Cyclist Killed on North Decatur Road This Morning
Decatur Metro | April 30, 2012 | 11:52 amVery sad news. Patch is reporting this morning that a 53 year-old man on a bicycle was struck and killed by a Ford Ranger pick-up truck within the Decatur section of North Decatur Road this morning at around 6:30am. More info at the other end of the Patch link.
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This is terrible news. Does anyone have more information?
It is a dangerous street for cyclists, and its not always possible to avoid it. What can be done?
The man who lost his life was Paul Taylor, a volunteer soccer coach at CFC-East. My sympathies to his family. http://cfceast.org/
The Patch has published an obituary of Mr. Taylor. http://decatur.patch.com/articles/obit-for-paul-taylor-bicyclist-killed-in-wreck
He sounded like a wonderful person. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
I’m so sorry to hear this. Both sides of North Decatur are extremely treacherous because it’s uneven and parts of it have major breakage almost every few feet. I only venture on it on the weekends, when it’s slightly safer to ride a little farther out. Sad sad news.
This is tragic, but the report said that he/she had no identification, which complicates things on several levels. One should always have something to identify oneself when out biking or walking.
Good point, Steve. I have used these ID tags for years when I’m out running or cycling. http://www.roadid.com/Catalog.aspx?C=RoadID#3 I have no financial or other stake in this company. Be safe, y’all.
What horrible, awful news. I’m not always on the cyclists’ “side” in the “share the road” discussions on this board, but never do I wish harm on any of them– especially the ultimate harm. Oh, his poor loved ones…how sad I am for them, and for him.
Very sad. Be careful out there everyone. It only takes a second and unfortunately I saw first -hand my own deadly example of this this past weekend in Alabama.
Reserving some compassion for teh driver of the truck, as well. No matter how this happened, I’m sure it’s traumatic for all involved.
True, STG– unless the driver did this on purpose (no indication that he did), he’s got to be traumatized by it. I know I’d be a basket case.
Yeah, tough road, but he hit some one with his car. WTF? The amount of aggressive driving in this freaking city makes me think that there’s some kind of societal collapse. Two nights ago, a car waiting behind someone making a left turn thought they weren’t turning fast enough so they whip out into the right lane and then turn left in front of the car.
There’s a segment of drivers that act as if they just don’t care about the lives of others around them. I’ve got no information on this but I can certainly imagine someone driving along on N Decatur, too fast, talking on their cell or checking their email, and just barreling into someone. If people weren’t so freaking selfish, aggressive, and angry, maybe they’d just move over into the other lane and save someone’s life.
Didn’t take long to start assuming facts that are not in evidence. Hardly fair to anyone involved. I’ll wait to see what happened before I automatically assume the driver is at fault. My friend who 20 years ago killed a bicyclist that rode out from between two cars on a busy Chicago street would appreciate my restraint in judgement. Even though she was not at fault, she has had to live with memories ever since.
Why do you assume the person driving the car was at fault, or that is was a result of aggressive driving? I have no idea what happened here, but there are as many aggressive [edited: no name-calling] on bikes as there are in cars (and there are a lot in cars). Maybe the biker just made a simple miscalculation or honest mistake. Maybe the driver of the car made the stupid mistake. Maybe either the car or the bike experienced an equipment or mechanical failure. We should let the facts come out before we condemn anyone.
The AJC is also reporting that the cyclist was riding in the “inside lane”.
Combine this factor with it being fairly dark and the road having hills and blind spots and you have a dangerous situation for the cyclist and driver.
Prayers for all involved.
Inside Lane — The cyclist was likely trying to take a left. Or it’s also possible that he struck something in the outside lane and was thrown off course. Or he was also possibly struck by another car first. I hope we have more information soon. In any case, his helmet did him no good. They’re not designed to protect against cars.
Agree. there are certainly legitimate reasons for why the cyclist was in the inside lane. I was just sharing additional information to help DM readers better understand the situation.
There might be some confusion over the usage of “inside lane.” Some define it as the lane closest to the curb.
ah! good point, Jeff.
From the markings on the street, I’m pretty sure the cyclist was in the East-facing direction, coming up from Superior, and was in the inside lane, trying to turn left on Willivee. In other words, I believe the cyclist had legitimate reason for being in the inside lane.
Likewise, I believe the driver of the ranger likely had a very difficult time spotting the cyclist before it was too late. The accident occurred around 6:15 am. While not pitch-black, it was very dark.
Thanks for the additional info, Jeff. Sounds like it was a dangerous situation for everyone involved. Just so very sad.
I am amazed at how closely cars will pass me on my bike. I want to reach out and thump their cars when they go by so they’ll know they were less than 3 feet away from me, but I’m afraid of road rage! Please everyone, be careful. Bikers are not a menace. I’m a bike commuter so i can save a few bucks, set an example for my children, and help save the earth. I’m not riding just so i can annoy drivers!
My thoughts go out to this man’s family and friends.
One day you may realize that the feeling you have to “reach out and thump their cars” IS road rage. Glass houses, you know?
“Glass houses” ? One is being careless with someone’s life, another is … thumping on someone’s car. I think the notion that these are comparable is exactly the problem. One is potentially fatal, one likely isn’t.
Many drivers are pretty ignorant as to how dangerous their behavior is. If a car does buzz me closely and I catch up to the driver, I will sometimes note that they were dangerously close. Most of the time I do this politely because I know that drivers often are ignorant as to how careless they are being with other people’s lives. However, if my heart is pounding because I feel like I just had a brush with death (e.g., buzzed by DPW trucks), I might be less polite. Probably because I could have died.
Rage is rage regardless of what started it, and anyone’s “thump” as an expression of their rage can rarely do anything other than trigger a reaction. You may think you have a good chance of your “thump” being understood by a driver as “oh my, he tapped my car. I must be more careful in the future.” More likely, it will be the opposite, and usually it will be because the thump was intended that way.
Road rage. When someone nearly kills you in a huge metal vehicle, then rage is the natural response. You can talk all you like about parity between bikes and motorists, about how cyclists should control their rage, but there’s no parity at all. Cars kill. Bikes are at the most an inconvenience to everyone but their riders. When you drive you should be aware at every moment that you’re wielding a deadly machine. The discourse, the roads, the laws, the physics — everything favors drivers. But cyclists are trying to make the world a better place. It’s not fair, and it must change.
The debate about who is more justified in their rage, cyclists or motorists, is never-ending and a waste of time. The point is that neither motorists nor cyclists have a monopoly on aggression, ignorance, stupidity, ineptness or momentary inattention. Yes, I can do more physical damage to you with my car than you can to me with your bicycle. That doesn’t mean everything is always my fault, nor does it mean I can magically prevent catastrophe regardless of what you do. The accident this morning could easily have been the fault of the motorist, or of the cyclist, or both together, or neither one — it may have simply been an accident.
IMO it is impractical to demand or expect segregated traffic lanes for bicycles everywhere, which means sharing the road. We are culturally conditioned to favor motor vehicles and that has to change, and it’s going to take a combination of infrastructure, regulation, and relentless education and awareness-building. Demonizing either group at every opportunity does not contribute in any productive way to the present or the future.
In the Netherlands if a car strikes a cyclist, the accident is automatically blamed on the motorist, on the presumption that a motorist simply by virtue of taking in hand a lethal machine should bear the greater burden of caution. The Netherlands also has dedicated bike routes that are safe and separate.
The Dutch have shown — and the Danish, the Parisians, etc. — that it IS practical to build a cycling culture and a cycle-friendly infrastructure. Much more practical, in the long run, than what we have now.
Laws should be altered to FAVOR cycling, walking, and other sustainable transport options, because every mile you drive is a pound of CO2 you’re pumping into the atmosphere. Motorists are directly contributing to climate change. Think about your kids and grandkids and ask yourself, “What kind of legacy do I want to leave?”
But this is Decatur, not The Netherlands. Having recently been to Amsterdam I agree with you that their biking system and public transportation system in general is pretty amazing. However, you can’t expect the same thing in Decatur that you find in a society dominated by cyclists.
The legacy I would like to leave my children is being around for them in the long run. That includes driving and biking safely.
+1
Bodies need fuel and a helluva lot of it in order to ride, run, or walk long distances. Generally a normal body puts out, what, a little over two pounds of CO2 per day and that doesn’t include what that person is really responsible for since they have ingested meats and/or vegetables whose growth, production, and transporation also required a great expenditure of CO2. Now, as soon as a body starts expending all of the extra energy necessary for biking, running, and walking, its personal output of CO2 is multiplied as is its larger amount of food intake. Now, that nice tight, fit, excercising body is eating more than its fair share and emitting all of this extra CO2. How is that possibly fair to those of us who simply sit at home doing nothing? Bicyclists don’t care about the environment, lazy people do.
And riders in the Netherlands aren’t [edited: no name-calling] who ignore traffic laws. I spend 60% of my commutes on a bike, and I hate 90% of the cyclists in ATL.
