Posts Tagged ‘California’

We’ve written a lot on this blog about the tragic result of San Francisco bus accidents. In the past, fatal Muni bus accidents have cost the city millions in lawsuit settlements, and most importantly, have claimed the lives of far too many San Francisco residents. Over the weekend, new city dweller Emily Dunn was struck and killed by a Muni bus in the city’s Castro District. The police report indicated that Dunn was struck 95% into the crosswalk by a Muni Bus making a left turn, an action that is commonly cited as unsafe.

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In the past, we’ve written about California’s unbalanced bike laws, which too often hold cyclists more responsible than motorists following bike-car accidents. Last year, Bicycle Times Magazine reported that even in the case of fatal bike accidents, police officers were more likely to blame cyclists than motorists for the accidents. And new information from the San Francisco Police Department indicates that targeting cyclists could be common practice, especially on Market Street, the city’s main artery.

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California has no shortage of bicycle-friendly cities. Since many California residents promote healthy lifestyles and a “green” attitude, it’s no surprise that cities like San Francisco, Berkeley, Davis, and Oakland are consistently ranked among the country’s best cities for cyclists. We can now add Healdsburg to that list, as Bicycling Magazine recently named the Sonoma County destination one of the country’s “Six Best Cities for a Bike Vacation.”

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Getting hit by a car while walking or riding your bicycle is an awful thought. So the image of a pack of cyclists being run over by a SUV is nothing short of terrifying. Last year, four cyclists were injured in San Francisco’s Mission District after a man in an SUV allegedly ran them down in what the San Francisco Chronicle calls a “six-minute rampage.” The driver, David Mark Clark, now faces four counts of attempted murder, and his attorney has unofficially said Clark will seek an insanity plea. Click through for five more important California bike accident lawsuits.

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An ongoing seismic retrofit project to make California’s Golden Gate more secure in the event of an earthquake has created an unexpected safety dilemma for the up to 6,000 cyclists and 10,000 pedestrians who cross the famous bridge each day. Construction crews have temporarily closed the bridge’s west sidewalk, meaning that pedestrians and cyclists alike must share the east sidewalk, which gets as slim as 5.5 feet. While there have so far been no accidents, the Marin Independent Journal reports that sharing the sidewalk has created a clear safety dilemma and sparked disputes between cyclists and pedestrians forced to share the space.

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You may have seen the video of a mall shopper falling into a fountain while writing a text message on her cell phone. If not, watch it here. Pedestrian mishaps like this have led some to ask whether walkers should be subject to regulation similar to distracted driving laws that have sprouted up across the country. To most, the idea of getting a ticket for writing a text message or talking on the phone while crossing the street sounds absurd. But a distracted walking law has already been proposed in New York, and some California residents think it should be considered over here as well.

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When it comes to cities that put a priority on bike safety, you can’t do much better than California’s Alameda County, the East Bay bicycle mecca that includes Berkeley. But Alameda County is also home to one of California’s most unexpectedly innovative towns when it comes to bike safety technology: Pleasanton. In fact, Pleasanton is using microwave technology to sense when cyclists are near an intersection that will trigger the light to stop cars and allow the cyclist through safely.

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Whether you drive a car or ride a bike, there’s no question that street safety must improve here in California. In 2009, for example, nearly 1,300 people were killed in car accidents and 100 were killed in bicycle accidents here in California alone. According to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, California mourns more than 3,000 traffic deaths each year if you add pedestrians and motorcycles to the mix. Fortunately, reports the San Jose Mercury News, that could all change thanks to a series of street makeovers throughout the Bay Area.

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Nancy Ho was struck and killed by a delivery truck at the corner of Fremont and Mission streets last week. Since Ho was not wearing a helmet, the widely reported bike accident re-ignited a battle over helmet requirements at the center of a deep divide between safety advocates and many in the bicycle community. California does not yet mandate helmet use, and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and the California Bicycle Coalition have not announced their positions on bicycle helmet laws. But in light of Ho’s fatal bike accident last week, others are taking up the debate in full force.

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In April, the Department of Transportation reported that 32,788 people were killed in car accidents nationwide last year, the lowest number in 60 years. The statistics were just as impressive in California, which reported 2,715 accident deaths, a 12 percent drop below 2009 figures and the lowest number since World War II, according to the Office of Traffic Safety. The California OTS announced Wednesday that the state is being rewarded $76 million in federal traffic safety grants for this impressive drop in car accident deaths. With budgets tight, California will need to get clever about how to allocate these funds, and will hopefully support initiatives that will improve pedestrian and bicycle safety as well.

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