JoeyBike

+1. It's easy. Except where she was riding you would spend more time in the ditch than cycling.

There are ZERO good roads to ride a bike upon in that area. Narrow lanes, no shoulders, wide pickup trucks with trailers, plenty of them, speeding galore, and a hardcore anti-cycling culture. Take up another sport. Pretty close to home for me as well. That swath of land south of I-10 between Bay St. Louis and Biloxi is a no-go zone for me on a bike and always has been. Even north of I-10 can be a bear.
.
.
.

Paul Barnard

There are a few east west roads that work well. The bike lane on Lorraine Cowan is good as well with very rare exception. Get up above hwy 53 and 67 and enjoy the often empty roads.

Maelochs

Pretty simple.

Cyclists fear getting hit from behind because it is the direction from which we are most vulnerable--mostly because we have to scan ahead and to the sides constantly, and have less time to look back, and partly because looking back physically to some extent compromises safety.

I can duck and twist my head and look back for an instant without changing my balance, but i cannot see a lot. i cannot sit that way watching to judge the closing speed of a car, for instance--I rely on my ears. I cannot watch behind to see if a car is weaving. I have a helmet mirror and a bar-end mirror, but both are very small. and both are best used to do a quick check before pulling left around an obstacle ... in heavy traffic i cannot Watch cars because I need to be looking at the 270 degree arc ahead.

A car can come up behind a cyclist at normal speed, and the driver can drop a cigarette, spill coffee, decide to send a text, change a CD, whatever, and hit the cyclist s/he didn't even notice. Day or night, lights or not ... I have seen cars hit each other from behind in stop and go traffic night and day. if cars can hit cars, they can overlook bikes with ease.

Cyclists have at least a chance to avoid any other crash because they might see it coming. Getting his from behind can happen at any time, and there is usually no warning.

That is why cyclists don't like to think about rear strikes. It is our Achilles heel, literally our blind spot, the biggest ***** in our armor of awareness and quick reactions.

I can almost always avoid anything I can see ahead of me. I can avoid road hazards easily. People who hit stationary objects ... well a lot of bike collisions involve alcohol too. Anything in that forward 270-degree arc I can react to and almost always avoid. About the only time I wouldn't see hazards ahead would be when i was looking behind.

Maelochs

Also, I second Take-A-Look mirrors if you wear a helmet or glasses. Easy to set up, can give a huge field of view with a tiny head movement, and don't block any essential sight-lines.

JoeyBike

I did not know about the bike lane on Lorraine. Then above I-10 the shoulder looks good on Google Earth. At least there is one good way OUT of there on a bike!

I gave up on that area in the late 1980s. From NOLA to Bay St. Louis can be pleasurable if you know the routes. I biked from NOLA to the Atlantic Ocean once in the mid 90s and just toughed it out to Ocean Springs. I know I took Pass Road, which looks like a nightmare, but at least it was 4-lane and lots of adjoining parking lots to cut through at the busy retail sections. Back in those days before Katrina, the bridges did not have walkways/bikeways. Bay St. Louis bridge trick was to wait until the draw bridge went up, wait for the traffic to stack up, then bike up to the draw. After the bridge dropped, wait for all of the cars to go past and bike a short distance PAST the draw and then hang out on the big curb there until the bridge opened again for a boat and blocked auto traffic. Then finish crossing it. Ah, memories!

Paul Barnard

The Gulf Coast Bicycle Club has done some great advocacy work in the area. Their efforts got the bike lane. They also helped get the 3 foot law passed. The Lorraine Cowan/603 bike lane runs all the way up to 67. 67 has a bike lane for its full length. It feeds a number of lightly traveled 35MPH rural roads. You can put together some fantastic rides in the area. Motorists are accustomed to seeing cyclists in the area and attitudes have improved. I bought 10 acres right off of my favorite 50 mile loop in south Stone County with thoughts of retiring and living there in a few years.

There is a bike lane on the BSL bridge now. you can hop off of it onto a few back roads before picking up Second in Pass C, then Railroad in Long Beach. You can do some easy zigging and zagging through Gulfport, then West-East in Biloxi presents problems. At that point it's best to go up toward D'iberville.

jon c. 

