tyson wrote:
(2) What state do you live in that the light is red and someone can step into the crosswalk and legally stop all traffic to get across the road? North Korea? No state in the US has such a ridiculous law so please stop making that up.
This is correct. My state law explicitly says that pedestrians cannot suddenly enter a crosswalk, and every state has similar wording.
Please list what states you are in and I will find the law that says drivers do not get a 'free kill' just because a pedestrian screws up.
If the driver HAS TIME TO REACT, they have the responsibility to do so.
fdafsdfasdf wrote:
tyson wrote:(2) What state do you live in that the light is red and someone can step into the crosswalk and legally stop all traffic to get across the road? North Korea? No state in the US has such a ridiculous law so please stop making that up.
This is correct. My state law explicitly says that pedestrians cannot suddenly enter a crosswalk, and every state has similar wording.
You all will be happy to know that there are now police spending their day making sure all cyclists stop at the red lights in CP near where the accident took place.
The latest is the idiot was riding on and off the pedestrian path and road with vehicles. He weaves from the pedestrian path on to the street and started yelling for her to move.
Talk laws all you want, the bike rider is an obnoxious, selfish a--hole.
You want to ride fast? Go to a place made for it. Central Park isn't it.
He also posts all his logs online and boasts about how fast he goes.
If I was in this woman's family I'd be hunting this guy down today.
They basically run red lights for the same reason runners do it, to keep moving. Also many traffic lights have sensors that will change the light for a car and not a bicycle.
Story says he has posted the log of every ride in 2014 (9000 miles). Except this one of course.
Story also says cops are frustrated by this lack of data but I wonder whether they might be able to get it with a warrant.
psaxc wrote:
http://nypost.com/2014/09/18/cyclist-slams-into-pedestrian-in-central-parkClassic example of someone that needs to be beaten severely and locked up.
Put him in jail and throw the key away.
Track Timer wrote:
If he had time to yell several times he had time to come up out of his aero bars and stop. Around here pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way over bikes, cars, whatever. He should be behind bars.
I'm not a cyclist. Can somebody explain why it would not be possible to come out of his aero bars?
The brakes are on the drops, not the aero bars.
Got it. Thanks.
Another CP accident story. A cyclist friend of mine who regularly rode there was an eyewitness to something similar. An inexperienced roller blader who couldn't stop got into the path of a cyclist going fast. He said the impact sounded like a gunshot. The rollerblader was killed.
Cyclists can't really ride in the bike lane at crowded times, particularly in that section of the park, and pedestrians down there DO NOT LOOK when they are crossing the road, not even during races, causing near collisions with both runners and cyclists all the time. Moreover, the Central Park road is used for workouts almost exclusively, and you could not get much of a workout if you actually stopped at every one of the many traffic lights--to wait in most cases for no one to cross. So, no one stops at them unless there are cars. That being said, the cyclists need to be less aggressive, given the circumstances, and to slow down and watch out for pedestrians and runners. There are a lot of people crossing down in the southern stretch of the park during certain hours and on the weekends nowadays.
Traffic lights and the speed limits for bikes should be strictly enforced after 7:00am (probably 20 MPH). If you are too lazy to get your lazy ass out of the rack, you can't train in Central Park.
A little news flash to those who are not aware: there is auto traffic in Central Park during peak hours (I think it starts at 7:00am or 8:00am) and even cars have to obey what I think is a 20 or 25 MPH speed limit. Cars also obey lights (although I don't know if that was a factor here).
The volume of runners, tourist bikes, skaters, kids, lunatics, vendor carts, horse drawn carriages, etc. On weekends NYRRC and other fun runs are in progress. CP, especially the lower loop, is incredibly crowded and unsafe for people to try to ride at top speeds. My observation is that most of the serious individuals and cycling clubs are out in force very early in the park, around 5:00 or 6:00am and at those times, even in low light, it is easy enough for runners and bikes to avoid each other. At these off hours, cars are banned, the traffic lights can blink orange, and except for a few hookers doing the walk of shame, there are very few people going for a stroll; no problem. After 7:00am, road bikers can head for the GWB.
