Mos6502

I hope you're not suggesting people must ride on the shoulder if it even exists. In some states it is illegal to travel on the shoulder too.

mtbikerinpa

Precisely. I have had just as many if not more risky near misses from being on the shoulder than in the visible lane. The "mailbox/scenery effect" makes people think that they need no corrections to their path. The other day I was nearly hit by a pickup towing a camping trailer. He was in the center but his 30 ft trailer was wide enough that it was over the white line significantly.

Such an accident in the Raliegh area does not surprise me. My sister lives down there and it is an area networked with pedestrian/bike paths but not much road concessions outside the suburban industrial parks and neighborhoods. The drivers are a breed apart in their ignorance and scary technique even when I drive the car I fear heavily.

Digital_Cowboy

I agree, we shouldn't read the comments that follow articles like these. Even though there were plenty of people offering their sympathy for the cyclist there were sadly more comments that blamed the victim for "daring" to be on a road that "belongs" to cars "only."

This is the mindset that I was trying to explain to Hagen. Until we change that mindset no matter what laws are passed it won't matter until motorists realize that it is THEIR responsibility to slow down and wait until it is safe to pass us.

This crash more likely than not was not the fault of the cyclist but that of the driver of the truck because he was in a hurry to get to his destination. So much so that he obviously didn't have full control of his vehicle.

Digital_Cowboy

So if I'm reading what you've said correctly, you're blaming the victim? Just because it's not a road that you wouldn't ride doesn't mean that it's a road that no one else would ride.

I don't know what kid of ride he was out for, but did it occur to you that that might have been the only road that he could ride to get where he was going?

Digital_Cowboy

JPR,

You couldn't be more wrong, according to the law in most states we ARE vehicles. We may not be "motorized vehicles," but we ARE in fact vehicles.

You are right in that we cannot "compete" with them in a "fight." Which is why it is THEIR responsibility to slow down and wait until it is safe to pass us.

dynodonn 

My thoughts as well, and I was looking at the map of the road the cyclist was riding on, it basically appears that there are not any other close by connecting side roads available.

gmt13

This is a big issue. Many cyclists must make a difficult choice: either take a much longer route, brave the high traffic route, or give up cycling.

-G

unterhausen

I ride a block on a 4 lane road with left turn lanes, and I'm sure many here would be blaming me if I got run over on that stretch. There is a sidewalk/bike path beside it, but I've had too many close calls on that. The last close call on there would have been very dangerous. The motorist I was crossing in front of decided to pull out in front of another motorist and see how good his brakes worked. I probably would have been thrown in front of the car with the right of way. No close calls at all so far on the road.

Mos6502

Well you're not reading it correctly. For instance, I would never try to fly a plane around the world, but that doesn't mean I'm blaming Amelia Earheart for disappearing. They said they wouldn't bike that road. I wouldn't bike it either. But that doesn't make them at fault for doing so.

dynodonn 

......or band together and advocate/petition for infrastructure that better suits non motorized road users.

Digital_Cowboy

Agreed, and I think that we know that the average American motorist would have us choose either the first or last option or any option that would get us off of "their" road.

Digital_Cowboy

I'm sorry, but that is how it seemed, that there were some here who were blaming the victim for the road that he choose to ride on.

As I've said in other threads there are roads that I ride on regularly that others would not ride on. As a matter of fact if you recall there is another member here who is also in the Tampa Bay Area who has admitted that they would never ride across the Gandy Bridge, Courtney Causeway, or the Bayside Bridge. Those are bridges that I ride across on a regular basis. I also have two friends who commute to Tampa across the Gandy Bridge on a daily or almost daily basis.

And there are probably are roads out there that I personally wouldn't ride on, but so far I haven't found any roads here in the Tampa Bay Area that I wouldn't ride on.

I just don't think that it makes any sense to "blame" a person for their death because of the road that they choose to or "had" to ride on because there wasn't any other reasonable choice in roads to get where they were going.