my58vw

I am a high school teacher, and each semester I teach a 30 minute bike safety class after school. Typical, ride with traffic, and other school related bike stuff. Well two days ago I was coming into school, waited for the first group of peds to cross (going the same direction as me, with traffic) then the next group slowed down so I could pull in. The peds coming the other way (against traffic) also slowed. All the sudden as I start turning a BMX bike flys out from behind the group that was walking against traffic. I did not see him because on such a small bike he is shorter than the walking peds. He is going so fast that he has to dump the bike to not hit the side of my car.

Now this is an interesting situation, and it looks like I can add being aware that you can not be seen on a BMX at times, but then who is really at fault here? You would think that the BMX bike should have been on the other side of the road, but then most kids will ride with the peds, and they are walking (correctly) against traffic... Of course the driver would have to watch for them - but it is easier for the bike to watch then the driver at this point...

Ideas?

donnamb 

Hm, I'm not sure about "fault" in this situation. On one hand, the kid needs to learn that if you're riding as a pedestrian, you need to be going pedestrian speed and be super cautious at crossings. On the other hand, this is a kid. Drivers need to be very aware of their potential presence, especially in a place like a school. They also need to remember that kids do really dumb stuff. I do believe many motorists have lost sight of that reality, and do not pay attention as consistently as in the past. I suspect that if you had hit the kid, you'd not have gotten a ticket from a cop, but I could be wrong. Sorry, I don't really have a black-or-white opinion here.

deputyjones

Interesting question and in terms of deciding legal fault it would be helpful to know if riding on the sidewalk is actually illegal and just tolerated there like it is in many other places.

Even more iffy ones I have been noticing lately is the wrong direction cyclist on the sidepath that only exists on one side of the road OR the cyclists coming up behind stopped motorists at a red light on a sidepath to the right of the motorists and proceeding through the intersection at speed because it turned green as he approached. Of course motorists turning right are not going to do a head check to check the bike path for an overtaking cyclist before turning.

closetbiker

Who's at fault? You're making a turn on a clear path into a driveway and a kid comes out from cover and almost rides into you. Maybe he/she is a kid, but if he/she is a teen-ager he/she should have enough sense to know how to play around traffic. If you teach bike safety, you should know the problem here.

MrCjolsen

High school kids should not be using BMX bikes to get around town.

I do not think that BMX bikes are suitable for riding in traffic. I tell the parents of my first graders that they should not let their kids ride in the street unsupervised until they are big enough to ride a bike with a 24" wheel.

The problem with BMX bikes, in addition to their low height, is that their small tire size and wheelbase cause them to not track real straight. One of the most important skills for a young rider are riding in a straight line at a steady pace. That's very hard to do on a BMX bike.

Couple that with the fact that BMX bikes are used very much as toys in the same fashion as a skateboard or scooter by children. Hence, the fact that they jump curbs and suddenly appear in front of cars.

Needless to say, I'm not a big fan of BMX bikes.

donnamb 

Perhaps not, but I don't see how they can be prohibited from it. For me, it's back to the motorist needing to be hyperaware in a school zone - something that I don't see all that much of where I live, unfortunately.

MrCjolsen

"Should not" and "must not be allowed to" are different things. Just because something is legal doesn't mean it's not stupid. And just because something is stupid, doesn't mean it should be illegal.

As far as motorists in a school zone, at my school almost all of the accidents and near misses we have regarding kids and cars involve children getting picked up in the school parking lot. Some have almost even been hit by their own parents.

closetbiker

...and sometimes there's not much you can do, like in the situation described.

EnigManiac

These are very astute observations and iterate what I might have said.

But to address the question of fault, the answer appears to be rather straight-forward, based upon the description of the event. Anyone changing the direction of their vehicle---such as making a turn into a driveway---bears the responsibility of doing so only when it is safe to do so. If pedestrians stopped to allow you to pass, that does not necessarily indicate it is safe. The vehicle operator must ensure they can execute the change of direction without impeding, endangering or otherwise risking their own safety. Otherwise, they must remain at a stop.

I'll illustrate with an example that happened to me about twenty years ago. I was turning my car left into a parking lot approximately twenty meters after an intersection, crossing two through lanes and a right-turn lane approaching the intersection. The light was red for those approaching the intersection and traffic was heavy. I was completely stopped and scanning as fas as I could see through the line of cars. The nearest cars in both through lanes stopped to allow me a path to cut across and the drivers both waved me through. All oncoming traffic was stopped. I proceeded slowly between the cars. Unbeknownst to me, one of the cars in the right lane who had been stopped decided he had enough room to get into the right-turn lane where it started (and fully out of my sight) and he decided to squeeze into it and accelerate. He then slammed into the front of my vehicle just as my hood entered the right-turn lane. The polcie arrived a short time later and took witness statements that confirmed my view of the events. I was quite surprised to learn that I was, technically, at fault in spite of the fact that what the other driver did was unsafe and unwise. The officer explained it was a grey area and that I could not have done anything different to ensure a safe turn, but the fact that I was turning made me responsible. Fortunately, the sympathetic officer who chewed out the other guy purposefully failed to turn in the paperwork on the ticket on time and, therefore, I avoided any conviction of the charge of 'failure to execute a safe left turn.'

So, in the situation the OP describes, even though the pedestrians stopped, they presented a hazard by blocking view of any hidden dangers. The police might have suggested that it would have been safer and legal to wave the pedestrians through and wait for the intersection to be entirely free before turning.

It does not matter whether the kid was on a bike or not or whether he was riding in a reckless or dangerous manner, given the circumstances. Chances are, the bike is legally permitted to operate on sidewalks as most jurisdictions allow bicycles with rims sizes 24" and smaller to ride on the sidewalk, provided the rider respects pedestrian traffic. It seems the rider was not respecting pedestrian traffic, but---at least here in Toronto---he would only have been violating a city by-law not a provincial (or state) traffic regulation. Knowing how chaotic school zones can be, a motor vehicle operator can and should be expected to exercise even greater caution and care than might otherwise be necessary.

I hope the kid was alright. It seems he received an education even before he got to school that he might remember in future: that foolish and reckless disregard of potential dangers---particularly on a sidewalk (where the highest occurence of bicycle-involved collisions take place)---can result in serious injury and death. Hopefully, he will keep that in mind the next time he is in a similar situation.

closetbiker

Well put. I believe it's very hard to get certain situations changed from 100% fault despite conditions.

It kinda sucks that a kid darts out of nowhere and the cars driver is still at fault, but I guess he is changing lanes and has to be sure it's clear. It's kinda like a rear end. It's almost always the rear enders fault.

I even remember a case where a driver was hit in the front end of his car by a wrong way cyclist and was found at fault because even though he was stopped and looking for traffic in the oncoming direction, he shouldn't have had his car out in the lane as far as to be in the way of the wrong way cyclist.

Anything you can do to lessen the likelyhood of a collision has to be done regardless of how illegally the victim was acting.