Bicycle community, politicians responsible for fatal Seattle bike collision

Taken from Tuesday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.

This fatal bike accident that happened in downtown Seattle Friday morning is so absolutely infuriating because it was so predictable.

Remember, several weeks ago when the City of Seattle said two bicyclists were hit by cars turning right onto Mercer from Dexter. Their solution was to just ban right-hand turns onto Mercer from Dexter, when the real fault, as we told you at the time, was this insane design that the city has for bike lanes.

On that Dexter-Mercer turn, there is bicycle lane that goes southbound on Dexter in the far right-hand lane, so cars just to the left of that bike lane, if they want to turn right on any streets, they have to cross the bike lane. That is an absolutely disastrous design.

Now, I know a lot about riding bikes on Second Avenue. I’ve ridden the full length of Second Avenue from north to south I’m sure over 100 times in my life. I used to urban bike more in the past than I do today, but Second Avenue was one of my main routes.

But when I was riding daily on Second Avenue, there were no bike lanes, and it was never dangerous to me as a rider. You know why? I rode in the car lanes.

It’s downhill from Denny all the way to the stadiums. You can get going 20 to 30 mph on a bicycle, so there’s not a speed disparity with cyclists and cars on that road. When you ride with the cars, you obey all the same traffic laws as the cars, stopping at lights, stopping at stop signs.

This woman who was killed, Sher Kung, by all accounts was a remarkably accomplished and wonderful human being. An attorney at Perkins Coie, just 31 years old, a new mom. But she became a victim of insane bike lane designs on the streets of Seattle.

To separate out the bike lane on the left side of the road when cars from a one-way street are turning left, to have a bike lane that goes straight – you would never have a car lane where it goes straight but in the lane to its right, cars can turn left across that other lane. The design that killed this woman would never be tolerated for cars.

The bicycle community, local politicians, and local transportation designers – they are responsible for killing this wonderful woman on Friday morning. They made the road much more dangerous with the bike lane.

The design was so flawed and the result was so predictable. They’ve made things much more dangerous for cyclists in downtown Seattle and anybody that rides knows exactly what I’m talking about.

Taken from Tuesday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.

JS