So when she took a tumble and fractured her hip at N. 85th and Greenwood three days ago, her first thought was: I won’t be able to ride my bike for awhile!

Before the accident: Shannon with her newly powdercoated Marinoni

She blames the accident on “doing something stupid,” but it was the kind of thing any seasoned cyclist can relate to. The Greenwood crossroads is one of the busiest in the city, with little bike clearance from traffic. (Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, a Greenwood resident, can vouch for this.) Although it’s always tricky to reconstruct an accident second-hand, it appears Shannon was going to continue riding in the street but found herself squeezed by cars, to the point where she decided to bail on the sidewalk. She thought she could just ride up the wheelchair-access curb ramp, but instead missed it and hit the curbside square on. The impact threw her from the bike and she hit on her side “really hard.”

“It could have been a lot worse,” Shannon recounted from her hospital bed. If a car had come along, or she’d landed on her head, “I’d be in a lot worse shape.” That’s typical Shannon, making the best of a bad situation and looking at the glass half full.

She’s already started physical therapy and plans an aggressive recovery but does not yet know when she’ll be back on her trusty teal (Bianchi green) Marinoni.

“You know,” she said, “This will be the longest I’ve been off my bike in what, 52 years!”

Get well soon, Shannon — and back to your Samaritan ways.

We can save them a lot of trouble. The answer is simple, really: It was because the person who was struck was riding a bicycle at the time.

If the person had been a pedestrian or driver of a car, the bus driver would have stopped, especially with passengers hollering at him.

We all know that. It’s just a given in our society.

For someone riding a bike, though, the rules are completely different.

So think about what that simple juxtaposition implies, and ask yourself why.

And there’s a TV report. Note that one of the riders has a seat cam but apparently wasn’t using it on the ride. This may be one vital defense cyclists have in the never-ending battle with two-ton behemoths.

Deserving of further investigation: Facebook page encourages violence against cyclists… If you’re on Facebook you can tag the page as inappropriate.

Sixty-year-old guy celebrates birthday with 60-mile ride. Congrats to Gene Bisbee of BikingBis blog fame, looking forward to great things for 2010…

No worries, Gene & us other sextagenarians have lots of rides ahead of us. Here’s a mountain biker who at 72 acknowledges cutting back on the jumps and hucks (can’t afford to crash as much!).

300 large isn’t a bad payout, all things considered. The cyclist was dressed in dark clothing and had no lights on the bike, according to the article. The lessons are obvious.

The problem for cyclists is always having to defend ourselves, no matter what the circumstances, because of cases like this. Drivers and the population in general get used to blaming cyclists automatically, the way rape victims used to get blamed automatically. Reversing this cultural meme is a tall order.

This case illustrates how hard it is to really assess blame. Good for the cyclist, although he undoubtedly would have preferred full use of his elbows for the rest of his life.