[SDCBC] Logan Jenkins column in SD Union

[Gene Carman]

>http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070416/news_1m16jenkins.html


In the San Diego Union, local section:

LOGAN JENKINS
Wheels of fortune: Cyclists, motorists perilously close
[]


April 16, 2007

[]
  “If you're not a bike rider, you may question my premise.”

So began Craig Nelson, a Solana Beach banker, in a recent e-mail.

To be honest, my idea of bike riding is a 
one-speed cruiser lumbering down the Mission Beach boardwalk.

Sartorially, I'd opt for baggy khaki – not skin-tight Lycra – shorts.

Still, I won't question Nelson's premise, one that hinges upon a dead body.

One month ago today, Nelson reminded me, a 
bicyclist pedaling from Cardiff to Solana Beach 
was killed by an allegedly drunk hit-and-run driver from Escondido.

In a letter to the Pterodactyl Club, his 
long-in-the-tooth riding group, Nelson drew a 
road-tested moral from the March 16 death of 
Jeannie Franklin, a regular Solana Beach rider.

“We have all seen it happen. A driver comes 
within an inch of a rider when there is plenty of 
space for him to move over. I have no idea how 
often it is that the driver is not paying 
attention, distracted, etc., but I know sometimes 
it's on purpose to scare or get back at the 
riders who somehow somewhere at some time” ticked him off.

“What I am pretty sure of is that, like a 
teenager, none of them have actually thought 
through what the impact to THEM would be if they 
actually hit the rider. Face it, the reality is 
these morons are never going to be looking out 
for you – but if we can get them to look out for 
themselves, the streets will be safer for us all.”

Brian Stephen Carnes, an Escondido grocery worker 
with a 1998 DUI conviction, is Nelson's example, 
the driver who felt the impact of a few pounds of 
metal and a human body on his Toyota 4Runner.

Carnes' attorney called the tragedy on Highway 
101 an “accident” and speculates that Franklin 
may have veered out of the bicycle lane and collided with Carnes' vehicle.

The prosecutor dismisses the veer theory – and has charged Carnes with murder.

[]

[]

[]


It's the hairy way of the world. Bicyclists often 
ride at the very edge of disaster. Between them 
and tons of hurtling steel, inches.

That's what Nelson, 45 and whippet-lean, told me 
last week over early-morning coffee in Solana Beach.

He and his riding mates divide the pool of 
drivers into three roughly equal categories – 
attentives, distracteds and hostiles.

Salt-of-the-road attentives, whenever possible, 
move over to allow bicycles as much space as 
possible; cell-phone-in-ear distracteds pay no 
attention to the bicyclists they're perilously 
passing within inches; blood-in-the-eye hostiles, 
consciously or not, take sadistic pleasure in 
leaning to the right to send a bolt of fear 
through the spines of vulnerable bicyclists.

This isn't to say riders, especially the men, 
take close calls like demure angels.

“There's plenty of testosterone” underneath all that Lycra, Nelson said.

Nelson and his buddies have caught up with 
suspected hostiles at stoplights and accosted 
them. “Never a good idea,” Nelson admitted.

What's more, bicyclists can go crazy when they 
ride in large packs, Nelson said. Safe in 
brightly colored numbers, they can swarm the road 
like wilding bees, oblivious to traffic laws.

In addition, bicyclists can hurt themselves with 
reckless riding in dangerous conditions. 
Emergency rooms treat self-inflicted wounds regularly.

Still, the numbers support Nelson's gloomy premise.

 From 1995 to 2000, an average of more than 750 
bicyclists were killed each year nationwide in 
collisions with vehicles, according to the 
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Unsafe passing accounts for a large percentage of 
the highly preventable deaths as well as an 
almost infinite number of heart-stopping near-misses.

[]

[]

[]


Kendra Chiota Payne, a 21-year-old Santa Barbara 
triathlete, was killed a year ago when a truck 
hit her while passing on a narrow mountain road.

Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, chairman 
of the Assembly Transportation Committee, took 
Payne's death to heart and sponsored a bill, AB 
60, that requires passing cars to give bicycles an arm's length of clearance.

The legislation does not break new ground. Six 
states – Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Oklahoma, 
Utah and Wisconsin – have passed similar laws.

To maintain the yard-long separation, cars would 
be allowed to cross double lines or left-hand turning lanes.

Nava's bill, if it's ever signed by the governor, 
may be a challenge to enforce – and honor on 
narrow roads – but it at least sets a basic 
standard that everyone can understand.

Current law requires motorists to maintain a 
“safe distance” from bicycles, but that's 
hopelessly subjective. One person's safe margin is another's panic attack.

One arm's length. Thirty-six inches. A yard.

“This legislation is not about us – it's not 
about my daughter, it's not about my wife, it's 
not about me,” Payne's father said recently. 
“Motorists must realize that cyclists are not 
simply objects that slow them down on their way 
to a destination. Cyclists are human beings, with 
families and friends who love them.”

Bicyclists are not universal angels, but in an 
environmental sense at least, they're doing the Lord's workout.

Along with their helmets, they should sport a colorful 3-foot halo.


[]
  Logan Jenkins can be reached at (760) 737-7555 
or by e-mail at 
<MAILTO:logan.jenkins at uniontrib.com>logan.jenkins at uniontrib.com.  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.bikesandiego.org/pipermail/sdcbc/attachments/20070416/edb4db65/attachment.html