Drivers, bikers, joggers: Can't we all just get along?

I would like to thank, if that is the right word, the aggressive motorist who could not grasp the concept of a mellow Sunday drive. This driver, peeved at a bicyclist hogging half of one lane of two-lane Lake Washington Boulevard, veered around the cyclist and zoomed off.

The motorist-in-a-hurry almost clipped me and my running partner on the other side of the road. The gratitude goes directly to "almost."

This scene plays out again and again. The arrival of spring, the gorgeous blooming cherry trees and forsythia, brought everyone outside all week. In a rapidly densifying city, the vying for physical space is something to behold.

Bicyclists, runners, pedestrians and motorists share limited space and a grim truth: One wrong move and your life changes forever. It's dangerous out there so we all have to do a better job divvying up the pathways and roadways. Motorized or wheeled road hogs hurt everyone.

Whether we like it or not, urban travel has reached a point of congestion and competition for space from which we can never return. So let's make it work. Park those tempers at home.

I am not an advocate for any group because I drive, run and bike at different times. When cycling, I want drivers to slow down. When driving, I want bikers to refrain from darting out of nowhere in front of my car. When running, I just want to complete the run. No clear assumptions about who owns the road. That bright idea about making eye contact with a driver that smart pedestrians employ when crossing streets applies as surely in byplay with a bicycle.

There are parts of Seattle where the vying for space — especially places with narrow lanes and no designated area for bikes — is more pronounced than others: Lake Washington Boulevard; the University District along University Way Northeast and along Northeast 45th Street; Eastlake between Fairview Avenue North and University Bridge; and California Avenue Southwest between Admiral and Fauntleroy in West Seattle.

It is Seattle's official policy to encourage more people to ride their bicycles. The goal is to triple the numbers of bicycling trips over the next 10 years.

Seattle bike afficionados estimate that one-third of Seattleites engage in some form of biking and between 4,000 and 8,000 people bicycle commute each day, depending on weather and time of year. An online survey a few years ago showed the biggest factor for people deciding whether to ride bikes to work was "traffic safety along a particular route."

Seattle ranks third of big cities, behind Portland and Minneapolis, for the share of commuters who ride bikes to work.

Portland, bike-commuting's No. 1 big city in America, has mastered a feat worthy of envy: Ridership climbed while the number of crashes remained flat.

"It's the whole safety in numbers thing," says Jeff Mapes, author of a new book, "Pedaling Revolution, How Cyclists are Changing American Cities." Mapes is from Portland. "Cities where you have more bicycles and more walkers, the crash rate goes down. More people know to pay attention."

He compared that to drivers who frequent school zones. After a while, drivers know kids are running around, darting in and out. They are more careful.

Seattle's experience is harder to quantify. Seattle has had one or two fatalities a year in recent years, a relatively low number, but my gut says it's still pretty scary out there. We seem to have more tricky hills than Portland, less road engineering that favors bicycles.

Seattle wants to be a great biking city and has committed to building more infrastructure over the next decade.

While that plays out, every biker who gets angry at an inconsiderate driver, every driver who zooms haughtily past a weaving biker, should give each other a break. We encourage density. We share roadways. Lives depend on finding ways large and small to make this fast-moving urban mosh pit work.

Joni Balter's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is jbalter@seattletimes.com