Followup from June

[Michael Graff]

It turns out that serious charges have been filed:

http://road.cc/content/news/90389-twitter-boast-leads-murder-charge-california-teen-involved-fatal-collision

On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 6:08 PM, Janet Lafleur <janetr...@me.com> wrote:

Mark S wrote: "the biggest difference between riding a bicycle in North America and in those cities thought of as 'cycle friendly' such as Amsterdam or Copenhagen is not so much infrastructure per se, but rather the attitude of most motorists"

That's it in a nutshell. Attitude trumps everything, including law. We have laws in place to protect the rights of bicyclists, but they're not enforced and in many cases police don't even know the laws. (or they do and choose to ignore them)

Read what Pleasanton police Sgt Leong said in the death of a rider who was hit along with her husband on Foothill Road:

"One factor in the investigation is whether the Hersevoorts were riding side by side or one behind the other on Foothill, and whether they were both in the bike lane alongside the two-lane road"  The road has a shoulder, by the way, not a bike lane.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Dublin-bicyclist-killed-by-car-is-IDd-4591284.php#ixzz2VrgwF2YL

We as bicycle advocates can argue back and forth about whether and what types of bike facilities are best for bicyclists, but until the attitude changes, nothing will change--on the road nor in the courts.

Until enough people are riding bikes so that the general public is as empathetic to riders as they are to drivers, we will always be marginalized.

-Janet