X
    Categories: Column

Broken System of Educating Motorists Is Killing Bicyclists, Pedestrians

My bicycle after a distracted, negligent motorist drove his car into me while I was bicycling near Fort Pierce, Fla. March 7, 2017.

(Besides publishing LVSportsBiz.com, Alan Snel is also a bicyclist deeply concerned and upset by the deaths of bicyclists and pedestrians caused by negligent motorists. From time to time, he will publish a column on this topic.) 

 

By ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

The system is broken.

 

Motorists are killing pedestrians at a stunning rate since 2009. Nearly 6,000 pedestrians were killed by motor vehicles and their drivers along U.S. roads in 2016 — in one single year.

 

Here’s USA Today, not exactly the Mother Jones of newspapers, putting those numbers into perspective: “That’s almost twice the number of deaths tied directly to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Put another way, more Americans are dying each year as they walk than have died in combat in Iraq since 2003.”

 

Bicyclists are getting struck, injured and killed, too.

 

They’re killed by motorists in cities and counties across the United States. And in Florida, where a motorist got off scot-free in St. Lucie County two hours north of Miami after he smashed his Chevy Cruze into me from behind as I bicycled north of Fort Pierce, Fla. March 7, 2017. The sheriff’s deputy did not issue a ticket to the driver who drove his car into me.

 

And there’s yet another social media post of another bicycling Floridian recently killed by a distracted driver behind the wheel of an F150 pickup. A bicyclist, a man named Shawn Smith, died this week after he was struck from behind by the pickup truck driver.

 

You know your country has a serious problem with motorists striking, injuring, maiming and killing bicyclists have prompted many states to pass a law to require a driver behavior that would seem to be common sense.

 

You know, when you’re operating a 3,000-pound machine and you’re moving it 45 mph down the road, maybe it would be as good idea to slow down when approaching a slower moving vehicle like a bicycle from behind and then carefully driving around the person pedaling the bicycle.

 

But apparently this act of common courtesy, decency and humanity happens so infrequently that our state lawmakers have to actually pass a law that would require you, the motorist, to pass a bicyclist by a minimum distance of three feet in states like Florida and Nevada.

 

Thing is, if you have to pass a law to accomplish this, you already have a screwed-up system that is obviously broken.

 

And besides, when was the last time you heard of a motorist getting a ticket for violating the three-foot law?

 

*

 

I’m not writing anything new here that bicyclists have not personally experienced or read before.

 

In fact, here in Las Vegas, I admire the work of many bicyclists who spend a lot of time trying to educate kids about bicycling like Ron Floth at the local public transportation called the RTC in Las Vegas and Clark County. There’s Mark Weimer, who told me about a charity-based cycling team that has donated 500 bicycles and logs and more than 1,000 helmets to kids via bike rodeos and education contests. There’s bicyclist Keely Brooks at the Southern Nevada Bicycle Coalition, which tries to raise awareness among motorists to safely pass bicyclists and don’t hit them. And even Las Vegas Cyclery bike shop owner Jared Fisher has thrown his resources behind bike-friendly initiatives like a downtown bike shop in the RTC transportation center.

 

I know many bicyclists across the country doing great work to increase the profile of bicycling and show people the joys of pedaling.

 

But the numbers keep on mounting — and the lives of pedestrians and bicyclists  getting snuffed out by motorists.

 

So, my message is not for bicyclists. They get it. They understand they operate vehicles that offer no physical protection against a 3,000-pound piece of metal on four wheels. Instead, our bodies are the protection — and they end up broken or worse when struck by motorists. We’re kind of like pedaling exoskeleton creatures where the protection rendered by our bicycles is our mere skin and bones (and helmets).

 

So, the system of driving motorized vehicles is broken. The biggest piece of evidence: The fact our nation accepts pedestrian and bicyclist deaths as part of the collateral damage of doing business as a motorist.

 

Motorists don’t even call smashing into a bicyclist a crash. It’s an “accident.”

 

And punishments don’t fit the crime for being a speeding motorist or a distracted motorist or an angry motorist or an impatient motorist or an incompetent motorist or a negligent motorist who drives a motorized vehicle into a pedestrian or bicyclist.

 

If it’s reported in the news media, the first thing in every news story is did the pedestrian walk in the crosswalk or was the bicyclist wearing a helmet.

 

This is classic blame the victim crap.

 

*

 

Sorry motorists, and I’m a motorist, too, so I’m also addressing myself, but there is no easy way to fix the issue except requiring continuing driver education for motorists, required periodic testing of motorists and very harsh penalties that include losing your license to operate a motorized vehicle when motorists kill or maim bicyclists and pedestrians.

 

That’s just a start.

 

Yes, the beefed-up driver education, the required continuous license testing and the stricter punishments are going to appear like a giant pain in the ass. All reform is at the start, but then you’ll get used to it.

 

If you think it’s going to be a major inconvenience to you as a motorist, consider the pain and suffering motorists inflict on pedestrians and bicyclists every day.

 

Here’s the rub. Nothing will improve until motorists themselves lead the change. Motorists must spearhead this public safety movement. We bicyclists are already on the front line of trying to get motorists to stop killing us and pedestrians.

 

The motorists and the car industry know that driver behavior is deadly because consumers are buying bigger SUVs over sedan cars because their bigger size is perceived as being a safety barrier against all the incompetent motorists out there.

 

Pedestrian deaths went up by a startling 46 percent from 2009 to 2016, according to the USA Today story.

 

And the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently unveiled a new study showing “an 81% increase in single-vehicle pedestrian fatalities involving SUVs between 2009 and 2016,” according to the USA Today story. You can read the USA Today story here.

 

But not only do motorists not accept responsibility for the damage they inflict. I’ve seen a sad trend here in the Las Vegas area where people even erase the public awareness of bicyclist deaths by forcing the removal of or even removing ghost bikes that were installed as roadside memorials.

 

Red Rock Resort, owned by Station Casinos, forced the removal of a ghost bike installed last year in the memory of bicyclist Kayvan Khiabani who was killed at the location by a Motor Coach Industries Bus.

 

Then earlier this year, the Anthem Council removed a ghost bike installed to remember the life of Cara Cox who was killed by a motorist while cycling near Sun City Anthem Drive in 2015. The Anthem Council removed the ghost bike because it doesn’t like road “distractions.”

 

Both bikes were installed by a group called Ghost Bikes Las Vegas, which held moving ceremonies to place these white ghost bike memorials.

 

The ghost bikes are gone.

 

But the public safety problem is not gone.

 

And not the pain in the heart of Cynthia Finnegan, the mom of Matthew Hunt who was killed while riding a bicycle on the Strip in 2015. The motorist who killed Hunt received a punishment in February 2017 of house arrest for 90 days.

 

Removing the visual reminders of the deaths inflicted by negligent motorists will not erase this public safety problem.

 

My appeal is to you, the motorist, because the people dying on bicycles and while walking are also your friends and family.

 

Show leadership. Let’s overhaul the way we operate motorized vehicles in this country. Our lives depend on it.

 

Alan Snel: Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.
Related Post