The Seattle Bicyclist Saga Continues
Upon further investigation, it seems that the city agrees with me that more education is needed. I haven't found a timeline yet for when they will start implementing it. I am impressed that hey are covering all the avenues of education that I could think of, and have a few more that I didn't. The Seattle Bicycle Master Plan is readily available for perusal on the web, although it is interesting trying to find specific information. The headings help somewhat and the map is great, although it isn't easy to manipulate.
I found out about an article in the paper today from the MyBallard Blog about a biker that fell over the short wall on the ballard bridge and into traffic last year. He sustained terrible injuries, including the loss of an arm and some brain damage. He is suing the city.
The sad thing is that the article devolves into a distorted recounting of the Critical Mass incident last Friday. I don't really see any connection between the two stories, other than the fact that they both involve bicycles. Many of the statements in the article aren't followed up on, either. Not impressed with the reporting.
While I feel terribly sorry for the man, I don't think that he is going to win his suit. The city already has a plan to place a separate pedestrian and bike bridge to the west of the existing Ballard Bridge (not sure how that is going to work...). They can't go back in time and change how it was done originally. He had an accident and got hurt. We all take the risk, whether we are in our car, on a bike or walking.
Seattle isn't the only city having some biker/driver relations problems; Portland also had an altercation in early July. The "funny" thing about this incident was that the driver was an avid biker and lecturing a rider that had blown through a stop light when the rider assaulted him. And the rider was a city employee of 31 years! And drunk!
I found out about an article in the paper today from the MyBallard Blog about a biker that fell over the short wall on the ballard bridge and into traffic last year. He sustained terrible injuries, including the loss of an arm and some brain damage. He is suing the city.
The sad thing is that the article devolves into a distorted recounting of the Critical Mass incident last Friday. I don't really see any connection between the two stories, other than the fact that they both involve bicycles. Many of the statements in the article aren't followed up on, either. Not impressed with the reporting.
While I feel terribly sorry for the man, I don't think that he is going to win his suit. The city already has a plan to place a separate pedestrian and bike bridge to the west of the existing Ballard Bridge (not sure how that is going to work...). They can't go back in time and change how it was done originally. He had an accident and got hurt. We all take the risk, whether we are in our car, on a bike or walking.
Seattle isn't the only city having some biker/driver relations problems; Portland also had an altercation in early July. The "funny" thing about this incident was that the driver was an avid biker and lecturing a rider that had blown through a stop light when the rider assaulted him. And the rider was a city employee of 31 years! And drunk!
posted by srcsmgrl at
8:57 PM
3 Comments:
Uh, how the heck does one run into that mini-wall? Barring drunkenness, the only way that's going to happen is when you're trying to pass a pedestrian or another cyclist coming the other direction. If that was the case, I wonder if the guy failed to slow down? The narrow bike/foot lanes are a PITA, but only dangerous if you fail to use common sense. Then again, I do worry about some outstretched truck mirror clocking me on the head on of these days...
By
El JoPe Magnifico, at 12:14 AM
I haven't ever ridden across there. I avoid it mightily. Of course the article doesn't go into how it happened and if I remember right, the words "launched into traffic" were used. How is one "launched"?
By
srcsmgrl, at 8:23 AM
The pedestrian sidewalks on the ballard bridge are so narrow that in order for two pedestrians to pass, one needs to turn sideways.
Now put a bicycle on that.
I'd be amazed if a larger wheelchair (for a 300+ lb person) would even fit in that pedestrian path.
I've had pedestrians stand on that 18" high wall to let me pass on my bike (I crawl up very slowly). When it is windy, it is pretty scary.
There is also a lot of debris that gets blown onto that path and the streetlights were mostly dead earlier this year. I reported all of them a few months ago but haven't checked to see if they were finally fixed. Something about SDOT and Seattle City Light needing to work together to make those lights work again.
It scares enough people that it isn't heavily used.
By
Mike, at 5:25 PM
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