Sad news to report today – The Eagle has reported that another bicyclist has died from injuries after being hit by a pickup truck along San Jacinto Way, also known as Highway 21.
At the Bryan/College Station Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting earlier this month, one of the items provided to attendants was a map of accidents and fatalities in the Bryan/College Station area. Highway 21 stood out as a major problem in that regard, with 5 bicycle or pedestrian accidents over the previous five years, plus two fatal car accidents.
This raises several important questions:
1. Why so many accidents along this stretch?
2. What can, and should, be done to reverse this trend?
It is alleged that the cyclist disregarded a stop sign as he went onto San Jacinto, due to his error there is no legal recourse for him (or his family). Not meaning to be insensitive to this tragedy, but if there is damage to the truck the cyclist can be held legally liable.
As a recreational cyclist myself, when I am on my bicycle I too take all measures to obey the traffic laws which by not doing so can result in bodily harm and/or negative legal repercussions. Although I am saddened that we lost a cyclist but I cannot overlook the fact that he ran a stop sign which contributed to his untimely demise.
This is true, Boyd. What it makes me think is, can we look at how some of the surrounding environmental factors may have contributed to the crash? What’s the infrastructure like in that area – how easy or difficult is it to cross the highway by foot or bicycle? I know I’ve had to make many split-second decisions both as a bicyclist and as a driver, and a lot of those decisions are shaped by my knowledge of the infrastructure in an area – for instance, whether the crossing even detects bicycles (i.e. a person has to push a “beg button” to trigger the signal at Hwy 21 and 25th St). The fact that Highway 21 is the site of the largest number of bike/ped accidents in our region suggests to me that it’s an area that needs to be changed and improved. We can (and should) try to encourage safety through law enforcement, but we can ALSO encourage it through better infrastructure design.