Saturday during my bike ride along Gold Creek Road I pondered the problem of roadside trash. Because they have a vantage point on the road shoulder and travel at a much slower speed, cyclists see a lot more trash than people in cars. And although cyclists aren’t the source of the litter—at least not while they are biking—the trash seems more personal. Go out for a ride, whether it is for exercise, scenery, or just to get outdoors, and roadside trash is everywhere.
Gold Creek Road is a county road that connects Lake Tahuyeh to Bear Creek Dewatto Road. It bisects a scenic rural area, no houses, close-up views of Green Mountain, with acres of trees and clearcuts. But it is also an important connector road for residents of the Central Kitsap highlands heading south to link up with Route 3. People drive fast along Gold Creek Road. Inevitably trash flies, or is thrown, out of pickups, SUVs, and cars, and collects on the shoulders and in the ditches that line the road. Plastic bottles, cans, boxes, paper, rags, metal, diapers—stuff that is visible and destined to stay where it lands until a human picks it up.
Granted roadside litter doesn’t get the same attention as global warming and stormwater runoff. Yet in some ways it’s a harder pollution problem to deal with. Laws like Oregon’s bottle law and tickets for littering slow down the accumulation, but don’t eliminate it. On some roads civic groups like the Rotary Club “own” a section and periodically clean it up. Then like a rug that has just been vacuumed the roadside looks pristine for awhile until litter again gets the upper hand. I don’t know of any problem that is more labor intensive to combat. There are no tools for dealing with litter, no solution other than organizing a group of people to put the trash in bags and haul it away.
Perhaps there would be less trash along the roads if people walked more. Compare places where people walk a lot—trails, beaches, parks, and neighborhoods—to our highways. I’m not sure if less trash gets dumped in walking areas to start with or if walkers pick it up, but the difference in the amount of litter is noticeable. So to do my part on Saturday I walked my bike in a few places and filled the cargo carrier with trash. In about 200 more rides along Gold Creek Road, I might start to make a dent.
Mud Bay Blog 
I miss a picture with this one. It could also be named where does it come from? The second sentence bothers me I’d say “Because they have a vantage point on the road shoulder and travel at a much slower speed …