Thanks for posting Bert. Good article.....we might not be able to change the way the roads are constructed, but we can follow the laws. Maybe we can earn the respect of more motorists over time... DC
________________________________ From: ssp <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tue, July 5, 2011 2:43:48 PM Subject: [COWs] on four wheels or two, safety first (n&o)7.5.11 http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/07/05/1314681/on-four-wheels-or-two-safety-first.html#storylink=misearch On four wheels or two, safety first * ARTICLE * 5 COMMENTS MCT EmailPrintOrder Reprint Share: Share This Share Text BY ADAM SEARING Tags: news | opinion - editorial | point of view RALEIGH -- Last month a Fuquay-Varina bicyclist, Joe Natale, was thrown from his bike and injured by a hit-and-run driver in a Honda. Sadly, these sorts of accidents between bicycles and cars happen with regularity in the Triangle. Four years ago well-known Raleigh cyclist Nancy Leidy was hit and killed near N.C. State University - and that followed a similar bicyclist fatality near N.C. State a few years before. Last year there was another hit-and-run involving a bicycle and a car near downtown Raleigh. Any quick overview of news accounts brings up many similar collisions. An overview of online comment on these same news accounts reveals one of the more interesting aspects of public opinion: for many drivers, the idea that a person on a bicycle has any right to be riding on the road is ridiculous. A frequent argument made by public commenters is that cyclists should have known better. After all, cars are big and heavy, go fast, and cyclists need to stay out of the way. Another theme concerns the lawlessness of cyclists in obeying traffic regulations. It's a sort of getting-what-they deserve mentality. See cyclists run enough red lights and some people lose sympathy for those hit by a car that drives quickly away. As a lawyer and lifelong bicycle commuter, this combination of public approbation combined with my own frequent interactions with indifferent and sometimes downright dangerous drivers causes some introspection. Why do some cyclists frequently feel as if traffic laws are more optional suggestions than edicts that must be followed? And why do so many drivers - especially in the Triangle - continue to act as if cyclists either don't exist or are simply a nuisance to be ignored, regardless of safety considerations? One major cause is the state of anarchy that exists between bicyclists, the police, traffic laws and highway departments. In my experience, police officers rarely cite motorists for unsafe movements or actions that endanger cyclists where no accident occurs. This is true whether it is a motorist passing so close in a no-passing zone that the cyclist must dive for the curb or a motorist blithely pulling out of a cross street into the path of a speeding bike with the clear right-of-way. Then there's the absence of widespread bike lanes in most Triangle cities, and roadways that often seem to actively work against cyclists. Take storm drain grates. Even along the newly-rebuilt Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, some of the grates seem to be shaped to swallow a wheel. And then there are the red lights. Most traffic lights are now triggered by a sensor under the road. That sensor is good at picking up a car's presence at the intersection, but not so much a bicycle. At many intersections a bike could sit there until the apocalypse and never get a green light. This traffic light problem got so bad that motorcyclists actually won the legal right to turn left after stopping at such sensor-triggered intersections. No one thought to include bicyclists in this exception. In the end, it doesn't take much of this treatment for a cyclist to realize a truth of the road: You are alone out there and sometimes it really does seem that every car's bumper is raised against you. So it really shouldn't be surprising that many experienced cyclists ride with their own safety uppermost in mind rather than obeying every traffic law and rule. If traffic laws often aren't enforced so as to protect bicyclists, and if the traffic lights and roadways are often built so their design and engineering clearly doesn't work for bicyclists, then there would seem to be some merit in putting personal safety above a rigid adherence to the motor vehicle code. As a lawyer though, this conclusion is seriously troubling. Seeing serious bicycle-car accidents continue in what is a really great place to live should make us rethink this state of bicycle anarchy. What if traffic light sensors were redesigned to allow cyclists to easily trigger the lights? What if Triangle police departments began citing motorists for clear violations of the motor vehicle code that endanger cyclists, even before an accident occurs? And what if major road projects routinely included bicycle lanes instead of as an occasional afterthought? There will always be some element of danger on our roads. That's the price we pay for quick, efficient transportation. But we could make the environment safer and less intimidating for bicyclists and motorists alike with some common sense changes. After all, carefully considered laws and well-built roadways for everyone are more appealing to most people than a state of anarchy, however defined. Adam Searing frequently rides his bike in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and the spaces between. Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/07/05/1314681/on-four-wheels-or-two-safety-first.html#storylink=misearch#ixzz1RG34PeQ0 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CyclistsOfWilson-COWs" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/cyclistsofwilson-cows/-/oCpvPndinToJ. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cyclistsofwilson-cows?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CyclistsOfWilson-COWs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cyclistsofwilson-cows?hl=en.