I ride one road much like that, but traffic is light enough that's it's not a bad ride. Lighting is critical at that time of day. I ride in the center of the lane and move to the right as cars approach (assuming they can safely pass). With heavier traffic, it would be quite different. A parallel road has much more traffic and I wouldn't ride that one in the sections that didn't have shoulders. In the sections with shoulders, they're 5 feet wide and excellent to ride. And yet, that's the only place a cyclist has been killed (recently) on roads I regularly ride. The initial report didn't offer any suggestion as to why the driver veered onto the shoulder, although asserted that excess speed, alcohol, or cell phone distractions were not a factor. I could never find a subsequent report. Sometimes, there is no defense against being struck from behind.

MikeyMK

One of the biggest isduesis when there's a truck in front of a driver. TheyreT following the truck. They can't see you in front because the truck is in the way.

If the truck gives you a close pass, it's pure luck if the driver behind misses you.

Here, you can expect tailgating and congestion at speed. Everyone literally just following the back bumper in front.

With that lot coming up behind you, you simply can't be in the lane and expect that to be a viable survival strategy.

JoeyBike

Yeah, it is astounding how seldom cyclists in this situation get smacked. The problem is....it only takes ONCE. I have been passed uncountable times on roads like that without issue. As everyone here likely knows, technology - the smartphone issue, along with "TVs" built into every vehicle dashboard, was one factor too many and I gave up on already sketchy situations like this.

Oh Hell yeah there is!! I love that thing, along with the Biloxi-Ocean Springs bridge. Several times a year I rent a vehicle and go skate those bridges. Inline skates and longboards. Hey, I am vertically challenged on the Gulf Coast. Those bridges are awesome now! My wife and I walk the BSL now and then before an afternoon shopping and eating in Old Town. Only biked the BSL bridge once. Kinda boring compared to the skating.

Anyway, it is good to see infrastructure in place for active, non-motoring people advancing there. Thanks for the heads-up. Perhaps this tragedy will help keep that need in the public eye.

mcours2006

This pretty much sums up my sentiments as well regarding vehicles from behind. And having been hit from behind by an intoxicated driver not so long ago has really raised my awareness and vigilance about drivers coming from behind. Having a helmet mounted mirror helps, but I still feel lots of anxiety every time I am on a narrow lane. I will do whatever I can to avoid situations like the one in the OP. I'll even go on the sidewalk on some stretches. It is not without its hazards and dangers, but like you said, you can see the danger ahead of you and take action to avoid it.

CliffordK

I don't know the traffic levels on that road. But, I ride a lot of rural roads, night and day. Most have a default 55 MPH, and are not straight.

Having a painted fog line is nice at night, because even if oncoming traffic blinds a person, there is something to focus on. No fog line means it can be hard to see the road/ditch transition.

Good lights plus good visibility clothing are a MUST.

If a driver can't see a bike light near the side of the road a half hour after sundown, then they won't be able to see the bike light in the middle of the road, and there will be no safe place to be on the road.

One article noted the potential of fog, but no actual data on fog, lights, or lane positioning.

So, all we can do here in A&S is to give suggestions as what to do to be safe.

BE VISIBLE.

Paul Barnard

Someone in my club mentioned that they heard she was an employee of one of the gas stations at the intersection of Canal and 10 and that she had to use that road to get back and forth to work. If so she may have lived in the trailer park about a mile and a half down Canal. It's an additional mile and a half down to the next residential area. I started thinking more about that stretch of the road and thought I remembered that there was no good place to walk a bike off the road there. In places it slopes straight from the fog line into the drainage ditch. I looked on Google Street View and my memory was correct. In places you literally could not walk a bike beside the road there. The edge of the road isn't really suitable for walking at all in places.

