May 29, 2008
Update: Another Biker Down
A San Francisco cyclist is "clinging to life" after they were hit by a pickup truck at a freeway off-ramp yesterday. In the heavy-traffic area of Bayshore Boulevard at the Cesar Chavez Street off-ramp, the unidentified bicyclist was hit while trying to cross several lanes of traffic at around 2:10 p.m.
According to the Gate, he or she "is in critical condition with life-threatening head injuries at San Francisco General Hospital." The truck driver, though, was not cited.
This comes a week after cyclist Kirk Janes was struck and killed at Fulton and Steiner. Again, be careful out there, riders.
Update: Said cyclist is now firmly grasping to life, it seems. He's listed in "critical condition" now. He's doing far better than he was when he was initially reported as dead.
| 
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
good lord, people.
don't. ride. stupid.
I drive through there sometimes to/from Speakeasy and that intersection is pretty scary... even if you're super cautious and alert, there's not much reaction time if a bike appears out of nowhere. I don't think there's much drivers or cyclists can do, except get the whole mess revamped.
this spot sucks. Luckily I have little to no reason to ride my bike there. Not exactly sure what he was trying to do or where he was going from. The bike underpass heading Eastbound is really scary - much safer in my opinion to just stay on Cesar Chavez under the underpass (riding in the exact center of the lane - then going to the shoulder after clearing the offramp from 101S and the 101N onramp). Hmm... I started to write something more but all I can come up with is "don't ride there".
I have a ton of sympathy for bike riders, but this intersection is an ABSOLUTE nightmare... 8 streets converge into one! I hate driving over there, never mind riding. Use your heads out there, bikers!!!
That said, I'll be praying for a full recovery by the cyclist.
I live right near here, in Bevmo Gulch. Forced to grapple every morning with the complexities of this intersection, I have resorted to the more smelly but extremely more safe alternative of taking the walking/biking paths on either side of potrero/101. Not only does it have a totally indigenous San Francisco neighborhood vibe, but there is also an abundance of free road muffins, wildlife, and cool forts.
Please, just ball up and go under the bridge, even if you promised yourself you never wanted to feel like you did that day.
The same people who ride in this area would be the same ones who say car drivers are stupid. QED.
This is a horrible intersection and I would never consider riding my bike through it. However, the traffic is well regulated; I wonder if the cyclist wasn't pushing a stale red light and just misjudged how quickly the traffic was going to move (and it generally jumps pretty quickly). It is possible that the truck was running a red but I would surprised if a bike was in the front of the traffic pack and so far into the intersection that it would have been in the path of the truck. In any case, it is a sad situation and I hope the cyclist recovers soon.
In other news, there is a strong push to add bicycle lanes to Cesar Chavev. I really wonder if that makes sense. The result will be potentially more bikes in this intersection. In addition, two market&octavia situations will be created. That is, places where a large numbers of drivers want to turn right onto 101 but will need to cross a bike lane to do so. However, in this case, the drivers will have no other legal alternative. It seems like a disaster in the making that will only increase bike/car tensions in the City.
No, the bike lane on Cesar Chavez would veer under the ramp, as the current short path already does, so no added conflict at the car onramp would ensue. The designs to add bike lanes on Cesar Chavez would include a study of the whole freeway maze and try to make it safer for cyclists AND pedestrians, who already must dash across an offramp to proceed north on Potrero. It can only get better. The community group that's supporting these efforts is also campaigning for safer crosswalks, greening, and other measures and working hard to gain widespread support. The idea is to reduce tension and smooth flow all around.
I think a bike lane on CC is not the optimal solution. A bike boulevard on 26th would be much much better.
Driving through the City yesterday a bikers almost lost his life. Good thing I was awake and can swerve without running pedestrians down. Obviously he was biking because he failed his drivers test or just finished off a bottle of vodka and was drunk biking.
Riding a bike in the City is definitely a death wish!