Advocacy & Safety - Schoolbus hits and kills cyclist

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20625954/




By / StarTribune
startribune.com

A school bus struck a bicyclist near Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis this morning, killing the rider, witnesses said.

The accident occurred about 10 a.m. The bicyclist's body was covered with a sheet and remained in the street for nearly 2 hours, as did his bicycle, while police from several jurisdictions investigated.

Traffic in the densely traveled area crawled around the scene until it was cleared shortly after noon.
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Authorities were having difficulty Thursday afternoon identifying the victim and made a plea to the public for help. The Hennepin County medical examiner's office described the bicyclist as a while male, 20 to 40 years old, 5-foot-10 and about 200 pounds, with dark brown medium-length hair and brown eyes.

He was riding a blue Giant Cypress bicycle and was wearing jean shorts, a black T-shirt that read "LBJ Wolves whatever it takes," socks and shoes.

Anyone with information about the victim is asked to call the medical examiner's office at 612-215-6300.

The bus was turning left from West Calhoun Parkway onto westbound Lake Street, when it struck the bicyclist while he rode in the crosswalk heading south, witnesses said.

The bus was operated by Laidlaw Education Services of Brooklyn Park. Route signs on it indicated it was serving the Minneapolis School District.

My condolences to John Doe's family and loved ones.

To the rest of us this is a good reminder about what makes us vulnerable out there. The first rule on "how to avoid the left cross" at bicyclesafe.com is:

1. Don't ride on the sidewalk. When you come off the sidewalk to cross the street, you're invisible to turning motorists.

http://www.bicyclesafe.com/

There you go again...

This tragic accident has nothing to do with a sidewalk. I would suggest that before taking any media accounts at face value, and using them to "teach" people, that you educate yourself a bit about the actual facts surrounding the accident.

#1. There is no sidewalk on that side of the street.

#2. There is no crosswalk on that side of the street.

Spoon feeding begins:
“The Laidlaw school bus was northbound on Calhoun Parkway at Lake Street, stopped at a red light,” said police Sgt. Tammy Diedrich. “The light turned green, and he pulled into the intersection to make a left turn. The bike rider was southbound on Dean Parkway, and he was going to cross Lake Street on Calhoun Parkway.”

The bicyclist and bus collided in the intersection, and the bicyclist died at the scene, she said.
I'm just going based on what's in the OP.

"The bus was turning left from West Calhoun Parkway onto westbound Lake Street, when it struck the bicyclist while he rode in the crosswalk heading south, witnesses said."

I don't think it was unreasonable to assume a cyclist in the crosswalk came off the sidewalk.

To wear bright clothing is another good tip, but most people on this forum already know that, and there is little to no controversy about it, so I don't think it's as valuable to point it out.

Whether the crosswalk the cyclist was riding in was marked or not is immaterial. How do you know there is no sidewalk and no crosswalk?

It's still unclear whether the man was hit while in the "crosswalk" or in the middle of the intersection.

There is an actual bicycle path entry on the southeast corner of the intersection. This is the path that goes around the lake. Sometimes, just sometimes, ;) cyclists heading south do the diagonal crossover. Not saying anything, just saying.

Incidently this lake has separate bike and pedestrian paths, although most pedestrians don't care.

According to the police who did the accident investigation it happened in the intersection. They also note that the cyclist was Southbound on Dean Parkway, not the bike path which is separated from the roadway.

The original post/news story included an "eyewitness account" that claimed it happened in the crosswalk. The updated police information is some 30 hours +/- more recent.

A bus northbound on Calhoun Parkway and turning left on Lake Street does not cross a crosswalk...


Pete, let me enlighten you here. It's become clear over time that VC is so all-encompassing that it even has a set of rules of forensics. Yes, the VC dogma as preached by our friend Serge "Helmethead" will even determine who was at fault in any motor vehichle - cyclists fatal collision with just two simple rules!

This little known but indispensable tool is known as the V.C. Serge "Helmethead" Incontrovertible Tennents of vehichular forensics. The two rules are:

Rule #1 - It's always the cyclists' fault.

Rule #2 - If the facts indicate that it wasn't the cyclists' fault then conveniently ignore the facts and apply rule #1

Hey Pete where do you get such cool pics?

[quote=Pete Fagerlin;5229538]According to the police who did the accident investigation it happened in the intersection. They also note that the cyclist was Southbound on Dean Parkway, not the bike path which is separated from the roadway.

The original post/news story included an "eyewitness account" that claimed it happened in the crosswalk. The updated police information is some 30 hours +/- more recent.

A bus northbound on Calhoun Parkway and turning left on Lake Street does not cross a crosswalk...

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e52/Bushman5/calhoun.jpg


there is a cross walk right there.....

no need to be a hipster about it. Since I'm not from that area i dont know how those streets run (north south whatever.)

The cyclist may have been attempting the diagonal cross. He might have gone south and then tried to make his way onto the bike path by cutting across thereby making it look like the bus hit him in the east-west sidewalk.

Pete, I must be search impaired because I can't find a view like the one you have. Is this some kind of secret?

My condolences to John Doe's family and loved ones.

To the rest of us this is a good reminder about what makes us vulnerable out there. The first rule on "how to avoid the left cross" at bicyclesafe.com is:

1. Don't ride on the sidewalk. When you come off the sidewalk to cross the street, you're invisible to turning motorists.

http://www.bicyclesafe.com/



I'm most likely going to get smacked by a mod for this. But HH get the hell out of this topic with your crap and stay out of these topics. Who gives a damn where he was riding quit using things like this for your own agenda.

Hey Pete where do you get such cool pics?

In the true spirit of this forum, Pete answers with "The internet" so he can appear superior. Since I don't need to feel superior I'll tell you his secret ... local.live.com. After you find the location click on "Birds Eye View". There, I answered a simple question in a civil tone. It was so easy.

Regarding the accident: Dean Parkway becomes W. Calhoun Pkwy at the intersection of W. Lake St. I speculate that Mr. Doe may have come off the eastbound bikeway just north of the intersection, looked over his left shoulder so he could blend with southbound traffic on W. Calhoun/Dean Pkwy and rode directly in front of the bus. I feel it is unlikely he was southbound on Dean Pkwy as the police report indicates because it is difficult not to see a big yellow bus turning in front of you. Also, if you look closely at the picture there does appear there may be a crosswalk on W. Lake St. on the west side of Dean/Calhoun Pkwy, hence the witness description. We'll never know will we?

In the true spirit of this forum, Pete answers with "The internet" so he can appear superior. Since I don't need to feel superior I'll tell you his secret ... local.live.com (http://local.live.com). After you find the location click on "Birds Eye View". There, I answered a simple question in a civil tone. It was so easy.

Thanks!

Imagine the inferiority complex Peter must have to be compelled to not share the source of the aerial photos he has been posting on this forum for months. Pathetic.

Please restore some civility and mutual respect to this forum. All of us care passionately about our own safety and that of other cyclists. I disagree with HH on several specifics, but I also understand his viewpoint and acknowledge that he has some valid ideas for increasing our visibility to today's distracted, visually overwhelmed motorists.

In this particular tragedy we simply do not have enough information to estimate the relative culpabilities of the cyclist and the bus driver. The most important unanswered question is the cyclist's exact trajectory. My second question is whether north-south pedestrian crossing is banned along the west side of the intersection. If it is, north-to-west-turning motorists (up and to the left in the Google Earth photo) are not looking toward the implied crosswalk area and are likely to miss a bicyclist crossing there. In a situation such as this, it is doubly incumbent on us to left-bias our position into the main traffic flow and away from the curb and (missing) crosswalk, per HH's standard advice. My third question is whether the bus driver had a green arrow signifying a protected left turn, in which case the cyclist was clearly in the wrong. Perhaps someone who knows the intersection well can help us out here.

They identified the man from his iPod.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20651697

Here's his website

http://www.raiseyourchildrenmywaydamnit.com/

Assumption coupled with projection.

Only in YOUR dreams.

Serge, are you really that internet challenged? Simply Googling "aerial photos" or satellite photos" or "aerial view" or "satellite view" links you right to many sources of aerial imagery.

