You know how it’s pretty much okay in Portland to drive like a jackass, run down a cyclist waiting patiently at a stop sign and try to claim the other person was at fault?
We’re not the only ones with that problem, and it’s much more-disturbing than a cabbie mangling my bike. The entire country struggles with how to handle even fatal bike-car accidents—and that push-pull invariably errs on the side of lax penalties for negligent drivers.
But what to do?
That’s the question asked by a New York Times contributor this weekend, in an op-ed headlined: Is It O.K. to Kill Cyclists? From the piece:
I began noticing “cyclist killed” news articles, like one about Amelie Le Moullac, 24, pedaling inside a bike lane in San Francisco’s SOMA district when a truck turned right and killed her. In these articles, I found a recurring phrase: to quote from The San Francisco Chronicle story about Ms. Le Moullac, “The truck driver stayed at the scene and was not cited.”
In stories where the driver had been cited, the penalty’s meagerness defied belief, like the teenager in 2011 who drove into the 49-year-old cyclist John Przychodzen from behind on a road just outside Seattle, running over and killing him. The police issued only a $42 ticket for an “unsafe lane change” because the kid hadn’t been drunk and, as they saw it, had not been driving recklessly.
You don’t have to be a lefty pinko cycling activist to find something weird about that. But try a Google search for “cyclist + accident” and you will find countless similar stories: on Nov. 2, for example, on the two-lane coastal highway near Santa Cruz, Calif., a northbound driver lost control and veered clear across southbound traffic, killing Joshua Alper, a 40-year-old librarian cycling in the southbound bike lane. As usual: no charges, no citation. Most online comments fall into two camps: cyclists outraged at inattentive drivers and wondering why cops don’t care; drivers furious at cyclists for clogging roads and flouting traffic laws.
It’s a troubling issue, and not quite as clear cut as simply throwing the book at careless drivers. Many juries, the piece notes, aren’t willing to put a driver away for years for a lapse in attention, so some states have crafted softer laws that offer more than a mere slap on the wrist—but less than mandatory imprisonment— for bad accidents. Oregon’s penalty for careless driving that results in the injury or death of a so-called “vulnerable user”? Up to 200 hours of community service, completion of a traffic safety course, up to a $12,500 fine and license suspension for a year. Worse than a ticket, but probably cold comfort to bereaved family members.
The author’s idea for helping minimize chaos on the roads is something I’m always advocating: “Every time you get on a bike, from this moment forward, obey the letter of the law in every traffic exchange everywhere to help drivers (and police officers) view cyclists as predictable users of the road who deserve respect.”
I cringe when fellow bicycle commuters blow red lights, because it makes sense to me that—especially in a city with as developed a bike network as Portland—we might foster goodwill by playing by the rules (I admit to being all for an “Idaho stop”).
But prolific blogger Eben Weiss over at Bike Snob NYC smacks that notion aside. His point is: Since the vast majority of the road network was designed specifically for cars, and since cars can so efficiently maim and kill cyclists, its unfair to expect bikes to always follow the same rules as cars.
“This op-ed reads like a homophobe defending gay marriage, but saying that homosexuals should ‘act less faggy’ in order to earn the respect of straight people,” Weiss writes.
I’m not sure I agree—in fact, where cycling in close-in Portland is concerned, I flatly disagree—but both the NYT piece and the Bike Snob retort are worth a read.
Can we PLEASE start by not calling crashes “accidents” any more? There is NOTHING accidental about nearly all of these incidents. If they’re caused by lack of focus, intoxication, distraction, falling asleep at the wheel (what happened in Santa Cruz), illegal maneuvers, “sun blindness,” poor road design, or most any other excuse–THEY ARE NOT ACCIDENTS. Please please PLEASE refer to them as “crashes.” That at least begins to create a mind shift away from the mass apathy toward deaths on the road.
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Because Blabby forgot… “BIKES!”
I continue to be amazed at the number of cyclists, and pedestrians, who are on the roads ands sidewalks after dark without hi-vis clothing and/or lights. If you are riding your bike or jay-walking after dark without the above mentioned items, you are just asking to get ran over. Personally, if I had my way, anybody caught riding their bike at night with no lights or hi-viz clothing would have their bikes confiscated on the spot and have to make arrangements to get where they were going. Do people have a death wish? It sure seems like it.
I mean, I agree, but I’m struggling to find a better solution. The truth is, the justice system doesn’t need to be anymore clogged up with revenge-seeking punishments for people who were (perhaps) careless but will (likely) carry the guilt of their actions for a lifetime. What does a fine do after the fact? Will the money go directly toward attempting to prevent future deaths? How can we do that?
It’s senseless. That’s the point. If all bicyclists work on being predictable, and all drivers keep their eyes sharply focused on the road, crashes will still happen. It’s the sad price of sharing the road. Bicycling comes with a lot of pros and cons, and one of the cons is that you are tiny and vulnerable in the roadway.
@ERN: What do you want to DO to someone who was (terribly, horribly) momentarily blinded by the sun? Flay them? Put them in the stockades?
@ujfoyt: You’re an idiot. How about we impound the car of every driver who gets pulled over for speeding? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
edit: Also, you’re tragically misinformed on the utility of high-visibility clothing. http://safetyatworkblog.com/2011/09/04/whe…
ujfoyt: I am also amazed by cyclists not wearing hi-vis clothing after dark and agree that all should. That being said, I’ve personally been hit WHILE WEARING said clothing with multiple lights on my bike (they ran a stop sign and t-boned me while I made my legal left turn). A driver can’t see you when they don’t bother looking.
The difference between a thoughtless cyclist and a thoughtless driver is that the former will likely suffer significantly while the latter may kill others without harm to themselves. Very unequal consequences for similar thoughtlessness.
Imposing punishment for someone ignoring their own safety isn’t a great solution because the natural consequence is much worse than the imposed punishment. Education, awareness and reform are better solutions. Educate cyclists about safe riding, raise awareness to drivers about cyclists’ right to be on the road, and reform laws/communities to create safer roadways for every vehicle and provide meaningful consequences for thoughtless drivers who are AT FAULT for collisions with cyclists.
ujfoyt- Would cars stop hitting one another if they were all painted signal orange?
Fun fact cars will still almost hit a signal cone orange bike. In broad daylight no less.
@Melogna–My point has nothing to do with what sort of punishment people should receive. My point is that they are NOT accidents. If you’re driving, and you can’t see because the sun is in your eyes, and you *keep* driving, and you *hit* someone, that is NOT AN ACCIDENT.
Also, I don’t know, maybe those people should receive adequate punishment for KILLING someone? Sometimes, very little happens.
$114 fine: http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/lifestyle/10…
hung jury: http://road.cc/content/news/74613-jury-fai…
no criminal charges: http://www.koin.com/news/driver-cited-in-f…
Regardless, we should not be calling such crashes “accidents.”