KJMClark

Sun, Aug 9, 2009 : 5:54 a.m.

"It is a free country and yes there are rules to the road, and yes I could have done things better to prevent the accident, so could the young driver, so could the bicycler. I will not try to run over bicyclers, but if it comes to someone running into the back of my car with my family in it or running a bicycler off the road, I hope they have their helmet on. Roads are for cars, sidewalks are for bikes AND walking. Just wanted to voice my opinion as I sit here off work for 2 months, just what I needed." As in, you were tailgating, and also broke the law by not being in control of your vehicle. Since you aren't willing to blame yourself, you want to blame the person here who did absolutely nothing wrong. I hate to break it to you, but you're part of the problem. Bikes belong on the road. The law says that in all 50 states. Maybe you can find another country where bikes belong on the sidewalk. But it would be useful to know who taught you that bikes belong on the sidewalk, since it couldn't have been a driver's ed teacher or anything the Secretary of State told you. Really; I've lived in Michigan for forty years, and somehow I missed the booklet that said the law is wrong and people on bikes don't belong on roads owned by the public.

leaguebus

Sat, Aug 8, 2009 : 2:57 p.m.

When someone on a bike makes a mistake or when a driver makes a mistake and hits a bicyclist, the only person that suffers is the bicyclist. What drivers need to realize, no matter what a bicyclist does, is that they are driving two tons of deadly weapon. I have biked for 20 years, daily, in all weather and every year motorists get more and more ugly. A lot of motorists are in a hurry and do not want to see slower moving vehicles in their paths. So they take chances with the bicyclist and, every now and then, a bicyclist ends up in the hospital or worse. The point is, the bicyclist always gets the worst of such situations. I am very careful when I ride, do not ride busy streets with no in street bike lanes, like Washtenaw, but still butt heads with motorists daily. I pull over as often as I can, but there are sometimes that I cannot. A motorist is driving in a comfortable, air conditioned vehicle, listening to their radio, and should not be upset when they have to slow for my bicycle, no matter what the reason. I have been knocked from my bicycle two or three times by car doors, once by a right turner, turning from the left lane after passing me. After I went down, they are so sorry and upset about what happened to me. Please, think of the consequences when getting impatient with cyclist on the road. I will get out of your way as soon as I can.

Pincikowski

Fri, Aug 7, 2009 : 9:51 a.m.

Thank you Lisa for your response to this tragedy. Plans are in the work to get a campaign up and running to raise biker safety in the Saline/Michigan area. After the memorial this Saturday, I will be contacting all those who have reached out to our family to help with this. If you would like to contact me directly, my email is pincikowski@hood.edu. Sincerely, Scott Pincikowski

Pincikowski

Fri, Aug 7, 2009 : 9:47 a.m.

I would like to comment on road safety. As an avid cyclist and car owner, I think it is important for everyone on the road to keep safety in the forefront of their minds. This means respecting other drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians, always realizing that there are dire consequences when things go wrong. This also means obeying traffic laws and being considerate to everyone on the road. As far as bicyclists using sidewalks is concerned, in many communities it is illegal and unsafe to ride your bike on the sidewalk. Scott Pincikowski

jray5

Thu, Aug 6, 2009 : 2:31 p.m.

Just another opinion: 5 weeks ago I was riding my motorcycle on m36 in the Pinckney area. It was a beautiful Sunday, nice straight road, light traffic. I was riding at a safe distance behind a car, there was oncoming traffic and a lone bicycler riding on the shoulder. The car in front of me, a young female driver, panicked at the thought of driving between the bicycler and oncoming traffic, and stopped. Two lane highway, 45 mph, and she stops. I tried to stop, but ended up slamming into the back of her car, shattering my collarbone and wrecking my motorcycle. The bicycler never stopped. It is a free country and yes there are rules to the road, and yes I could have done things better to prevent the accident, so could the young driver, so could the bicycler. I will not try to run over bicyclers, but if it comes to someone running into the back of my car with my family in it or running a bicycler off the road, I hope they have their helmet on. Roads are for cars, sidewalks are for bikes AND walking. Just wanted to voice my opinion as I sit here off work for 2 months, just what I needed.

Lisa Klopfer

Wed, Aug 5, 2009 : 2:58 p.m.

My heart goes out to the Pincikowski family. I will gladly join your campaign in his memory. It has been mentioned in the Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition online discussions of meeting at the accident site on Aug 14 to remember your brother. Many of us would also join you in a campaign for safer sharing of the roads generally and improvements on Maple/Ellsworth specifically in his memory. Please seek out our group at let us know how we can help.

Salinemary

Tue, Aug 4, 2009 : 1:35 p.m.