Now he decides to be helpful.

Here's a relevant link that describes the struggles that you apparently face while trying to use the internet:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1787713,00.asp

Oops, being nice didn't last long. That's the Peter we know and love .. well, the Peter we know.

Rather than rely on a bunch of e-speculation I'll rely on the conclusion of the folks that were on the scene, the ones who are trained in accident reconstruction, and the ones who spent several hours at the scene doing an accident reconstruction. That would be the police:

NOW you decide the police are ALWAYS right.

I don't see a crosswalk there.

No big surprise there.

I'll bet you need to tie a pork chop around your neck just to get a dog to play with you.

If I had known that a simple article would generate so much venom I'd have simply kept it to myself. I ride and run through this intersection a lot so this incident somewhat touches me.

Live.com is fantastic BTW, thanks Pete and thanks for the link.

... "Authorities were having difficulty Thursday afternoon identifying the victim "...


this presents a good argument for carrying some form of ID - i keep a business card in my under-seat spare tube bag, just in case.

i suppose it's more relevant if you survive but can't communicate. if you're dead, what to do?

i am very sad to learn of this death. my condolences.

I've been a member of BF for a couple of years now, but this is the first time I've ventured into the safety and advocacy board for a while.

Which leads to the question: Who does Pete Fagerlin think he is? I pulled up a number of his posts and it appears that he's incapable of sharing information or opinion without sounding like a complete prick.

I checked out the intersection today. There's a crosswalk on the west side of the intersection. Just no lines drawn on the road. Hmm...

The sympathy and/or empathy for the cyclist and his friends and family sure seems to have vanished quickly.

According to the police who did the accident investigation it happened in the intersection. They also note that the cyclist was Southbound on Dean Parkway, not the bike path which is separated from the roadway.

The original post/news story included an "eyewitness account" that claimed it happened in the crosswalk. The updated police information is some 30 hours +/- more recent.

A bus northbound on Calhoun Parkway and turning left on Lake Street does not cross a crosswalk...

there is a cross walk right there.....

Are you taking lessons from Madden? ;)

Seriously, this is illustrative. Thanks.

I've been a member of BF for a couple of years now, but this is the first time I've ventured into the safety and advocacy board for a while.

Which leads to the question: Who does Pete Fagerlin think he is? I pulled up a number of his posts and it appears that he's incapable of sharing information or opinion without sounding like a complete prick.
The man has ego problems, apparently.

More projection Serge. At least you're fairly consistent.

Let me know if you still need help figuring out how to use Google. I can show you where to type in "satellite photo" and point you to the link to live.com. It's the first link on the upper right side of the results page if you want to try to figure it out on your own.

Cheers!

Q.E.D.

I lived in the neighborhood- it is green arrow land.


Please restore some civility and mutual respect to this forum. All of us care passionately about our own safety and that of other cyclists. I disagree with HH on several specifics, but I also understand his viewpoint and acknowledge that he has some valid ideas for increasing our visibility to today's distracted, visually overwhelmed motorists.

In this particular tragedy we simply do not have enough information to estimate the relative culpabilities of the cyclist and the bus driver. The most important unanswered question is the cyclist's exact trajectory. My second question is whether north-south pedestrian crossing is banned along the west side of the intersection. If it is, north-to-west-turning motorists (up and to the left in the Google Earth photo) are not looking toward the implied crosswalk area and are likely to miss a bicyclist crossing there. In a situation such as this, it is doubly incumbent on us to left-bias our position into the main traffic flow and away from the curb and (missing) crosswalk, per HH's standard advice. My third question is whether the bus driver had a green arrow signifying a protected left turn, in which case the cyclist was clearly in the wrong. Perhaps someone who knows the intersection well can help us out here.

So is it the case that the bus had the green arrow?

If I recall, they identified the cyclist by his Ipod. Was the cyclist listening to the Ipod when he got into the accident?

-G

My wife takes that route south three times a week in the mornings and evenings via bike.

I use that route infrequently myself. You have to be totally aware and on your toes or
you could run into a problem with occupying the same space and time as a vehicle or
being struck by one.