If you want to be given 3ft for a pass, give a car three feet and don’t crawl by them within inches at a stop sign you then ignore.
Riders in ATL get all the respect their own behavior brings them. Riders in the Netherlands get all the respect their behavior brings them.
So, as a biker you bear no culpability for your choice to ride a bike on the road with two thousand pounds hunks of steel moving at high speeds and guided by distracted, incompetent or intoxicated drivers? Yes, the consequences are dire when cars and bikers collide, but bikers make the decision to put themselves in that situation. When I saw some [edited: no name-calling] biking down Scott Blvd the other day during rush hour being passed by cars doing 60 mph, I couldn’t help but think that he/she was being extremely careless and reckless. I am perfectly aware that I am wielding a potentially deadly machine when I am driving (and not just to cyclists). But, you need to realize that you are risking your life every second you are biking on a busy roadway. My point is simply that this argument is a two way street, and it is not appropriate to assign all the blame and responsibility to the drivers of the cars just b/c the cars always when when colliding with bikes.
I am your problem, DawgFan.
Huh? Where did I say I have a problem with anyone or anything?
“but bikers make the decision to put themselves in that situation.”
I get that you blame him for finding himself under someone’s car, however he may have gotten there since he had the nerve to be on the road at all. But considering we don’t even know his name, much less had a memorial yet, did you really need to say that?
You are constantly taking the dialogue down here, to the lowest of the low, and with that making Decatur Metro a less desirable space to take a few minutes of refuge on everyday.
Recalling your enthusiasm over the prospect of throwing your door open on a cyclist a couple of weeks ago, combined with this comment, just really makes me sick.
I am in no way taking the dialogue down here. It is a fact that the biker made the decision to take the risk of riding his bike on a roadway without bike lanes. Did he deserve to get into a collision or die? Absolutely not, and in no way did I imply that or anything similar. My point remains that there is plently of responsibility for bikers and drivers alike. I was also speaking generally and was not at all referring to the specifics here.
Further, in no way did I blame the biker for the accident or its consequences (in fact, I stated that I didn’t know what happened here and we should wait for the facts to come out). But, a couple of people here are ready to crucify the driver of the vehicle without knowing the facts, and that is inappropriate.
While it’s clear you don’t think that you are, you are. “I didn’t realize I said it that way, I didn’t mean it that way, what I really meant was…” after someone calls you out, usually on a bi-weekly, if not weekly basis. You’re pretty much incapable of expressing your point without being rude or hostile when you disagree with someone, and it’s tiresome.
You weren’t speaking about specifics, but felt the need make sure that anyone possibly including this person’s family if they happen to come across this blog, understands that “bikers make the decision to put themselves in that situation” merely by being on the road. Yeah, OK.
Personally, right now I’m seeing Daydreamer as being much more of a name caller. You’ve veiled it nicely, however with every accusation you are doing more direct accosting than DawgFan. By my count you’ve called him rude, hostile, and tiresome. Since you’ve demonstrated that you keep track of his history, might I suggest you skip his posts? You’ve also suggested that his posts make DM a less desirable place to spend some time, yet I can’t help but feel the same way about some of yours, and I’m sure there are plenty who feel that way about some of mine. It’s the nature of the beast.
As long as I’ve found myself defending, I also didn’t find his idiot or fool remarks aimed at anyone on this board, and the one aimed at some mystery rider is hardly the kind of remark that stands out as an exception on this board.
Gotta agree. DM’s moderation seems to be very one sided often. But it is his right as it is his blog. Usually after this is pointed out, he rectifies it by moderating the other user. However most times none of it should have been moderated in the first place. Just my opinion for whatever it’s worth…
And let me just say that I don’t envy having to make those moderation decisions!
DM is much more patient and forgiving than me. I would have closed the comments and put at least two people on permanent moderation status. Way to go, guys.
You can suggest anything you like, after all, it is but a suggestion. When I feel something is wrong, or someone is being wronged, here, or in real life, I’ll speak up. Sometimes that means calling people out. If you feel like I need a dose of self-reflection, you can always feel free to speak up, I’ve got no problems admitting error or making an apology when it’s due.
We have absolutely no knowledge about what happened, other than someone who was on the road with every right to be there, isn’t going home to their family tonight. For some reason people feel perfectly comfortable making all kinds of judgments and assertions about his risk level. When people are killed in car collisions, do you go around the blogs asserting the one with the lower safety rating should have assessed their risk better, and therefore must accept a certain liability whether the accident was their fault or not? I just find the whole thing disturbing. This isn’t a big city, this could very well be someone well known to us all, and a little sensitivity to that would be nice. That’s all.
The choice to bicycle on any particular road or street has no bearing on fault in the event of an accident. Are cyclists to blame because engineers committed what amounts to professional malpractice by designing roadways totally ill equipped to handle legal users? Their gross misallocation of infrastructure funds doesn’t make cyclists perpetrators. It makes them victims.
Reminds me of a particularly feisty young woman I know in Miami who was cycling on a street ill-designed for all users. Cars were backing up and a woman yelled from her car, “Get out of the road! You’re blocking traffic.” My friend’s response: “Screw you. I *am* traffic.”
We all have rights to the road. As SmallTownGal says so nicely, it’s coming to a mutual understanding and acceptance of that fact that’s the hard part.
Two examples of name-calling in a single thread. I gotta put you in moderation for that DawgFan.
That was in no way name calling. Those are descrptive terms used in the abstract and were not directed at anyone. How does saying that some drivers of car or some bikers are idiots consitute name calling?
Because calling someone an “idiot” is name-calling. And the “fool” comment was directed at someone.
“Idiotic behavior” and “foolish behavior” are very different descriptors than “fool” and “idiot”. One is limited to the action, the other implicates the person in totality and tends to set off unnecessary fires – like the many you’ve dealt with here over many months – that I don’t have time or energy to keep putting out.
I thought you just needed time to get a good feel for what’s acceptable/not acceptable here, so I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. But you seem to feel like you need to use these descriptive terms to make your point, so we’ll just have to agree to disagree. I think you’re points can stand on their own without those sorts of inflammatory statements.
Fine, but given the context, I think (I know) it was clear that I was referring to the “foolish behavior” and was not speaking about every aspect of that anonymous person’s life. Same goes for the idiot comment. Instead of saying “some biker being a fool” or “some biker demonstrating foolish behavior”, I shortened it. But, I will choose my wording more carefully in the future.
Thank you. I would appreciate that. And I’ve gone back and reread the whole thread and it seems like it was glock would started this “fire” in the first place. So that’s my bad. Many of you were just responding to that initial assertion.
I’ll give him/her a pass this time because I can understand this is an extreme reaction to an extreme situation. But look at the extra grief it has caused.
Why on EARTH would anyone be doing 60 down Scott when the speed limit is 40? Seriously people.
Why, indeed? And yet, it’s a frequent occurrence. Try driving slower than 50 mph and trying to move into the left lane — eastbound if you are going to the hardware store, westbound and need to turn left onto Parkwood — and see how often vehicles go zooming around you on either side, so they can go screeching up to a red light.
Personally, I’d love to see cops able to ticket speeders if they clock them more than 3 mph over the posted limit, and citations set at a minimum of $10 for every 1 mph over the posted limit. Maybe that would slow some people down.
I’m totally with you here. My grandmother (pedestrian) was hit by a vehicle doing exactly what you describe.
For arguments sake, I’ve slightly copy-edited your second paragraph…
Many bicyclists are pretty ignorant as to how dangerous their behavior is. If a bicyclist does buzz me closely and I catch up to the biker, I will sometimes note that they were dangerously close. Most of the time I do this politely because I know that bikers often are ignorant as to how careless they are being with their own and other people’s lives. However, if my heart is pounding because I feel like I almost saw someone die (e.g., bike swerved quickly and unexpectedly from his line of travel), I might be less polite. Probably because I would have had to live with that picture of a selfish and careless dead bicyclist for the rest of my life.
Thanks, Walternate, for your service to the cyclists. I’m sure they are very receptive when you drive up next to them, unroll the window, and favor them with admonishments about safety.
I would bet you don’t spend much time on a bike in traffic. A sure cure for blame-the-cyclist rhetoric is to get yourself on a bike and see how it feels. You’ll be the better for it. And your grandkids will thank you for doing your small part to try to prevent climate change.
Even though this statement was taken from another and slightly edited (which you probably agreed with wholeheartedly as originally written), what is so bad about it? What is wrong with letting someone know that their behavior is dangerous? Don’t cyclists do this all the time to drivers? Why does it not work both ways? Sorry, but it is this elitist attitude that gives cyclists a bad name. Oh, and as for your second reference to climate change – hate to break it to you, but your cycling is doing nothing to prevent natural cyclical changes in the weather that has been occurring for billions of years. Hey, I don’t hate you for trying though!
This is the kind of BS that always comes up from some drivers. It isn’t good enough that you’re driving tons of steel that can rain death on those around you, but you must avoid being inconvenienced and we all must respect your authoriteh.
Your exact paragraph is taken and edited to replace bike references with cars and cars with bikes and one is BS and the other is gospel?
It is not the authority you need to respect, it’s the reality. Every day car-on-car accidents happen and they are generally considered fender benders. A little hammering, a little paint, and everything is back to normal. What you have to respect is that you are choosing to play in this same sandbox and, yes, extra precautions and care need to be taken. As a motorcyclist, I know this as well. I trust that nobody will necessarily do what I expect them to do. I always try to have an out, and I ride like everyone is out to get me. I know that a bit of hammering and a little paint won’t help me if I tangle with a car. I will lose every single time and those who ride without believing that protecting themselves is job one, are going to eventually be the biggest losers of all.
” we all must respect your authoriteh.”
No, you must respect Newton’s authoriteh –
F=ma
I suggest you never thump my car.
thanks for the cooperation!
Honey, if you stay 3 feet from me, and don’t run me over, I’ll be more than happy to leave your car alone.
If you buzz me while your talking on the phone because you’re a little upset that I made you slow down? I might do more than thump it.
sigh. . . .
More rage. And a threat to boot.
Nice condescending “Honey.” Real nice.
ENOUGH PLEASE glock. You’re not doing any party or faction any favors. I understand your frustration and grief. But making villains out of every car driver isn’t going to go about improving anything (as someone already said – STG probably).
Combat pay for you tonight, Brother.
Pick a charity. Next time you have a FFAF without a sponsor, link up said charity, and the sensible middle on all matters bike v. car, red v. blue, kid v. restaurant or beer v. wine needs to step up.
Indeed. We will do that. Or something very similar to that. Thanks.
Come over here with me and have a nice Jackandcoke slushie and couple cupcakes.
amen
When will it be time to remove a motor vehicle travel lane from all of Decatur’s arterial streets and add dedicated bike lanes?
+1. Seriously, especially this one, I see people biking (usually students to and from Emory, I think) at all hours and loads of pedestrians. It should be designed for all of its users, not just those in automobiles.
+1 That’s the only way that the bike vs driver wars will ever end: when bikes have a place on the road. We need safe bike lanes, separated from motorized traffic. This is the only way forward, and we should move toward it as quickly as possible.
Yet when there is a dedicated place for bikes (see Path along Dekalb Ave), as often as not the bikes are in the street. Go figure.
To be fair, the path you reference is a multi-purpose recreational path, not a bike lane. Fine if you’re out for a leisurely ride (as you’ll be sharing it with peds, strollers, and others) but typically not suited to commuting or performance riding.
So what’s a realistic solution then? Lanes for each speed, mass, and wheel configuration of vehicle? If the Path, which may be less than ideal, is not a suffient improvement over no bike lanes to seperate the wildly different mass and speed of traffic, how can any solution of dedicated lanes or “complete streets” work.
Are perfect bike lanes the only thing that will entice the bikes out of traffic?
What Scott said. If I’m biking from Oakhurst toward downtown and want to take a left onto Commerce from Howard, the PATH path doesn’t work.
When will the time come that automobile transportation will be a thing of the past? When will we be able to look back and wonder how we let the car culture control our life, ruin the environment, endanger the world and lead to the unnecessary death of friends and family?
Weren’t we promised jetpacks?
I can dream. Why be alive if you can not dream of a better world?.
-10000!!! It is hard enough to navigate through Decatur by car as it is, and many of us NEED to because we cannot bike to work/run errands. The less motor-accessible we make the city, the harder it will be to attract people from outside to be patrons to all the businesses we love. As small as our city is, I feel certain that these businesses rely on people outside the COD to shop/eat/drink there. It currently takes me as long to get from work to the COD limits as it takes me to get through the COD to my home. That, quite simply, is ridiculous! Additionally, why do you think the school times have changed yet again? In our small city, it takes a bus 45 minutes to an hour to run its route. Again, ridiculous!
I support bike riding, and bike riders (I am a casual rider myself), but giving up precious traffic lanes to make more dedicated bike lanes is not the answer. As many have said, bikes are part of traffic. They can be irritating at times as traffic slows around them, but to sacrifice entire lanes for them just seems counterintuitive. One of the purposes of bike riders is to save gas and not harm the environment. Causing additional traffic backup by removing lanes (= more cars burning more gas because not everyone can ride to their destination) results in more harm to the environment.
