City of NOLA officials held forum discussing bicycle and pedestrian safety
 

It has the word "Safety" in it, which should make it relevant here. The last two paragraphs will make it obvious why I abandoned road cycling here after 50 years of doing it.

https://wgno.com/news/city-of-nola-o...ebeLJe36OOSDJI

sad.

You would expect NO to have the "worst" statistics in that regard. It's a mecca for tourists who like to drink a lot. Being a pedestrian really isn't dangerous if you're sober and paying attention.

It's a tough city for biking though. Crowded narrow streets with a lot of distracted drivers. And more inebriated drivers than one would find in most cities.

Over the past 10 years NOLA has gone from ZERO to 100 miles of bike lanes. Mostly road diets and paint but some pretty fancy stuff between parked cars and the curb. I use those regularly to avoid the higher speed streets with no room for error. So I can still get around by bike, just not in front of automobile crosshairs (Hood ornaments). The drunks still manage to find their way onto sidewalks and bike lanes, but it is not the norm.I'm comfortable in most bike lanes but still use my helmet mounted mirror like a long haul trucker - a glance every 15 seconds or so.

Louisiana sucks. NOLA (Orleans Parish) not so bad really.

2022: 0 deaths / 053 injuries to date
2021: 7 deaths / 128 injuries
2020: 6 deaths / 134 injuries
2019: 5 deaths / 221 injuries
2018: 0 deaths / 200 injuries
2017: 1 death_ / 268 injuries
2016: 5 deaths / 259 injuries
2015: 6 deaths / 224 injuries
2014: 3 deaths / 251 injuries
2013: 2 deaths / 205 injuries
2012: 1 death_ / 203 injuries
2011: 1 death_ / 169 injuries
2010: 3 deaths / 102 injuries
2009: 1 death_ / 093 injuries
2008: 0 deaths / 102 injuries
2007: 1 death_ / 060 injuries
2006: 2 deaths / 058 injuries
2005: 2 deaths / 096 injuries

Before you all go on about how good it was at the beginning of the millenia, data collection in NOLA sucked. Deaths were accurate (because you can't hide bodies), but injuries were woefully underreported.


Only you know why you stopped riding. But there's no data to back up why you stopped after fifty years.

p.s. I've ridden in NOLA. I did not die.

-mr. bill

First glance, those year-to-year numbers seem pretty random.

Also, 2005 was Hurricane Katrina so I have no idea what to make of statistics from then.

Yup. Deaths in particular is completely noisy.

It’s common in A&S to try to make meaning out of the statistically meaningless.

Just another form of confirmation bias.

p.s. You’ve ridden in NOLA and also didn’t die.

-mr. bill

On Magazine St., no less!

Aside. (because you can’t hide bodies.) NOPD did TRY to hide a body in a Chevy by the levee, but even in Algiers that didn’t end well for the deceased or for the now former officers who were convicted, appealed, reconvicted, re-appealed, etc. I think the last incarcerated officer was released during covid, but I’ve lost track. Sometimes justice is not. But Katrina.

-mr. bill

Mr Bike likes to come on here from time to time and smugly tell the rest of us how foolish are stupid we are for riding on the road, and that if we continue we will likely end up killed or severely maimed by an SUV.:rolleyes: Good for you, Mr B. You're so much smarter than the rest of us.:thumb:

Incorrect.

I come on here from time to time to smugly remind the rest of you that if you CHOOSE to do something that is maiming and killing other people on the regular, don't be a crybaby if it happens to you. I biked in NOLA under the worst conditions for 40+ years and survived somehow. Every time I threw my leg over a top tube and pushed down for that first pedal stroke I understood that could be my last day on earth. This is all I SMUGLY ask: That my fellow cyclists give conscious thought to the possibility that they ain't never coming back from that next ride. And if you still decide to tangle with motor vehicles on a bicycle then some of the blame is on YOU if you get blown up. Most of us ride by choice. Nobody's making us do it.

Please assure us that you do not work for the Ministry of Transportation.

I take a different approach. I carry an accidental death rider on my life insurance policy. That money is for suing the hell out of anyone who negligently kills me.

