Is it OK to kill cyclists?

[BigPiney]

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/09/16/667...-law-goes.html

New law in California requires that you give cyclists 3 feet of space when passing, or slow down and wait to pass when you can do so safely. Hopefully this will help and be enforced.

[Dwight Schr-ute]

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/09/16/667...-law-goes.html

New law in California requires that you give cyclists 3 feet of space when passing, or slow down and wait to pass when you can do so safely. Hopefully this will help and be enforced.

It's a nice feeling law. We've had it in Nevada for 3 years now; Utah since 2005. It's my experience that the only people that are aware of the law is cyclists. It doesn't seem to have changed driver behavior much, if any. Apparently Utah has had some success in prosecuting extreme violators, i.e. some level of assault, but I've never heard of a car getting pulled over for being too close to a bike.

[TripletDaddy]

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/09/16/667...-law-goes.html

New law in California requires that you give cyclists 3 feet of space when passing, or slow down and wait to pass when you can do so safely. Hopefully this will help and be enforced.

Yup. Can't see that causing any more enmity from drivers that want to pass.

[Dwight Schr-ute]

I hope this guy accomplishes great things in life and uses his powers for good. On a related note, f@#&ing Russia.

[Donuthole]

I hope this guy accomplishes great things in life and uses his powers for good. On a related note, Mother f@#&ing Russia.

[Insert obligatory sleep-deprivation disclaimer here]
FIFY

[Omaha 680]

I didn't know if I should but this in my De Blasio thread or here, but here it is.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-d...n-central-park

On September 19th, a thirty-one-year-old musician on a racing bike struck a fifty-eight-year-old mother in Central Park. The accident took place at 4:30 in the afternoon, in total daylight. The victim, Jill Tarlov, died three days later, on Monday, of severe head trauma. The N.Y.P.D. said that the bicyclist, Jason Marshall, had swerved to avoid a group of pedestrians before crashing into Tarlov. Following Tarlov’s death, Marshall said that it was “an unavoidable accident.” It has not yet been determined how fast he was going, and he has not been charged with a crime.

The incident was the second of such severity within the past two months. On August 3rd, again during the full daylight of a summer afternoon, a seventeen-year-old bicyclist swerved into the running lane, to avoid a pedicab, and struck a seventy-five-year-old teacher who was training for the New York Marathon. That man, Irving Schachter, died two days later.

These tragedies lay bare two realities of what we might call bike culture in New York City. First, many bicyclists routinely ignore all traffic laws, signs, and signals. Second, the city has made inadequate efforts in recent years to enforce those laws, and thus to protect the rest of us.

To put it statistically, New York City’s Department of Transportation recorded three hundred and nine crashes between bicyclists and pedestrians in 2013, an increase of more than twenty-five per cent from the two hundred and forty-three such collisions in 2012. Yet enforcement seems to have largely declined in recent years. According to N.Y.P.D. data cited in the Daily News, the police issued 11,442 summonses to bikers between January and May of 2013, under Mayor Bloomberg, but only 3,269 in those same months of 2014, with Bill de Blasio in office. The de Blasio administration did launch a ticketing blitz, Operation Safe Cycle, in August, but it lasted for just two weeks. Though the Times recently reported that more than three times as many moving violations have been issued to bikers in Central Park in 2014 as in the same period in 2013, these efforts are plainly insufficient.

[PaloAltoCougar]

A cyclist was killed yesterday morning along a route we've ridden dozens of times (on Saturday mornings). But technically this story doesn't belong in this thread as it was truly an accident--not a case of a careless or malicious driver. A couple of riders near the front of a very large group crashed and other riders swerved to avoid them. One unfortunate cyclist veered into an oncoming truck who tried to avoid the guy but hit him--he died on the spot. This increases my anxiety level about riding in a large group, fun though it is.

[Dwight Schr-ute]

A cyclist was killed yesterday morning along a route we've ridden dozens of times (on Saturday mornings). But technically this story doesn't belong in this thread as it was truly an accident--not a case of a careless or malicious driver. A couple of riders near the front of a very large group crashed and other riders swerved to avoid them. One unfortunate cyclist veered into an oncoming truck who tried to avoid the guy but hit him--he died on the spot. This increases my anxiety level about riding in a large group, fun though it is.

