Last Saturday, near Houston, a Texas man named Michael Weaver, 66, was driving an SUV (what else), “failed to maintain his speed” (according to the police) and struck a group of cyclists who were making their annual cross-country ride from California to Florida. Weaver killed 51-year-old Kent Joshua Wosepka from South Hamilton, Massachusetts. Weaver also sent two other riders to the hospital with serious injuries, 59-year-old Barbara Anne Ferrell of Santa Rosa, California, and 54-year-old Elizabeth Anne O’Brien of South Hamilton, Massachusetts. Wosepka was a father of three.
The police noted that Weaver was driving without adequately maintaining his speed, noted that he killed a cyclist and hospitalized two others, and then released him without so much as issuing a citation.
“It was a horrendous explosion of people and bicycle parts,” described Ferrell from a Texas hospital where she underwent surgery for a collapsed lung and broken vertebrae.
This was the second time in two months a Texas driver drove his vehicle into a group of cyclists (both in the greater Houston area), sending some to the hospital with life threatening—and changing—injuries, and then was released from the scene with no citation or charges.
In September, a Texas teenager driving a large pickup taunted cyclists by “rolling coal” — purposely venting unburnt diesel exhaust directly into the riders (rolling coal is often done by installing special switches simply for the purpose of emitting a bunch of black, diesel-rich smoke into the air as a kind of aesthetic modification — it serves no other purpose). Then he drove his truck directly into the group from behind.
Charges may be filed against the teenaged driver in the coming days. This is after the local police department was flooded with angry complaints, especially when it was learned the driver has connections to local county authorities. There has been plenty of back and forth among the Waller County DA, the local police chief, and cyclists in the area about why there have yet to be charges, and mistakes that were made in handling the case. The police who arrived after the driver hit the cyclists did not investigate the area as a crime scene, for instance.
The truck driver’s actions caused “broken vertebrae, cervical and lumbar spinal injuries, broken collarbones, hands, and wrists—many of which require surgical intervention—as well as multiple traumatic brain injuries, lacerations, soft tissue damage, road rash, and extensive bruising.”
According to Bike Law, Waller County has at least one judge who has specifically addressed the bike community saying his town “doesn’t like your kind.”
Back when I was in high school, in the 1990s, in my small, rural coastal California town, some friends and I spent a Friday afternoon after school horsing around with a cap gun in a friend’s front yard. A couple hours later, driving around town, a phalanx of sheriff cruisers screeched to a halt around our car, officers leaping from the car with shotguns drawn. Each of us was pressed to the pavement, handcuffed, and put in the back of a cruiser. Turns out, a neighbor kid called his dad, a deputy, and said we had some kind of gun in the yard. My friend who had the cap gun in his car was charged at the scene with “brandishing a replica firearm.” He served six months of house arrest and probation.
A few years later, same town, during a college summer break, I had a brand new telescope and invited the same crew to come check out Saturn with me. We headed to a city park, set up the scope and some lawn chairs, and looked at planets and the Andromeda galaxy. After an hour or so, two police cars pulled up. The officers demanded that I produce a receipt for the telescope, which of course I didn’t have on me, threatened to arrest me for stealing it, then wrote me a citation for being in a muni park after sunset — about $200. I was 19 at the time, so that $200 was roughly equivalent to 90% of my entire savings.
Two entirely harmless events, both of which were treated as crimes by the police, both of which carried real repercussions. For my friend, a misdemeanor charge carried on his record, a sizable fine, and probation (he bought the cap gun at a local department store, by the way). For me, an expensive ticket for the crime of being outside at night and using a telescope.
The man who killed a cyclist with his SUV and the teenage driver who taunted cyclists then drove into them with his pickup truck received no citation, were not handcuffed, and, at this point, have not been charged with any wrongdoing, despite witnesses saying the teenager taunted the cyclists, and the 66-year-old driver lost control of his speed.
