17th Cyclist Killed In Tampa Bay/Manatee

[Tourista829]

Yes we have our fair share of people who depend on their bicycles for transportation and yes who do ride on the wrong side of the road. However, I do not read about them in the above statistics.

I truly must apologize, to the forum, for my comments. When you try to work on change and being ignored, when twelve people are killed and not one person charged, I could no longer stay silent and had to voice my rage and igdenation. It is not always feasable, to pack up and leave, although the thought has crossed my mind . As they use to say, at the end of a 1960's television show, "The Outer Limits," we are now returning your television set to it normal settings. (Or something like that.) I thank you for reading my comments and for your responses. 

[tonythomson]

There seems to be the same anti cycling mentality by certain motorists around the world, what is that all about?

I beg to differ. Here in New England Ive rarely encountered the kind of hostility the OP stated. And in riding from Boston to Seattle last year, I also didn't encounter anything from motorists like what was stated avove from Florida.

What I was trying to say is that you get these sort of threads are common certainly in USA UK & Australia.  I just don't understand certain motorists attitude towards cyclists.  and I''ll add USA is my favourate country to ride in and one I feel the safest in while riding.

just been to a motor museum and interestingly early motorists were abused and attacked by horse riders and pedestrians alike.  Even persecuted by the police, how things have changed 

[litespeed]

Awf Hand wrote: "Drivers today have WAY too much going on in their cars.  If I can be seen 500 yards sooner..."

Many years ago I bought a blinking light that clipped on my belt called a Belt Beacon. It was about 3" in diameter and had a yellow fresnel lens. It was amazingly effective, especially after dark. When I wore it I could hear cars slow down, probably in bewilderment, hundreds of yards behind me. They no doubt wondered why this construction flasher was moving down the road in front of them. The manufacturer admitted that it was illegal in some states and probably illegal in others. It broke my heart when it corroded out.

[mucknort]

As they use to say, at the end of a 1960's television show, "The Outer Limits," we are now returning your television set to it normal settings. (Or something like that.)

"We now return control of your television set to you, until next week at this same time when the Control voice will take you to The Outer Limits."

http://www.crazyabouttv.com/outerlimits63.html

[Westinghouse]

A 21-year-old guy on a bike was just killed in Vero Beach on a road I have cycled many times. According to the news article, he was mowed down by an 83-year-old man driving a tour bus. It said for some unknown reason the driver pulled off the road to pass other traffic (an illegal move) and just slammed into the cyclist who was stopped at a traffic light waiting for the light to change. Just before that I was reading a nasty comment in the newspaper about cyclists using sidewalks. Florida---The dive or die state. Not much has changed here really.

[Westinghouse]

VERO BEACH — A tour bus driver going around traffic fatally rammed into a Vero Beach bicyclist stopped at a red light at the intersection of 43rd Avenue and 26th Street at 7:21 a.m. Friday, according to police officers.

The 21-year-old Vero Beach bicyclist, Nicholas Rybka, was pronounced dead shortly after at the Indian River Medical Center.

Traffic on the roadways was closed off until mid-morning, slowing up heavy commuter traffic including school buses.

Tour bus driver Robert DuBose, 83, of Vero Beach, was examined at Indian River Medical Center. He was alone in the American Coach bus owned by Midnight Sun Tours Inc. of Palm Beach. DuBose had been a driver for the company for several years, said Bret Brittenum, manager of American Coach Lines.

"We're saddened by the accident," Brittenum said.

The front passenger window of the bus was cracked from the impact.

Police continue to investigate the incident. The bus was northbound on 43rd Avenue when "for some unknown reason the bus driver left the right shoulder of the road's edge, passed several vehicles and hit the bicyclist," said police Officer Doug Bickford.

After the crash, the bus was on the north side of the intersection and the mangled bicycle was on the curb on the south side of the traffic light. Police are taking the bus in for a mechanical examination.

Brittenum said he did not know where DuBose was going at the time of the accident.

[Westinghouse]

This is what I mean when I say there are no guarantees in life, and nobody can guarantee your safe passage across town, much less across the country. These things happen all the time. I am from a small town and I have known or was familiar with several people who ended up being killed while cycling, and there have been quite a few more killed who I did not ever know at all. And this is just a small town here. It's criminal in many subtle ways.

[Westinghouse]

Yes we have our fair share of people who depend on their bicycles for transportation and yes who do ride on the wrong side of the road. However, I do not read about them in the above statistics.

I truly must apologize, to the forum, for my comments. When you try to work on change and being ignored, when twelve people are killed and not one person charged, I could no longer stay silent and had to voice my rage and igdenation. It is not always feasable, to pack up and leave, although the thought has crossed my mind . As they use to say, at the end of a 1960's television show, "The Outer Limits," we are now returning your television set to it normal settings. (Or something like that.) I thank you for reading my comments and for your responses. 

I know what you're saying, and I have packed up and left---the entire country, and so have many more others than you will ever know. I love cycling across America. My ancestors were founders of the country. However, it's criminal nowadays and things have been getting worse. I can no longer support it in decency and good conscience. However,I like long distance cycling a lot.

[that guy]

I lived in Tampa/St. Pete for seven years.

It's a scary place, and the riding is pretty awful even without the drivers.

Don't really miss it.

[Tourista829]

I am wondering what will happen when an SUV will cost $125 a tank to go 250 miles. In Tampa, that is about a weeks worth of driving. There should be a concertive effort to get the word out on bicycle commuting. If some of our politicians, took a trip to Amsterdam, they wouldn't have to visit one of those pot cafes to see that it really does work and with a healthier population might lower the cost of health care enough to fund some improvements in infrastructure. 

[Westinghouse]

That's a good idea Tourista829, however, these days car making, car selling, and petroleum are where it's at. They constitute a major, big-time, powerful, economic, force. Look at some newspapers and what can you see splashed across page after page all across the country? Cars for sale. That's a lot of advertising money. No politico is going to change that all that much. I do agree with your opinion. A lot more people need to get exercise for their own good, and for the betterment of society.

Over the past twenty years nearly a million people have been slaughtered on the roadways of the USA alone. Many more than that have been hurt, maimed, and crippled. Millions have died from diseases caused or exacerbated by the air pollution. Dependence on oil has brought us war and god only knows what else in the future. And, despite all that, people still insist on motorized transportation even where it is obviously unnecessary. Anything that has such a powerful hold on the mass behavior of humanity that they will ignore the catastrophic consequences of that behavior in a headstrong plunge to fo faster and farther is not easily to be significantly reduced.

[Quahog03]

A 83 year old bus driver ?

[Tourista829]

Quahog03, you bring up a very interesting point. One would think school bus and safety would go hand in hand. However, where I live in New Tampa it is a bit of an oximoron. When I hear a school bus approaching from behind, roaring at full speed, I give it a "very" wide berth because, due to their size, give very little leeway. I may have to challenge you on the 83 year old driving a school bus. I saw the other day a bus packed full of young child, without set belts, speeding down a two lane road, with the driver on their cell phone, I stop and say a prayer for the children, other vehicles, and us cyclist who have to share the roads with them.

[Westinghouse]

It was a tour bus. I have seen their busses on the road. I was wondering if anyone read that.

83 years old driving a tour bus??? I'm not too sure about that.

Driving off the edge of the road to pass standing traffic at an intersection light is definitely against the law.

I have been run off the road several times, and my legal ROW has been violated many times with death the result if I had insisted on my legal ROW.

Florida really is the dive or die state.

The driver may be charged, but he won't really get in all that much trouble.

[MrBent]

I think I'll leave Florida to all y'all and stay away, thank you very much.  Yikes.

Scott