Ask just about any regular cyclist out there about their close calls or abusive encounters with motorists, and you’ll get an earful.
“Everybody I talk to — almost everybody — has been hit by a car,” cyclist Abby Walker told me last week. “You couldn’t find a cyclist in Asheville that doesn’t have at least five to 10 stories of being harassed, something thrown at them — it’s endless.”
Walker, who coaches Pisgah Rage, the mountain biking team for all Buncombe County Schools, as well as the Asheville High School team, also works as an executive assistant at Asheville on Bikes, a nonprofit cycling advocacy group. She rides a lot around here and she and her husband, Austin Walker, moved here 23 years ago because of the great cycling opportunities and community…