This happened in front of our house and I have been just sick about it all day. You will almost never find me defending the way people drive along N. Decatur, however, the accident happened just after 6 this morning and the sun was just coming up. That point in the road is also very poorly lit, not in good condition, and it would be very easy to not see someone until it was too late.
Given the huge number of pedestrians and cyclists using this route on a daily basis, it would seem to be only common sense to have bike lanes and better sidewalks (with an actual buffer between the sidewalk and trucks and cars roaring by).
There were also two subsequent accidents in and around the Medlock neighborhood behind me as drivers, diverted from speeding down N. Decatur, decided to drive like bats out of hell through the side streets. Because, you know, seeing a four-lane road blocked off with a serious accident shouldn’t make one think twice and be extra careful or anything.
Isn’t the speed limit 35 on N. Decatur Road at that point. Of course, that is of no consequence to many drivers.
TopHat, in what ways could this “poorly lit” area be improved? Perhaps we can learn for this terrible tragedy and do everything to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
When I wrote that I was thinking of the streetlights. There is one across the street that seems to work only intermittently, though looking out the window now, it is on – as is the one at the corner of Willivee. I had noticed previously that it has been dark coming up the hill from the traffic light at Superior.
Mostly the road is just too narrow for all of the traffic it gets. There are four lanes when, really, there should only be two. It’s just wide enough to accommodate four cars across, but with almost no room for error, and there’s no shoulder on one side.
Not a road building expert. But if you look at Scott and Clairmont/Clairemont there are four lanes and then a stripe on either side of the road and a portion where the pavement extends beyond that. On this section of N. Decatur, especially between Superior and the big Medlock/Scott intersection, there is no extra paved area. All of it is road and the lanes are narrower than on the other four-lane roads. And as other posters have mentioned, there are a lot of areas where the pavement is crumbling, particularly at the edges/sides of the road.
I vote to re-stripe: 2 lanes + a turn lane in the center. Use the extra space for this extra shoulder for biker/room for error. Minimal cost and construction.
What do you propose to do with the extra (current) two lanes of traffic? You can’t fit 10 lbs of flour in a 5 lb sack no matter how much you shake it. To add a turn lane and shoulder you will need to condemn property – specifically the front yards of the houses that are along that stretch of roadway. BTW, the same thing goes for the Clifton corridor choo choo if/when it gets added.
If minimal cost is the target to increase cyclist safety, prohibiting them from roads where there is not enough space for them to coexist safely would also do the trick.
It’s funny how its culturally acceptable to do things that make it more difficult for automobiles to navigate through an area (reduce or eliminate lanes and so forth) but not the revers.
Wasn’t the portion owned by the city recently repaved?
Regardless of who’s at fault, if a cyclist is hit from behind, you can expect that the result will be life-threatening. I’ve been hit by a car twice now on my bike, and today’s incident was a gut-wrenching reminder of how lives can be forever changed in an instant. So sad for the families involved in this tragedy.
In Georgia, if you rear-end someone in a car, the car in back is considered at fault unless it can be proved otherwise. I would guess the same thing applies here.
+1 to RoadID (I’m a client) and +1 to bicycle lanes on North Decatur. I might have to start taking the long way to work to avoid the small stretch of ND that I currently use.
DeKalb County needs a Complete Streets Policy and, if the Transportation Tax passes, we need to demand that DeKalb spend a large part of the 15% that they will receive on safety improvements for bicyclists and pedestrians.
So how would “Complete Streets” work to solve the problem?
I pointed out above that teh Path along Dekalb Avenue is as often as not ignored by cyclists. It was expalined that dedicated cyclists prefer not to ride on the Path.
If the Path, which may be less than ideal, is not a suffient improvement over no bike lanes to seperate the wildly different mass and speed of traffic, how can any solution of dedicated lanes or “complete streets” work.
It seems that cyclists are intent on riding in the street and contending with the hugely different vehicle speeds and masses which seems to dillute the effectivness of the argument for dedicated lanes and routes.
If you build it and they don’t come, why do you keep building?
Instead of blame, maybe we can all think of one thing we could do better as a motorist or cyclist to make this type of tragedy less likely. For myself, when I’m driving, I am going to stop being pressured by the traffic behind me to pass cyclists when I’m not comfortable. Sometimes the traffic is so heavy that one has to trail a slower bicyclist a long ways before a nice clear path opens up in oncoming traffic to pass the cyclist. When the traffic behind me gets loud and inpatient at having to crawl along, I sometimes look for a narrow margin to pass the cyclist, risking my safety if I hit oncoming traffic on the left and the cyclist’s safety if I brush him/her on the right. No more.
