The other part of all this I did not get into in my letter, is that the cyclist was riding in a painted bike lane... adjacent to parallel car parking. Classic FUBAR bikelane placement, which was part of a new traffic pattern instituted over the summer, before classes in this college town. Parking was expanded, the bike lane added, and the one way road went from two lanes to one. There were plenty of people who wrote letters to the editor slamming the bike lane in the door zone design.
Reaction from officials was that this was an engineered plan, planned to code and various guidelines. One town official was quoted as saying "If people wore helmets, less accidents would happen."
Net result: town has quickly reconfigured the road plan -- back to two lanes of traffic, but the right lane is now marked with sharrows. Kudos to them for taking action so quickly and removing a dangerous, lethal bike lane.