Fellow longtime cyclist Maynard Hershon (who has been writing about cycling for decades, see link on the right) was seriously injured by a bike path crash last week. As I have often said, paths are not panaceas when it comes to cycling safety. This exerpt, from the blog "a year of bike commuting" is a partial post from Maynard's close friend Tamar, explaining what happened.
"This is Tamar. Maynard crashed in deep sand under an overpass on the Cherry Creek bike path, near Quebec, Monday late morning. He was in the sand before he could see it, and also had just fixed a flat tire so the tire wasn't pumped up as well as it could have been with a floor pump. The sand washed up from the storm last Friday night. He crashed on some rocks which we think is what fractured his femur. It's his left leg. "
Indeed, the League of American Bicyclists claims "...a recent Federal Highway Administration study found that 70 percent of bicycle injury events in emergency rooms did not involve a motor vehicle and 31 percent of bicyclists were injured in non-roadway locations..." I suppose one of those injuries was mine, when I was riding through a parking garage (that was clearly posted with a "no bicycle riding" sign) in 1996 and I crashed on a poorly marked parking barrier, giving myself an A/C separation.
So be careful out there. Especially with all the construction, constantly moving mud, and heavy rain.
5 comments:
Slightly off topic. Are there any active efforts to upgrade Los Alamos' standing in terms of being recognized as bicycle friendly as well as making it more so in reality?
Neale Pickett had talked about applying for BFC status. I had thought it was worth waiting until the current phase of construction is done and then applying. Neale, if you are reading this, was anything done?
The bike lanes on Diamond will help a lot, as will the racks on the buses. We need to prod LANL to fix Diamond south of the bridge. I have been to several meetings where the design of TA-3 bicycle parking facilities (with covered racks and bike boxes) are being discussed and put on paper. Not sure how far over the horizon some meaningful improvements on S. Diamond Dr. are sitting, or where the money will come from. Charlie Trask, the LANL traffic engineer, has some work pending on the Diamond-Sigma intersection.
Well, I'm reading this so I'll answer for Neale - no, he didn't apply for BFC status to the League. I think he said he's going to wait until Diamond construction is completed.
Might be a good idea. Wait for Diamond to at least get mostly finished.
Did anyone else see the letter to the editor in the Monitor complaining about the intersection of the road going to the research park and Diamond on the south side of the bridge? I saw a cyclist actually on the road going across the bridge, riding the wrong way against traffic. Scared the daylights out of me. Also an intersection to consider getting fixed.
My first response to the letter was that he should have been in the road going with traffic, except that lots and lots of cyclists take that sidewalk across the bridge, thus safety in numbers. Have either of you LCI's considered sending out some kind of recommendation for the best way for cyclists to get across that bridge? I can see the temptation to use the sidewalk with the path that allows you to skip the guard shacks...practically encourages people to go that direction. What a mess!
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