SClaraPokeman

I figured someone would have posted this by now, so I'll go ahead do it in case some of you who ride PMR are unaware...

Pedestrian in fatal bike crash in Palo Alto identified | News | Palo Alto Online |

Palo Alto: Woman dies following collision with bicyclist - San Jose Mercury News


Apparently a woman, a 61 year old resident of the PA foothills, was crossing PMR slightly east of the Foothills Park entrance and a male cyclist struck her while traveling approx. 25 mph. The woman succumbed to a brain injury the next day. The cyclist escaped with some road rash. This happened this past Monday in late morning--a time when traffic is generally quite low.

Unsettling to me as I ride this section of road at least a couple times monthly. I think about deer often but I'd never expect to encounter a pedestrian. The woman's family and cyclist must be devastated--very sad.

cthenn

Based on the story, seems like a tragic accident, as it was a blind curve and no nearby crosswalks. I can't bring myself to even look at the comments, as I'm sure the vast majority will be calling for the cyclist's head, and just general cycling hate...as usual.

DiabloScott

Always sad.

A little perspective:

There are close to 5,000 pedestrian fatalities in the USA every year... almost none of them are bicycle-pedestrian collisions, and most of THOSE were pedestrians crossing the street improperly.

There are about 750 bicyclist fatalities in the USA every year... about one-fourth of them are drunk.

cthenn

But do you remember the one incident in SF where it appears the cyclist was being reckless, struck and killed a pedestrian? That was top story news seemingly every night. Cyclist hits and kills ped is top story stuff, but the hundreds of cyclists that are killed by drivers goes unmentioned. In fact, when a cyclist kills a ped, most comments (without knowing the facts) are about how bikes are dangerous and cyclists are a menace, but when cyclists are killed on the road, it's "shouldn't be out there, you get what you deserve". It's sickening. I just cannot understand why in the hell cyclists are so universally hated? Of all groups, what do cyclists do that is just so awful? And it's not just roadies, I see a lot of anger toward MTB'ers for ruining trails and being dangerous on trails. For the life of me I just don't understand why cyclists are the worst people in the world...

Unkle Rico

Obviously a super sad situation, my heart goes out to the family and bicyclist.

I did however make the mistake of reading the comments on the SJMN article and honestly -- Made me really mad and sad at the same time. @cthenn last statement seems to be correct..

blt

Oh, man, never, NEVER read comments on an article, and if you do, don't bother to be mad, that lets the trolls win. Yes, there are SOME people who comment on articles who do it seriously, but WAY too many do it for one reason -- to make people mad.

I knew someone who was wounded in one of those nasty mass shootings on a college campus, several bullet wounds. She made the horrible mistake of reading the internet comments on an article about an interview with her. Unfortunately, the trolls succeeded in upsetting her. There were out-of-the-blue mean things, including an accusation that she made up having been shot.

It is in general a sad commentary on the state of the human race that there are people who post comments for the sole purpose of getting people upset, but they are out there. Be sad about that fact, but don't take it beyond that, don't be "mad that there are people who think X," because, while there may be people who think X, there is a good chance that whoever was sitting behind the keyboard posting X didn't think for a second about whether he/she believes X, they only thought about what could make people reading the comments get mad. The good news is that, if everyone ignores them, those pathetic people can't do any harm, unlike the pathetic people who take automatic weapons and shoot up schools or movie theatres or other places.

VNA

It was a tragic accident! Very sorry to the family and the cyclist--accidents do happen! A car would have had the same tragic consequences I suspect.

On the other hand I have seen and experienced some rather unsettling behavior by some cyclists and it sure gives a bad name to cycling! Going through red lights is not only dangerous but stupid as drivers look on waiting for the light to change, blowing stop signs is equally dangerous and stupid!

Last night while walking my dog in the dark on the street at an intersection with a bike path with a stop sign, some reckless cyclist barreled through that intersection as if no one was there! Absolutely terrifying!

There is a minority of would be cyclists that should not be on a bicycle--bad apples are everywhere but they sure destroy the image of cycling!

blt

It is absolutely true that there is reckless behavior out there by cyclists, and it drives me crazy both when I am cycling and when I am driving. When I am cycling, the reckless cyclist behavior drives me crazy because it sometimes threaten my safety, and because it gives cycling a bad image. When I am driving, the reckless behavior drives me crazy because I hate to see people threatening their own safety, and because it gives cycling a bad image.

It is also true, however, that there is reckless behavior out there by motor vehicle drivers, and the percentage of drivers that behave recklessly is a lot higher than the percentage of cyclists that behave recklessly. The behavior of drivers is also more dangerous, because while this recent accident is a rare example of a fatality involving a bicycle/pedestrian collision (and we don't really know if it was caused by reckless behavior), accidents caused by reckless drivers are far more likely to be crippling or fatal, and are far more frequent.

The image of drivers should be WAY worse than the image of cyclists given the realities. But because almost everyone is a driver, and people won't generate a bad image of a group they are part of based on the reckless behavior of a minority. Cyclists as a whole are a minority, however, and it is easy for non-cyclists to generate a bad image of a group that they are not part of based on the behavior of a small minority of that group.

This is one reason why, from a selfish point of view, reckless behavior from cyclists kind of annoys me more than reckless behavior from drivers. The reckless behavior of cyclists negatively impacts the image that others have of me when I'm a cyclist on the road, the reckless behavior of drivers doesn't impact the image others have of me when I'm a driver on the road. Sigh.