Arthur Ross - Thank you for finding out this information. I was concerned about this incident that I heard about in particular because I ride this route daily in commuting to the downtown area, and many kids (including my own) ride bikes and roller blade on this route.
As a bicyclist, I have NOT found the visibility of this intersection to be that problematic PROVIDED the bicyclist stops (or slows way down) before crossing Glenway St. However, if the bicyclist is riding fast and doesn't slow down before crossing the street, the chance of the driver seeing the bicyclist in time to avoid a collision is very poor. The reason is that the cars coming from the south and going north have had to climb a hill and make a turn a few hundred feet before meeting the bike path. It's not that I think the bicyclist in this situation was not at fault for the crash. If he failed to stop at the stop sign, clearly he was at fault. It's just that I don't think the engineers should always count on bicyclists stopping before crossing intersections. There are just way too many bicyclists who don't stop, particularly if in one quick glance they don't see a car coming. In short, I believe intersections of streets with bike paths should be evaluated under the assumption that bicyclists may not stop before crossing the intersections. I would also recommend the city evaluate the intersection of the S/W path with Odana Road under that assumption as well. The Odana Rd./S/W Path intersection is a crash waiting to happen, in my opinion. As for the intersection of Glenway St. and the S/W Path, I'd recommend two more stop signs, one facing north and one facing south - for the drivers of the cars. A four way stop intersection would solve the safety concerns and would have also slowed the car driver's speed down, which was probably excessive on the day his car hit the bicyclist in the white crossing lines on Glenway St., but no one was there to notice and he wasn't going to admit it. Mike Neuman --------------------------- I found the report for the crash referred to at Glenway and the Southwest Path. According to the Police report, this is what I know about this crash: A 24 year old male bicyclist was traveling westbound on the Southwest Path approaching Glenway. A motorist was northbound on Glenway. There is a stop sign for the bike path at the intersection. The bicyclist received a ticket for failing to stop for the stop sign. The bicyclists was not wearing a helmet. The injury indication is for a possible injury, meaning "any injury that is not observable or evident at the scene but that is claimed by the individual or suspected by the law enforcement officer." And he was transported to a medical facility. I do not have any way to follow up on the extent of injuries, if any. By the way, we refer to all such incidents as "crashes" as opposed to "accidents". The term accident tends to imply something that was unpreventable, as opposed to crashes, which are primarily the result of actions that people choose to make. Arthur Ross Pedestrian-Bicycle Coordinator 266-6225 _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
