Bicycle vs. Pedestrian [View all]

[AtomicKitten]

Hello DU. I am writing this to share something that happened to me recently.

A couple weeks back I arrived early to pick up my son from school. My dog, Seven, was getting kind of squirrely in the car, so I took her out on a leash. I was crossing the street in a crosswalk at a stop sign and was nearly to the other side crossing before the last lane of cars, with the last one obscuring my vision with dark tinted windows. As I came around the car I saw a bicyclist in the bike lane riding like his hair was on fire, clearly not intending to stop at the stop sign ... and he didn't. I yanked the leash to pull Seven back but she wouldn't budge, so I threw myself between her and the bicyclist. Seven weighs only 65 lbs and I honestly think the impact would have seriously injured her ... or worse. He hit me instead leaning over Seven, breaking three of my posterior ribs. I was hospitalized for 2 days on IV narcotics and then released. It still hurts with every breath I take, and coughing almost makes me pass out.

I don't understand why bicyclists for the most part don't obey traffic signs and signals as they are supposed to do. I did some research and found articles of bicyclists actually killing pedestrians, so I feel somewhat relieved and I suppose lucky in that regard. I wish there was some way to impart these statistics to bicyclists so they'd understand why laws governing traffic are so important.

So, what'd I miss?