Bike safety is personal. I can tell you because I experienced the heartbreak firsthand. It was 1974 on a youth hosteling trip… warm, sunny, dry conditions. A 9/11-type day when you least expect an irreversible tragedy to occur. Well, one of our group members died in a sudden collision with a car as she crossed a two lane highway. It was the first time in my life that I had seen death up close. It was personal. Sarah was just sixteen-years-old and I was barely old enough to drive a car. I can still recall the feeling in my body as our group — tightly knit by then — stood in a horrified, hushed silence as we stared down at her lifeless form. Any issues we had with one another in the group immediately disappeared. I have since lost touch with those who were part of that that American Youth Hostel Association group, but I can promise you that each and every one who was on that trip still thinks about what happened to Sarah that day, and bike safety in some way or another.  As we enter a new fall term and academic year, with the influx of literally thousands (actually about 250,000) of students moving into the Boston area, let’s do all we can to promote safe biking, educate drivers, pedestrians and skateboarders about the shared use of common space — and please, can we be a little less hostile  – that means every one of us – all in the name of safe movement around Boston?  Hey, I’m a bicyclist and I do drive (though I haven’t owned a car since 1994) and I have nearly been killed many times by both cars and bikes around here (Huntington Ave at Gainsborough being an infamous example).  Safe biking in the Boston area, especially among young adults, benefits everyone. I try to do my part all the time, as a way to honor Sarah’s memory. Like I said, bike safety is very personal. And remember, it can become so in a “New York second.”