Welcome to ...

The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Thursday, June 21, 2012

Are Bicyclists Menace to Society?

Short answer - YES ... they do not follow the laws concerning operation of a vehicle on the roads (They are the same for any vehicle be it electric, gas or pedal powered). The most violated rule is yielding of the right-of-way to faster moving traffic and as the piece below relates yielding the right-of-way to pedestrians - who have the ultimate right-of-way over any mode of vehicular traffic.
 There are many more pedestrian fatalities involving cars, but the recent death caused by an allegedly negligent bicyclist who ran a red light and plowed into pedestrians crossing the street in San Francisco and actually killing one man raised heat rhetoric over the behaviors of some cyclists and the question of who owns public space:
The bicyclist was zipping south on Castro Street at the end of his twice-weekly ride to the Marin Headlands, blowing through red lights and stop signs.
But the Market Street crosswalk was filled with pedestrians, and Chris Bucchere, 36, allegedly was riding too fast to stop. So he aimed for the least populated spot and plowed on through.
"In a nutshell, blammo," a blogger purporting to be Bucchere wrote that March day. The man he hit, Sutchi Hui, 71, died four days later. Bucchere was charged Thursday with felony vehicular manslaughter and is scheduled to be arraigned next week.
Post-crash commentary, angry and profane, didn't just call for Bucchere's head, although there was plenty of condemnation for him and the rest of the Lycra-and-toe-clips set. Instead, the conversation became a fight about who owns public space — a scarce resource in the second-most dense city in America, where bike use is soaring and many motorists decry a war on cars.
Maria L. La Ganga of the Los Angeles Times has the story here.

No comments: