[Electronic-lan] bicyclist injured in collision with auto on 9th

[Steve Lopes]

This infuriates me. 


At about 6:30 PM tonight, traveling east on Seventh, I started biking across Tennessee only to be nearly hit by a jerk turning South off Seventh not looking my way. But Old West has an issue with this dangerous intersection that we are trying to address.

Will try to make it an d share many stories of near misses.


Steve




The plural for "anecdote" is not "data."




-----Original Message-----
From: maf--- via Electronic-lan <electronic-lan at lists.ku.edu>
To: Michael Almon <paradigm at ixks.com>; electronic-lan <electronic-lan at lists.ku.edu>
Sent: Sat, Jun 9, 2018 7:03 pm
Subject: Re: [Electronic-lan] bicyclist injured in collision with auto on 9th



Michael -


I am sorry that I can't be there - Joe and I are participating in Bike Across Kansas, and this cyclist was on the list to come but of course now cannot make it...


marci francisco 







On Sat, Jun 9, 2018 at 04:30 PM, Michael Almon via Electronic-lan <electronic-lan at lists.ku.edu> wrote:

        You may not have seen this buried in the back pages of the LJW.     Last Tuesday, 5 June, a 63 year old man bicycling legally on 9th St.    collided with a motor vehicle that illegally failed to yield right    of way at Indiana St.  He was taken to Stormont-Vail Hospital in    critical condition.  The police collision report is attached (3    docs).  The motorist was cited with failure to yield - a stop sign    violation.

    The cyclist was traveling east and approaching Indiana St. in the    right hand motor vehicle lane of 9th St. (there's no bicycle lane    from Illinois St. to Indiana St. because - guess what? - motor    vehicles are given primacy at the Mississippi intersection    approaches).  What "protects" bicyclists in that two-block stretch?     Sharrows - right.  

    The motorist was heading north on Indiana St. and had stopped at 9th    St., waiting for a break in traffic.  Imagine it now - she was    glancing back and forth watching autos passing in all four motor    vehicle lanes, saw a break and gunned it across, not trying to, or    not able to see a small two-wheeled vehicle on the opposite side of    the street and a good way west of her, approaching probably at 20-25    mph.  Her automobile reaches the south side of 9th St. an instant    before the cyclist reaches Indiana St., who collides with the side    of her car.  Consider, if she had been one second slower, or he one    second faster, he would have been in front of her car and    run down.

    The 9th St. bicycle lanes are completely inadequate - too narrow,    unprotected, littered with debris, and with sections missing from    Kentucky into downtown, from Tennessee to Ohio, from Indiana to    Illinois, and from Avalon up to Iowa and beyond.  9th St. is the    location of the highest bicycle-motor vehicle collision rate in    Lawrence.  These lanes were one of the first examples by the City in    2009 to retrofit bicycle lane striping during a mill-and-overlay    project.  Public Works had no intention to do them until the    Sustainability Action Network forced the issue with petitions and    testimony.  So they were implemented at the bare minimum, and    piecemeal.  It's time to revisit their design with all the knowledge    we have accumulated about safe bikeways in the past nine years, such    as the NACTO Urban      Bikeway Design Guide.  

    Next Tuesday the City Commission will review the draft City      Mgr's recommended 2019 budget_12June18.  Please come and    advocate for safe bikeways.  All that's included is a bicycle    boulevard on 21st St. and the ill-advised bicycle boulevard on    Lawrence Ave.  The downtown link of the Lawrence Loop is scheduled    for 2021.  The Bicycle Track along Naismith Dr. from 19th to 23rd is    in the "unfunded" category.  

    Michael Almon



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