🚀 go-pugleaf

<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/15/BAUL1KB1PH.DTL&tsp=1>

Briefly:  Bicyclist, northbound on Embarcadero, runs a red light and 
plows into a 60 year old woman who was crossing in the cross walk.  She 
suffered a very serious life-threatening head injury.

This is why bicyclists need to obey traffic laws!

In my $dayjob I take photos for insurance companies, often asked to take 
photos at an intersection where an accident happened.  About once a 
month I get an assignment to take photos at an intersection where there 
was a car/bike accident.  (I had one such assignment yesterday.)  In all 
but one assignment so far, the bike came from the driver's right side, 
riding the wrong way in the bike lane, on the shoulder, or on the 
sidewalk.  When a car is at a stop sign or pulling out from a driveway, 
the driver does not think they have to be on the alert for fast moving 
traffic (e.g. something moving faster than a walking pedestrian on the 
sidewalk) coming from their right.  So the driver glances right (to make 
sure there are no pedestrians) then just as the driver looks left, to 
see if it's clear to pull out into the roadway, and then pulls out, 
suddenly the previously hidden (by a fence, by a building, by shrubbery 
etc.) bike comes into view and is hit or hits the car.  The fence, 
building, or shrubbery poses no serious impairment to seeing a slower 
moving pedestrian, but with a faster moving bike, suddenly it creates a 
situation where the driver simply can NOT see the bike before the accident.

I don't know the insurance resolutions of these cases.  (I don't work 
directly for the insurance companies, I work for a 3rd party they 
contract with to have the photos taken.)  But I do know that 100% of the 
time the bicyclist would have completely avoided that accident if they 
had been following the rules of the road and going the correct way (with 
the flow of traffic) so that as they approach each driveway and 
intersection along their route they are in the direction drivers LOOK 
for oncoming traffic before they pull out on the road.  In all of the 
cases I've seen, there was no reason to prefer this side of the road, 
the other side of the road was equally accessible, equally safe to ride 
on a bicycle.  The bike riders rode the wrong way because they were 
either ignorant of the rules of the road, or too lazy to take the time 
to cross the road and ride in the correct direction.

The single exception (in my $dayjob assignments) was for an accident 
where the bike was going with the flow of traffic.  Except the bicyclist 
was on a sidewalk, not in the bike lane - a LARGE and well signed bike 
lane on the roadway next to the sidewalk - in Santa Cruz (a city that 
has worked hard to build bike lanes to make it safer to get around on a 
bike).  The car was pulling out of a parking lot, in a driveway next to 
a building that abuts both the driveway and the sidewalk.  From this 
driveway it is impossible for a car to look left to if it's clear to 
pull out onto the street without first pulling far enough forward that 
the vehicle is blocking the sidewalk.  When the car pulled forward, the 
bicyclist (who was hidden from the driver's view by the building) had no 
time to avoid the car and plowed into the driver's side front fender. 
Again, this accident was 100% avoidable if the bicyclist had been where 
the bike was supposed to be, in the bike lane 10 feet away from the 
building, instead of on the sidewalk adjacent to the building.

Folks, please remember the rules of the road are there for a darn good 
reason, and don't run stop signs, red lights, or ride the wrong way or 
on the sidewalk.

Also, remember that if you do run a red light, the fine is just as high 
as if you were driving a car.  A few months ago I saw a bicyclist pulled 
over for stop/pause/continue going (because it was "clear") on Harrison 
in SF.  She didn't notice the cop stopped at the light just two lanes to 
her left, who immediately put on his lights and pulled across and pulled 
her over.  That's a ~$400 mistake.  I hope she learned her lesson.  Too 
bad the bicyclist in the linked article hadn't learned this lesson 
before today.  I hope his victim survives!

jc