+1 AtHome. Let’s be proactive. For me that means agitating for safer streets. We need dedicated bike lanes.
Another cyclist’s life to mourn.
Ride Of Silence is a world-wide event taking place on May 16, 2012 at 7:00 PM to HONOR those cyclists who have been injured or killed, RAISE AWARENESS that we can all SHARE THE ROAD.
Facebook it for details, or just get together with your friends or family for a moment of reflection.
I have not been here in forever, but stopping by just to say that my bike commute goes somewhat near this accident scene every day, so this hits a little close to home. In fact I cycled through a small part of the traffic this accident caused, not knowing that someone had died this morning.
I would implore cyclists to simply avoid this section of N. Decatur altogether and at all times. There is no shoulder, there are many driveways, traffic is too fast, and the road conditions are pretty poor. Personally, I go through Medlock Park, then have a very brief stint on Clairemont before hitting the Clairemont campus, which has bike lanes. This is a much safer route to the Emory area, in my opinion, and I highly recommend it.
None of this is intended to blame the victim in the least respect. He was within his rights to cycle on N. Decatur and I know none of the underlying facts. I am just suggesting what I consider to be a safer alternative for anyone cycling in this general direction. Good luck out there.
I HATE blogs. For all you who did not KNOW [edited: I don’t know if the name has been released yet] please stop guessing, speculating, and evaluating. He was a wonderful man and leaves behind a beautiful wife and 2 sweet daughters. Stop wasting your time on here and start spending time with your own families!!!
I’m truly sorry for your loss.
I live a few doors up from where this happened
as a motorist, and a Cyclist I wish my deep felt condolences to his Family and friends
This petty squabbling is really terrible. A life was lost. This is a tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers should be with the victim’s family. Snide comments about cars vs. bicycles are not helping anyone.
This accident happened at 6:30 a.m. The sunrise today was not until 6:48 a.m. so the sun was not a factor. I was riding my bike on that stretch on Sunday, coming up from the bottom of the hill, and turning left on Willivee and was practically holding my breath with fear the entire time. I live on Willivee and when I approached N. Decatur this morning and saw the yellow tape, I was curious and surmising about a high speed chase. When my husband saw the twisted crushed bike to the left of the ford truck and pointed it out, i felt once again I could hardly breath. My heart goes out to both the cyclist and the person that now has to remember this the rest of his/her life. So please, if you see me on my bike, give me some room when you pass and remember we have the legal right to be on the road.
I think I was the only person referencing the sun and I was making the same point you are, the sun was not up and it was probably difficult to see in the dark.
This is a horrible story, and my heart goes out to all involved, however, in Atlanta and surrounding areas, it is something that happens on a fairly regular basis. I bike from the Northlake area out to STN MTN several times a month and participate in weekly area group rides so I feel qualified to say that this city is rough on cyclists. That said, it’s not all on the drivers, or the cyclists. It’s due to the lack of planning that is putting all of us so close to together on the roads. This in a metro area that contains more automobiles than all of the aircraft in the world (entire fleet, civil, military, airline…you name it).
I don’t want to just sit here and bash Atlanta. Maybe it’s beyond hope in a city of this size, however, I recently returned from visiting family out in Albuquerque and while I realize it’s a city of under 1 MIL (800-900K?) population, you can ride a bicycle most everywhere, and I mean everywhere, and hardly touch a city street. The city made a concerted effort to keep cars and bicycles apart as much as possible and it works.
Gosh, I wake up every morning just wishing I could be as perfect and all-knowing as the posters in this thread.
I’m sorry to hear about the cyclist that lost his life today. My prayers go out to him and his family. That road is already jagged, small and treacherous. The traffic makes it so much more hazardous. I will slow down more, as reading these cyclists tales of their experiences above makes me aware of how scary it is to have a car tailing you. Maybe more citations have to be given out to make us in tune to the cyclist’s dilemma.
My thoughts and prayers to the man who lost his life today.
Atlanta area drivers are some of the worst I’ve experienced anywhere I’ve lived. Drivers around here scare the hell out of me–and that’s when i’m in my car! between the talking/texting on cell phones, making u-turns randomly, driving 50+ in 35mph zones, blocking intersections, running red lights (oh, and that includes the police, and no they didn’t have their lights on!). Honestly, it’s surprising that there aren’t more deaths.
