Cyclists Often Unsafe on San Diego Roads

The death of a cyclist on Montezuma Road near San Diego State last month has rallied San Diego's bike community to protest the dangers of taking to the road. KPBS reporter Tom Fudge tells us what it would take to make our streets safe for bikes, even though they were built for cars. Five years ago, Fudge ended up in the hospital after being hit by a car on Montezuma Road, just 200 yards away from where Charles Gilbreth was hit and killed.

[@StarEssences]

Connector bridge is needed somehow or at least a different route option...to be shared with the cycling community.

[@jonathannellis]

Sorry but if cyclists payed all the same fees, drivers would still complain. The reason cyclists complain is because there often no alternative (no bike lane, no bike path, no shoulder). The majority of the expense of supporting the road infrastructure is paid from general tax revenue, not licensing, vehicle tax, gas tax, etc.

[@winstonsolipsist1741]

Bikes should have their own paths to ride on but not at the expense of drivers. If you want to make a bike lane, widen the thoroughfare, don't take away parking or driving lanes. How do you pay for widening or building paths or bridges? Personally, I say make bicyclists pay a bike lane fee. If the government needs to subsidize some of it, that's fine but the cyclists should be required to help pay for it.

[@StarEssences]

abuse their driving privileges which over the years of my own cycling as a female yet continue to WITNESS ongoing car driver errors and the cyclists combined on the road. I question the so-called great intelligence those who heavily rely on car usage to get them from place to place.

[@StarEssences]

It has everything to do with the way Car Drivers Mind set 'work' when they are driving, as some of them in secret, still believe that cyclists have no rights on the road and intentionally, yet make it look like who they hit as a non car driver, was a complete accident. From depth of field errors, to simply not paying attention to also those who are still silently driving like a mad man behind the wheel seeking to kill something such as a cyclist or pedestrian on the road. CAR DRIVERS

[@jonathannellis]

It's not just cars interaction with bicycles and pedestrians, but with other cars as well. Most car drivers vastly overestimate their skill and underestimate the risks of everything they do, they think they are amazing drivers and it's everyone else that doesn't know how to drive, all the while they are riding someone's ass all the way down the road going 10 over the speed limit, going around blind corners too fast to stop. I find it funny that they call crashing an "accident."

[@kathrynmcmorrow7170]

Especially during rush hours, I absolutely minimize riding even the minimal distance on particularly dangerous multiple lane roads because I am always close enough to other cars to REGULARLY see drivers, and I hate to say this--but more are women, using one hand to manipulate their smartphones, while diverting their eyes towards their midsection's exterior personal space. I get THE HELL back onto a sidewalk with my bicycle ASAP, because even the bicycle lanes often serve as an attractive magnet for numerous sociopathic drivers visiting all types of threatening behavior on bicyclists, from actually swiping them with the car's passenger mirror, to spluttering gross tirades, or "playing chicken" at an intersection when and where the bicyclist should legally have the right-of-way on the road. True enough, most drivers stopped behind traffic signals during peak p.m. rush look and act like they are prepared to run a single bicyclist over in a heartbeat without any excuse. Lesson: Steer clear of these ugly hordes if you value your life.

[@jonathannellis]

I agree, they need to make bike roads. If 5-20% of people would bike if there was a safe way to do so, why are they spending what must be 0.005% of resources on bike trails and 99.995% on roads?

[@mikesmith883]

Bike lanes do not make bike riders safe from traffic if so please I would love to see and hear how. Here's why I say not safe whats physically stopping car's from going in to bike lanes ? NOTHING ! A bike path has more of a bearier to keep car's out of bike paths and no bike lanes and bike paths are not the same thing

[@SplashMountainMike]

In California it's ILLEGAL to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk, which I found out the hard way. Do some homework before you condemn people.