<html><P>"Very little settlement money," you say?</P>
<P>Did you finish the article? Lawyers for two other joggers in Orange County hit by a car argued that the bike lane was too wide and the driver mistook the bike lane for a car lane. The award was $49 million.</P>
<P><BR>-- Abulifia <abulifia1@cox.net> wrote:<BR>I have to believe that running westbound on the eastbound side of the <BR>parkway distracted with an iPod most likely had something to do with <BR>it. That particular section of Bake Parkway and North Pointe Drive in <BR>Lake Forest is always bad. And at 6a.m. on a Sunday, it's no <BR>different. I don't have the State Vehicle Code section at the moment, <BR>but regardless of personal opinions on the level of softness the street <BR>provides vs the sidewalk, the law is the law, and the Handbook clearly <BR>states joggers don't belong in the bike lane. And you can bet the farm <BR>that the law will factor mightily into any lawsuits filed by Ms. Soto's <BR>heirs. The city of Lake Forest will not just forgive that she was in <BR>the wrong and was killed as a result. The driver may have been <BR>negligent, but she shouldn't have been running in the bike lane and that <BR>makes her comparatively negligent. Translation = very little settlement <BR>money.<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>John Eldon wrote:<BR>> I get as frustrated by groups of walkers or joggers hogging the bike <BR>> lane as much as the rest of you, but mandatory sidepath laws for <BR>> pedestrians are irrelevant to this particular case. Had Ms. Soto been <BR>> cycling instead of jogging, the consequences would probably not have <BR>> changed much, if at all. The motorist was grossly negligent and caused <BR>> an easily preventable death.<BR>><BR>> By the way, I do understand the appeal of jogging in the bike lane <BR>> instead of on the sidewalk -- macadam is a slightly more forgiving <BR>> surface than concrete, and pedestrians have even worse right-hook and <BR>> other intersection movement conflict problems than cyclists do. When I <BR>> walk or jog in a bike lane, I cower against the curb or parked cars to <BR>> give cyclists the right-of-way, just as I defer to pedestrians on <BR>> those rare occasions I resort to using a short stretch of sidewalk <BR>> while cycling.<BR>><BR>_______________________________________________<BR><BR>You are subscribed to the SDCBC mailing list as wondernerd@juno.com<BR>To unsubscribe or change mailing options, go to http://www.bikesandiego.org/mailman/listinfo/sdcbc<BR>List privacy information is located at http://www.stickman-computing.org/aup<BR>For help or to talk with someone other than the mail robot, send e-mail to postmaster@stickman-computing.org<BR></P></html>
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