Comments on: Start seeing older bikers: Blaine crash kills bicyclist in his 60s, the second this month

By: MuchTall

MuchTall — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:47:01 +0000

Not to beat a dead horse, as this comment is now many months past, however I feel that this still deserves response to dispel the right to “take a whole lane” myth.

I did, in fact, read the entire statute. I had to. The words “whole lane” never appear in the statue. MuchRight doesn’t even point out the section where this point is made, perhaps because it’s not in there, not even “in spirit”. In fact, if you search the document, you’ll find that the only uses of the word “lane” occur when describing the limited number of circumstances where a rider may come out into the lane from the curb. Thus the rider in the picture misinforms others by implying that he/she has rights to use the entire lane, all off the time.

One can only assume that the reasoning for using such a placard on the side of their bike is to communicate to irritated drivers whom had been obstructed by the rider. A passive-aggressive thumbing of the nose to drivers. I call the rider “arrogant” as I’ve witnessed this behavior on several occasions from more than one avid riding companion on my own biking outings. Section C of Subd. 4 of this statute states that the rider “shall not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic”. Therefore the pictured rider, when taking up a whole lane and obstructing the normal flow of traffic, is in violation of the law.

MuchRight paints myself as some hate monger, ready and willing to run over next rider I see. The riders in this story probably made a mistake or had a lapse in judgment when entering the roadway. Honest mistakes which, in the wrong situation, have fatal consequences. I love riding as much as the next guy, I just don’t shove a veiled anti-automobile agenda in other people’s faces, exploiting the dead in the process. I have more respect for others than that.

By: MuchRight

MuchRight — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:00:54 +0000

@MuchTall: MN 169.222 2007 is ~2 pages long. You cherry-picked 2 paragraphs from subd. 4. You displayed your bias with your opening sentence where you declared a caring cyclist (whose sole motivation appears to be a desire not to die) as arrogant and misinformed. I hope you’re never driving near me when I’m riding my bike to school on University Ave! The rider was trying to condense the spirit of the entire statute into a slogan that could fit over a bike bag–no easy feat, but I think he is right.

Here’s a link to MN 169.222 for 2007 for all to see: https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/getpub.php?pubtype=STAT_CHAP_SEC&year=current§ion=169.222

By: MuchTall

MuchTall — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:07:44 +0000

In regards to the image displayed of the apparently arrogant (not to mention misinformed/ing) rider:

The actual text of MN statute 169.222:

Subd. 4. Riding on roadway or shoulder. (a) Every
person operating bicycle upon a roadway shall ride as close as
practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except
under any of the following situations:

(3) when reasonably necessary to avoid conditions,
including fixed or moving objects, vehicles, pedestrians,
animals, surface hazards, or narrow width lanes, that make it
unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge.

So no, not the “whole lane”. Only when necessary. Many Metro area riders seem to miss this important aspect of the law.

By: Opus the Poet

Opus the Poet — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:50:52 +0000

It’s not just the NHTSA most local LEOs will not investigate, or DAs prosecute, bike wrecks with the charges they deserve. The laws in all 50 states require vehicles to pass safely or not pass at all, but I have been researching bicycle wrecks for almost 2 years now and i have yet to see anyone get a ticket for making an unsafe pass. I have seen one type of crash in particular that has resulted in the coining of a new acronym, the SWSS or Single Witness Suicidal Swerve. This is when in the words of the driver (the only living or conscious witness to the event) claims the rider swerved from the side of the road, frequently in contradiction to the physical evidence of the event. One wreck that stuck in my mind was one where the driver claimed the rider swerved from the shoulder on the right, but the damage to the bike was from the right hand side of the bike and the damage to the vehicle was confined to the drivers’ (left) side. For the event to have taken place as the driver described the cyclist would have had to been going close to 30 MPH and had tires with glue-like traction. Or to go just from the physical evidence and assuming a maximum speed of 17 MPH on the cyclist’s part (most commuters ride their bicycle 12-15 MPH) the cyclist was in the left center of the lane riding straight ahead when hit by the motor vehicle driver.

By: afoaofa

afoaofa — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:54:42 +0000

Not only the elegantly aging dudes in colorful racing duds on expensive models…

Hey! I resemble that remark….

Nice article