Paul Barnard

I am vaguely familiar with the road the cyclist was killed on. I have driven on it once. It's a 55 MPH rural highway with generally low traffic density and generally good sight lines. I prefer lower speed roads than that for my rural rides. When I ride roads like that I am ever aware of traffic approaching from behind. I am typically from middle to right wheel track, and when I first notice a vehicle behind me I do a little in lane moving back and forth to try to draw attention to myself, then as the vehicle closes in I look over my shoulder and move well to the right. My goal is to make myself more visible, to show the motorist I am aware they are there, and that I am cooperating with them by moving right.

Milton Keynes

But that costs money. Just try convincing some politicians to spend a more money on a road to make bicyclists a little more safer. Money is the reason so many city streets in my town and county roads in the surrounding area are just chip sealed and not blacktopped.

Leisesturm

Howard Hughes died like an animal. He was found in a rough shack, unkempt and dirty. In today's money he had between $3B and $6B. Cray cray? Absolutely. Well, I for one think its b@t@#$% to have 500 Americans with net worth's in excess of $1B, thousands with net worth's ~$100M and to be agonizing over how wide rural roads need to be because of the COST of widening them. SMH. We are all going to die like Hughes, in the midst of vast wealth, because we allow a tiny minority of skinflints to hoard the money it would take to improve America's infrastructure to a real First World standard. BTW (and to the topic) how would rumble dots in the fog stripe save those cyclists? Where is the evidence that the driver was on the fog line? Also BTW ... maybe its obvious, maybe not, but IMO vaccinating 6M people against an illness that maybe 5,000 people will actually catch and fewer than 155 would die from is INEFFICIENT. A better strategy would be to find a CURE for the illness that can be given to the 5K sick people so that none of them die! Instead of upgrading more than 6 million miles of public roads, it might be more expedient (read: efficient) to automate the functioning of road vehicles so that the variables of human talent for driving and their susceptibility to distraction, of any vehicles on the road at any given time is rendered more consistent. Ya think?

Kontact 

Right on! We should nationalize those billionaire's companies so we can have the kind of economies and wealth countries like Venezuela and Cuba enjoy!

CliffordK

I'm not sure I could tell the difference between pavement and chipseal with my old pickup. I didn't have AC, and typically drove with the windows down in the summer, and cracked in the winter.

The new cars are much quieter, and there may be some rebellion against chipseal that causes very noticeable road noise.

I've also noted in a few places that chipseal does nothing to repair underlying issues in the road surface... like painting over dry rot.

It is possible that it will fall out of favor in the future.

There should be arguments to bring through secondary highways up to spec when repaving. A road shoulder can provide some buffer to wandering vehicles too.

Widening the road, of course, would depend a bit on the road. Narrow steep curvy roads could be expensive to widen due to a lack of space. On the other hand, a wide flat road should be easy to widen, but may be more complex than I would think due to less foundation under the shoulders, and a risk of the shoulders cracking and separating from the road bed. Not a huge deal on a shoulder, but it can create very dangerous conditions for cyclists.

JoeyBike

Besides phones in every hand, now every car has a "TV" screen in the dash to play with radio stations, back-up cameras, bluetooth, calculate MPG, and a hundred other features. And modern pickup trucks are WIDE! Also HIGH off the ground which adds the perception of going slower than they really are (to the operator), which contributes to speeding. It's all these distracting features and more (alcohol and drug abuse) that made me give it up on those types of roads.

Someone driving blind does not have to mess up very much to take out something they were not expecting to see on the road, or can't see through peripheral or intoxicated vision, and can hit that something/someone anywhere on the road.

Leisesturm

I don't know, Cuba's health care system has some aspects to be envied *cough* but why is it always these poor examples of Democratic Socialism that get trotted out whenever defensive Americans feel backed into a corner? Have some shame and point your fingers at Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany ... get out of the gutter of low hanging Third World fruit. Pick on some Western European or Scandinavian hell holes for ridicule and embarrassment if you want to actually make a salient point.

Kontact 

No one in Norway had the government come take away their billions one day, like you suggested. They just have very progressive tax rates

I'm not backed into a corner - you just suggested something absurd.

BillyD

No more political posts please. Thanky!

Rollfast

@JoeyBike if this is like other versions of vBulletin and you can Go Advanced in editing or similar, you can edit the title there.

Milton Keynes

Around here they use it a lot on country roads because it's cheaper than asphalt. I hate it because it's an absolute horror to ride on after it's first been put down and consists of a lot of loose chat, and even after it's been packed down by vehicle traffic, it's pretty rough to ride a bike on, much rougher than the smooth blacktop of a state highway.

Leisesturm

It already has fallen out of favor in some jurisdictions. Chip seal is not intended to fix anything. It is intended to be a quick and dirty way of making a road. You pour aggregate and seal the pieces in place. Blacktop, the gold standard road surface requires much more work and costs tons more per mile. But not paving roads at all is even better for the bottom line and as far back as ~2002 the lower traffic roads in the city I lived in stopped paving those roads at all. I expect the practice will catch on. New pickups don't notice the difference either.

JoeyBike

Got it fixed. Thanks. Only been on BF about 12 years and never noticed that.

Well, it corrected my post title but not the thread title. I believe that is etched in stone once you do it.

SHBR

I have the same thought, every time I head out the door.

My grandmother is almost 94, and she says, " I never thought I would live this long"

Its a dog eat dog world, everyone gets their turn.

satrain18

Not to mention Amoroso is a Republican. https://ballotpedia.org/Buddy_Amoroso

Rollfast

Did you read BillyD's request? (He IS an ADMINISTRATOR)

curbtender

Here's another one on a popular stretch of road. https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2018/07...run-collision/

rachel120

My first week on a bike I dug out the will I had prepared but never got around to signing and took it to work so I could get the legal witnesses. Then I took it home in a Ziploc bag so that if a car hit me on the way home my blood wouldn't obscure the text.

Rollfast

I think of getting water or soda in my bottle. If it's the beginning of the month I think of going to eat out.