On Fri, 23 Feb 2018 14:55:54 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:
On 2/23/2018 1:29 PM, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 11:21:31 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:
On 2/19/2018 10:32 AM, AMuzi wrote:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...shing-car.html
(I was test riding a customer's race bike when Asian Kitchen
delivery turned in. They replaced his bike.)
How odd! The magic paint somehow failed to prevent the collision!
In the U.S. it would have been mirror image, so a right hook. Over
there, it's a left hook. Either way, it's a common collision.
And this illustrates the weirdness of the bike lane concept. Under
what circumstances would a straight-ahead motoring lane be placed
between the curb and a lane where turns are permitted? And when
would a motorist think it's safe to "undertake" like that when a
vehicle has its turn signal blinking?
It's an interesting question. The legalities of course hinge on the
specifics of the UK traffic laws and I have no idea what they are.
For that matter, I don't know what the law says about this in
Minnesota. As a cyclist, if I was in that situation I would stop and
give way to the car- even if it was my right of way, in a collision
the car would win. Sometimes drivers will signal to me that they have
seen me and to proceed, but I never assume they've seen me otherwise.
There is a discussion locally about pedestrian safety. So far this
year, some 30 pedestrians have been hit by vehicles in St. Paul. A
few years ago a law was passed giving pedestrians the right of way at
all intersections except where controlled by a stoplight and walk
signal as that governs right of way in those intersections. However,
drivers and pedestrians are getting worse at it rather than better
over time! between 1/1 - 2/11/16 there were 19 car-ped collisions and
2 car-bike collisions in St. Paul; the same period in 2017 it was 25
and 0; this year it as been 30 and 2. One pedestrian fatality and 27
injured this year, no bicyclist fatalities and two with injuries.
https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/p...a-city-st-paul
Yes, that's how the numbers usually trend. But somehow people fixate
on bicycling as being dangerous. Go figure.
Many times I see pedestrians- sometimes at the last second- on dark
roads wering dark clothes with no reflective surfaces or illumination.
These are also usually the folks walking out into traffic at a corner or
sometimes in mid-block. Oi. The fashion heareabouts for dark clothing
seems to be on the upswing. There are an amazing number of unlit,
non-reflective cyclists out at night too. And what really amazes me is
the number of these folks wearing hoodies and blocking their peripheral
vision. Whassup with that? I find it a bit hard to blame the driver in
those collisions.