Missouri Bicycle News Article

Regardless of the laws or the outcome of verdicts we need to do more to educate bicyclists and motorists.

By not taking the lane at this intersection the bicyclist set themselves up to be hit by a right turning car. Motorists are trained pretty well that they can turn right from the right lane and will not be nor ever expecting someone to be continuing on straight on a shoulder. You can also substitute shoulder for sidewalk or sidepath and this conversation would essentially be the same.

Further a jury made up of motorists will put themselves in the position of the motorist. Imagining themselves driving down the right lane, slowing and turning right across a shoulder and hitting a cyclist that is continuing to travel straight down the shoulder. Its very easy to see how this might happen. Even if the motorist sees the bicyclist it still puts the motorist in a difficult situation. A bicyclist could easily be traveling 25 mph or 5 mph whereas most motorists are driving a fairly even 5-10 mph over the speed limit. This makes mistakes prevalent whenever someone passes a cyclist and then tries to turn right. If its the 5 mph rider than you have plenty of time....if its a roadie out training then perhaps you have just killed them. Its a judgement call and a difficult skill that most motorists lack.

This problem is made worse by many poorly designed bicycle lanes that continue all the way to the intersection. This dooms the cyclist to always be to the right of a right turning automobile. It also sends the message that bicyclists always be to the right no matter the situation. Luckily we have managed to avoid this situation in my hometown of Columbia.

There is no easy answer but we will never pass enough laws to protect cyclists and prosecuting people after the fact is only a very slight comfort and I'm not sure that it really accomplishes much.

Its uncomfortable to take the lane in a situation like this but this is the reality of the situation. We keep trying to come up with solutions that allow incompetent cyclists to be comfortable first and safe second. Its a cat and mouse game where we acknowledge that bicycles are vehicles but build our infrastructure around the knowledge that most cyclists will never put any effort into honing their skills in order to keep themselves safe. Hence we might recognize that taking the lane is the safest way for a bicyclists to cross an intersection but the average cyclist does not have the skills necessary to accomplish such a maneuver. So you build infrastructure that this totally uneducated road user can manipulate even if you realize that there are many hazards associated with this design.

I would love to hear Brents thoughts about this but it seems that I am hearing an awful lot about deaths, criminal cases and lawsuits involving right turning vehicles hitting a bicyclist trying to continue straight.

If anyone can invent a way for cyclists to be safe, comfortable and they can use without any knowledge you will be the hero of the century.

"prosecuting people after the fact is only a very slight comfort"

I'm not so sure about this. There is pretty good evidence that countries that have stronger laws regarding bicycle (and pedestrian) safety, putting more on the onus of drivers--who after all are operating large, heavy, fast, potentially dangerous machines--actually have a real safety payoff.

Of course it's not just "passing a law", but better laws combined with better enforcement, and education of both motorists and bicyclists, and all the rest combined.

But when motorists can basically kill or injure and then continue driving--without even restriction on their driving privileges in the vast majority of cases--there is no doubt that affects people's driving behavior.

I'm not sure the solution is prison time or even fines (does going to prison cure you of being a careless driver?). But surely someone who is a proven dangerous driver should have some restriction on their driving privilege--and not just for 3 or 6 months.

Brent,

I agree with you.

I meant that education can help prevent these crashes in the first place and that is always better than holding a picture of a victim in the court room. If we can prevent these crashes than we need to.

These types of right hook crashes are a little like a "door zone" crash in that most cyclists leave themselves vulnerable to it without even knowing it. Instead of prosecuting the one driver who was unlucky enough to have a bicyclist ride into their door I would rather teach cyclists to stay out of the door zone in the first place.

I hope that makes sense.

I typed a better response earlier but did not type in the magic word and my work was lost! : )

"I meant that education can help prevent these crashes in the first place and that is always better than holding a picture of a victim in the court room. If we can prevent these crashes than we need to."

I agree with this 100%.

Too often when we advise others to take the lane we assume that the cyclist is a mature, experienced, road wise rider. I think it is better to assume that the rider is young, inexperienced in controlling motorized vehicles and has a very cooperative attitude.

We need to improve our laws and infrastructure which takes time to effect and work. In the near term educating law enforcement and the public on STR issues can have more immediate benefits. Just one example: In speaking with police officers, they advise parents and cyclists to use sidewalks to remain safe while the municipality has ordinances against such use. This creates a climate where parents who drive their children to school yell at young cyclists to get off even safe roads. No need for a long essay and thanks Brent for all you've done.

Hi Jack,

Unfortunately most officers do not have any training about bicycling and bicycling laws.

In Columbia we recently had the opportunity to train all 150 police officers. I thought the training was well planned and the officers really responded.

The next month they made about 100 contacts with cyclists who were breaking the law. One officer remarked that it was about 100 more than they had ever made before. That was in October but just last Friday a bicyclist came into my office with a story about being pulled over for not having lights. He wanted to know where the closest bicycle shop was so he could buy some.

I'm confident that if you talked to any Columbia Police Department officer that you would be impressed with their knowledge of bicycling. By all appearances it seems that every officer considers a bicycle to be a vehicle and that has made a tremendous difference.

One of the things that I hope we can do in the future is train other departments in other cities. If you have any connections with the Police Department in your area or if you think they might be willing to have someone come in and train them then feel free to give me a call.

573-442-7189 ext. 28

-Robert

"In Columbia we recently had the opportunity to train all 150 police officers. I thought the training was well planned and the officers really responded."

This police officer training in Columbia was a real success from what I heard. Hopefully we can take this model and do more training in other cities across Missouri.

Although I agree with both of you about this issue to a point, I don't believe more laws are the answer here. A bicyclist moves at a slower pace than a vehicle, and can stop quicker than a vehicle. Therefore a bicyclist should be using common sense and expect vehicles to make sudden turns. If they are paying attention to their surrounds then should be able to avoid such accidents.
Likewise if a vehicle is planning on making a right hand turn, should at least use common sense as well and expect the bicyclists to be continuing forward. Which means the vehicle in the above case should have yield to the bicyclist and waited a few seconds to see what the cyclist was going to do. What it sounds like to me is that the vehicle driver was in too much of a hurry, and couldn't wait a moment to make that turn. They passed the cyclist and cut them off even though they were ware the cyclist was there.
Neither individual used proper road courtesy and (asked what if they do this or that) in this case nor did they use any common sense. In most states that I have lived in the responsibility falls on the Motorist, to make proper decisions while driving or operating a motor vehicle. They are supposed to yield the right away to the bicyclists as they would a pedestrian. Today our society is too much (all about me) and in too much of a rush to take a few seconds to do what’s right. Motorists, bicyclists, and any individual using, sharing, or near roadways do not pay attention to their surroundings and don’t take responsibility for their own actions. (This is the number one problem we have today, failing to be responsible for ourselves and our actions). We are too quick to blame someone else for the mistakes we make, and make laws that don’t solve the problem of stupidity.