When Sport Comes Through Our Neighborhoods

Often when we think about the social impact of sport, we think about it on a large and national scale. The reality for most of us is that the social impact of sport is often personal, and local. This is one of those moments.

It’s a quiet two-lane country road. The sort we’ve all driven down. The sort some of us ride bikes down. There are woods on one side, and trees opening to a field on the other side. On one end of that road, you will find a small South Jersey city. The other direction, the road links up to other small country roads that meander through the region. It’s verdant. It’s pastoral. It’s a warm summer evening and the traffic is usually light because, around there, people have mostly already gotten to the place they need to be. 
But on this night, on a regular Thursday night, August 29^th, that quiet, country road was lit up with the flashing lights of first responders. Two young men had gone out for a bike ride, two brothers, together again, back in town to part in a family wedding. 

A motorist, driving a Jeep Cherokee, was one of three motor vehicles also on the quiet country road. He was in a hurry. He zoomed passed one car, and then tried to roar past the lead vehicle, and that’s when a terrible combination of family fates were set in motion. That lead car saw two cyclists, and the driver moved toward the center of the road. In New Jersey, the law is quite clear. Give bike riders a minimum of four feet, and this first driver was moving to give them room.

The driver of the Cherokee, just behind that lead car saw only someone trying to slow him down. He cranked his steering wheel to the right, veered back into his lane and plowed into two guys pedaling for home. The reports say they were dead before police even made it to the scene.

Police say the driver smelled of alcohol. He later told them he’d had several drinks and that somehow made him aggressive. He failed the field sobriety test. He’s facing several charges as of this writing.

Sports fans, especially, have heard this story. One of the lives snuffed out was Johnny Gaudreau, born in Salem, New Jersey, a star hockey player at Boston College. Widely celebrated in his 11-year NHL career with the Calgary Flames and Columbus Blue Jackets as Johnny Hockey, he was known for his talent and love of the game. He was killed at 31, weeks shy of his third anniversary, leaving behind a wife, a daughter and newborn son. The other victim was his younger brother, Matthew Gaudreau, 29. Matthew played hockey too, joining his brother at Boston College, skating for five years as a pro before returning to his alma mater, Gloucester Catholic High School, to head the ice hockey program there. Matthew and his wife were looking forward to the birth of his first child later this year.

This is terrible and senseless. And the extended Gaudreau family, who are experiencing a hurt that’s hard to express and impossible to heal, are by no means alone.

The intersection of Pennsville-Auburn Road and Stumpy Lane in Pedricktown, NJ. Photo credit: Kenny Smith

The memorial at the intersection of Pennsville-Auburn Road and Stumpy Lane in Pedricktown, NJ. Photo credit: Kenny Smith

The National Safety Council has it that the number of preventable deaths from bike crashes rose 10% in 2022 and have increased 47% in the last 10 years (from 925 in 2013 to 1,360 in 2022). The League of American Bicyclists notes that 2022 was the deadliest year ever for cyclists. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 2022 records show more cyclists were killed by motor vehicles than any year since they began charting the data in 1975.

Talk to a cyclist, any sort of cyclist that rides on roads, and you’ll quickly hear themes emerging. The infrastructure is insufficient. Drivers don’t see cyclists. Drivers are distracted, or inconsiderate, or worse. Vehicles have gotten much, much larger. 

Every cyclist you talk to has a story about a dangerous moment, a scary encounter, or a truly life-changing experience they’ve had on the open road. A place where they also belong, by the way (go here to see the specific laws for your state). It goes beyond a random heckle or a dated Lance Armstrong reference. 

Each cyclist has their own reason for being there. They love it. This is how they commute. This is their exercise. Their childlike freedom. Their community. Their only means of transportation. Whether they are carefully calculating their watts, carefully balancing their groceries, or they are teaching their kids how to ride, no matter why they find themselves on two wheels, their experiences with motorists are common, profoundly troubling and they penetrate deep into the psyche.

We’re seeing that in a survey we’ve conducted in the light of the killing of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau. The Center for Sports Communication and Social Impact is asking cyclists in South Jersey a series of questions, has immediately received more than 500 responses, and the responses continue to roll in.  

This is what the preliminary data from the region’s cyclists tells us:

• A significant number have stated the are fearful for their safety while cycling. 85% noted they feel vulnerable on the roads.

• Roughly 85% regularly experience drivers purposefully acting in an aggressive manner towards them - things like driving too close, laying on the horn, yelling, cutting them off, having things thrown at them.

• 80% have said they have had a near-miss with a car while cycling

• 25% have been involved in an accident with a car while cycling

This tragedy has made almost half of the respondents feel less safe riding on the road, roughly half have said they plan to alter their riding routes for upcoming rides, and almost 90% have said they will take extra safety precautions, such as riding with more/extra lights, riding with a radar that will detect cars coming up behind them, or acquiring a camera to record their ride.

Sports are a huge part of our society, and there are numerous ways in which they can have an impact that don’t require national recognition and professional teams. You may not be a cyclist, but you likely live in a community that has some sort of sport aspect to it. It may be a community impacted by sport on a beautiful, personal and fragile level. Those community impacts may be where you, personally, see the most significant changes occur.

Kenny Smith is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Rowan University.