It's busy - crazy busy because it's one of the main arteries to uptown Minneapolis to
the east and to the West it splits in two heading off to some of the more heavily
travelled western suburbs - if you go straight West it's St. Louis Park / Minnetonka /
Plymouth.

My wife's opinion is the only safe way to really cross that way is by using
the crosswalk, the place where the cyclist was struck is way too busy to
really support that, particularly in the mornings and drive-time in the afternoon.

If the rider had been in the crosswalk there would have been no physical way for the
bus to have struck the rider in the manner described.

Here's several areas where Mr. Finley unfortunately erred: he had no helmet, he had
no identification and he was carrying an iPod. It's unfortunate that he died in what
should have been a routine bicycle ride.

There's no proof he was listening to the iPod at the time of the collision but
possession could be considered damning evidence by some.

I've heard that Laidlaw drivers vary from sober and competent to.. Well, the
opposite. Another poster in the commuting thread indicated drivers of that
company were responsible for nine deaths in his state this year alone.

There is no green arrow for north/south traffic in that intersection. Westbound traffic definitely has a green arrow, and I think eastbound traffic might have an arrow, but I can't say for sure. I ride through the intersection twice every day, so I'm very familiar with it.
There isn't a marked crosswalk where the guy was hit, but it was an UNMARKED crosswalk by the city's definition (because there are sidewalks on either side). In Mpls, it's legal to ride on sidewalks and crosswalks, so even if he were in a crosswalk, he wouldn't have been doing anything illegal. The police say that the light turned green, and both the cyclist and the bus went. It seems that the bus failed to yield to the cyclist.

Mpls bike laws summarized (http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles/UnderstandingtheLaw.asp)

There is no green arrow for north/south traffic in that intersection. Westbound traffic definitely has a green arrow, and I think eastbound traffic might have an arrow, but I can't say for sure. I ride through the intersection twice every day, so I'm very familiar with it.
There isn't a marked crosswalk where the guy was hit, but it was an UNMARKED crosswalk by the city's definition (because there are sidewalks on either side). In Mpls, it's legal to ride on sidewalks and crosswalks, so even if he were in a crosswalk, he wouldn't have been doing anything illegal. The police say that the light turned green, and both the cyclist and the bus went. It seems that the bus failed to yield to the cyclist.

Mpls bike laws summarized (http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles/UnderstandingtheLaw.asp)

Just because something is legal does not mean it is reasonably safe to do it. Case in point.

<stuff deleted because Madfinch explained it so well>

But there's a walk/don't walk signal but no lines painted.

Just because something is legal does not mean it is reasonably safe to do it. Case in point.

If you look at the picture that someone posted on the other page, you'll notice a crosswalk on the east side of the intersection. This crosswalk connects two BIKE PATHS together. I ride in the crosswalk twice a day. Mpls law considers bike paths to be sidewalks. So, am I being unreasonable by riding on the bike paths and waiting at stoplights for the walk signal so I can ride through the crosswalk? I'm glad it's okay to ride on the sidewalks here. Every morning I ride ~2 blocks on the sidewalk. It's because the bike path comes to an end and the natural extension of the bike path is the sidewalk. If I didn't use the sidewalk, I'd have to deal with crossing over 4 lanes of freeway entrance/exit traffic. I ride until I come to a stoplight where I can safely make a left turn in front of all the traffic.

Your argument doesn't make sense in the context of what I was saying before, anyway. All I was doing was trying to point out that it was irrelevant whether he was in a crosswalk or not, because it doesn't matter. There was no marked crosswalk and it's not illegal for bikes to use the crosswalks. He was going straight and the bus driver was going left and the bus failed to yield. That's the most up-to-date information I've been given, and despite all the flaming in this thread, I thought I'd share my knowledge of the situation with people. Because this accident has terrified me. This is where I ride every day! Now, it might be the case that the cyclist was in fact coming from the west, and turned into the road unexpectedly. Or, maybe he was crossing diagonally. I don't know. I wasn't there. Maybe it isn't 100% the driver's fault, but those scenarios are not the way it has been presented in the media - and that's all I've got to go on.

I wish there was better information about what really happened.