I am still amazed at how the accident on Maple Rd could have happened. I drive that way home from work every day and there is plenty of room in each lane, northbound or southbound, to get over to allow room to pass a bicyclist without even crossing the center line. Either the driver of the car wasn't paying attention or the bicyclist swerved into the lane.

Pincikowski

Mon, Aug 3, 2009 : 2:56 p.m.

I am one of Tim Pincikowski's (victim of the accident in Saline) brothers and would like to add my voice to this discussion. I am, like my brother was, an avid biker who even before this tragic accident was interested in increasing safety awareness for bikers on the road. I live and ride in Maryland, where I am often harassed (often road rage) for biking on roads where it is legal for me to ride. It is also common for cars to blow by me without considering how close they brush by me. In order to raise awareness and to remember my dear brother, I am planning to campaign for a wider bike lane (it is currently about 2 feet wide at its widest points) on Maple Road (a corrider to Ann Arbor for bikers and cars alike), share the road signs, and to lower the speed limit. Is there interest in the biking and non-biking community to join me in this campaign? If so, please respond to this blog. My brother Tim would have wanted to raise biker safety awareness. I loved him dearly and want to make the Ann Arbor area a safer place to bike.

CycloChemist

Sun, Aug 2, 2009 : 9:22 a.m.

Consider participating in a group action to demonstrate the right way for bicycles to interact with motorized traffic by joining in the Ann Arbor RAT! - a Ride Around Town. In it's third year, we ride every second Friday of every month, starting at 6 PM from Liberty Plaza Park. On the RAT! we practice safe cycling, operating our bicycles as legal vehicles on city streets. Traffic is slow, so we often ride 2 abreast, never 3. We stop completely at all stop signs and traffic signals. After the ride we meet at a downtown establishment (a designated RAT! hole), which is Arbor Brewing Company for August. The August RAT! is Friday the 14th. Join us! Wear a helmet! Safety vests or bright colors!

Eric P

Sat, Aug 1, 2009 : 11:16 a.m.

The other part of this issue is cyclists riding on sidewalks, often times they are rude and demanding of pedestrians (who have the right of way to the best of my knowledge.)I have been walking home from work along Liberty several time when cyclist have demanded that I step to the far side so they could pass, even though Liberty had dedicated bike lanes and one of the smoother rides in the city. As a sometimes cyclist and most of the time pedestrian I have say I like what they do in Sweden, you have a side walk that is divided in half, on side for walking, one side for bikes.

gobluefnp

Sat, Aug 1, 2009 : 10:05 a.m.

I enjoy sharing the road with bicyclists...that is one of the things that makes this area so cool! I am disturbed however when bicyclists try to cruise past all of the cars stopped for red traffic lights. This happened just this week with a bicyclist who was pulling a buggy with a toddler in it. I needed to make a right turn. I kept watching in my mirror because I was afraid she would be on my shoulder by the time I needed to turn. Thankfully the SUV behind me purposefully blocked her progression up the side. Bikers need to know the rules so that they can make it safer for themselves. I don't want to run anyone over...the risk contributes to the stress.

Anonymous Commentor

Sat, Aug 1, 2009 : 9:57 a.m.

Yep! Cyclists should always keep an eye out behind themselves, and ride single file whenever they see a "car back." Many of us who ride in groups use this etiquette, some don't.

Kim

Sat, Aug 1, 2009 : 9:08 a.m.

In CA if there are 4 or more cars behind a driver going under the speed limit, the driver is required to pull over. As cyclist, if we followed this same law, maybe the resentment of drivers would be less and we wouldn't be buzzed by vehicles as much. What do people think?

Tom

Sat, Aug 1, 2009 : 8:36 a.m.

I've been cycling around Saline for many years and watched the behavior of drivers change. I used to be harassed far more than now. In spite of the recent tragedy, I've seen the level of courtesy go way up. For every one brush-by, thousands of motorists give me plenty of room while passing. I attribute this to more cyclists on the road. Here in Michigan, unlike bike-friendly cities like Portland or Tucson, we tend to ride on the warm side of the year. Consequently drivers get used to having the road to themselves in the off-season. The solution for a lot of problems between cyclists and drivers, it seems to me, is MORE cyclists on the road. Drivers will become more comfortable with us being there, more likely expect us there and, who knows, maybe the government officials who decide how to take care of the roads will give more consideration to the cyclists who use them too. By the way, a word to courteous drivers - when giving a cyclist room while passing, don't go too far. I once witnessed a driver who had passed me by swinging all the way to the other side of a double yellow line get stopped by the sheriff for passing against the yellow!

KJMClark

Sat, Aug 1, 2009 : 8:05 a.m.

Regarding bike lanes and Effective Cycling - there are problems with bike lanes that cause some cyclists to not like them. First, there is no evidence that bike lanes are safer than biking in roads without bike lanes. The crash studies that have been done include sidewalks, and find that a road with a bike lane ends up having more bicyclists and fewer crashes than a road with no bike lane. However, if you look at the roads without bike lanes, the vast majority of the crashes are on the sidewalks. The cyclists using the road tend to have few crashes. Second, bike lanes have bit of a bad reputation because of bad engineering, implementation, and maintenance. Probably about half of Ann Arbor bike lanes have some kinds of defects; lane too narrow is common, no pavement markings or signage, service hole covers not level, potholes, tree branches or mail boxes encroaching, etc. Bike lanes are supposed to be swept more frequently than regular roadways, since they tend to accumulate gravel and broken glass from the rest of the road - Ann Arbor's aren't swept more frequently. Bike lanes are also supposed to be maintained in the winter, like they do in Boulder and Madison. Ours become snow storage in the winter. Finally, many motorists don't understand what bike lanes are supposed to mean. Bike lanes are like HOV lanes; motorists are supposed to be ticketed for using them, but bicyclists aren't require to use them. In most of Michigan, you can get a year in jail for driving in a bike lane; in Ann Arbor, no one seems to care. Bicyclists are supposed to keep to the right except for various exceptions. If keeping to the right puts you in the bike lane, fine. If the bike lane is full of broken glass, is too narrow for the speed your traveling, or for many other reasons, a cyclist isn't required to use it. But I've had motorists try and tell me that if there's no bike lane I have to use the sidewalk. The law doesn't say that. Whether or not there's a bike lane, if the road isn't an expressway, I have a right to use that road. The Effective Cycling experts point out that if we have the right to use the road, cyclists who learn to operate in the road like motor vehicle operators have few crashes, and there are all of those problems with bike lanes, what we really need are not more bike lanes, but more instruction for cyclists and police enforcement of existing anti-harassment laws. Unfortunately, the police won't enforce the laws we have, and few people are willing to learn to bike safely in traffic until they've biked for a while in traffic. So a lot of us think of bike lanes as a kind of training wheels. Bike lanes encourage people to bike in the road, where non-child cyclists belong, which is safer for them. The lanes encourage people to try biking for transportation, which increases support for biking and improves safety for all cyclists because motorists start to expect to see them. Eventually, maybe we'll get to a world where the bike lanes aren't needed for motorists to drive courteously around cyclists - some places in Europe, Canada, and even a few US cities are like that.

KJMClark

Sat, Aug 1, 2009 : 7:38 a.m.

Tinyartist has a good point. In fact, the Ann Arbor Bicycle Coordinating Committee years ago (back before Council dissolved it) recommended that police ticket cyclists for breaking laws in Ann Arbor, but at the same time ticket motorists for passing cyclists too closely - the most common form of anti-bicyclist harassment. Nothing came of those recommendations. But lets look at the problems with cyclists following laws for a second. Some portion of cyclists go through stops and signals illegally. People should realize that Ann Arbor's signal systems discriminate against cyclists. We have many triggered signals that don't trigger for cyclists. Cyclists are supposed to treat those as defective and as stop signs, but they aren't labeled, so no one but the cyclist has any idea why the cyclist is going through on a red. We have some signals that progress, to let traffic traveling at the speed limit through on all greens, like on Fifth and Division. Since cyclists can't go as fast as the speed limit, we end up getting two or three red lights for every one the motorists get. Finally, we have new signal systems on major roads that neither detect cyclists nor adjust signals for them. Those systems are designed to move platoons of cars. If a cyclist is not in the platoon, they're out of luck. Which means that cyclists get far more red lights than motorists on those roads as well. I routinely get red lights on Plymouth at Murfin 3/4 of the time because of this system, even though I'm traveling on the major arterial. At the same time, even though I stop at all the stop signs and lights, I get harassed for being on the road, presumably in part as retribution for cyclists not following laws. People should realize that only the police can deal with cyclists breaking laws. As a cyclist, there's nothing I can do about someone else blowing through a light. I've tried yelling at them, but they just ignore me. For the wrong way riding, etc.; please, ticket the cyclist. Those are the kinds of things that get cyclists killed. My experience is that the police are much more likely to ticket a cyclist operating their bike in traffic like a vehicle, and tend to ignore dangerous things like biking against traffic.

Ann Arbor Resident

Sat, Aug 1, 2009 : 7:30 a.m.

