--in the lane of traffic.

Motorists have a responsibility to watch out for us, to signal us their intentions, to let us pass, just as we have a responsibility to make our intentions known. Bikers are taught to ride in straight lines, but excuse us if we do veer to avoid a broken bottle in the roadway. The typical road bike tire is about as wide as your thumb, and even a small rock can send us spilling into the road. So if we weave a bit, forgive us.

And we should always use hand signals, make eye contact with drivers and make sure it is clear before cutting across lanes to make a left. And motorists must grant us equal rights. They shouldn’t drive too close when there is room in another lane.

Orange County is home to thousands of avid recreational cyclists. We have families and children and jobs. We just also happen to have bikes. It also is home to some of the world’s worst traffic. But we’re going to have to learn to share the road.

If not, we’ll be writing more obituaries about people who simply “loved to ride.”