Type 2 Diabetic. Cyclist Flâneur.   Coffeeneur.    Errandoneur
A bike / map geek with a gadget obsession and a high-viz fetish.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Cyclist Killed on Bike Route A; Nov3 Christmas Tree

11.3.2014 19m
Friday evening at 7pm cyclist was killed near my town, in a place I ride routinely: 51 North near the Aliquippa Bridge, which also happens to be PA State Bike Route A.


As happens on Friday nights, the media isn't staffed, over the weekend the junior people are on duty, and this event just hasn't gotten much attention. Seems like a hit-and-run but no newspaper article or TV news coverage is calling it that. This 23 year old got off work at the Aliquippa Subway restaurant and was riding to his mother's house in Rochester.

John Forrester in Effective Cycling wrote that Friday evening rush hours are the time of the week with the most cyclist fatalities, and the reports are this happened at 7.15 pm Friday.

It's the second cyclist death of BikeRouteA / PA51 at a bridge crossing in 15 months. Last year a cyclist was killed on Route51 at the Sewickley Bridge. Maybe it's time somebody asked, How Come This is a Bike Route? Show me where bikes are accommodated on this road besides "share the road" signage?

What a tragedy. And the driver is still out there, and no official reports on investigations etc.



Had to get out of the house, so I rode over to work where I have two reference manuals I needed. I took the long way, mostly because it seemed like crossing the Ohio River via the Interstate would be un-prudent and bad chi today. It was a nice ride.

There was a construction zone under a bridge, where the usually very wide roadway is reduced to two lanes, one in each direction, divided by Jersey barriers. Just room for a bike or a car but not both, and inevitably it was uphill. The truck driver (Lucci Kitchens, great driver) behind me was sooo very courteous and patient, I really appreciated that and worked hard to get out of their way ASAP. It's so nice when people play nice.

I think I write better code when I bike to work rather than driving to work.

Departed work at 6.30pm and it's just dark out now, no half-presence of dusk it's just plain dark. No moon evident either. Started riding home, saw my first Commercial Christmas tree in a window and had to take a picture.



Also a great ride home, mostly uphill. I'm pleased that my light outfit does pretty well. 19 miles.

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