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A comment on Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident. Parent comment

Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by malandrew on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @02:41PM (#6014415)
In San Francisco, according to CSC 21202, the bicyclist is allowed full use of lanes. The important clause to pay attention to is clause (c). The most important part of that clause is the use of the term "substandard width lane", which although not defined in the statute, has been established via jurisprudence to be approximately 14-15 ft. Many many rightmost lanes in SF are not 14+ ft wide, meaning that on most roads in SF you can legally ride right in the middle of the rightmost lane. This is much safer than putting yourself in the doorzone and swerving to avoid a door and getting hit by a driver on your left or leaving too little room on your lefthand side that some driver will try to squeeze through.

Every cyclist should go out and measure a lane or two here and there to get a feeling for approximately how wide a 14 ft lane is, so you know when you can legally take up the whole lane.

The only other thing to keep in mind with this, is that if you do take up the whole lane, it is your responsibility to pull over to the right periodically if the number of cars backed up behind you exceeds 5 (IIRC)

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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by adrr on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @02:59PM (#6014529)
Santa Monica has the same rules. I biked to worked for two months straight, my car never left the garage until one day someone didn't like the fact i was in the middle of the lane. Accelerated at me, and then tried to run me off the road at 35+ mph on a small street. Tired of people honking at me or cutting me off so i quit riding my bike. Not worth my life. City really needs to take every 4th or 5th street and make them bike streets where cars are allowed but required to yield to bikes at all times. No passing, no overtaking etc. Gladly ride an extra 4th blocks if means i'm not going to get run down.
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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by caycep on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @03:14PM (#6014643)
that sounds illegal - could you have reported his license? Something under assault using a vehicle or attempted manslaughter?
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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by oinksoft on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @03:21PM (#6014694)
I have had somebody follow me aggressively (in a car) with seeming intent to main before and it is a terrifying experience. They pursued me at 70mph in a 30mph zone. It was my second day driving a manual transmission and I accidentally tapped my horn with an old Ford Explorer behind me (no cars in front) as I was trying to shift into first gear to turn left out of a lot. A man exited the SUV at a red light and I ran it, hauled my ass home. And that's the story of how I learned to throw it into first gear quickly.

When it's just you and the other car on the road, there's no way of proving what happened, you just have to hope there were witnesses, or god forbid you do get run off the road, that the accident scene has enough evidence to show criminal intent.

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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by ineedtosleep on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @03:56PM (#6014974)
Honestly, those examples are great reasons why I would support some kind of form of publicly shaming those drivers (via some kind of www.thisiswhycyclistsdie.net blog): Get cyclists to be diligent and record their rides and post the obvious asshole drivers and their plates.

Yes, there's probably giant privacy implications there, but fuck it. They're trying to kill people out there.

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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by malandrew on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @07:26PM (#6016388)
They are being recorded in a public space. AFAIK there are no privacy violations involved in recording them on public roads.
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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by danielweber on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @03:41PM (#6014853)
If I ever get back into biking to work I'm gonna get a bike-cam.
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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by akgerber on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @03:48PM (#6014908)
It is illegal. Cops, in almost all cases, don't care.
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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by malandrew on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @07:28PM (#6016394)
What if you have video to prove it? I wish it were possible to send such videos to the insurer of any vehicle. I know that with taxis, you can call up the dispatch company to get the insurance company of a vehicle, but I don't know if there is a way to find the insurance company of a private vehicle.

Showing this kind of behavior could prompt their insurance to drop them or possibly increase their premium.

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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by steveklabnik on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @04:24PM (#6015184)
This happened to me there too. Biking down Wilshire, where there's two lanes, no other traffic, person flew by me, honking and freaking out.
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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by bjterry on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @02:57PM (#6014514)
If you wait until 5 cars are backed up behind you, you could be incredibly rude to 4 vehicles of people. You should be considerate and allow vehicles to pass after a reasonable amount of time (i.e. as dictated by courtesy and not the law) and when it's safe to do so.
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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by revelation on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @03:19PM (#6014680)
You don't seem to understand. Cars can not legally pass bicycles and stay in a single lane. The math does not work out when you take into consideration that bicycles need to keep a greater distance to the right to avoid morons who open doors into traffic and that, having only two wheels, they will naturally swerve left and right, and often do so on purpose to avoid the various pitfalls that are not maintained roads, where a light hit to the suspension on a normal car can dead stop your wheel and send you flying.
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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by baddox on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @04:47PM (#6015363)
This is part of what I mean by "I can see both sides." I don't approve of an automobile drivers acting aggressively and dangerously toward a bicyclist, but I also don't think it's reasonable for bicyclists to significantly impact the flow of traffic (and even just letting 5 cars pile up before moving over is a major impediment to traffic). In short, I really don't think that roads with significant automobile traffic should be shared with bicyclists (well-designed bicycle-only lanes are fine).
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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by malandrew on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @07:36PM (#6016431)
Letting 5 cars pile up behind you can happen in the course of a few seconds to several minutes. Those are two totally different circumstances. The former is unlikely to be a major impediment, while the latter probably is. On some roads, if you try to pull over to the side every time more than 1-2 cars are behind you, you'd never get to your destination. I'd say it's reasonable enough to move over to the side ever 2-3 blocks.

Most cars are blocked by other cars on the road and you don't see cars honking at other cars nearly as often as it happens to bicyclists (except maybe in NYC... hehe)

Also, most of the time the substandard width lane issue is only a factor within cities. Cars shouldn't really be traveling that quickly within a city, except maybe on elevated highways.

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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by bagels on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @05:18PM (#6015577)
How many times have you been impeded by people driving cars when driving? I'd wager nearly every time you drive if you live in a city. How many times have you been impeded by people on bicycles?
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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by baddox on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @05:34PM (#6015689)
What's your point? I very rarely drive, even more rarely in a city, and I almost never even encounter bicyclists while I'm driving.
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Re:Seth Vidal, creator of yum, killed in hit and run accident by driverdan on Tuesday July 09, 2013 @08:04PM (#6016534)
Texas has the same laws. In Austin the police released PR with a video telling cars about it. They also said they will not cite drivers for safely passing a bicycle over a double yellow.
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