"LAPD Chief Charlie Beck vows to better protect cyclists
He calls bike riders the 'most vulnerable commuters.' Bicycle advocates have been pushing the department to do more to crack down on motorists who don't respect bikers' right to the road." By Ari B. Bloomekatz [Times staff writer Kate Linthicum contributed to this report.] February 26, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bike-beck26-2010feb26,0,7906796.story
The City Transportation Committee met on Wednesday afternoon where the problems with safety of cyclists and actions of LAPD were discussed. There was a city employee who bikes his way to work and was hit by a motorist who stopped but left with the cyclist still in the street, with injuries. The woman driving the car went to the police later and no charges were made.
The increasing numbers of bicycle riders in the city is growing more and there is a lot of confusion on the law when it comes to bike riders and motorists sharing the roads. There's a lot of bicycle riders who don't obey laws and cause a lot drivers to become less tolerant of bike riders in general, as if all do that bad behavior.
Lack of enforcement of traffic laws and lack of both motorists and bicyclists knowing the law themselves has pushed the conditons to a point where safety all around has been diminshing.
The story gives more details but you should consider that with all the irritation that some riders cause does not justify any reponse that could cause injury or death. The doctor who caused serious injury by suddenly stopping in front of cyclists behind him with the intention to hurt them was convicted of assault and got himself some prison time. He said he was sorry but that's not enough to erase any of the harm, and it's something that would probably apply to getting caught as much as regretting that this happened. Too late. So anger does not exuse conduct that would cause injury just to prove some useless point, especially when jail time is the cost.
Consider that your child or friend could be victimized by motorists who have had bad experiences with OTHER riders and not with your child or friend. It is not be right for a motorist to try to respond to an offending bicyclist with physical harm, especially using a car or an even larger SUV to do it, but IT IS CLEARLY AND COMPLETELY WRONG to vent on someone who is not connected with causing any problems. So even an attitude condoning a "getting even" or "teach them a lesson" type of action is part of the problem. It could come back to cause your friends or your family problems like that undeserved kind of action when the go out bicycling.
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