Originally Posted by
FBinNY
It's interesting that all four involved trucks (3) and buses (1). Here in the USA cars seem to be more of an issue (seems, not making a claim here).
I hate playing the blame game, but wonder if some of the greater numbers of cyclists attracted by bike lanes aren't streetwise enough to know the special safety rules about riding among long vehicles. Not blaming the riders, or absolving the drivers, just wondering if cyclists might benefit from some education about things like sight lines and such.
It's often hard to know just what's going on in situations like this.
I don't know the specifics of any of these particular deaths so don't want to comment in any way on who might be to blame in any of them. That said in my own experience of cycling in London I've seen bus drivers range from slowing to let cyclists cross and holding back until it's safe to make a wide pass, to overtaking a cyclist only to pull into the side at a bus stop close enough to practically run them off the road. I've seen cyclists ride in accordance with the rules of the road and I've seen cyclists weave through spaces so small I expected them to get sandwiched between a bus and a truck, jump red lights, try and pass a bus on the inside when it was indicating its intention to pull into a bus stop and so on. I saw one guy riding on a busy urban road in the dark with no lights, weaving all over the road, only to hit the edge of the road and fall off (he was so drunk he could barely stand up).
Unfortunately if all we have is "cyclist dies in collision with bus" all we can conclude is what we already knew, namely that in a collision a cyclist is unlikely to win against a bus. And, of course, the brutal truth that a family out there someone gets a visit from the police to tell them their loved one won't be coming home.