Cyclist Critical After Crash

Our one way street system is discriminatory because it considerably and unreasonably lengthens travel for non motorized vehicles. That's why bicyclists ride the wrong way down one way streets. It's not the 1950s anymore and we need to convert to a two way system as soon as possible.

I agree with Robn. Elm Strret needs to be two way for many reasons. This accident could have been avoided as there would not have been two lanes for east bound drivers to navigate. Two way aelm makes it better for residents to travel around their own neighborhood. It would slow down the people from Westville going to downtown. It would relieve cogestion by having all these one ways converted to two way. What ever happened to this plan?

Rob/Bud: Discriminatory? No, non-motorized vehicles obeying traffic laws travel precisely the same distance as motorized vehicles. Elm is pretty narrow anyway, and doesn't cross Edgewood park, so I don't think many, if any, travel Elm from Westville to downtown, because such travel would involve off-roading through Edgewood Park. Whalley, Edgewood, and Chapel are my routes from Westville to downtown, although Edgewood gets narrow as it approaches Park, and many of the local confuse it for a parking lot, stopping in the middle of the traffic lane to hold lengthy conversations with friends. So, If I do take Edgewood out of Westville, I generally turn at The Boulevard to get on a more major eastbound road.

1644,

I don't know if you noticed this but internal combustion vehicles generally travel a lot faster than pedal power vehicles. And they travel even faster on wide streets because they give drivers the mistaken impression that they're on a highway. Also, our fellow New Haveners have notoriously piss poor driving skills (long known but seemingly unadressed by our supposedly "progressive" legislature that can't seem to bring themselves to tighten up licensure to filter out people who dont know how to drive).
The most absurd examples of how NHVs systems is discriminatory is downtown, where a simple crosstown path can be transformed into a huge loop including many death traps like frontage road and the Elm Street Speedway. This has to change and to answer others questions, the city has been seeking federal grant money for such a change over and in the meantime dealing with special interests like Yale and other business owners who hesitate to consider the loss of a handful of street parking spaces.

robn, the folks with "piss poor driving skills" know perfectly well how to drive -- stricter testing would not filter them out, because they follow the rules when somebody is watching (like the MVD tester sitting next to them) but do as they please whenever they can.

What a sad sequence of crummy decisions all down the line -- the traffic flow designers failing to update obsolete design concepts (that were never a good idea in the first place); the cyclist using the roads anarchically as if they were sidewalks and the rules didn't apply to bikes; the driver and motorcyclist -- well from the account above, it sounds as if their only fault, both of them, was not driving defensively enough against the unpredictable and entitled cyclist.

I hope the kid recovers. I suppose he wasn't wearing a helmet, either.

robn: You probably think laws that prohibit both the rich and the poor from sleeping under bridges discriminate against the poor. If I want to get somewhere fast, I shall take a car. If I want healthy exercise, I shall ride a bike, and the further the ride, the better it is for me. Seriously, all these one-way streets are a pain for motorists as well. Enforcing traffic laws might find some undocumented aliens driving without insurance (or drunk or with illegal drugs) however, which would prioritize them for deportation, so we cannot have that.

1644,

Equating the way pedestrians, bicycles and cars move through town is a false equivalency. Even though two of those categories are considered by law to be vehicles (with special considerations for special circumstances), there's clearly a difference that can be percieved by any layperson. You get that right?

1644 wrote, "robn: You probably think laws that prohibit both the rich and the poor from sleeping under bridges discriminate against the poor. If I want to get somewhere fast, I shall take a car. If I want healthy exercise, I shall ride a bike, and the further the ride, the better it is for me."

What a profoundly ignorant comment that completely ignores the reality of people who, for whatever reason, cannot or do not own personal automobiles.

Please I have bike riders coming at me on two lane roads, most recently Sargent Drive. I almost had an accident swerving to avoid hitting him. Why would a bicyclist perceive that it was safer in the Northbound lane riding into oncoming traffic? Perhaps he thought he was safer avoiding all the commercial driveways in the Southbound Lanes? There are sidewalks on that side where a bicyclist could ride much more safely than into oncoming traffic.

FRANK,

Cylcing the wrong way ona two-way road is just plain dumb. And from what I hear, that can't be cured.

What a terrible, unfortunate accident. Prayers to the young man and his family, and to the motorcyclist as well.

However, I think that the argument on whether 1-way streets "discriminates" against bicyclists unfortunately misses what could be a rare teachable moment with lessons arising from this tragedy that most people would probably agree with.

RAZZIE,

Your advice is very good. I'd add to that, that my indignation with our terrible system gives way to caution, especially at night or when travelling anywhere with low visibility. A low cost LED headlight and rear light is one of the best investments a cyclist can make...not to see, but to be seen.

Frank/Robyn

When I was young i usually biked against traffic specifically because I thought it was safer. I'm sure this is still true for a lot of people. My reasoning was if I was on the side against traffic, i could see the cars coming at me, but if i was with traffic, i couldn't see the cars until they were already passing me.

Riding against traffic is, hands-down, one of the most dangerous things you can do on a bike. I agree. Unfortunately, in our car-centric society where any deviation from a personal automobile is a departure from the norm, people tend to divide users of the streets into 'drivers' and 'non-drivers' and equate, as Madcap did as a kid, riding a bike with walking. I have met many parents who told their children to ride facing traffic and were surprised that it's both technically illegal and extremely dangerous.