What price for killing a cyclist?

[oddsaabs]

I'm assuming you comment was sarcastic, right?

Room to the right isn't the issue here, The point is the person driving the truck chose to pass in a clearly unsafe location in an obviously unsafe time. Choosing to squeeze or push through puts everyone at risk: the driver, any passengers, the on coming vehicles, and especially the soft squishy thing to his right that doesn't enjoy the protection of a steel cocoon and air bags.

To say the rider should have moved right is missing the point completely. It was an unsafe pass and should not have occurred in the first place.

[malcolm]

I wouldn't pass debris on the roadway that close.

To pass a human that close is aggressive until proven otherwise. He is making a statement.

[HenryA]

Coupla things...

The passing photo shows what would be an illegal pass in some/many states. Its way too close. Probably too close even in states that don't have "3 foot laws".

The other thing is that the criminal fine for the homicide in the story posted by the OP is just the beginning of the beginning. If the person who hit the cyclist has insurance, his company is going to pay the limits of the policy and probably sooner rather than later. And if he owns much of anything, the deceased's family is going to take that too. Probably won't be newsworthy though.

None of that will bring back the deceased, but it is what is available.

[Jgrooms]

Originally Posted by THE ARS

Your teammate has plenty of room to the right which is where slower traffic needs to be.



Or he can be a martyr and give his life to advance The Cyclist Rights Movement.



I've been hit by a car, and I highly recommend staying out of the way. But good luck with the revolution, I look forward to the day we can all ride around like the Pope, enclosed in a bubble and surrounded by a motorcade.

You might look at the photo a bit closer, but I guess you did since you photoshoped arrows in.

Sprinkler, wet, white line disappears to what? And you think he should move over?

And he's being a martyr? And you sir are the definition of a troll!

[redir]

Originally Posted by THE ARS

Your teammate has plenty of room to the right which is where slower traffic needs to be.

Or he can be a martyr and give his life to advance The Cyclist Rights Movement.

I've been hit by a car, and I highly recommend staying out of the way. But good luck with the revolution, I look forward to the day we can all ride around like the Pope, enclosed in a bubble and surrounded by a motorcade.

Oh brother!

[carpediemracing]

Originally Posted by Jgrooms

How'd you capture this? All things going wrong here. Note how an overworked sprinkler is not only watering the road, over time it has damaged the road surface. Its a corner and there is oncoming, which the driver could not have seen when pass was initiated.

Helmet cam. ContourHD although the brand is less important than using it every time I ride. I wear it, literally, so that if I get killed or put in a vegetative state while riding, someone will have my side of the story.

Originally Posted by oddsaabs

Room to the right isn't the issue here, The point is the person driving the truck chose to pass in a clearly unsafe location in an obviously unsafe time. Choosing to squeeze or push through puts everyone at risk: the driver, any passengers, the on coming vehicles, and especially the soft squishy thing to his right that doesn't enjoy the protection of a steel cocoon and air bags.

I rode through some debris, chancing that I wouldn't flat. I tend to do that, roll through the stuff on the side of the road.

The bad stuff was before us, this was just where the road was returning to normal.

Originally Posted by malcolm

To pass a human that close is aggressive until proven otherwise. He is making a statement.

I agree, but technically there are no laws being broken here.

Originally Posted by HenryA

Coupla things...

The passing photo shows what would be an illegal pass in some/many states. Its way too close. Probably too close even in states that don't have "3 foot laws".

According to Massachusetts state law that is a legal pass. Nothing in it for anyone to do anything. No 3 foot law. And, living on the MA border, there are basically no shoulders on many of the roads out here, even ones with 50 mph speed limits.

We did report it to the police because we felt that we needed to record the driver's plate/etc in case a future cyclist doesn't duck right just as the mirror passed (which is what my teammate did).

For what it's worth my teammate is a legislative lawyer so he understands intimately what the laws are and aren't and in this case there was nothing to do except make a statement in hopes that it triggers something if the driver actually hurts someone in the future.

[HenryA]

Wow, you're fighting a stacked deck up there.

[carpediemracing]

Originally Posted by HenryA

Wow, you're fighting a stacked deck up there.

I rarely ride in MA now. I did a few rides, and honestly I think that the drivers that passed me on those few rides were very considerate. However when you combine non-existent shoulders, 50+ mph speed limits (with the normal "10 over" actual speeds), and limited sight lines (similar two lane roads in CT would be posted 35-40 mph), I've consciously not ridden into MA for the last couple years.

CT has a 3 foot law, now, they seem to have much better shoulders on state roads at least (the same road loses literally 6-8 feet width at the state line, all from the shoulders), however it doesn't mean the drivers are any safer.

In fact I so not-trust drivers that I have forward and rearward facing "dash cams" in both of our primary cars. I use a forward cam in the tow vehicle (the view out the back is just the front of the trailer so a cam doesn't help there).

The rear cam is very good at keeping people on their toes. Normally people drive a length behind or so, even if there's traffic ahead. I'll drive 7-ish over normally but will go faster if someone is behind me, and I've held 20 over on secondary roads and still have people a length behind me (at 45-50 mph). However with the camera in place the cars usually come up, stay there for 10-15-20 seconds, then suddenly drop back a good 50-100 feet, like 4-5 car lengths.

I have some real interesting things on file, nothing YouTube worthy, well, sort of, but still, most of it is tame compared to Russia, for example. This is my clip, the Missus and Junior are in the car in front of me and someone makes a pretty blatant left on red.

Of course I know a lot of cyclists that won't hesitate to blow a stop sign or a red light but that's just as idiotic as doing it in a car, if not more so. Except on group rides that I don't lead (and I've only done 3? of them in the past few years) I stop at red lights and stop signs. Because otherwise I'm just another asshole cyclist.