There’s a lesson here, and I’m frankly unsure of what it is. That riding a bike on roads invites death or serious bodily harm from motorists who in many cases will face no consequences for their actions. That riding a bike is viewed by some small town judges as a suspect activity. That roads are simply for cars, and anything impeding the sacred automobile is a mere insect to be scraped from the grill of an oversized SUV.
It’s not a new problem, but to be reminded of this with two tragic acts of vehicular assault twice in two months brings it into sharp relief.
Ride safe out there, folks. But more importantly—drive safe.
Not to take away from your main point, but do you really expect us to believe that you got “an expensive ticket for the crime of being outside at night and using a telescope” when you just told us the ticket was for “being in a muni park after sunset.” Government property has rules, and if you break the rules you can get arrested and charged. That certainly seems like a dumb rule and that the police probably should have let it go. But don’t expect us to believe it was arbitrary when there was a legitimate rule broken.
okay, it was for being in a park after dark. where we were using a telescope and where I was harassed because I didn’t have the receipt for it.
What a ridiculous comment – this couldn’t add less to the discussion of an important topic.
Aimed at Joshua not Justin – Justin: thanks for the article
I Bicycled from South East coastal Florida to San Diego California. People intercepted me in their vehicles at the first expansion crack going on to every bridge, every bridge, every single bridge from Florida to California. For some odd reason it created the loudest, mindnumbing, ear piercing, penetrating noises you ever heard. There must have been some kind of amplification. They also intercepted me at every, every obstacle laid across the path from Florida to California, crowding me and causing stress deliberately. It was interstate, federal offense , Gang stocking. Major felony. You talk about having no charges against people who kill others with their vehicles. I had no recourse through the law on that. This country sucks when it comes to law.
I live in Fort Lauderdale Florida. I have peddled a loaded touring bicycle about 35,000 miles through 19 countries. Here Fort Lauderdale is a dangerous place to ride a bicycle. I stay on the sidewalks as much as I can. Just going to miles I got cut off twice exercising my legal right of way. These people are crazy. I think if you are on a bike you just do not matter.
You seem to have missed the point. The point is being falsely accused of stealing and also repercussions or something that is not really an offense at all. Compare that to deliberately harassing people on bicycles, coal rolling them, and losing control and creating great bodily harm and even death with little or no repercussions. That’s the point.
Police officers, lawyers, judges these characters never ride bicycles.
False
Yes. And for some reason riding Bicycles as an adult is viewed as a Liberal activity. I wonder if had someone been legally carting a firearm and at minimum shot either truck as their life was threatened and the truck was being used as a Weapon. Really would be afraid to live in Texas or maybe even visit. I guess Bicycleists are treated like other minorities that can be abused.
My son is a cop in NM, and is a very dedicated cyclist both on, and off the job. Many of my bike shop customers, are lawyers, heck, I even have a judge or two that ride and even commute by bike to work.
Long time business associate of mine started a fat bike company, Growler Bikes, he, is a local city cop.
Please, think before you just toss out blanket statements, as you currently, just look foolish and ill informed, .
Another reason I couldn’t be paid enough to live in Texas
Civil lawsuits are needed against the drivers, and lawsuits against the cops/prosecutors for selective enforcement of laws. Bike advocacy groups play too nice with this stuff.
I have bicycles toward about 35,000 miles through 20 countries. Now I live in Fort Lauderdale Florida. Here it is dangerous to ride a bike on the road or in a bike lane on the side of the road. Cyclists being hit and killed by hit-and-run drivers are a common event. I don’t mean it happens every day but it is an ongoing thing. Just going a mile down to Walmart and back on my bicycle Put Me In Harm’s Way twice. Some of these drivers are just crazy. They have little regard for a person on a bicycle. I think such drivers are few and far between, but with so much traffic as we have here you are sure to run across several of them in the course of a couple of hours cycling. Maybe not but that has been my experience
I used to ride with guys who were on the US National Team. You can believe those guys were very accomplished riders.
