Serge2:You set a high hurdle but I gave it a couple of shots on this one.

Geoff:I'm done clicking on Union Tribune links.

Serge2:I wish you were right, but I'm afraid it's a pretty accurate reflection of the zeitgeist. You don't even have to leave the cycling community to hear these opinions, or at least much of the underlying beliefs they are based on. They're not faking. They're not trolling. This is what they actually believe. And the editors are more than likely to agree. Hell, for the most part the police and even many judges agree with them.

...

As to the Comments sections, I don't imagine that we can change the opinions of those posting, but they're not the audience. The audience is others who are reading. That's why the idiocy needs to balanced with reasoned explanation, so maybe all those people will be that much less likely to be assholes when they encounter cyclists on the roads. Maybe. If you don't want to participate, that's fine, of course. But anyone who has an inclination (and knowledge and ability, like Billd obviously does), to correct their errors, I encourage them to respond in the Comments, and write their own letters to the editor. The only thing I would say is be polite, respectful and reasonable, no matter how crazy they are. Cutting people down usually reflects worse on the cutter than the cuttee with respect to influencing others.

wpstoll:On Saturday a law enforcement officer shared some inside information with me candidly. The driver who killed the cyclist on Montezuma Road passed the city bus on the left and then cut sharply back to the right across the front of the bus to "teach the driver a lesson" for driving too slowly. The bus obscured the view of the cyclist in the bike lane.

The DA is preparing to charge the car driver. There will be a charge followed by a lawsuit filed by the victim's family.

Stephan:

bikingbill:If one persistent person can literally sue Encinitas into spending 100's of $1000's on sidewalk changes, why can't our local cycling organizations sue the city to get some of the worst road situations (Balboa as an example) fixed?

As to the Montezuma incident, if this maniac doesn't see hard time it will confirm every bad thing I have come to believe about our legal system.

The Encinitas suit was brought for failure to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. There is no American Bicyclist Accessibility Act unfortunately.

bossvoss:

bikingbill:If one persistent person can literally sue Encinitas into spending 100's of $1000's on sidewalk changes, why can't our local cycling organizations sue the city to get some of the worst road situations (Balboa as an example) fixed?

Carlsbad is planning to spend millions of dollars to calm/slow traffic on La Costa Ave, largely to avoid another lawsuit like this $2.9M settlement for a motorcycle accident (non-fatal). People had been complaining for years, but it took this lawsuit to get real action.

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/carlsbad/article_18e8f262-2e3d-5460-b6d0-2c2d05b0ce3c.html

Maybe we need to take our battle to the courts. If enough expensive, high profile cases with sympathetic victims are won, that will prompt more action. Steal a page from the Civil Rights movement. And we need plantiffs that are willing to go public and not sign a non-disclosure agreement.

SDCBC could set up a legal committee of lawyers and interns that are willing to work for free or at reduced rates. The San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club has this and it has been quite effective on conservation issues (though those are different types of lawyers and lawsuits).

bikingbill:

The Schwinn Lawyer:Civil action typically requires harm - legally (typically) and practically. Remember the 163 - when motorists were running off the road and hitting the trees and killing themselves? It took a dead-citizen for the City and State to install guard-rails. Defective design cases are very expensive, as they are expert-witness driven. I'm game (even if outside my wheelhouse) if we can find a plaintiff.

Ideally, these defects (Balboa etc.) would get rectified as a matter of policy, but litigation might be the catalyst that gets the city/county moving in that direction.

bossvoss:

I would be very surprised if that interchange was not designed to the standards in affect at the time. Dangerous to cyclists for sure, but unlikely it's not to standard. Current best practice would result in a different design. Fixing the old designs would cost a ton of money. More than enough to pay an army of lawyers.

The same could probably be said about about La Costa Ave. But after the city lost a $2.9M lawsuit, Carlsbad is suddenly willing to spend $10M's to redesign the road (and piss off all the car commuters living inland in new McMansions that use La Costa as a pseudo Freeway)

I think you should start a side practice representing cyclists.

PacMUle:this kinda shit makes me wanna scream!!!!!!! and to be honest, i am getting nervous out there... these keep on happening on or very close to the routes i take daily. i take mead down to texas every morning.