Posted on 11/10/2013 6:57:21 PM PST by nickcarraway
EVERYBODY who knows me knows that I love cycling and that I’m also completely freaked out by it. I got into the sport for middle-aged reasons: fat; creaky knees; the delusional vanity of tight shorts. Registering for a triathlon, I took my first ride in decades. Wind in my hair, smile on my face, I decided instantly that I would bike everywhere like all those beautiful hipster kids on fixies. Within minutes, however, I watched an S.U.V. hit another cyclist, and then I got my own front wheel stuck in a streetcar track, sending me to the pavement.
I made it home alive and bought a stationary bike trainer and workout DVDs with the ex-pro Robbie Ventura guiding virtual rides on Wisconsin farm roads, so that I could sweat safely in my California basement. Then I called my buddy Russ, one of 13,500 daily bike commuters in Washington, D.C. Russ swore cycling was harmless but confessed to awakening recently in a Level 4 trauma center, having been hit by a car he could not remember. Still, Russ insisted I could avoid harm by assuming that every driver was “a mouth-breathing drug addict with a murderous hatred for cyclists.”
The anecdotes mounted: my wife’s childhood friend was cycling with Mom and Dad when a city truck killed her; two of my father’s law partners, maimed. I began noticing “cyclist killed” news articles, like one about Amelie Le Moullac, 24, pedaling inside a bike lane in San Francisco’s SOMA district when a truck turned right and killed her. In these articles, I found a recurring phrase: to quote from The San Francisco Chronicle story about Ms. Le Moullac, “The truck driver stayed at the scene and was not cited.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Of course when (not if) car strikes cyclist, the collision is not elastic, rather it deforms the cyclist a lot, and in a painful way. Cyclists should be very careful, as they are at risk of death. Drivers should be very careful, as they could kill a loved one, a friend.
It's more like "take a basketball and a wet washcloth, hold them together with the washcloth on top, and drop them together from about shoulder height."
I've seen plenty of obnoxious, holier-than-thou bicyclists. I don't desire to kill them, or to see them crash. Sometimes I have to ride behind them at 10 mph as they struggle to make it up a hill because I can't safely pass them.
I chalk it up to "they pay taxes too."
I wouldn’t mind them so much if they didn’t act as if they’re exempt from traffic laws.
There was argument as to what he meant — and whether it would be considered a dying declaration and/or admission against interest exception(s) to hearsay. IIRC it was ordered excluded from evidence.
There are just way too many distracted drivers out there these days. Not to mention the ones under the influence of both legal and illegal substances.
Indeed.
I always tell people to think twice before they hop onto their adult version of the children’s toy and pedal into traffic.
In most states, unless it’s specifically posted, a bike line is a courtesy lane, but bikes are vehicles and are still entitled to use travel lanes if cyclists so desire. That also obligates them to all of the rules of the vehicle code not specifically exempted or specifically changed, including mandatory slowing down/stopping and turning hand signals, yielding right of way to pedestrians and obeying all traffic control signals and signs.
They don’t pay gas taxes while riding their bicycle.
I used to ride facing traffic and if a vehicle approached, I would just get off the highway completely, maybe 10 feet off the road, until it passed.
Those old single speed bikes with the large wide tires were not fast but you could ride them on rough ground.
I simply would not have ridden on a road which had a lot of traffic on it.
A “level 4” trauma center is just a community hospital. Another writer who can’t be bothered with a few simple facts.
> I just don’t want that on my conscience
Exactly. And the article suggests it should go on your record, too.
The arrogant bird-head finger-flipping cursing faggot lawyer cyclists are putting your conscience, record and peace of mind at risk.
When a Road Whieny forces Me to choose between him and a Semi,
ain’t much of a choice.
I used to bike to work, until the day that a car decided to make a right turn right over me while I was traveling about 45 MPH down a narrow road.
There, fixed it. And yes, it's okay to run over them...extra points for backing over them and hitting them again.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
> unless it’s specifically posted, a bike line is a courtesy lane, but bikes are vehicles and are still entitled to use travel lanes if cyclists so desire
First, bike lanes are not at all safe. Second, drivers putting up with them are going to expect cyclists to stay in them. It doesn’t matter what you say the law is. Drivers need you to stay out of the way. Understand.
It’s like anything else in this life: you take your chances.
A good friend of mine lost his daughter after she fell off her bicycle hitting her head. Young girl died hours later. Complete “freak accident” kind of thing. Sometimes stuff just happens.
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Yes. And if a bicyclist suffers a loss and a motor vehicle is present, the mv operator will suffer criminal and or civil charges.
>>I always tell people to think twice before they hop onto their adult version of the children’s toy and pedal into traffic.
Do you realize that in most of the world, adults ride bicycles? I agree that dressing up in spandex and riding from Point A back to Point A in a pack is not transportation, but those of us who like to save a trip in the car to go buy dog food are using a bicycle as legitimate and functional transportation.
8~)
In Maywood, CA where I used to live, the bicyclists rode routinely against the traffic. It may have been legal to do that in Mexico, but is is wrong in CA. My plan was to go slow enough that I would be stopped when the bicyclist hit me.
Not that in the crooked courts that would count for much. I carry insurance for the truck and legal insurance, and still have to face facts: Some shyster might steal everything I have worked for the last 20 years AGAIN.
Please think twice every time you head out, FRIend. Stay safe.
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