On those rides with the National Team, we had a rule which applied to everyone who was on a ride. We ALWAYS, and as quickly as possible, got into single-file when there was a motor vehicle behind us, in order to make it as quick and easy as possible for that motor vehicle to pass. In other words we did NOT continue to ride in a pack and make it difficult for the motorist to pass.
Many cyclists these days are riding in packs and refusing to make it easier for faster motor vehicles to get past them. These cyclists are asking for trouble by riding like this, and frankly I can understand why motorists get fed up. Of course none of this justifies a motor vehicle running into cyclists, but the cyclists create extra danger for themselves when they insist on blocking a significant portion of the lane on a road used by motor vehicles which are traveling at a much higher rate of speed.
The bottom line : you’re on a bicycle, with no bumpers, no air bags, and only a flimsy little helmet and some lycra. The motorist is driving a vehicle which weighs 3,000 pounds or more. DO you REALLY think it’s in your best interest to play games with that motorist such that the motorist has reasons to become frustrated and angry ? The smart move is to ride single file when there’s a car behind you, and coexist with other users of the road like an adult.
Nice to generalize but that isn’t the hat happened here. Riders in a paceline with the last three taken out. A man died here, and let’s not start minimalizing it or making it his fault.
Bingo.
It’s a new push from the radical left of cycling, to “pack up” for safety and visibility. State law here in NY says, groups of cyclists are to be treated like slow moving farm equipment, and cars must stay behind them until such time as it’s safe to pass.
The rule you mention, was how everyone “BITD” was raised, to treat the situation.
All this current situation does, is make non riders, more likely to view us and our sport with disdain if not outright hate.
It’s the #1 gripe I hear from non cyclists who find themselves in my shop.
I’ve been behind them, and they are obnoxious.
It’s quite possible to give a little, and get a little, but not in the current, my way or the highway mentality that Americans seem to have gotten themselves into.
Sad.
Please, think before you just toss out blanket statements, as you just look foolish and ill informed.
That’s speaking from a perspective of not knowing the rules of the road. Cyclists can ride 2 abreast or side by side. DMV needs to make an emphasis on what’s the rules in engaging cyclist on the road. They don’t ask tractors to ride on the side of the road or let cars by because they travel at a higher rate of speed. These are people who do not desire to not share the road with cyclist. Prosecute these folks severely and this crap will stop.
I agree with you Nick, as I’m a cyclist and it irritates me when there’s a group taking up the entire lane with no consideration for the motorist. I usually tap my horn a couple of times letting them know “DRIVER BACK.”
https://lmgtfy.app/?q=primary+position+cycling
Primary position ensures that the driver will be able to pass quicker, as they’ll be passing say a 2 wide line of 3 cyclists, rather than a 1 wide line of 6 cyclists. It also ensures that passing is only done in areas with sufficient width.
Best to look up your local rules, as in many cities and countries, riding 2 wide is 100% legal and far safer for everyone.
Thanks for posting the primary position comment. The comments about being annoyed by cyclist taking up the lane indicate a lack of driver education about cyclist.
The expectation when one is in the car is that there will be nothing to delay one’s progress. That just isn’t reality. If a horse were on the side of the road, or a farm tractor, or a disabled car, a driver would be expected to approach with caution, and overtake when safe. However, when it is a cyclist on the side of the road, autos will often pass at the most dangerous points; when there is oncoming traffic or at a blind curve. Of course, the driver isn’t selecting this moment, rather, it is just the moment he or she is going to overtake the cyclist based on relative speeds. It often results in passing way too close, or courting danger.
That mentality should change. Select the moment to pass. Pass when it is safe. This likely means slowing down and waiting for a few seconds.
By taking the primary position, the cyclist(s) is forcing the driver to behave deliberately. As stated above, passing a long string of singled up bicyclist will take two or three times longer than passing the same group two or three abreast. In the right place this can be the safest arrangement.
I agree it gets drivers angry at times, but your 5 seconds of delay is being weighed against a cyclist life.
Until Driver’s Education courses contain a significant amount of cycling behavior and safety, I think we are doomed to be annoying obstacles on the road.
Well said Eli – thanks!
If someone can sue someone else in Texas for performing an abortion, it should be easy to sue for injuries caused by careless or dangerous driving.
This is sad and infuriating, yet I hesitate to share on social media, because so many will say, “See how dangerous your obsession with riding a bike is?”
As for the judge who doesn’t like our kind, I suspect that’s because we are, with our cool bikes and colorful kit, overtly healthy and happy. People don’t like having health and happiness rubbed in their face.
What a world.
Well done, Justin. Ride and drive safe.
It’s been stated several times, that if you want to get away with murder, use a car.
Or you can derail a train if you know how to get away with it. They did that in Ireland on August 1st 1980. Clearly no accident but they got away with saying it was an accident which it clearly was not.
Thank you for writing this article and bringing this issue to light. I do all of my cycling off road, but I strongly support road biking in my community and have been pleased to see it become commonplace. I’m not at all suggesting that the riders in the examples you mention were in any way at fault, but the dynamic I’ve observed is that only a small portion of the riders I see follow even elementary traffic laws (such as stop lights, right of way, no turn on red, etc.). If there is anything you street riders can do to encourage your comrades in this, I think it could be helpful for everyone who shares the road.
I’ve actually had my van hit and dented by a batshit crazy meth head riding illegally in urban traffic. I had all rights of way, he was not in any legal place. He was out of his mind and threatened to kill me! I was very scared and called police.
It ended up on my record and the insurance company gleefully raised my rate for being hit by a drugged out madman. I never should have tried to protect myself from a malicious criminal.
People like to assume any driver/biker conflict is always the driver’s fault. NOT TRUE
That was 20 years ago.
Now there are thousands of really hardcore addicts living in tents everywhere, staggering into traffic during nighttime rainstorms. It’s a gauntlet! Even the courthouse is unsafe to get to.
These accidents in Texass are horrific and reflect the belligerent attitude of some of the despicable bullies that are normalized there. Murderers.
I couldn’t be paid enough to set foot in that dump.
You must have been n Eugene, OR, where meth flows like the salmon of Capistrano
Here we are two weeks later with no announcement from the Texas DPS or the district attorney’s office about the investigation or charges. I can appreciate that MethHead Bob dented a car and that some cyclists are riding erratically. But none of that has anything to do with the fact that Kent Wosepka was laid to rest, through no fault of his own other than being rightfully on a road in Texas and getting hit from behind. Where is the outcry?
Like I said….,,,
Law enforcement in this country is a Charlie Foxtrot.
Just one more reason to add to my list of why I now avoid stepping foot in Texas.
I’ve ridden my bike across Texas four times as part of longer tours – twice across the “wide part” from El Paso to Louisiana on the Southern Tier route and twice across the panhandle on Route 66. But no more. Between political issues, total lack of concern for citizen safety in the face of a pandemic, and bicycle safety (this article is not my only example), I went out of my way this summer to “go around” Texas as I drove from New Mexico to Oklahoma.
The examples in this article just reinforce views on Texas.
I have a few more things to say.
First, I have NO sympathy with the idiots like the coal-rolling kid or the 66 year old guy who drove into the pack of cyclists. Those drivers should be punished as severely as the law allows.
But there are larger and more persistent things to consider than those two awful incidents.
Public roads have become FAR more dangerous over the past 30 or so years. It is much worse now that it was just a few decades ago. It’s not just more dangerous for cyclists, it is more dangerous for
everyone.
I still own my road bicycle, but for me the roads are now an environment which is unacceptably risky.
So I don’t ride on roads any more and I ride my mountain bike instead.
I’ve done a lot of dangerous stuff in my life – I’ve climbed big mountains, surfed the North Shore of Maui when it was the biggest conditions in over ten years, raced motorcycles, etc. I consider riding a bicycle on the road more dangerous than any of the aforementioned pursuits, and there are solid reasons why I reached that conclusion.
