Secrets of the City

Star Tribune remains classy with that headline.

I’ve been down that route many a time. Not exactly the best layed out street (left hand bike lanes suck). Unfortunately with that little of information its tough to understand what really happened.

It happened outside my apartment, 100 feet from where I was asleep.

I may seem a little out of it today. The crowd gathered near my window this morning unsettled me, as did the news of a fatality that happened very near where I was sleeping.

Oh, my. I’m mindful and watchful of cyclists this time of year because it is so easy to miss one downtown while lane-changing for a turn. I hope the truck driver is charged with homicide; not just manslaughter.

Given the fucked up hazardous construction zones on and around 2nd Ave & Marquette in DT MPLS right now, I can’t say I blame bicyclists for hitting the sidewalks.

My wife bikes to work every morning now, but as soon as she gets close to anything that resembles downtown traffic and construction hell, she parks and locks the bike and walks the rest of the trip.

This will spawn a new round of worrying on my part.

The problem with the sidewalks is that your are even LESS visible than if you’re on the street. You’re fooling yourself if you think the sidewalks are safer.

Yes, please stay off the sidewalks unless you are an eight year old.

I’ll second Douglas on that. I use part of the NE diagonal trail along Stinson for my commute. It constantly amazes me the number of people that roll into and block the crosswalks, or make turns on red without looking for pedestrians or bikers on the trail at the Hwy 36 ramps.

The only reason I use it is because Stinson is just too narrow and high traffic between Broadway and Hwy 36 for my comfort.

That sucks big time.

But really noodleman, you hope the driver is charged with homicide? So, like, you hope he intentionally did it?

I couldn’t affix blame at this point, not know what exactly happened.

try biking the streets near 7th street & 2nd Ave S & then tell me that the sidewalks aren’t safer. I normally audibly urge bikers to follow the rules of the road, but given the construction nightmare that is downtown right now, a leisurely paced sidewalk bike ride seems reasonable.

But really noodleman, you hope the driver is charged with homicide? So, like, you hope he intentionally did it?

I suppose it would depend upon a number of factors, including his speed and whether he was turning right or left from one-way Park onto 14th (I’m assuming a right turn because a left would have meant turning onto E. Grant St. and the article said “14th St.”) or was turning from 14th onto Park.

But, yes, if the truck driver was not looking, if he had not slowed down enough to at least be considerate of bicycle traffic in a well-marked downtown bicycle lane, if he was making a right-turn on red without stopping, then I would not consider that to be a complete accident.

Homicide can be unintentional, too; akin to playing around with a gun you know is loaded that then discharges and kills someone.

I know the blind spots of my car and make the extra physical effort (aka “turning my head”) to ascertain the coast is clear before merging across a bike lane into a left- or right-turn lane downtown.

I get spaceman’s point, though. There could be a number of things that led to the accident.

It’s a sad event.

They ID’d the biker:
http://wcco.com/local/bicyclist.killed.crash.2.1014046.html

Update from last night. The Strib says the driver “won’t be cited.”

If you’re downtown, have a care, bicyclists.

I hope the truck driver is charged with homicide; not just manslaughter.

That’s reasonable, seeing as how you know nothing about the circumstances.

It’s dangerous out there.

Yes, noodleman, homicide means the killing of a person by another. In MN people are charded with “murder” — and then there is “criminal vehicular homicide”. But for that charge, the trucker would have had to be operating in a “grossly negligent manner” or under the influence, or something like that. I guess I just don’t understand why we’d like to turn a horrible situation even worse. I guess it’s a way to make sense of these things.

It would be awesome if everyone showed up and created an overflow crowd at the biker’s upcoming posthumous photo show at Sen Yai Sen Lek.

I don’t get it. How can they not cite the guy for making an illegal turn? I realize it was an accident. He didn’t mean to kill the cyclist. But, he did not yield or even check to see if there was a bike in the bike lane he was crossing. That is against the law. He should be cited for it.

seems to me that the blame in this case lies squarely with whomever decided to lay down that bike lane on the left side of the street.

Mea culpa. I overreact at times and, yes, we should wait for the facts of the matter before passing judgment.

But I also know how inattentive nowadays some drivers are — no matter what size vehicle it is. Some bikers, too, btw.

i’m frankly surprised this doesn’t happen more often. there are some god-awful left-side bike lanes in DT. 9th street crossing Lasalle, Hennepin ave crossing 7th street, etc etc.

If you’re downtown, have a care, bicyclists.

If you’re downtown, have a care drivers. There are bicyclistys on the road.

Drivers should, too. But often they don’t. It’s not right, it’s just harsh reality.

So were they both on Park Ave, with the biker going straight and the trucker turning left on to 14th?

Homicide aside, I’m confused as well as to how the truck driver didn’t at least get an inattentive driving or failure to yeild citation.

And I’m with grote, that lane sucks — especially at Park and 10th, where it angles, and car drivers regularly float into the bike lane.

While I’m at it, the whole length of the Portland left side bike lane blows too. There should be no parking on one side of the street so a blvd. buffer strip can be installed between the bike lanes and cars.

Where’s wayne when you need him?

that’s a horrible idea, spaceman. The street is lined with houses and multi-family residents. Where would they park?

as an occasional bike commuter, i really don’t think there’s a fool-proof way to protect bike commuters. bikers just have to be ever-vigilant and ever-cautious becasue bike-car collisions are only minor if you’re not on a bike.

on the sidewalks and lawns, naturally.

I liked using the bike lanes in Amsterdam,they seemed safer than being thrown to the mercy of the cell phone talking, blind spot having SUV drivers.

@lunch!: The hazards in Amsterdam instead are riding off into a canal after getting a buzz on in a smoke cafe, or running into a tree while pedaling past a brothel “store front.”

I read tourists guides in Amsterdam, written by the Dutch, so I give them a little extra credibility. Something like 20 percent of the bicycles are stolen and resold by junkies.

One of the reasons most people ride cheap bicycles.

Another eloquent spokesperson for the Conservatives.

I’d leave it up, Max.

I can’t; it’s pure trolling.

Comment by Daily Driver removed. Please try and think for two second before you hit submit. Somebody died.

Even though the driver was not imediately cited, it is my understanding that police continue to investigate and there may still be charges.

If there are no charges and it appears that the motorist is at fault, bicyclists and their supports should make themselves heard when Mike Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney, comes up for election.

My co-workers husband watched the accident happen, actually. From what I heard there wasn’t much either could have done and was an accident in the truest most horrible sense of the word.