Bicyclist Killed During Morning Ride

[a la izquierda]

On Saturday, cyclists discovered the body of a fellow rider in a ditch. Today, a cyclist was hit and killed in what police are calling an accident.

http://www.koco.com/news/24300669/detail.html


Very, very sad.

[cwydro]

1. I have almost stopped riding along US1

(considered one of the most dangerous highways in America).

So I ride on the bike path they were nice enough to build, but there is about a one foot distance between the path and the road, so...

We had a bicyclist killed by a tourist a year or so ago...using a GPS and not paying attention. This is a ONE WAY ROAD IN AND OUT OF THE KEYS! He needed a GPS???

He was cited only for veering out of lane or some such. The cyclist died.

[LostinVA]

5. WTF do you need a GPS in the KEYS?!

I've driven that road from beginning to end quite a few times. If you can count (ie Mile Markers), you don't need a GPS. I have never gotten lost there, except in the maze of streets in Old Town, even when I was looking for a boat slip on No Name Key.

[hippywife]

2. I was reading that

on kotv news website. (I live near Tulsa.) The way people drive these days, I'll be damned if I'd be out there on a bike. There's so little respect for other drivers, let alone bicyclists.

There is just no excuse for this happening so frequently.

[a la izquierda]

3. Last week I was out on my Sunday morning ride...

so damned hot, you've got to be out the door by 7. Anyway, my riding partners and I were heading back into town and were in a neighborhood with very wide roads. We'll ride two abreast and if a car is coming up on us, we'll go single file (which, for the contrarians, you're legally allowed to do). So, we're in the right lane and we see a car coming toward us. No big deal. Well, as we cross a three-way intersection, the car, out of nowhere, makes a left right into us. My friend on the inside accelerated so that I could move. The driver missed me by 6 inches. Had he hit me, he'd have broken my leg, probably pushed me into my friend, and her husband, who was behind us, probably would have hit the hood. Instead, we all just got a serious scare.
The driver looked up upon hearing us yell...he looked up from his goddamned phone. My friend's husband nearly broke his window and punched him in the head. He was a 19-20 year old college kid. The idiot driver could have hit a parent walking with their child or their dog. Or hit another car. Moron.

My buddies have had batteries tossed at them, I've had a truck swerve into my lane to scare me, another truck full of guys taunt me (I'm a 5'1 woman-that takes real balls, doesn't it?), my husband had a bottle tossed at him. It's ridiculous.

[Lance_Boyle]

4. riding side by side is NOT always allowed

In NC, the law is "ride safely" and I think you'd be damned hard pressed to make a convincing argument that EVER riding two or more abreast on rural roads with blind corners is safe. I'd like to see more bicyclists take responsibility for riding safely instead of just assuming they are always in the right and the big bad motor vehicle is always in the wrong. There is no excuse for bicyclists endangering themselves and everyone else on the road by riding two and three abreast.

[a la izquierda]

8. Did you read my post? Clearly, you read what you wanted.

We CAN do that in Oklahoma, we do NOT do such things on uphills or on turns, and my friends and I were in a neighborhood at 8am on a Sunday morning. In Oklahoma, drivers are legally required to provide 3feet of room between their car and a cyclist.
I ride with former/current professional cyclists. We're not about to endanger ourselves. But thanks for playing.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. If you're a cyclist in Oklahoma, maybe you can tell me

Do they still have the Tulsa Wheelmen ride across Oklahoma?

[a la izquierda]

11. Yep!

This year I believe they rode from south to north, through the Kiamichi mountains. That had to be a tough go. My husband and I are planning to do the ride next year, as it will be our goodbye tour of OK (I'm getting my PhD in May, and I'm sure we'll be moving someplace else).

[Art_from_Ark]

13. The year I went on the ride, the course was fairly easy

It started from Lake Texoma, and went up through Tishomingo and Ada, through Okmulgee, crossing the Arkansas River at Sand Springs, then on up to Bartlesville and the Kansas line. Tail wind all the way. Lots of good memories from that ride. The most interesting part for me, scenery-wise, was the vast original prairie somewhere around Bartlesville.

[MajorChode]

12. You'd be hard pressed to make a convincing argument it wasn't safe

There are only a handful of states that prohibit riding two abreast, and NC ain't one that prohibits it.

The biggest problem with road cycling is being seen, and two abreast can be seen much easier than one.

[LostinVA]

6. Every time I ride or walk to work I'm almost hit at least two times

By idiots not paying attention, wanting to beat a light and turn right into the zebra crossing, etc. I also ride or cross with the lights and follow are traffic laws. And, this is a city and area where there are ALOT of bike riders and bike commuters. ALOT.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. Here in uber bike-friendly land, it's nearly always distracted drivers that make me hit the brakes

and when it's not them, it's drivers getting out of parked cars, the latter being the reason that I end up claiming the lane on some roads and that inevitably ticks off at least one driver.

The most common fault assigned in a driver-bike fatality accident is driver distraction, followed by turning drivers cutting off bicyclists. Drivers turning left in particular are a problem. Far down the line are accidents where bicyclists are principally at fault.

[LostinVA]

9. I totally believe that

We need European-style bike lane and intersection bike boxes.