I can already hear the people who will say “But I have the right to ride my bicycle on the road”. Sure you do, but you can also end up dead as a result of making a poor risk assessment. You might be 100% in the right but if you end up dead or crippled will the fact that you were “in the right” even matter to those loved ones you leave behind ?
Choose the risks you take wisely. Riding a bicycle on the road is insanely risky, and it is not going to get better until all motor vehicles are autonomous, which is decades away.
Add in “self-driving cars”, massive trucks driven by foreigners with zero liability insurance, impaired pill poppers, and belligerent losers out for vengeance and the road becomes a torture fest of gladiators!
This article illustrates that “law enforcement” in this country is a Charlie Foxtrot”.
So what do we say about the cyclist that scratched my car with their pedals? The one the ran over my friends dog? Or the one the almost caused a wreck by swerving across the white line multiple times?
This isn’t an Adventure Journal story…it’s a complaining opinion piece that only looks to blame a specific group of people…driverist!
Sad for the injured and the driver who has to live with this but this piece automatically blames the driver as if there is no chance the bicyclists could ever swerve out into traffic or on anyway be at fault.
Labeled guilty before proven so…
There is no chance they swerved in front of the SUV that killed one of them. Time to put the burden of proof on the person wielding the 3000 pound vehicle.
How about actually gathering evidence first?
THAT’S on the Texass police.
Yet, in both cases, riders were single file and the driver plowed right into them. The coal-rolling incident even had witnesses behind the group that got hit.
The point of the article is that there have been two crashes in the Houston area, people killed, and drivers not even charged.
Nice try, though.
Gives new meaning to the phrase ‘Don’t Mess With Texas’
I hate to say it, but I gave up the fight a long time ago, and now I mostly just ride dirt. It’s pretty clear, and has been for quite some time, that this country doesn’t value any kind of alternate transportation. The car reigns supreme. Sure, municipalities will pay lip service to alternative transportation, maybe paint some worthless stripes on the road, after cyclists complain enough about cyclists getting killed but *actual* bicycle infrastructure, traffic-calming measures, real consequences for drivers who kill cyclists and pedestrians? These things are vanishingly rare.
Even here in supposedly “liberal” CA, where people supposedly care about those things. In my town some years ago a local kid killed a professional cyclist, who was out training, while cutting class to go street racing with his buddy. He was some sort of HS star athlete (In a socially acceptable ball sport. Not some sorta weirdo sport like cycling.) and got off with a slap on the wrist, ’cause the judge didn’t want to “ruin 2 lives” or some such bs. I don’t think he ever served a single day. He had to do probation and go talk to school kids or something about how “sorry” he was.
Meanwhile traffic around here on the back roads I used to train and commute on, when I still raced bikes, just keeps getting more hectic, while drivers are more and more impatient, distracted and entitled. The only road riding I do these days is to the trailhead, on my mountain bike, and ~2 mi. to work (Eventually, when we go back to the office). Just not worth the risk any more to go do those long solo road rides I used to enjoy.
My wife is from that $hithole (Waller). As someone who was born and raised in central Texas, this isn’t all that surprising. I’ve had many encounters with those “special” coal-rollers, and once one of them decided to exit a highway, cross three lane of an access road to buzz me by a few inches, and then get back on the highway. Lots of wizards down there. I wasn’t even an abrasive biker or anything, always riding at the edge of a shoulder or on a sidewalk even.
I send what good Karma I have to the brave souls who continue to road bike. I used to ride on roads quite a bit, but my rides are probably 95 percent mtb now. Too many inattentive FB scrollers/ testers in cars now, too many cyclists killed every year with drivers getting the equivalent of a shoplifting penalty. Also, this “coal rolling” thing REALLY gets me going (showing enormous self-restraint here).
*texters
And another thing, these folks aren’t trying to push the limits of life and death like Ueli Steck or Dean Potter, they are just out for a bike ride FFS!
RIP.
