Earlier quoted context omitted.
If a car swerves to avoid a cyclist and hits another car...
...both car's passengers are surrounded by a metal cage that is trying to protect lives.
Stop being obtuse.
Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident
291–300 of 415 posts
Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident
#292Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that a cyclist flaunting traffic laws should always be liable for accidents, but the last thing we need if we want to encourage bicycling is nanny-state policing of proper signaling and such. Any city that has resources for this ought to take a hard look at the size of their police force. Your idea of banning cycle traffic on >25mph roads is misguided. Most cyclists have no trouble traveling at a speed greate…
I'm not sure if your joking but I'll bite:) > Most cyclists have no trouble traveling at a speed greater than 25mph, even uphill. The average speed of the tour de france winners now is only about 25mph and that is very heavily drug assisted;) http://bikeraceinfo.com/tdf/tdfstats.html Given this I can't really take your statement as a serious one:)
I agree that 25mph is unreasonable for the average cyclist, but to be fair, aren't the Tour de France speeds averaged over a much greater distance?
Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that a cyclist flaunting traffic laws should always be liable for accidents, but the last thing we need if we want to encourage bicycling is nanny-state policing of proper signaling and such. Any city that has resources for this ought to take a hard look at the size of their police force. Your idea of banning cycle traffic on >25mph roads is misguided. Most cyclists have no trouble traveling at a speed greate…
I'm not sure if your joking but I'll bite:) > Most cyclists have no trouble traveling at a speed greater than 25mph, even uphill. The average speed of the tour de france winners now is only about 25mph and that is very heavily drug assisted;) http://bikeraceinfo.com/tdf/tdfstats.html Given this I can't really take your statement as a serious one:)
25 mph up a hill is fast, but the tour de France is a silly comparison, they sustain those speeds for 4 hours at a time, commuters aren't going to do that. Commuters also rarely face anything resembling the climbs in the tour.
Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you being deliberately daft? Yes, the people in the cars are safer than a reckless person on a bicycle, but that doesn't mean the bicyclist isn't still putting them in some danger - those metal cages don't always succeed - as well as putting pedestrians and other bicyclists in more significant danger.
Okay, a reckless cyclist can put a driver in some danger, if the driver is going fast enough that the car can't be stopped quickly enough to avoid either hitting the cyclist or swerving into an oncoming lane. However, in this constructed situation, it seems to me that the driver is being more unsafe by driving that fast.
So, you're in favor of lowering the speed limit to like 15 mph?
Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident
#295The sad truth is that while bicycles should be respected as vehicles, they are given lip service at best in driver education and there is little attempt made at going after motorists who drive aggressively around them. As a result, you put yourself at great risk of life and limb when you ride on a road like this one: http://www.mapquest.com/?version=1.0&hk=6-LvU0mhA3 (Hillandale Rd, Durham, NC) I accomplish all of my…
By the same token, many bicyclists freely ignore traffic laws too. They don't properly stop at stop signs or intersections (on red or yellow) and they act like pedestrians when it suits them. >[Slam] their brakes without noticing my bike behind them You're a vehicle when you ride on the streets, it's your responsibility to maintain a safe distance from the person in front of you and to react to their brake lights. Th…
Car drivers routinely ignore certain rules too: speed limits, full stops at stop signs, etc. They do this because doing so is mostly safe. It's the same with bicyclists: the rules they ignore are mostly safe too. The confusion is that, because cars and bikes are different, the rules that are safe to bend are different in each case.
Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident
#296Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure if your joking but I'll bite:) > Most cyclists have no trouble traveling at a speed greater than 25mph, even uphill. The average speed of the tour de france winners now is only about 25mph and that is very heavily drug assisted;) http://bikeraceinfo.com/tdf/tdfstats.html Given this I can't really take your statement as a serious one:)
25 mph up a hill is fast, but the tour de France is a silly comparison, they sustain those speeds for 4 hours at a time, commuters aren't going to do that. Commuters also rarely face anything resembling the climbs in the tour.
True but on the other side most commuters aren't going for speed, or using great bikes, or proper shoes so I think the expectation would be that the tour de france winner would still average a much faster time than a commuter.
Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not true. If I'm a motorist, moving at speed, and I slam my brakes to grab that nifty parking spot, I am liable. Not the person who rear-ends me.
In every U.S. jurisdiction I'm familiar with, the person doing the rear-ending is liable, not the person who brakes unexpectedly. The idea is that everyone should leave stopping distance. In heavy traffic, people generally don't leave this distance, but it's still the law.
Not in every jurisdiction. PA for example is no-fault. The idea is that while you shouldn't be driving so close behind, you also should slam on the breaks. Both are equally reckless.
Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident
#298I used to drive a bike trafficked roads, even at night, but I stopped doing this after almost hitting a biker while driving when I realized how hard it is for a driver to see and avoid bikers in traffic or for bikers to go through heavy trafficked area safely. Driving a bike through traffic or on a trafficked road at night or driving through a bikers area is basically the same as driving while drunk and stoned at the…
> though if you do it, have at least the freakin decency and humanity to call an ambulance before running from the scene
Due to the non-anonymous nature of current telephones, this is impossible.
Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident
#299The sad truth is that while bicycles should be respected as vehicles, they are given lip service at best in driver education and there is little attempt made at going after motorists who drive aggressively around them. As a result, you put yourself at great risk of life and limb when you ride on a road like this one: http://www.mapquest.com/?version=1.0&hk=6-LvU0mhA3 (Hillandale Rd, Durham, NC) I accomplish all of my…
In San Francisco, according to CSC 21202, the bicyclist is allowed full use of lanes. The important clause to pay attention to is clause (c). The most important part of that clause is the use of the term "substandard width lane", which although not defined in the statute, has been established via jurisprudence to be approximately 14-15 ft. Many many rightmost lanes in SF are not 14+ ft wide, meaning that on most road…
This is part of what I mean by "I can see both sides." I don't approve of an automobile drivers acting aggressively and dangerously toward a bicyclist, but I also don't think it's reasonable for bicyclists to significantly impact the flow of traffic (and even just letting 5 cars pile up before moving over is a major impediment to traffic). In short, I really don't think that roads with significant automobile traffic should be shared with bicyclists (well-designed bicycle-only lanes are fine).
Re: Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure I follow the thrust of your comment. I am interested in why sequoia asserts that it's correct (or at least permissible) to prohibit bicycles from interstates but a violation of rights to prohibit them from other roads. The fact that bicycles are not prohibited from all interstates seems somewhat orthogonal...
I think it's reasonable to designate certain very-high-speed roads as "car only" when there are reasonable alternative routes for bikes . If there's a destination you can only get to by interstate I'd say "allow bikes." I'm a biker and strongly pro bike-rights but I recognize that certain exceptions are reasonable for safety & expediency. :)
So hypothetically, you wouldn't object (on "rights" grounds) if there were a non-interstate that was labeled no-bikes when there were plenty of alternate routes to everywhere serviced by that thoroughfare. Sounds reasonable to me.