Braving the Deep, Deadly South on a Bicycle

[thelakelander]

Nothing new here. You get what you pay for. According to the article, over the last few years, Massachusetts directed more than 5 percent of its transportation spending to bicycle and pedestrian facilities. In that same time period Louisiana, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina and Mississippi each devoted one half of one percent.

Ken Spicer's grandkids were expecting him when they heard the accident. From inside the house it sounded like a car had hit a post. But they knew differently when they heard their grandfather, age 70, cry out for help.

"I was knocked up into the air," Spicer remembers. "My head hit the windshield, I came down on the hood, and then down onto the pavement." While biking to his son's house he'd been hit by a neighbor driving a white Subaru SUV. "The next thing I remember I was lying in both lanes of the street, in the most excruciating pain of my life," he says. He had traveled all of three blocks.

This kind of accident can, and does, happen anywhere. But if you live where Ken does, in the Deep South—outside Charleston, South Carolina, in Ken's case—this kind of accident is more likely to occur. Much more likely.

According to a benchmark study, released last year by the National Alliance for Biking and Walking, the states of the southern U.S. are the most dangerous per biker, and per bike mile traveled, by a wide margin.

full article: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2014/03/braving-deep-deadly-south-bicycle/8590/

[IrvAdams]

I live in East Arlington/Fort Caroline area. There are a number of bicyclists who group together and brave roads like Mt. Pleasant and Monument Rd, etc. It's certainly an area that would be a good place for riding (I used to ride quite a bit myself) but it's extremely dangerous.

You have to be constantly vigilant because drivers aren't really looking for bikes, and the provided bike lanes (if existent) are often inadequate or inadequately marked. I was run off the road once and fell off the bicycle and they never even saw me, I don't think they looked back.

The solution: money, of course, but some of it should be spent up front on education. I don't think automobile drivers are deliberately intent on bike crashes. However, their consciousness just needs to be raised that bikes ( and pedestrians) are first class citizens too.

A good, long running public awareness campaign is a really good start. Raise visibility.