Police arrest hit-skip driver who fatally struck a cyclist

eastside_purple said:
No activity is safe on the road while sharing it with a drunk driver.
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True, but when I'm in my car, I at least feel like I have some protection, and some ability to avoid a drunk driver. I see your point though that no amount of "protection" from a drunk driver is failproof, or we wouldn't have as many fatalities as we do related to drunk driving. In high school, my best friend's dad was killed when he was struck by a drunk driver while walking down the sidewalk at 7:00 am. And I'm sure everyone here knows someone who was either seriously injured or killed by a drunk driver at some point.

When I ride my bike, I avoid the streets. I love the Little Miami bike trail. Or I'll go to a smaller park and do a few laps. But riding my bike in the streets is just not a risk I'm willing to take, ESPECIALLY at dusk or later.

I personally think drunk driving laws should be more stringent, at least at a certain BAC level. Ohio has a more strict punishment for BAC over .17, but it's not enough IMO.
 
Bob Loblaw said:
True, but when I'm in my car, I at least feel like I have some protection, and some ability to avoid a drunk driver. I see your point though that no amount of "protection" from a drunk driver is failproof, or we wouldn't have as many fatalities as we do related to drunk driving. In high school, my best friend's dad was killed when he was struck by a drunk driver while walking down the sidewalk at 7:00 am. And I'm sure everyone here knows someone who was either seriously injured or killed by a drunk driver at some point.

When I ride my bike, I avoid the streets. I love the Little Miami bike trail. Or I'll go to a smaller park and do a few laps. But riding my bike in the streets is just not a risk I'm willing to take, ESPECIALLY at dusk or later.

I personally think drunk driving laws should be more stringent, at least at a certain BAC level. Ohio has a more strict punishment for BAC over .17, but it's not enough IMO.
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The trails are overpopulated with kids and novices. Experienced cyclists need to go faster and further to get the kind of conditioning / workout they need.

I'm not saying there isn't a risk; there certainly is. I'd love to have bike lanes on long stretches of road like roundbottom. I know route 8 in ky is planning to put in bike lanes, which will be awesome.
 
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It's not the difficult to create protected bike lanes. They don't even have to that elaborate, just enough to create a physical barrier that will steer drivers out. Protection from drunk drivers, though, isn't a bike lane problem.
 
Crusaders said:
It's not the difficult to create protected bike lanes. They don't even have to that elaborate, just enough to create a physical barrier that will steer drivers out. Protection from drunk drivers, though, isn't a bike lane problem.
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Are you going to go on another rant about the design of cities? It actually would be extremely expensive to create bike lanes like the one you posted.
 
I could rant about it but I won't.

I said they didn't have to be that elaborate :shrug:
But the cost is not a problem considering the potential economic benefits of having them.
 
Crusaders said:
I am think you'd be surprised how beneficial bike lanes turn out to be for businesses and how they are not that expensive to make and protect, especially if you consider the cost of the overall roadway.
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You do know we are talking about real life and not Sim City, right?
 
If you're talking about lanes like EP mentioned, it wouldn't be crazy expensive. Anything else would be an absurdity unless the roads were already being redone.
 
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It can be fancy, if you want to plant trees or bushes or something, but it doesn't have to be something like that. Posts work as well; preferable until the street needs to be repaved.
 
James Cramerica said:
If you're talking about lanes like EP mentioned, it wouldn't be crazy expensive. Anything else would be an absurdity unless the roads were already being redone.
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If a road consists of two 15 ft wide lanes, a six foot bicycle lane would add 20% to pavement costs alone. That's significant. If the new pavement would be installed over soil that had never carried pavement, a base would be required. More expense.

Widening an existing road, even with simple ditches, can be very costly in a hilly location. A lot of excavation can be required to maintain an acceptable slope on the sides approaching the road's edge.

If such a lane was being added to a road with curbs, curb drains, and driveway aprons, reworking half of those would be very expensive.

A pretty small portion of the population would actually make significant use of bike lanes. Maybe adult bike riders that ride on the roads should be required to purchase a street license annually, to finance construction of bike lanes? I don't want to pay for it.
 
A lot of cities are shrinking the size of lanes down to 11-12ft and lowering speed limits. They use the extra room for street parking and bike lanes.
 
The bike an hike trail north of Akron is built upon an abandoned railroad bed, the Akron, Bedford & Cleveland passenger line. It's 34 miles, and intersects the Towpath Trail in the national park, which connects to the Cleveland Metroparks bike trails.

Even if rails and ties have been gone for 30 years, the expensive prep is done. Any viable opportunities down there for adding trails ? A railroad might be persuaded by a politician to donate a piece that's no longer useful, for other considerations.
 
Crusaders said:
A lot of cities are shrinking the size of lanes down to 11-12ft and lowering speed limits. They use the extra room for street parking and bike lanes.
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EP, I thought I actually read something like this was being planned on Delta. It may have been 2-3 months ago I saw something about it. Know anything about it?

BTW, not sure what sense it make to just do that sort of thing on a road like Delta, but I guess you have to start somewehre.
 
James Cramerica said:
EP, I thought I actually read something like this was being planned on Delta. It may have been 2-3 months ago I saw something about it. Know anything about it?

BTW, not sure what sense it make to just do that sort of thing on a road like Delta, but I guess you have to start somewehre.
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Yeah, here are the details: http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/bikes/news/delta-avenue-restriping-project/

As far as the bike lanes go, this would connect to Riverside, giving any bike commuters access to bike lanes all the way into downtown.
 
eastside_purple said:
The trails are overpopulated with kids and novices. Experienced cyclists need to go faster and further to get the kind of conditioning / workout they need.

I'm not saying there isn't a risk; there certainly is. I'd love to have bike lanes on long stretches of road like roundbottom. I know route 8 in ky is planning to put in bike lanes, which will be awesome.
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I'd think I'd still rather take my chances with inexperienced cyclists than with mutli-ton fast-moving objects.

I had to drive down Roundbottom from behind Quaker Steak in Milford all the way down to Newtown last night for a board meeting at 7:00, and I can't believe ANYONE would feel safe riding their bike on that road, especially when it's dark, there is no lighting anywhere for several long, windy stretches.

HOWEVER, I did see at least 2 bike "share the road" signs, so anyone driving on that stretch who isn't constantly on the lookout for bikers really is a piece of sh1t. This incident never should have happened.
 
Bob Loblaw said:
I'd think I'd still rather take my chances with inexperienced cyclists than with mutli-ton fast-moving objects.
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My older brother and his wife almost never bike on the roads mostly for that reason. They do most of their riding on a stand in their workout room.
 
Here in Tucson it's a very bike-friendly environment. All the major roads have bike lanes, as do many of the lesser streets. On weekends especially you'll see packs of riders all over the place. HOWEVER, among the thousands of bikers out here, there are several a**hats who ruin it for everyone else. I'm talking about riders who insist on riding two or three abreast, thereby straying into the car lanes. Or the individual who insists on riding his bike on the white lane line when he has six feet of empty pavement to his right.
 
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