I was a friend and also an occasional riding partner with Kent. You mention he was a father of three. Three teenagers robbed of their father for the rest of their lives. Kent was a superb father. I knew him as an excellent cyclist, and he was also an artist. More than a dabbler, he actually sold several of his works. Others knew him as an accomplished endurance runner, as in running across the Sahara. He was a teacher at Boston College. And prior to retiring at an age when he could do cross country bike rides, he was at the top of the food chain at Goldman. His heart was in supporting several social causes – and not just with donations but with hours of his time. The best part of this incredible intelligent, creative, and responsible person may have been his humility. Several groups came together this evening in his memory. The artists had no idea he was a cyclist. The runners had no idea Kent was a financial genius. His last Strava post the day before he was killed commented on dangerous drivers and constantly having to be on the defensive. There just isn’t a defense from someone out of control in an SUV. Drivers should have to experience just a little of that vulnerability.
I’m so sorry, Terry. He sounds like he was a wonderful guy.
I’m so sorry for your loss. It’s entirely too early in his life.
RIP
Please be safe out there, things get uglier by the day.
Terry, sorry to hear about your friend.
Terry What a beautiful write up on Kent. Although I only knew him that very short time. I remember him fondly as our paths had crossed a few times earlier in our ride cross country. I was one of the cyclist hit that day. I am very grateful for my recovery. Not sure how much road riding I will do again, I will probably do more rails to trails riding. We did nothing wrong that day. How the driver was able to renew his driver’s license with his admitted condition boggles my mind. It was only a matter of time if it wasn’t us it would have been someone else. Ride safe my fellow riders.
So glad you have recovered, Barbara. I share your disbelief that a blind person could be permitted to drive, and further that no penalties other than an insurance settlement to Kent’s family. Best wishes for your health and riding happiness.
All this talk of Waller County road justice and “lynching,” and Sandra Bland’s name never comes up. It’s hard not to notice the commonality for that locale. Google it.
Coalrollers are a nuisance in Potland (or they were a couple years ago). They’re not just a Texastani phenomenon. Almost as much a problem as the garbage piles and the assholes with fartcans. Coalrolling is forbidden under federal law but AFAIK nobody enforces it and neither Oregon nor Little Beirut have any local laws about it. They’re one of the many reasons why I no longer ride there. Now that they no longer have a functioning police department I don’t know that I want to imagine how much worse it’s gotten.
And just FTR, if you’re riding a bike in TexAss and it doesn’t burn fossil fuels and produce copious amounts of noise, you’re effectively a target. That’s no big secret or anything new, by the way.
As much taxes as I pay I deserve a sliver of paved road in which to ride my bike without the threat of death.
The driver and the policed chief should both burn in hell.
It’s crazy how many of these comments are blaming the victims, some of who died. It doesn’t matter how it happened or if the group wasn’t perfectly in a single file. There is no excuse here for vehicular manslaughter without repercussions. The answer to “it’s more dangerous than ever to ride on the road” isn’t to let dangerous criminals do as they please. I ride motorcycles, and have been hit over and over. Am I to blame for driving my vehicle on the road?
Finally, don’t ride bikes in the south. Southern law sides with no one who is considered out of the norm. It hasn’t changed since the 1800s and I can’t anticipate it changing ever.
Yes Tristan, the predictable responses are on display; “they were riding three abreast!”, “they ran a stop sign!”, “they look good in Lycra!”, so it’s ok to MURDER them. Yes, this is the batshit crazy country in which we live.
100% accuracy right there, Bard!
Hell I won’t even spend a dime with any business in that state. The power players are out of their hateful minds.
What is fun is writing to the business and telling them why I boycott their racist, misogynistic, anti-democracy hateful state.
“Hell I won’t even spend a dime with any business in that state”
After 2020 election, I also decided to make sure my money doesn’t flow to places that will use that money against things I believe in (I already avoided some brands, but wasn’t so focused on it). So I’m with you, no buying from businesses based in Texas, or even ebay sellers from Texas etc. It’s tough to check where everything you buy is from, but you soon remember what to avoid. It just becomes a habit to buy x-brand of this and leave y-brand on the shelf. Why should I be funding people who oppose me?
