If only life were as simple as people want it to be. Yeah, drivers can be a real pain. But there are
lots of them and they are much bigger and much heavier than we are. Their visibility is limited.
They do not have the ability to stop on a dime. They are not required to have skills.
But then, I encounter lousy bikers all the time. As others have said, it's sheer luck that more
bicycle riders are not hit. Bikers will spread out across lanes on narrow mountain roads and refuse
to move. They drive on the wrong side of the road. They run red lights and stop signs much more
often than cars (here in Denver, that's remarkable in itself). They hide in blind spots, dive out
between cars and buildings, ride in the evening with dark clothes and no lights, play chicken with 2
tons of fast moving metal...
Why do bicycle riders ride along the no-shoulder main drag congested West Colfax Avenue here when
there is a lightly used parallel back road one block south? A mostly empty parallel road one block
more? Whose fault is it when these bikers get hit?
Like it or not, most bicycle riders are also drivers. Lots of bad drivers means lots of bad bikers.
Do you radically change when switching between car and bike? Emotionally, maybe. Your skills and
common sense? Not at all.
Think more bicycles would make things heaven? Ha! Go to any city where bikes outnumber cars and
watch the bicycle maniacs run amok!
Reality stinks. If you want heavy penalties for drivers, also add heavy penalties for errant
bicyclists.
"Mark Hickey" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
[email protected] (Hunrobe) wrote:
>
> >>
[email protected] (Dennis P. Harris)
> >
> >wrote:
> >
> >>if she had shot the victim with a firearm she would be going to prison for a loooong time. a car
> >>is a lethal weapon, too
> >
> >----snip---
> >
> >Bull. A firearm is *designed* to be a weapon. A car is *designed* to
transport
> >people and property from point A to point B. Can a car be used as a
weapon?
> >Sure. So can a child's t-ball bat, a rolled up newspaper, or a MTB. The difference is intent.
> >
> > >somehow if you kill someone with it, it's not as bad as with a
> >>gun? gimme a break.
> >
> >You think there's no moral difference and there should be no legal
distinction
> >made between someone who intentionally and maliciously shoots and kills
another
> >person and a person that in a moment of carelessness _UN_intentionally
kills
> >another? Give *me* a break.
>
> The thing that's VERY easy to forget is that any of us could easily become guilty of killing a
> cyclist or pedestrian as well.
>
> Say you're driving down your favorite 45mph two lane road on the way to a group ride. You're a
> very safe (and statistically extra-long) two seconds behind the delivery van ahead of you. You see
> a flashy rider on a bike go by the other way and pivot your head to see if it might be Fabrizio.
> At that very instant, the delivery van swerves to miss the cyclist who's riding 14mph four feet
> from the edge of the road.
>
> You turn your head back just 2.5 seconds later just in time to hear a heart-stopping crunch.
>
> If that sounds unlikely, act this out sitting at your computer - a bike just went by - check it
> out, and count "one one thousand, two one thousand...."
>
> The "crime" I describe above isn't anything that ALL of use haven't committed. We've just been
> lucky enough to not have the circumstances all fall into place to produce the awful results I
> described.
>
> What should be punishment be in a case like this? The driver was negligent enough to kill a
> cyclist, but not really doing anything unusual. Any time you look away from your direction of
> travel for whatever reason, the same situation could apply - whether it's dialing a cellphone
> (DON'T get me started!!!), tuning the radio, or digging a fry out of that McD's bag).
>
> Just a thought...
>
> Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com Home of the $695 ti frame
