Accident-plagued Dexter is one of SDOT’s most heavily-reconfigured streets. (Photo: SDOT)
Who knew that a lack of rain would make Seattle drivers even worse? At midnight, record-keepers will be marking into the books the first all-dry July in 50 years. But along with the terrific weather has come an alarming rise in cars colliding with bikes and pedestrians.
Is it just more people taking to their bikes in the good weather? Seattle’s Department of Transportation told the Seattle Times last year that: “When more cyclists are present, motorists become more conscious of them and safety tends to improve.”
Yet the City Council’s Richard Conlin is nursing a broken shoulder blade, after a driver flipped a quick U-turn in front of him and Conlin rode into the vehicular barricade. Though the driver was cited for making an illegal U-turn, Conlin’s recap of the incident — “He wasn’t looking, I probably could have been a little more defensive” — exhibits what Sightline’s Alan Durning calls “car-head.”
Conlin could have been killed in the accident (you just have to fall the wrong way after being launched over the handlebars), but he’s equating the driver’s carelessness with a multi-ton, motor vehicle with his own responsibility to avoid being crushed by a car. It’s a transportation version of Stockholm Syndrome; Conlin later released a statement in which he reassured everyone he doesn’t “expect this accident to influence my work on transportation issues or alter my perspective on cycling.”
In Durning’s case, he’d biked right into a red Jeep Cherokee parked in the bike lane on Dexter. He was berating himself for being an inattentive idiot when he thought, Wait a minute, this is a bike lane. If the driver had parked his car in the middle of the road and walked off, and Durning had driven his car into the back of it, would he have been thinking, My god, what a klutz I am?
“Car-headed as we are in North America,” writes Durning, “we don’t enforce traffic laws in ways that hold drivers accountable for the risks they impose on cyclists and pedestrians.” The driver who sent Conlin to the emergency room will have to pay a $124 ticket.
Not everyone has Conlin’s health insurance and wherewithal. Brandon Blake also had a driver turn in front of him on Dexter, and “suffered several fractured ribs, bruising to his lungs, face fractures in several places and a concussion.” Friends and family have started an online fundraiser to help deal with the bills.
Each time Seattle Bike Blog reports on one of these major incidents, you learn of a multitude of “little” accidents that weren’t reported — each a potential fatality.
Blake, a Sounders fan, has something in common now with 33-year-old Sounders defender Taylor Graham, who tweeted on July 29th: “If you are the car that just hit a guy riding his bike on Dexter and took off, that was me.” One of the replies to that tweet was from Eric Cockrell, who had his own two bits to put in: “car hit me before the Denny light on Dexter yesterday.”
What about enforcing laws on bike riders who do whatever they please (blow through 4 way stops- I see this daily)? Bike riders need to be held accountable as well, considering many break the laws just as much as drivers. I see super agro bike riding in Ballard, people putting themselves and drivers into terrible positions but I’ve never seen a bike rider get a ticket. If you are on the road, follow the law, period. Seattle still seems to embrace double standards for bike riders because we move slow on all things common sense. NYC put the hammer down on agro bike riding and messengers in the early 90s. God willing we will find the nerve to implement consistent law enforcement and basic social consideration for all users of our roads, tax paying or otherwise.
I regularly see pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists breaking the law, and I would rather that the enforcement emphasis be on the parties most likely to injure or kill someone when they break the law. I’m tired of being nearly run over in the crosswalk at 4 way stops by *motorists* who blow through them–usually on their cell phones. And it is disgusting how many drivers have been cited for speeding in the school zones with speed cameras–from 20 mph to 30 mph, a pedestrian hit by a car goes from about a 90% chance of survival to a 50% chance. What is so important to get to a few seconds earlier that it’s worth killing a kid over? People accept the constant incredibly dangerous behavior of motorists as a given, and then complain about a few cyclists? Let’s get real here, and target the actual behavior that endangers people on the road.
I’m guessing even if you’re safer (lower odds of an accident) when there are more riders on the road, the absolute number could go up. Because there are more riders on the road and a small percentage of a bigger number can still be a big number.
True, and also I’m not sure that that trend of greater numbers = greater safety has been measured against a driver population talking & texting on cell phones.
Those little blinking LED lights can really make a bicyclist standout, even during the daytime. It gives the driver a few more seconds to notice a bike before they are close to it. With summer comes bright sun, and dark shadows where cyclist seem to disappear. LED lights are also perfect for our dreary, overcast days.
No solution is perfect, but as a driver I’ve found I have to keep my headlights on all day in the city to avoid getting clobbered by other drivers pulling out from side streets.
Totally agree with John. I see bicyclists breaking the law daily. Blowing through stop signs and stop lights, weaving back and forth between the sidewalk and lanes of traffic, and cutting in between cars while stopped at lights. Yet, they never get a ticket or pay a bike tab fee for the bike lanes they demand. It is up to car drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists to look out for each other. A little common sense and courtesy is what is mostly needed. Pedestrians, put your phone away and watch where you’re walking. Bicyclist, don’t make erradict moves and stay with traffic (and ride single file). Car drivers need to slow down.