Mike Schatz figured it was the right thing to do.

Horrified by his first $70 trip to the gas station, Schatz drove to a bike shop last month, plunked down $2,500 on a new touring bicycle and began two-wheel commuting from his Grant Park home to his office in West Midtown.

Courtesy of Mike Schatz (ENLARGE)

Mike Schatz, while still in Piedmont Hospital's Emergency Unit, displayed his freshly broken elbows.

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The pluses included conservation and fitness as well as frugality — until the morning he went airborne above traffic on West Marietta Street. Hit by a car, he broke both elbows.

Afterward he asked himself, "This is what I get for trying to save the environment?"

Cycling advocates say this could be the Summer of Splat on local roads. Take the area's dearth of bike paths, add aggressive Atlanta motorists, then toss in bikers who haven't been on the roads for decades.

Presto — the buns are busting all over town.

"We're seeing more people getting hit" by cars, said Dr. John Xerogeanes, chief of sports medicine at Emory's Orthopedic and Spine Center. "There are people crashing and people having trouble because they're starting to ride their bike in the city."

"We're seeing more of that [accidents], yes," said Dan Thornton, owner of Free-Flight Bicycles, with three shops across North Georgia. "We're seeing the noncommitted cyclist getting on the roadways. I've even noticed people going the wrong way. It's all happened so quickly."

Hard data aren't available. No official figures for bike crashes are available since 2006 — when there were 288 smash-ups in the four core metro Atlanta counties — and bike wrecks are historically under-reported. Across the state, fatalities have remained static around 20 per year. But an informal survey of bikers, bike groups, bike sellers and the medical community points to the possibility of a scabby summer.

Ask Schatz, creative director for the Blue Sky ad agency. He was making just his third commute on his new bike when he came to a five-way intersection near the King Plow Arts Center and attempted to maintain his right-of-way when a car made a left turn in front of him.

Brakes locked. Cars screeched. Schatz flew over his handlebars. Gravity did the rest.

The driver "never even rolled his window down," Schatz said. "He learned forward, he looked at me and he mouthed, 'Are you OK?' I told him, 'I think so.' And he drove off."

Across the city, bike business is booming, not only in sales — up 30 to 40 percent at some stores — but in reconditioning older bikes being brought out of storage to combat high gas prices.

"People are starting to buy bicycles to ride one or two miles. Three is kind of max," said Mike Goodman, owner of Intown Bicycles. "It's too short a distance to start your car and try to find a parking place, and yet a little too far to walk. They're also buying them to make the Trader Joe's run. We're selling a lot of baskets."

But new bikers are being introduced to an antagonism that has simmered between Atlanta drivers and bicyclists for years.

"There's not a healthy respect, generally, on the part of cars toward bicycles," said Richard Griffiths, a bicycle enthusiast who works as editorial director at CNN. "There's also disrespect of automotive traffic by cyclists."

Atlanta has been ranked among the least bike-friendly cities by Bicyling magazine. That would come as no surprise to Griffiths, who has survived two broken hips while riding in the last two years — one after a truck ran a stop sign. While riding in Decatur last year, he watched as cyclist Ashley Hurst was knocked to the curb and run over by an inattentive driver as she waited for a traffic light to change.

"It's a perfect storm," said Hurst, an Atlanta attorney who escaped with a bruised leg. "You're adding a bunch of different variables, all of which are bad, and you're going make a situation that is already pretty bad to begin with much worse."

Local enthusiasts have long complained about the lack of dedicated bike lanes. Aside from the Silver Comet Trail through Cobb, Paulding and Polk counties and the Atlanta-Stone Mountain bikeway, recreational bikers are often sent onto surface streets that were not meant for them.

Portland, with 11,000 bike commuters, has dedicated 160 miles to bike lanes. Houston has a 277 miles of on-street bikeways. Atlanta's bike lanes total 30 miles.

Some inexperienced riders are getting hurt even without a crash.

"What I've seen more often are chronic injuries, and I expect to see more as people ride more," said David Pasion, an Emory physical therapist. "Those injuries are knee pains, neck pains, shoulder pains, just chronic use injuries from perhaps riding a bike that is not fit

for them."

Bike commuters are most at-risk. Buddy Hall, managing director at Riot Atlanta, a Buckhead audio-visual production company, says he sees at least one rider-driver confrontation per week during his daily ride to and from Midtown.

"I get yelled at on a semi-regular basis," Hall said. "I've been physically threatened. I had a guy jump out of his car at me one day."

Misinformation abounds. Riders tell stories of how police officers have chided riders to get on the sidewalk, where it is illegal for them to ride. Cyclists habitually maneuver ahead of standing traffic at stop lights, which is wrong too.

"My personal opinion is, bicyclists are taking to the road that don't have much road experience and haven't bothered to take classes in roads riding," said Ken Rosskopf, a Decatur attorney who specializes in bike issues. Classes are offered by the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign (atlantabike2.org).

Schatz's bike, its handlebars now twisted backward, sits in his office, where he stashed it that morning of June 25.

His casts have been removed, replaced with braces he'll wear for a few more weeks. A decision is coming. Is he still a bike commuter?

"The fact that you have to bike back home, it's forced exercise twice a day," he said. "I really plan on doing it. I can't just stop after three rides."

BICYCLE SAFETY TIPS

Mike Goodman, owner of Intown Bicycles, offers these tips:

1. Dress so drivers can see you. Wear yellow; don't wear gray. You'll be nearly invisible, blending into the street, especially at dusk. At night, use lights and wear reflective gear.

2. Follow the rules of the road. Bicycles are classified as vehicles, thus they are required to follow the same rules of the road as other vehicles. Ride on the right side of the road; obey signs and signals; take the left lane when turning left, and signal your intentions to drivers.

3. Be aware. Watch for cars making left turns in front of you, and look for cars pulling out from side streets and driveways. Watch for cars that pass you and then make a right turn in front of you — prevent this situation by moving to the center of the lane before you get to the intersection. Be aware that railroad tracks and steel cover plates are slippery, especially when wet. Signal drivers, if possible, before making any unexpected moves.

4. Pick good routes. You can find lots of neighborhood streets or more lightly traveled thoroughfares when you look for them. Ask other cyclists about good routes, how bad the hills are and which traffic lights don't recognize their presence. A good route is not only safer because there is less traffic, but because you'll know where the hazards are.