Rough weekend for cycling.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/...weekend_356917

[Bo Diddley]

Bump. Or just smash the crap out the cyclist.

[RC Vikings]

This women had to follow us for about 1/2 block last night doing 20mph on a narrow road where the speed limit is 25mph, she pulls into where she is going opens her window and yells out, "You know you're not a car". I think she may be a relative of Captain Obvious and if she is in such a hurry how does she have time to stop and yell at us.

[Moliere]

[Clark Addison]

I thought about this thread last week. I passed a cyclist on a four lane road in downtown Charlotte, on my way home from work. I thought I did it pretty generously, moving into the lane to my left to pass him, and not moving back until I was, to my mind, well clear. As I looked back in my mirror, he flipped me off. I'm still not sure why. Maybe because I accelerated as I passed him, to make sure I would get well in front of him before I had to turn right about a half of a mile later? Maybe because he was just a jerk? Who knows?

Anyway, I thought of this thread, and wondered if I would be in my rights to slow down and run him off the road, preferably while driving over the highway overpass. But out of deference to all the riders here, I decided to take the high road and continue on my way.

[Shaka]

I thought about this thread last week. I passed a cyclist on a four lane road in downtown Charlotte, on my way home from work. I thought I did it pretty generously, moving into the lane to my left to pass him, and not moving back until I was, to my mind, well clear. As I looked back in my mirror, he flipped me off. I'm still not sure why. Maybe because I accelerated as I passed him, to make sure I would get well in front of him before I had to turn right about a half of a mile later? Maybe because he was just a jerk? Who knows?

Anyway, I thought of this thread, and wondered if I would be in my rights to slow down and run him off the road, preferably while driving over the highway overpass. But out of deference to all the riders here, I decided to take the high road and continue on my way.

I live in a community that has large bike lanes on the major roads. It irks many in the community that in spite of the bike lane many cyclists see the need to ride on the white line separating the bike lane from the traffic lane. Some cyclists even move into the traffic lane. There's no need for this as the bike lane is large enough for two or three riders to ride abreast.

It goes to show that there are plenty of jackasses driving cars but there are quite a few in the cycling community as well.

[old_gregg]

I thought about this thread last week. I passed a cyclist on a four lane road in downtown Charlotte, on my way home from work. I thought I did it pretty generously, moving into the lane to my left to pass him, and not moving back until I was, to my mind, well clear. As I looked back in my mirror, he flipped me off. I'm still not sure why. Maybe because I accelerated as I passed him, to make sure I would get well in front of him before I had to turn right about a half of a mile later? Maybe because he was just a jerk? Who knows?

Anyway, I thought of this thread, and wondered if I would be in my rights to slow down and run him off the road, preferably while driving over the highway overpass. But out of deference to all the riders here, I decided to take the high road and continue on my way.

this is why i like to carry a gun, so i can wave it around at nancies on bikes when they act tough

[BigFatMeanie]

I live in a community that has large bike lanes on the major roads. It irks many in the community that in spite of the bike lane many cyclists see the need to ride on the white line separating the bike lane from the traffic lane. Some cyclists even move into the traffic lane. There's no need for this as the bike lane is large enough for two or three riders to ride abreast.

It goes to show that there are plenty of jackasses driving cars but there are quite a few in the cycling community as well.

Agree about jackass cyclists. They are even jackasses to other cyclists. Do they really need to lay down on their frame and blow past me at 45MPH down American Fork Canyon even though the speed limit is 30MPH? As I come up to a stop sign on my bike and actually prepare to stop, do they really need to crank a hard right in front of me, blowing through the stop sign without even looking or saying a thing?

One reason why a cyclist might ride close to the white line even when there is a wide cycling lane is the amount of debris in the cycling lane: pebbles, gravel, wires, metal, wood, etc. It's especially bad at the beginning of spring. A street sweeper is a cyclist's best friend. Unfortunately, some roads only get swept rarely and many not at all. To a car the small debris is barely noticeable but to a cyclist it's either a flat risk or a crash risk.