A bicycle is an easy way to kill someone you don't like, then just say hey they were walking and got in my way.
Contact the bicycle lobby and they'll get you off with no jail time.
Just start making a list of people you don't like, and head out on your bike.
fdafsdfasdf wrote:
This is correct. My state law explicitly says that pedestrians cannot suddenly enter a crosswalk, and every state has similar wording.
A lot of the laws read like this:
(a) The driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to
a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.
(b) This section does not relieve a pedestrian from the duty of using due care for his or her safety. No pedestrian may suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle that is so close as to constitute an immediate hazard.
Section a supersedes section b. B says you shouldn't do this, but even if you do, once you are in the crosswalk, the driver still has to yield the right of way.
Low traffic areas should be like this:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop
Red lights treated like stop signs, stop signs treated like yield sign.
V1per41 wrote:
This article is horribly written, extremely biased, and gives no insight into who was actually at fault.
"A cyclist pedaling a $4,000 racing bike..."
Who cares how expensive the bike was?
"...when Jason Marshall, 31, came barreling along..."
Came barreling along? Really?
All we really know is that someone riding a bike hit a pedestrian. Fault here lies in what the light situation was. In my experience, pedestrians are usually far more oblivious to their surroundings and I wouldn't be surprised if the pedestrian in this case just decided to cross the street without looking in either direction.
If the cyclist did run through a red light, then he should be punished to the maximum extent of the law, but without more details, jumping all over him for this is premature.
Exactly what I thought while reading that horrible article. Completely biased.
" slammed into a suburban mom in town shopping for her daughter’s birthday present"
yeah, so...? It might as well say, "you could be out participating in some completely innocent activity when, all of a sudden, out of nowhere a cyclist breaking all the rules of the road purposefully aims his bike towards you to turn you into road kill, because that's what all these a-hole cyclists do."
"These guys think that they have entitlement and they don’t ride in the bike lanes." Isn't it perfectly legal for cyclists to be in the car lanes?
Everyone is always extremely biased against cyclists and this article is clearly no exception. Like Viper said, all we really know is that a cyclist and a pedestrian collided, leaving the pedestrian brain dead.
Maybe the pedestrian had earbuds in and only briefly glanced before crossing the street. I've had people look at me in the eyes and then walk out in front of me (not in a cross section) at the last second when I'm going 20mph on a bike. Going based off of my experiences as a cyclist, I'd be much more inclined to blame the pedestrian. But, like I said, we don't really know anything right now.
tyson wrote:
I was there and talked to one of the eyewitnesses. He said she wasn't paying any attention and the guy was yelling at her. The didn't know what color the light was when the cyclist hit her.
I had something similar happen to me once. Stop lights or stop signs were not involved.
As I was riding my bike along a path in a park, I came along a group of people standing in the middle of the path. I shouted out a warning to them as I approached. I also veered to the left to pass the group. This one guy in the group then proceeds to walk directly into me. Fortunately, I wasn't going particularly fast at the time, so no one was hurt. But, he obviously wasn't paying attention or was oblivious to the situation. Everyone else in the group moved away from the bike.
Dust wrote:
[quote]
Fortunately, I wasn't going particularly fast at the time, so no one was hurt. But, he obviously wasn't paying attention or was oblivious to the situation. Everyone else in the group moved away from the bike.
How many times has it happened on a run where you yell "passing on your right" and the dopes move right instead of turning away?
That's one of the reasons I don't do speed work, or any serious run when it's crowded. You have to expect that people aren't going to cater to your workout needs or agenda.
If it was on a track or designated area? That's different. This was Central Park at rush hour in one of the biggest cities in the world. This idiot had no business going that fast, I don't care what laws you cite.
The above link says the biker swerved to avoid pedestrians and hit the woman. He has not been charged. Regardless of fault a life was lost.