Wednesday Links
In the Future, the City’s Streets Are to Behave [NY Times] School Budgets to Be Cut by 5 Percent Next Year [NY Times] Midtown Cyclists Routinely Break Law, Study Finds [NYT/City Room] Mister Softee Driving McCarren Residents Mad [NY Post] Pooper Scooper Fines Rise in Parks [NY Daily News] Park Slope Record Store Gets the…
In the Future, the City’s Streets Are to Behave [NY Times]
School Budgets to Be Cut by 5 Percent Next Year [NY Times]
Midtown Cyclists Routinely Break Law, Study Finds [NYT/City Room]
Mister Softee Driving McCarren Residents Mad [NY Post]
Pooper Scooper Fines Rise in Parks [NY Daily News]
Park Slope Record Store Gets the Boot [Brooklyn Paper]
360 Furman Conversion Finally Completed [Brooklyn Eagle]
Will Yards Face Eternal Delays? [Brooklyn Eagle]
Photo by Lauren Michaellozano
As a bike commuter, what always seems to be misssing from these discussions is a rational look at the actual hazards. Something like 40,000 people a year are killed by cars. How many people have been killed by bikes? I try and follow traffic rules and wear a helmet for my safety but I think that people are just totally crazed about their perception of the danger that bikes pose to peds. It may just be a mater of competing for limited resources (street space) and we’ve already ceded most of the space to automobiles.
Denton – your analysis might be correct under the letter of the law but the law is administered by (flawed) humans…..
therefore unless you can PROVE beyond all reasonable doubt (which isnt the legal standard in liability cases) that (for example) you were driving perfectly appropriately and the person jumped out from between the cars or the pedestrian crossed against the light – your more or less out of luck (the best that will happen is the Ins will settle with the Pedestrian or Ped family out of court- for alot of $ depending on the injury – and your Insurance rates will be so high you’ll become a pedestrian).
Rob,who has the right of way is defined by the motor vehicle and traffic code. Pedestrians, obviously, do not have the right of way at all times.
Benson, it’s a good way to drive, but not strictly true. If a person jumps out from between cars in front of you and you are driving at appropriate speed for conditions and there is no way reasonably you could have avoided the ped, you are not at fault.
If otoh, a ped crosses against a red light, and you as the driver hit them, but a careful driver should have seen them and been able to avoid, then you share some of the liability. Not all, but some.
pedestrians have the right of way.
always.
deal with it.
things on wheels are just stupid anyway. all things on wheels. wheels annoy me.
*rob*
When I was a teenager getting ready to learn how to drive, my father always tried to drum it in my head that in ALL CASES where a car hits a pedstrian, the driver is at fault. Of course, as a teenager who thought he was 10 times smarter than his dad, this seemed unfair to me and I used to throw out scenarios in which I thought the pedestrian is at fault (“What if a kid suddenly bolts out into the street from between parked cars to fetch a ball?”). My father’s response was always the same: “Listen to me: the law says that you must be in control of your vehicle at all times”. As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to understand my father’s mantra, and think it applies to bikes as well (note: I am an avid bike rider).
lincolnlimestone – follow this rule – cause anyone in a motor vehicle as well as bikes really have to…pedestrians are more or less ALWAYS right.
It sucks, its unfair but given the fact that pedestrians are simply slow moving flesh covered units with no helmet, no pads, no steel or anything else to protect them – this is more or less how the law treats them……
Just like when I accidentally run over a biker who was riding like a reckless fool, I am more or less considered at fault unless I can definitively prove the bikers stupidity – why – cause cars are big and fast and bikes are relatively slow and little…..its just the way it is. This is life and the sooner bikers recognize it, the sooner they will be less hated.
What about those bikers who walk their dogs while biking?
They should have a double license.
Pedestrians and motorists break the laws just as much as people on bikes. A study on how often cyclists break traffic laws is moot without a comparison against peds and motorists as they all share the road.
Jaywalkers, speeding motorists, people waiting for the light to change 15 feet into the cross walk all pose dangers for cyclists.
don’t waste your time talking to rob. he has a brain the size of a pigeon.