It's happened again

Appearing on the Chicago Tribune's web site tonight is word that another cyclist has been killed on the streets of Chicago.

A man my age was killed at the end of February a few blocks from my house, struck by an SUV in the street. That one was strange for me because his memorial is something I pass weekly. And he's not the only one - just looking around for pictures of that memorial turned up a page dedicated to the Chicago Ghost Bikes.

While some cases seem to be cases of drivers not paying attention of bikes on the road, there are also some grey areas here as well. In both cases, it stokes the flames of biker advocate groups and those who don't understand why they have to share the road with bikes.

Even tonight, early reports suggest the biker may have been at fault, which is a bit disheartening. I'm not saying the drivers are faultless, but a simple mistake by a biker, compounded by a driver that isn't allowing room for error never ends well for the the cyclist.

I've seen plenty of people on bikes taking stupid risks - I saw one fire across a six-way intersection in front of the bus I was on the same week that the city released new rules of the road for drivers - but that doesn't absolve drivers of their responsibility.

At low speeds, a car/car collision results in a stiff neck and a trip to the body shop. That margin of error disappears when a bicycle enters the equation. An honest mistake made on a bike can be fatal - I can't help but think that some of those accidents could be avoided if drivers paid as much attention to bicycles as they do for other cars.

It's just something to keep in mind tomorrow when the blame is placed on the biker for being young or not obeying a traffic signal. If this story plays out the way Matt Lynch's death did in February, it goes from blame on the driver to finding fault with the biker to no one paying much attention outside of the cycling community.

Regardless of who is at fault, it's still a fatal accident. Bikers and drivers need to take on more than their fair share of the responsibility to keep this from happening so often. Once is bad enough - twice in two months is out of hand.

Monday's Update - No one was officially at fault.

(Image from Flickr user gavin)