D1andonlyDman

Over the past 5 days, four bicyclists have been killed between San Diego and L.A. One of these fatalities hit home for me personally, a 64 year-old gentleman by the name of Roger Roux - who was a senior executive at a local hospital, was killed at around 3:30 PM on Sunday afternoon while riding the same local route that I usually ride in Northern San Diego. He did nothing wrong. He was in a well marked bike lane (in what I had thought was a relatively safe stretch of road) minding his own business, wearing a helmet and a rear-view mirror, when a woman who apparently forgot she was driving an automobile, got distracted by the combination of her 6-year-old daughter acting up and her cell phone ringing, and while attending to these matters, as opposed to where she was driving, and suddenly veered into the bike lane at full speed, dealing him fatal injuries.

Had this happened 3 hours earlier, it just as easily could have been me who was killed by this irresponsible driver, as I had ridden that same route earlier that same day, as I usually do.

So far, no charges have been filed, and the driver is free under her own recognizance. Come on, people, driving a car requires your full attention. Those painted white lines on the road won't protect us bicyclists if you and your vehicle suddenly decide to occupy the space we are already in.

https://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/...307326301.html

LGHT

Wow that's very concerning. Negligence is Negligence regardless if the person got drunk before driving home and killed someone or if they were texting / answering your cell phone while driving.

I think the California Bicycle Coalition needs to step up and work toward getting some legislation in writing for the California legislators along with a petition.

I understand it was an "accident", but last time I checked involuntary manslaughter was still a crime and for people to walk away like this is simply wrong.

Garfield Cat

Cyclist killed on Beach Blvd in Stanton CA

Cyclist struck, killed by hit-and-run driver in Stanton | abc7.com

Jed19

Yes, it has been kind of surreal seeing all the recent bicycle/car encounters in SoCal. I have now kinda come to the sad realisation that any ride I do could really be my last. There are just too many cars coupled with inattentive/distracted drivers out there. Some months ago, I was at a traffic light waiting to turn left, when a lady ran a red light, collided heavily with another car that had right of way, then pushed that driver into me. Her reason for running the red? She had two dogs in her back seat that were fighting and that distracted her. The lady in the other car suffered serious back injury.

Also a few Sundays ago, I almost got creamed by two cars on two different occasions as I was trying to merge left onto the straight-ahead bike lanes from bicycle lanes that were ending. Very close calls, and I am a super careful bicyclist.

Be careful out there!

TrojanHorse

I don't really need bike lanes and frankly, I don't even want them because then drivers seem to think you need to stay in them but I WOULD like a consistent shoulder area that is suitable for riding (the wide right lane, basically). There are too many bike lanes around me that just randomly start and end when the road is wide enough, as if the city is trying to hit some stat on how many miles of bike lane they have installed. Well, if it keeps disappearing, what good is it?

Jed19

Yeah, you are probably right. A consistently wide right lane, in all likelihood, will be better than cycling lane that start and stop in fits. I think most municipalities are fixated on that metric of how many miles of bike lane they've installed (looks like that is the metric the Feds use in dispensing grants), and that is certainly not preventing car-cycling collisions. On the other hand, since newly-designed municipal thoroughfares incorporating bike lanes at inception are out of the picture, how else can progress be made? An inattentive/distracted driver can still cream you on wide shoulders, as have happened on certain stretches of the PCH.

LGHT

Reading more and more of these deaths is really making me consider using MUPS more and more. I honestly prefer to ride in bike lanes on the streets because most MUPS have me dodging strollers, kids, walkers etc and I can't hammer when I want because it's not safe to them. However I don't almost all of my riding alone and clearly the streets are getting worse all the time with all these distracted drivers.

Garfield Cat

How about making some of the So Cal freeways "double decker", with lanes dedicated for non motorized vehicles?

Garfield Cat

The aging baby boomers is another thing. Slower reaction time, aging process. Some cars just plow right into homes and store fronts.

calamarichris

My friends and family consider me a frothing maniac about this and they don't see the big deal. (Heck even someone in this forum whined about his texting-while-driving ticket, and didn't see the big deal.)
I confront drivers regularly when I'm on my motorcycle, and most of them act as if I'm over-reacting.
I've had several close calls, one of which resulted in me pounding on the passenger-side window, shrieking obscenities, and regrettable hawking and spitting all over her window... and she was still too busy and distracted to notice me doing this.

I take great comfort whenever one of them kills themselves without taking one of us with them. Happened a few years ago on El Camino Real in Encinitas: idiotic young girl crossed several lanes (and the bike path of course) at high-speed and split her car in half on a traffic signal pole. I always laughed out loud at the flowers her friends & family left at that corner. Irrational? Spiteful? She took herself out with her own selfishness and stupidity, but she could just have easily killed me or an entire family in another vehicle. Sometimes I feel like the only man in America who notices the third eye on the Statue of Liberty's face. Maybe my family will quit rolling their eyes when I'm killed by one of these idiots--just a matter of time.