Reading these posts from both sides leaves me wondering why being right (no matter which side you are on) is worth someone’s life. My husband cycles from Decatur to Buckhead for his daily commute and I walk everywhere. While we are both alternative travelers, I can’t see ignoring the driver who blows through a crosswalk that I’m trying to cross and putting myself or my children in danger because I have “the right of way”. My husband rides his bike with caution and, like KeithF, assumes that everyone is out to get him, and he should exercise caution at all times. I guess what I’m trying to say to you cyclists is: is being right worth your life? And to you motorists: is being convinced that you have the right of way worth taking a life?
My heart goes out to everyone affected by this tragedy, Perhaps it can be a reminder to us all to dial it down a bit.
Very well said.
I am really sorry for this family’s loss. What an awful thing to happen.
Reading most of these comments make me sick.
To the family of the cyclist in the accident, my heart goes out to you in your time of grief. This is a horrible tragedy and a lesson to all of us that life is short and often unfair.
Hi – Just over a year ago that I was hit on my bike by a red light running motorist and wrote an AJC editorial based on my experience calling for safer roads for cyclists and pedestrians.
AJC Op Ed: http://www.ajc.com/opinion/make-our-roads-safe-920413.html
DM Coverage:
http://www.decaturmetro.com/2011/04/22/decatur-cyclist-hit-by-car-pushes-for-safer-road-environments/
Paul Taylor’s death provides another tragic reminder that we have a long way to go to make cycling safe in this region. In my view the most important step we can take as a community is not to point fingers at one another but to put in place policies and infrastructure that will ensure that our roads serve the needs of all users. If you are a DeKalb County resident, I hope you’ll consider supporting the new Complete Streets DeKalb Coalition (http://completestreetsdekalb.org/ and http://www.facebook.com/safestreetsdekalb) that is pushing the county to provide safe roads for all users.
Very sad. This is why I have the tendency to ride my bike on the pavement. I wish there were some way to paint a bike lane onto the street.
Thought about this tragic story today, when a car came uncomfortably close to my bike. I gave the driver a dirty look and rode on. His response was to beep, pull up near me and get out of the car to talk.
Well…as he was apologizing, I mouthed off, said something rude and kept riding. He got back in his car. About 5 seconds later I thought about the man who was killed, and it me hit how much of an a$$ I’d been, so I stopped, flagged the driver down, and apologized for my actions and my words. He was a gentleman and accepted both my apology and my handshake.
To the dude in the Civic, you are the better man. You did the right thing right off, and I didn’t. This story, and your actions, taught me a lot today.
Obit for Paul Taylor, Bicyclist Killed In Wreck
http://decatur.patch.com/articles/obit-for-paul-taylor-bicyclist-killed-in-wreck
my heart aches for his wife and children and family and friends….god bless them as they
navigate this huge loss.
Agreed. Putting opinions aside, this is a terrible story. Sometimes we all lose sight of that.
There is a reason we bike riders are very upset over this, and taking “recommendations” from drivers to change our behavior personally.
It’s life and death. We take your “recommendations” as direct threats on our life. Which, in practice, they can turn out to be. As they turned out to be in this case.
What’s most striking is no one is talking about what charges, if any, this driver should face. If the bicycle were a car, it’s vehicular homicide. It could be a felony. But we’re talking about a bicycle, it’s their own fault for being in the road, so the poor pitiful driver needs grief counseling.
That’s the attitude I’m seeing from motorists here, and I’m more than offended. I’m physically threatened by it.
I can understand why you’d be upset about this tragedy, because you as a cyclist can personally relate. But given that you don’t know any more of the facts than the rest of us, your overall response (especially your statements with respect to the “poor pitiful driver” and vehicular homicide), is not only overwrought, but inflammatory. It contributes nothing to the attempts of a lot of posters here to keep things rational but compassionate.
I have to say, I have seen some stupid behaviour when driving down streets such as Church. For example, a man literally just rolling down the tight, two lane street. Not even pedaling. Extremely frustrating. Second, when people don’t use their hand signals and just cut in front of you. Not saying that this man did any of this, but unfortunately some [edited: no name-calling.]will just ruin it for everybody.
Paul is my little brother. He was in excellent condition and a very seasoned rider. He was on the way to Emory to begin the first day of his new dream job. About Willivee Dr….Paul had his first house when he got married on that street and knowing Paul he was probably touring his past and how far he had come since then. I can see that he may have been preparing to turn up Willivee but if he was down …why? [edited]. There were no skid marks. Pauls helmet, back and bike are lit. We are all shattered.