I think you let her off too easy and she should have paid the whole bill, however I would not break my word over a small repair bill. If you ended up with $1000s of medical bills that you might not have expected then I think that would be an excuse to invalidate the agreement.

How is anyone here thinking the cyclist is partly to blame? When a vehicle runs a red light and causes an accident then the driver of that vehicle is at fault. The only partial fault might be if the vehicle with the ROW could have avoided the accident with reasonable care. Doesn't sound like the case here.

For most bicycles braking is limited by the endo factor. If you brake harder your rear wheel comes up and you crash. Cars are limited by tire adhesion, therefore cars can stop more rapidly. The only reason bikes appear to stop faster is they are usually traveling slower. However I did used to ride a bike that was not limited by an endo and had plenty of braking power, allowing me to stop as fast as nearly any other vehicle. The bike was an Optima Baron lowracer recumbent with disc brakes.



Craig