TrojanHorse

I'd settle for the law simply enforcing some laws - with 14 million people in LA county alone (and at least half of them driving angry!) nobody will ever be truly safe. Still, I've been hit more times in my car than I have on my bike in the last 10 years (4:0), although there's more opportunity there for sure.

double decker freeways... LOL. Good one Garfield Cat. They can't even maintain the ones they have! I have to admit, they're working on freeways at a furious pace considering the financial state of this state. Does it really take 3+ years to build an overpass? (10/605) Widen the 210?

bikemig 

Whenever I read a post like this, I am reminded of how grateful I am that I have fine MUPs with relatively few walkers, dogs, etc.. Des Moines has a first rate system of bike paths that stretches throughout the city and beyond. It's easy finding excellent paths to ride on.

Jed19

There are also fewer cars in Des Moines than just LA County. I know, because I went to school and lived in Iowa City for 4 years. I also spent three summers of those years in the Ames/Des Moines area. I cycled all over the state, and you are right that the MUPs are excellent and extensive. Also, in Iowa, it does not take long before you get into the rural areas, and the excellent roads (for the most part) coupled with fewer cars and attentive drivers result in mostly excellent rides.

I remember riding out from Iowa City for close to 75/80 miles out on MUPs (and another thing, the MUPs there are not as busy as the ones in SoCal). And three to five miles out on North Dubuque or North Dodge streets have me out in the country in Iowa City back then.

calamarichris

Plenty of challenging climbs, spectacular mountain passes & vistas, and culture too (at least the agri- kind) there too.
Spent a night in Des Moines on a motorcycle trip once. It's the heart of America's bread-basket, yet Hotdog-on-a-Stick is about the fanciest cuisine the capitol offers.
"Beers? We got both kind: Budweiser AND Coors."

Jed19

Ouch! It is not that bad

bikemig 

Well the next time you visit DM, I'll show you some great food, great beer, and great bike riding. If you want a hot dog on a stick, you're on your own buddy.

calamarichris

Thanks for the offer. I'll be sure to wave the next time I'm passing by. (From ~35 - 40,000 feet.)
It was 8 or 9 years ago, and we stayed in a cool (expensive) old hotel, but there were no restaurants at all downtown. We finally found one Italian place open with overboiled macaroni in catsup sauce.
The menu said they had Asti and another, unspecified white champagne; when my wife said, "I'd like a glass of the white champagne." the waitress said condescendingly as if we were farmers: "Asti is white champagne, Ma'am."
"Reckon you oughta 'ppreciate me taking you out to this here fancy restaurant, Martha..."

TrojanHorse

Heck, I ate at a place JUST like that in Rome, right outside the vatican. It must be authentic!

I thought our dish was ketchup though. The main problem with Italy is that the beer selection is truly lousy.

bikemig 

It's becoming more of a foody city than it was in the past (even the near past). In any case, the MUPs are first rate. The maps are here, Regional trail maps - Des Moines Bike Collective

calamarichris

Sorry for putting down your gosh-forsaken heckhole of a city, but I find it in decidedly poor taste to derail a thread about bicycle fatalities with your Iowa Chamber-of-Commerce proselytizing. We're all impressed with your quaint flyover state's mountain passes and dynamism, but we don't come to the Iowa forum gloating about how much more varied, interesting, challenging and beautiful our roads and environment (and cuisine) is than yours.

We definitely have a problem with texting drivers here in California though. I was just in Utah picking up a bicycle last weekend, and was delighted to see more drivers picking their noses than texting. (6 vs. 2, I suppose it's because of the altitude and dry climate?)

bikemig 

Let me try one more time. This has to be one of the dumber posts I've seen in a long time. The point of my original post was directly relevant to the issue which is that MUPs can be safer. It was not some paean to the midwest. No one was gloating. How could anyone gloat over something as awful as the subject of this thread?

The responses that were more directly related to the midwest were directly related to your repeated put downs. I thought you were joking and honestly didn't realize (until this thread) that you were trolling.

calamarichris

How indeed?

trailangel

We gots a problem down here in So Cal.
Too Many Cars... plus, you can lease a brand new car for under $200 a month.
I say raise the price of gasoline to get them off the rode.
And I think we are in a bike boom period.. all us old bikers from the 70s are now... "old"... but we are still riding, and we have time to ride. So we got more bikers out there.

A wide shoulder is good, but not too wide, as the cars will pass on the right.. right on the shoulder where you are riding.

Seems like every time I go out I almost get popped. Usually I call them ASSsHOLE.. I am trying to watch my language.. but I have to say.. I also say that to other bikers on bike paths that are riding on the wrong side.
I will try to be more polite in the future.

Right before I leave for a ride I take a minute, have some reflective thoughts.. and hope I will return from the ride in the same condition... alive, but just tired.

bikemig 

That's not gloating. I count my blessings every time I read a post like the one that started this thread. Most of the people on BF are pretty cool and pretty accepting of a lot of different comments. You are one of very few exceptions. Good for you.

This is the net and not everything we are thinking is expressed as clearly as we might like. It's a real question whether roads can be made safer given the level of electronic distractions that drivers face. Maybe new driving technology can fix this problem, maybe it won't. That opens up the question whether MUPs, for all the problems (and there are many), make sense and whether municipalities should invest in them.

Rick@OCRR

Just got this in an email but not much info. Does anyone know details on this one?

Rick / OCRR