No charges for driving in such a manner that you kill a person or multiple people … that is crazy. So you’re giving the message that you don’t have to pay attention to your road position or speed, and you’re welcome to roll coal, even if you kill the people. Why would anyone try to avoid hitting cyclists if there is zero punishment?
Mr. Housman, thank you for the article. I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it here: cycling advocacy groups need to push a nationwide media, legislative, and law enforcement blitz for cycling rights and safety, similar to what Mothers Against Drunk Driving did about 40 years ago. I recall attending assemblies in high school and seeing crushed cars on display outside our schools as a stark reminder of the impact that drunk driving can have. I believe that was a major tipping point in the public perception, responsible behavior, and increased prosecution of those cases. Motorists need a similar appreciation for the impact of their reckless (or malicious) behavior and belief that there will be harsh penalties for their actions when they injure, maim, or kill cyclists. It’s not an “accident’ when they are driving recklessly and irresponsibly.
Texas – Almost no public lands, angry drivers, way too many guns. Really has no appeal to me.
I was hit in a 4 way stop sign intersection. A woman pulled up and stopped at the stop sign. I was already in the intersection and was hesitating to complete through the intersection when she pulled up. She had very dark tinted windows that prevented me from seeing her in the car. When I was directly in front of the car she accelerated. I bounced off her hood and fortunately landed on the pavement to the right of the car. My helmet was broken in three pieces. During the lawsuit I was forced to bring against the lady and State Farm, I discovered she stated I hit her car with my bike.
I lost my dad 10 years ago in a road biking accident. As you can imagine, the pain and heartache from that never goes away. He was my riding buddy and one of my best friends. I’ve also seen many friends get seriously injured by cars. I spent years being understandably angry at idiot drivers. But when I sit back and objectively look at the situation, i can clearly see that bikes have no business being on busy streets with 6000 pound cars flying by at high speeds. The laws giving cyclist equal passage were written at a time when cars didn’t go much faster than bikes. As a cycling community our advocacy and legislation should focus building better trails and functionally protected bike lanes to encourage a safer cyclist/auto interface. Sadly it should also focus on getting bikes off the roads. It’s a very difficult reality, but it’s also a worthy cause to protect ourselves and the ones we love. Safe riding everyone!
I’m sorry for your tragic loss.
I wonder if mandatory biker’s ed ought to be required, just like driver’s ed? How about ID required and liability too? They can really injure pedestrians too.
I see suicidal city riders all the time who seem to have zero concept of physics and the delusion that their fabulousness exempts them from ALL traffic laws. Oh and they must think they glow like aliens too: no lights, black clothes at night in the rain, in and out of lanes, sidewalks, and side streets as if they are immortal players in some damn video game. No helmets either.
Like any other group, there are exemplary riders right alongside blithering aggressive idiots!
Except that has nothing to do with these two crashes in TX. Cyclists were riding on the side of the road and got hit. That’s it.
Totally, these crashes occurred when drivers drove into cyclists.
Bicycles fit fine into the roading system if drivers follow the rules and open their eyes. There are separate trails off the traditional road in Europe, but there are also the majority of times when cyclists are riding on the same road as cars, but the car’s are smaller, driven slower and by people who view the cyclists as fellow road users, rather than the enemy.
Drivers do not take the required level of care when driving something around as dangerous as a 3000 lb + vehicle. I do not know how to get drivers to focus on driving when they drive. But if they are so dangerous, then perhaps it is time to ban the cars from roads.
I agree, the focus should be on separate bike lanes wherever possible. Denmark showed what you can do when you focus on bike safety.
The real political push for this should be the coming of small scale electric vehicles (such as electric bikes, but carts and robotic carts too) which bike lanes will enable. We can solve a lot of congestion problems with high density small transport.