I am a 54 yo guy who bikes a lot around town to run errands, go places and for general fitness. It is a survial game that takes some thought and planning to determine the safest routes I am always looking for side streets to take as alternatives to the main roads that do not have bike lanes. I always avoid riding in the street on main streets that do not have a bike lane and have a high curb (examples include Main Street to Ann Arbor-Saline to Eisenhower, Stadium between Packard and Huron Parkway). I do feel sorry for those that are injured and worse while biking on our roads. However, as long as our governments do not provide adequate biking space and safe roads for us pedalers, we have to make appropriate adjustments in route selection in order to find the safest though not necessarily shortest route to our destination. We must also continue to lobby and press our government officials to provide us with safe passage. After all, don't our Civic Leaders consider us to be at the forefront of the Green Movement? I think a bicycle road tax would have been a better idea than the public art tax as a way to raise funds to fix our bike paths.

vg550

Sat, Aug 1, 2009 : 7:29 a.m.

"Do bicycles have the right to ride three abreast and block traffic? Legally, yes. But ethically, no, they do not." Is the first part correct??? I know the second part is not. I've driven behind cyclists that are 2 and 3 abreast on Dexter-Chelsea Road all the time... and cars lined up behind them trying to pass. I'm all for bicycling, but its very frustrating and nerve racking for us motorists too. We are also concerned for the cyclists safety.

SpamBot1

Sat, Aug 1, 2009 : 7:17 a.m.

What is the law with bicycles on the road? I was under the impression that they must obey all traffic laws, as if they were a car. In the same respect, they are to be treated like cars (passed only in passing zones, stay a safe distance back, etc...?). After the cyclist's death earlier this week, one poster added an interesting link about "Effective Cycling." They had some good ideas about how conventional wisdom (such as mine above) may be more dangerous than anything. A surprise to me was that "Effective Cycling" cited bike lanes as a DANGER to cyclists! Anyone know more about effective cycling? While I am all for bicycle safety, one thing that strikes me as curious is the women that was carried away in an ambulance after crashing on Huron Drive. I don't bike and I don't even know where Huron Drive is, but I know it's dangerous for bikers because I've been reading articles about it for years. For some reason, people are still biking there?!?! Is it a "sense of entitlement" or is it just that nice of a road to bike down? If it was kids getting hurt the same way over and over, we'd pass a law against doing it. With these adults, I feel like we are just waiting for a law suit (ala' burned by hot McDonald's coffee...)

KJMClark

Sat, Aug 1, 2009 : 7:13 a.m.

Hakken needs to check the laws again. Cyclists never have a legal right to ride three abreast. We do have the right to ride two abreast. We do not have a right to "block traffic", but we do have the right to use the roads even if the result is that other traffic is slowed. This just like all other slow moving vehicles, like tractors. It's funny that we have millions of dollars to put into the Jackson Road "boulevard to nowhere" expansion project in Scio Township, but we don't have the money to maintain our other roads. Now that the housing bubble has burst, could we please delete all expansion projects in the county and put the money into the road repairs that should have been priorities all along? The Road Commission is putting in third-class paved shoulders and patting themselves on the back for throwing cyclists a bone. They're putting in paved shoulders that are too narrow for use, unmaintained otherwise, and not signed for bicycle use. Unlike the roadways, where a cyclist or motorist who's injured or who's vehicle is damaged due to poor pavement maintenance can sue the Road Commission, shoulders are not part of the legally usable roadway. You use them completely at your own risk. If the Road Commission really wants to accommodate bicyclists, they should put in bike lanes, as Ann Arbor is doing. Boulder County has bike lanes on many of its major roads, even though motorists there are much more willing to pass safely than here. What we really need is to have motorists stop the harassment and follow the existing laws. Motorists in the rest of the country treat cyclists much better than around here. We've allowed the "might is right" and "bicycles are not vehicles" memes to creep into our thinking in Michigan. It has never been legal to harass someone on the public roads, but many people have convinced themselves that it's OK, since they feel cyclists "don't belong there", even though by law cyclists have always belonged on the roads. Motorists should also read the keep right law in Michigan for cyclists. It doesn't say what motorists seem to think, and was brought up to date with the rest of the country a few years ago. Cyclists don't have to keep right when they're preparing for a left turn, when the lane is too narrow for motorists to pass safely within the lane, and when cyclists are traveling as fast as other traffic, among other situations.

TinyArtist

Sat, Aug 1, 2009 : 7:02 a.m.

Yes, roadways are a large problem in this area. But motorist attitude also plays a large part in bicycle safety. Zooming through red lights, riding against traffic, going the wrong way on one-way streets, and other excellent examples of bad bicycling behavior do not endear cyclists to the public at large. Making every ride a 'good will' ride will eventually help to overcome this misapprobation.

nonyo

Sat, Aug 1, 2009 : 6:41 a.m.

Mr Townsend stated "The commission adds a paved shoulder to every road that is reconstructed." This is not true. Last year Platt road was reconstructed, and only a small shoulder was put in on one section, near the Toyota Tech Center. Most of the roads I ride have crumbling shoulders and a fog line that drifts off the road into the gravel. Often there is a huge drop off the the roads edge.