"Sharrows are just the weakest thing that a transportation agency could do," said Christopher White, executive director of San Francisco Bike Coalition. "They are not effective at keeping people safe; they are hardly better than nothing at all."
Edwin Delgado, 53, was riding his bike south on 16th Ave. when the cement truck driver, heading in the same direction, hit him near 49th St. in Borough Park shortly before 4 p.m. on Wednesday, according to law enforcement.
On Sept. 10, Lynne Forester, 69, was walking on the Cape Cod Rail Trail around 10:30 a.m. near mile marker 5.6, like she has "been doing for 10 years," when a bicyclist suddenly collided with her from behind, she told Boston.com in an interview. The bicyclist was riding in a group and heard someone say 'Oh, look at the water,' referring to Long Pond. The bicyclist looked to her right at the water and collided with Forester.
The City's bicycle safety planning and implementation is primarily handled by the Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) and occurs independently of the BAC. The MTA has jurisdiction over most bicycle safety issues-bike lanes, street design, speed limits, traffic signals, etc.-and employs full-time staff to plan for improvements and manage these assets and operations. When the BAC was formed in 1990, the MTA did not yet exist. The Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT) or the Department of Public Works (DPW) may not have planned extensively for bicycle infrastructure.
This vital work will nonetheless eliminate a key part of Manhattan's protected bikeway network. With a major bike artery like the Greenway closed, one would think that the city Department of Transportation would set up a safe series of detours for cyclists. But I rode the full length of the detour betwee the Financial District and Stuyvesant Town and can say with confidence that the DOT's replacement route is anything but safe.
Christopher White, the current head of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, got his start in advocacy 20 years ago when an inattentive driver turned left in front of him on Arguello, sending him careening into the windshield. Since then, Arguello has remained on San Francisco's high-injury network. A teenager was badly injured there in 2022. Cyclist Ethan Boyes was killed on Arguello by a drunk driver in 2023.
“We hope that there will be accountability for his life, a legacy to him in that these trucks will be more safe for our community,” their attorney Mary Alexander said during a press conference Wednesday.
The family of Martin Gutierrez Perez has filed a lawsuit against Juan Duarte following a tragic car-bike collision, alleging negligence related to driver distraction.