I feel really badly if she was of limited financial means and had no other good options for getting back and forth to work. If I had known of her situation I would have bought her a high vis reflective vest, lights, pedal reflectors and anchor reflectors. I feel confident that members of my club would be happy to help in similar circumstances. It'd be hard to bring the two entities together though. How would the club learn of her need or how would she learn of the club's ability to address a need?

jefnvk

Sad. Those types of roads are the ones I hate the most: they look like they are a great side road to utilize, but in reality they tend to attract more traffic than they were designed for because of some convenience factor, and there is enough traffic that passing a cyclist with nowhere to get out of the way becomes an exercise in patience for the motorist. I'd much rather be on a 55MPH state highway with wide lanes and a shoulder in most cases.

CliffordK

Hard to say. One passes cyclists with poor visibility all the time. Should one help everyone? Are those riders making their own choices?

When I was buying $1 non-rechargeable lights, I gave a few away. Communities also give those button cell lights away.

But, what we really need is very low cost rechargeables, and good low cost headlights.

mr_bill

She was a cook at a different gulf gas station.

Her funeral was this week.

You have no facts, just wild ifs, let her rest in peace.

-mr. bill

Clyde1820

Myself, I'm against failure to co-exist on roads responsibly, failure to drive well within the limits of what the conditions justify (the "basic speed law"). Irrespective of which mode of travel we're speaking of.

The only real value of any such news item is what debate and consideration of possible alternatives or strategies for avoidance can come of it.


There are roadway design aspects. Some roads simply aren't created with anything other than motor vehicles in mind. There are speed aspects, and some roads/locations don't promote sane and rational speeds by users of such roads, or (as seems to be the case here) LE is limited in their authorized approaches to catching folks driving dangerously or ignoring "basic speed law" requirements.

No knowing, in this example, given the lack of details.

Yet, a reasonable discussion can still occur about possibilities of how to avoid such things. From the POV of both the overtaking user of the road as well as the other.


I hate some roads, given how they're designed, how the light falls (and makes things blend in), how poorly smaller vehicles (including bikes) and pedestrians show up on the road. In my own area, I view certain roads at certain times as no-go spots. With or without high-quality, multiple lighting and reflective elements on my bike and back, it still doesn't make much difference in some spots.


Would love to see every single new roadway creation or roadway alteration incorporate solid accommodation for "smaller/slower" traffic vehicles ... bicycles, scooters, pedestrians. IMO, we're never going to get anywhere with the concept of reducing reliance on motor vehicles if we fail to have easy travel options for other modes of travel.

Leisesturm

I can agree with this. All of it. Yep, I think you've nailed it. /thread
*alteration

Gresp15C

True. These things all tell me that the drivers are not really controlling their cars. They're allowing themselves to be controlled by the traffic in front of them and around them. Since they are obligated to be in control of their cars, they are breaking the law, but this is the situation we're dealing with.

Everybody has their own comfort zone, and I have mine, which is that I won't ride under those conditions, and will try to find another route.

JoeyBike

Or find another sport.

I have a fair amount of control over my route choices in the city and can meander around on streets I deem less dangerous than some more direct routes. There are a few MUPs available to me outside of the city grid. But when I want to get far out of town, or just spend a pretty day on a bike, my routes are very limited and mostly sketchy. So I just changed sports rather than bike the sketchy routes for recreation. Cycling is not worth dying over. 99% of my cycling is utility in nature now. I am much happier. Your results may vary.

JoeyBike

This is actually a pretty good idea. The only problem I see is, assuming BFers are representative of the cycling community as a whole, almost no one thinks it's life threatening to ride a bike on a busy highway. "Walking down stairs is dangerous" and "it is NOT a war zone out there" and "leaving the house is dangerous" are some of the attitudes I see here on the regular.

Best of luck with the camera idea. "It won't happen to me" will insure it never gets anywhere.

Leisesturm

I'm just saying, 813 cyclists, more or less, died in fatal interactions with cars last year. 6000 pedestrians, more or less, died in fatal interactions with cars in the same time period. Using your logic it is a no brainer as to which group of vulnerable road users the onus really is on to start a documentation campaign to start a video archive campaign. I can just see it. Sadly it isn't pretty. It isn't pretty at all.

JoeyBike

And how many were seriously injured but didn't perish? Or sustained minor injuries and never reported it. I really don't want any of the above.