It would have been physically impossible for the cyclist to have been in the
marked crosswalk for a bus to strike him in the manner described.

Madfinch raises good questions - unfortunately, we'll likely never know.

Mpls, it's legal to ride on sidewalks and crosswalks [snip]

Mpls bike laws summarized (http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles/UnderstandingtheLaw.asp)

Except it is illegal to ride on the sidewalk if in a business district. I am not sure how that area is zoned as there are apartments and businesses there.

Except it is illegal to ride on the sidewalk if in a business district. I am not sure how that area is zoned as there are apartments and businesses there.

That's all well and good: there is a large office complex to the immediate west and south side of
the road, to the west and north there are two restaurants (Applebees, Trygs), and a mini-mall
with a Barnes & Noble, Subway, jewelers, drug store, etc. The legality of the "sidewalk" or bike
path is unknown but it's used pretty heavily because the bike paths along the lake are good
routes to the south side of the lake and to points south.

Fact remains, it is physically impossible for him to have been on the bike path crosswalk
(east side of the intersection) when he was hit but the other crosswalk on the west
(not marked but you can see the sidewalk from above as well as stoplights on the corner,
center median and other side but no sidewalk on the other side) is where the issue did
occur.

I still ponder how a driver fails to see cyclists but if he's adjusting a radio or dealing with
school kids attention could be distracted. Wasn't the bus supposed to be vacant at the
time of the collision? Was he in a rush to get to a school somewhere?

I headed down there an hour ago to check it out. I don't know about the zoning but 25 yards from the intersection is a "Share the Road" street sign and about 1/5 mile east of there (as you approach the location on Lake Street) is a "No Bicycling on the Sidewalk" sign. And to confirm, there are no turning arrows.

I'm not into the factless speculation that others are on this board, so won't claim this as "truth" and assess fault, but some significant irresponsibility on one of the parties (or a combination of both) had to have come into play, not just some misunderstanding about someone cycling in a crosswalk, etc. After having viewed the intersection from both the perspective of the cyclist and the bus driver, my opinion is that the lane position of the cyclist was irrelevant to being noticed and that it was much more likely that the irresponsibility was perpetrated by the driver of the bus not the cyclist. Due to the acute angle at which you approach from the south, as well as a very slight uphill rise in the road, there would be no discernable difference between a cyclist in the lane of traffic and one traveling a few feet to the right (in the unmarked crosswalk). Add to that the fact that the cyclist had no sidewalk from which to travel -- in the bus driver's eye, the cyclist had nowhere else to originate from other than the traffic lane. There is no southbound shoulder or sidewalk present leading up to Lake Street. The bus simply did not visually engage a clearly visible vehicle into whose path he was about to turn.

From my observation, the "diagonal cross" situation also wouldn't have been much of a factor due to the angle at which the bus would have turned (the cyclist would have easily cleared the path). I'm not an expert obviously but my feeling was "that scenario doesn't appear likely". Part of that opinion is also formed because he had already dismissed riding on the MUP along Dean Parkway in favor of riding in the road. Now, if someone said his destination would have taken him east on Lake, that would make a bit more sense, but if he was continuing onto W Calhoun, that would indicate he chose to diagonal-cross to begin a wrong-way journey on a one-way bike path (clockwise).

I would be fascinated to learn what distracted the bus driver (and I'm not talking about that innattentional blindness nonsense) such that he crashed into a plainly visible vehicle into whose traffic lane he was entering.

It's unfortunate that a guy who obviously loved cycling (had no car) was taken from his family and friends this way and that a bus driver has to live with the weight of this event.

I misread the OP
So is it the case that the bus had the green arrow?

If I recall, they identified the cyclist by his Ipod. Was the cyclist listening to the Ipod when he got into the accident?

-G

The message by MSPD is interesting as I too am trying to figure out what distracted
the bus driver. It was 10 in the morning, if it had been four in the afternoon we could
say the driver had been blinded by the setting sun but that is not the case in this
particular incident. We'll probably never know sadly.

... and there is little to no controversy about it, so I don't think it's as valuable to point it out...

Hahahaha!

Read this again. Carefully.

Hahahahahaha!