| Re: Bad bicycle reporting on Channel 5 in Kansas City
"jj" wrote:
> What's interesting to me is that there's no provision for how long the
> riders have to 'single up'. If you take two relatively uncoordinated
> riders
> who have not to this point practiced this, it could take quite a while.
I think you have to take into account the type of road, speed limit, and
traffic volume. If you're being passed every 20-30 seconds by 50 mph
traffic, it's probably better to just ride single file. You're right that
the law doesn't spell that out. It's more of a common sense thing.
After viewing the video of the road in question, it seems to have more
traffic than I expected based on the OPs description. It's not exactly a
quiet country lane!
> So how do you judge when the riders are 'at fault' for not singling up.
> Perhaps they just took too long for this impatient driver. In that case
> the
> burden for passing safely has to be on the larger faster vehicle - yes
> even
> if it takes a minute to get coordinated and allow a safe pass.
The two cyclists in the video claim to have over 20 years of riding
experience. I can't imagine a situation where it would take more than a
couple of seconds for two riders to single up.
>>The vehicle would be at fault for unsafe passing.
>
> In addition what about the law about hitting someone from behind? Clearly
> if you're passing another car and clip them in passing, you have hit them
> from behind and thus have failed to pass safely. I think the driver should
> also be cited for reckless driving - sounds like he was trying to 'scare'
> the cyclists.
I wouldn't doubt it. If I had to guess I'd say the two cyclists were
ignoring the horn honking motorist, expecting him to go around them (into
the other lane). The motorist got angry and decided to pass as close as
possible. He misjudged and brushed one of the cyclists. If so, both would be
partially to blame, but obviously the cyclists were more vulnerable. Draw
your own conclusions.
Art Harris
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