walrus1

Yahoo tends the draw the worst of the dumbest of the dumb. It's best not to read the comment section your brain will thank you!

A terrible tragedy! Do we know if charges were filled?

Slackerprince

^^
"My condolences to the family. It is a horrendous loss and locally we all feel bad about this tragedy. Since I cycle the section of road where the accident happened, one gets the feeling like it could have been any of us that ride that route. One tries to learn from these tragedies and for me it is more of expect the unexpected. RIP."


That's all I was getting at with my OP.
It was her, but could have been me many times.
I ride at night a lot, and use lights and wear a
white jersey. I do all I can to be safe, but I'm
passed by people in cars who could be fiddling
with the radio or texting.
I was just expressing my gratitude and relief
when I get home safe. That is all.
Can't understand why someone has to construct
a straw man argument and cite statistics to crap on my post.
Whatever. It's the 41.

S

Chris516

Joy Covey, RIP

volosong

https://www.mercurynews.com/business/...adly-peninsula

What an awful tragedy. A beautiful, smart woman who leaves behind an eight year-old son. Yes, it looks like the van pulled out in front of her. Accidents like this are the major reason I ride with a strobe front and rear ALWAYS, (unless in a group of cyclists or on a MUP). It won't prevent accidents, but I've sure seen a difference in how cars/trucks act around me. Please be careful out there folks.

Hapsmo911

Skyline, especially where she was killed, is hugely popular with motorcycles, cars, bicycles you name it. This happened right before Alice's Restaurant . The TOC usually passes right near there as well.

BoJaffa

As road cyclists we do put a lot of faith in other people to act responsibly and safely. Hoping they see us and give us our share of the road. I think that some drivers can't judge our speed and feel they have the time to turn in front of a rider. Truly a sad story. I feel really bad for her young son. It's awful.

Chaco

I would love to see some more reliable stats too. Absent that, I have only my own experience to go off. I ride an average of 150 to 170 miles per week. I have been hit by a car (from behind) once. My bike was a total loss, but I was OK. I have had about 4 or 5 really, really close calls. Other than that, I've seen drivers do lots of stupid things, but most of the time, I didn't get into trouble because I was expecting them to do the stupid thing.

If there were reliable statistics, I think it would be more meaningful to compare not miles traveled but rather time on the road. After all that's the real indicator of the proportion of your life you're putting at risk. From that point of view, 60 miles by car would be about the equivalent of 15 minutes on a bicycle. So my 550 hours per year on the bike would be the equivalent of 2200 hours driving.

There was a 10 year study of accidents in Orange County CA (sorry, don't have the reference) and this study said that 45% of all bike/car accidents were caused by salmoning. I imagine virtually no one on this forum salmons, so from that point of view, we could consider our bicycle trips twice as safe as that of the "normal" cyclist.

Long Tom

We do indeed count on the skills and attentiveness of...... uh....... the general driving population. I was going to type "a bunch of bozos". Either works. I'm always a bit relieved to at least get off the busier of the rural roads I ride. I can just tangibly feel how each and every car passing me from behind is potential doom.

Ironically, it's likely that this very wealthy woman would still be alive if she'd been using one of those annoying very bright $150 LED blinkers. I'm buying a couple as I can.

hhnngg1

Yeouch. That's like THE most popular regroup section for descending or ascending that extremely popular road, for cyclists, as well as motorcycles and sports cars. But especially cyclists.

When I'm in race training, I'll pass through that very section every week. Never thought of it as a particularly hazardous area - if anything, I always considered it one of the safest intersections to ride simply due to the prevalence of cyclists (plenty, at all times) and relative scarcity of car traffic. Terrible news and terrible luck.

supremekizzle

I ride on sidewalks due to almost being hit a couple of times. Law in my city dictates bikes are legal on the sidewalk as long as it's outside the downtown business district. Hell, most of the people I EVER see on the sidewalks are on bicycles anyway.

daihard 

That's a sad, tragic accident. No doubt about that.

That said, I wonder if you don't drive because so many people are killed in vehicle accidents every day?

When I ride on the road, I almost always use the street (i.e. carriageway). It _is_ legal to ride on the sidewalks where I live, too, but it's just not practical to do that. When on the sidewalk, cyclists are supposed to ride at reasonably slow speed and must give way to the pedestrians. That's neither efficient nor exciting.

