Originally Posted by new_dharma
would the bike rider be any LESS dead if she was riding in the center of a "regular" lane and the driver's attention had been diverted to read a sign causing him to to just plow into the rider? probably not.
No one knows for sure, of course, but I think if the cyclist had been riding in the center of the lane for some time as the driver approach, at some point he would have looked up and seen her, and taken notice
because she was in the center of his lane. As he got closer, she would have noticed in her rear view mirror that he was about 4-5 seconds back, and then she could have moved aside. But by then he would be aware of her, and more careful not to drift. But with her riding in the bike lane the whole time, any time he looked up as he was approaching her, even if she was visible to him, his subconscious mind would have no reason to bother his conscious mind about her presence, since she was off riding in her lane, outside of his intended path.
Given that the driver was not paying attention to what was in front of him, it's also possible that he may have hit a Ped in a crosswalk...are crosswalks bad for peds, too?
A normal level of attention would explain him not being aware of a cyclist up ahead riding in a bike lane for the 10s of seconds, if not minutes, that he was approaching her. Not paying attention for some small number of seconds, 4, 6, 8... would explain why he would have missed seeing her even as he drifted into her.
But not seeing her if she was riding in the center of the lane the whole time he was approaching is something else again.