I’m sorry about your loss, it’s a horrible way to die.
Trails and bike lanes only go so far. They are useful in urban settings where bikes are often used for transportation, but when you get out to the rural areas, it’s not feasable and simply is not going to happen. Both of these crashes were in non-urban environments.
Besides, I can go out my back door to beautiful, windy, country roads that are the kind of roads people dream of riding on. Do people still get hit? Of course. But are you going to put separate, protected bike lanes on every road? No. How about we give people proper punishment when they plow into someone on a bike?
“How about we give people proper punishment when they plow into someone on a bike?”
This is the answer. Europe has windy, narrow roads, yet cyclists are treated with much more respect. Why? Seems like they are much more serious about drivers having a primary duty of not running over people. Up the penalty for bad driving here (and enforce it! god knows we have enough cops writing tickets for things that don’t matter) and it’ll change.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think most of Europe places the assumption of wrongdoing on the driver, who has to prove otherwise. They also assume there must have been some fault in the way the road is engineered that allowed the crash. I don’t think we’ll change all our roads in the short term, but we could certainly place the onus of responsibility on drivers first. start with the fact that the driver hit and killed someone, then let him prove he had no choice.
Wear a jersey with a giant American flag. These “patriots” wouldn’t dare hit one of their own.
Anecdotally that seems to be true. A friend used to put a flag on his bike and ride, said the same areas where he’d get buzzed without it, he’d get waves and friendly honks with it, along with more room when they passed.
WTF does “failed to maintain his speed” mean?
I have bicycle toured about 35,000 miles through 19 countries. I live in Fort Lauderdale in South Florida period my residence is about 1 mile or so from Walmart. Going there and back by bicycle a few days ago, I nearly got clipped three times on my own legal right of way. I could have been injured or even killed. Florida is known as the dive or die state. Drivers here are criminal as hell. A couple of nights ago I was in the bicycle lane on University Drive. Two vehicles came by going about 85 or 90 in a 45 zone. They swerved over so close I could feel it. Read the book miles from nowhere by Barbara Savage. See how her husband and she bicycled across the United States. They had no problems whatsoever until they got into Florida. Then it was one problem after Another after another after another.
Biking in America is good for your health and bad for your longevity.
I live in a liberal area that is pretty good at bike lanes, and streets that are periodically blocked to cars but not to bikes, but still … When some texting driver plows 3000lbs into you at 35mph, they will get a citation and you will get a funeral. You have to be super careful even in good areas.
In Tex-ass, I assume the people just tsk-tsk … that’s what you get. Still, they should civil suit the drivers into bankruptcy.
Thank you for the article! I bike to work every day, year-round in Michigan. I’ve done this for most of my life. I also bike for recreation. I am baffled as to why this offends drivers. I like the exercise. I save money. It’s good for my mental health. I have been the victim of aggressive and inattentive car drivers. Why?!
-Adventure Journal subscriber
Why so much hate in an Adventure Journal forum???? I cannot believe the anti-cyclist comments I’m reading HERE, of all places! Please leave here trolls.
-Adventure Journal subscriber
I’ve thought about attaching a large paint brush with white paint on it attached to a stick protruding out sideways about a foot from my seat post. Might give the truck obsessed coal rollers pause.
Millions and millions of tax dollars are paid out annually to keep cold-blooded murderers alive on death row. People run into cyclists on the road and they get a citation even though they kill them. Some people think the roads are made for automobiles and Trucks Only. Think about the Twisted evanescent thinking and the unstable mockery of Justice that represents.
You are completely accurate in that assessment. A driver in my area was just given probation after running into a family of three, riding well on the shoulder of a wide road, killing the father. That she was on her cell phone at the time was not disputed. Her claim was that due to medication she was on, she was distracted by an involuntary bowel movement. The judge bought that. There is no way to know the sequence of events, but how is that even relevant. The son, thankfully uninjured, made a tribute video about his dad that would tear your heart out. No justice with a paltry driver’s insurance settlement.