Driving and walking in NOLA maims and kills on the regular, for what that's worth.

It's such a stupid viewpoint that expressing it automatically makes you smug. What you say is absolutely and literally true of any activity you engage in anywhere. Any time you go out of your home BY ANY METHOD, you are taking those risks. Your attribution of "blame" just for taking a calculated risk (which is inevitable in life, all actions involve calculated risk) is absolutely ridiculous and entirely arrogant. on your part.

And no, I don't consider myself at all to blame when some a-hole driver decides to roll coal on me. You said in a previous thread you found video of that occurring to cyclists hilarious and you applauded the video producer for their skill at gassing people.

You can run from your post history, but you can't hide it.

Either he isn't sharp enough to understand that, or he simply enjoys trolling it.

Seriously, is there anything more smug and arrogant than telling people "not to be a crybaby" because they got hurt?

This is such a stupid statement. Even riding on paths and trails you often have to tangle with motor vehicles at crossings. By your logic, anyone who gets hit by a motor vehicle is partly to blame for being out there, like walking on the sidewalk or crossing the street.

No, nobody is making us get on our bikes, but for some of us, it's the only way we have get around. Public transit doesn't work for everyone. Not everyone can afford to drive, especially with gas price skyrocketing.

So, yeah, you coming on here periodically to SMUGLY remind us how foolish we are for riding our bikes is a pretty DB thing to do. I think all of us here would prefer that, unless you have something more worthwhile to say, you keep your sanctimonious drivel to yourself, sir.

Now, that’s just unfair. By this “logic,” anyone hurt in a motor vehicle crash is COMPLETELY to blame.

Even if someone crashed their car into a your bedroom in your home, YOU are at fault for sleeping in a bed too close to a road.

-mr. bill

He's the guy who tried to teach us how to properly run red lights.

:thumb:

I know Mr. Bill is smart enough to know there is a RANGE of RISK in the things we do. Hiding inside your residence is pretty low risk. Sure you could be hit by a meteorite, die in a fire, or Carbon Monoxide poisoning. But the vast majority of houses are safe havens barring natural disasters. High risk would be volunteering to go help the Ukrainians blow up Russian armored vehicles. Most things fall in between.

Driving a modern motor vehicle on the freeway at 70 mph would have risk, but given all the safety features you likely wouldn't die. Driving that same motor vehicle on that same freeway doing 20 mph in a 70 zone would run up your risk of a collision considerably, and is likely illegal. Operating an almost invisible vehicle (bicycle) on a highway travel lane barely wide enough to accommodate a modern motor vehicle, at a vastly slower speed, with varying degrees of operator attention, drugs, alcohol, or a filthy windscreen and a rising sun, is arguably (not really) more dangerous than sleeping on your bed.

If we WILLFULLY engage in any behavior that adds substantial risk to our day, then SOME of the blame falls upon US. You can SAY it ain't so, but you KNOW it is true. You won't get steam-rolled by a 6-wheel pickup truck pulling a trailer if you don't play in the street, most LIKELY. I live in a raised house with the bedroom way in the back, so the odds of getting hit by a car not falling from an airplane is ZERO. (I know Elon Musk has one in space, but that is headed to the Sun I believe).

But Mr. Bill knows this because he isn't stoopid in my experience, which is many years now.

Quantify substantial risk.

Define "blame" for that matter. The whole concept is stupid--if it wouldn't be so boring, I could quote post after post of his where he's telling people they have no right to complain about bad driving or even actual malice if they put themselves anywhere on the road.

Notice how his example of bicycle operation is so extreme? It's not what the riders were doing when they were coal rolled in the video he found so funny.

​​​​BTW, a guy I knew was killed in a bar when a crazed driver smashed her SUV through the storefront.

So basically, you are to blame for anything that happens to you once you leave the safety of your bed and house as you are willfully adding substantial risk by exiting your home.

This line of argument is absurd. You aren't STOOPID. You KNOW this.

I guess these folks had it coming to them. Mixing 4000 pound cars with 80,000 pound semis is just asking for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_L...mi-truck_crash