Isaiahc72

That is really sad. In my city, riding on sidewalks is also legal, but the only time I ride on them is when I stoplight won't detect me therefore, I'd be stranded at the light forever.

tim24k

Very sad story I still say ridding on the road with the cars is safer 98% of the time. Around here drivers just not looking for you on the sidewalk. Or maybe I should say much less because alot of the drivers aren't looking for bike riders at all.

dalava

Reading the comments section in the linked story always reminds me how others see us. Be safe out there. This is very sad story.

WonderMonkey

There are very few stretches where I am on the road. One of them is meandering through a plat to avoid a busier road and the largest danger there is me blending in with the cars parked on the street and a driver backing out of their driveway not seeing me. I feel my blinkie lights greatly helps this issue plus I try to be on the lookout for this. At times through out town (4 lane road) I make a decision to be on the street or sidewalk depending on the time of the day and how busy the road and/or sidewalk is. Legally I'm supposed to be on the road but at times the sidewalks are deserted and the streets are very busy. Safety says I go to the sidewalk and if a police officer gave me a ticket for it I would accept it knowing I was breaking the law, though I would try to explain why. And when school lets out the sidewalk is certainly not an option nor are the streets.

All this short distance is to get to the bike path. 300 yards of sidewalk total if I use it and maybe 1/4 mile of non-play road if I use it.

Fishmonger

Getting off the street may seem like a good idea until you run into a little kid on a skateboard.

A few days ago I was jogging in the morning, in the dark, and I nearly got hit by a bicycle. If he'd had lights, I would have seen him. If he'd been in the road where bikes are supposed to be, it wouldn't have been an issue either. As a bike commuter I make myself seen: I have lights, I wave my arms around, and I make eye contact with drivers before I put myself somewhere potentially dangerous. I don't feel that riding my bike is necessarily more dangerous that driving a car--with my increased visibility and better perception, I think I'm less likely to pull out in front of someone as well.

I've since bought a headlamp for my morning jogs.

TakingMyTime

I'm fortunate enough to live quite close to several bike trails that parallel the roads that lead to where I enjoy going to. My wife and I try and stay away from busy streets as much as possible. We will opt for a path or trail over the street whenever possible.

merlinextraligh

No strawman. I was responding directlyto what you posted.

And the reason is that these threads get old, and create a false impression. Most every bike fatality that happens anywhere in the U.S. and many anywhere in the world, get posted on BF.

This creates the impression that we're all dropping like flies, and that it's "scary out there" to the point you're relieved to be done with your ride.

If you're so worried about riding that you're relieved to be done with it, why do you ride in the first place? You could eliminate that scary risk by not riding at all.

WonderMonkey

I do agree with that. When I'm on the sidewalk (those times that I make that choice) it is through town and is wide open. You would have to see it to get what I'm saying. However there is still a danger as I do cross three entrances to three fast food joints and with people coming out of there having just gotten their food, calling home, etc. and them not expecting me to be on sidewalk it is an issue. Like you I try to be seen and go through this small section expecting to not be noticed so I take all the responsibility and things have worked out. I do acknowledge that the danger is still present though.

WonderMonkey

I do as well. My short hop where a plat and a choice between the sidewalk and road leads is to get to the bike path. Otherwise I would have to load my bike up and drive it to the path. Having refined my short hop to only have a small distance that I have to choose what is best at that moment I feel the situation is as best as it can be.

The Savages

I live in NewYork City you have to ride like a cab driver lol!

WonderMonkey

I have a friend who is in NYC and he showed me some video he took on his helmet cam. According to my Ohio viewpoint he rode like an idiot and so did the cars. I made the realization that what YOU said is true and that you have to ride like that just to fit in!

rebel1916

Here is why I never ride on bike paths. It's just too dangerous.
https://www.wfaa.com/news/local/dento...217254991.html

memebag

It's illegal to ride on the sidewalks here in Houston. We have a lot of dedicated bike paths, a lot of roads designated for biking, and local laws that up the penalties for hitting a bicyclist if they are in a designated bike lane/path/etc. It's still pretty scary on the roads. Some Houston drivers carry a lot of anger toward bicyclists, and some bicyclists go out of their way to make that worse.

The roads can be safer than the bike paths around here. There were about 20 beatings and robberies along a 4 mile stretch of bike path this summer. A gang of kids was going after expensive bikes.

blue_cheese

All of those are sad stories, however when listening to the local news, cars hitting pedestrians on sidewalks and cars hitting other cars seem just as common. I don't think you can do much beyond regular safety measures, if you are going to get hurt there are ways it will happen regardless of where you ride