By Kate Callen
Shortly before 12 noon on May 4, I nearly killed a bicyclist.
After I made a full stop at the 30th & Upas four-way stop sign, I stepped on the accelerator to start moving through the intersection. Within seconds, a speeding cyclist ran the stop sign meant for him and flew past the front of my car.
If I hadn’t slammed on the brakes, I would have crashed into him, and it’s doubtful he would have survived. News stories would have accurately reported that I hit him. Biking activists would have vilified me as a murderer.
This awful scenario happens all too frequently in neighborhoods across San Diego because too many cyclists think stop signs and stoplights are a nuisance.
They will literally bet their lives that they can frighten motorists into giving them the right-of-way that the law doesn’t grant them. If they lose the bet, motorists who obeyed the law can still face criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits.
Bicycling activists often talk about “bike safety.” For them, the term seems to mean that drivers should always be deferential to the needs of cyclists.
I’ve never seen Circulate San Diego or the San Diego Bike Coalition mount a public awareness campaign, like Mothers Against Drunk Driving did, to promote safe cycling habits. The responsibility for safeguarding cyclists appears to fall entirely on motorists.
Bike safety propaganda was the topic of a recent Rag newsroom conversation after several of us received a letter from Ian Hembree, Bike Coalition Advocacy and Community Manager, cautioning reporters about their coverage of bike-car accidents.
Hembree begins by saying that he is “reaching out today not to criticize but … to [help] meaningfully improve how your coverage serves the public.”
He goes on to school us about how we should report collisions, citing “a recent example from a local outlet that ‘a bicycle collided with a motor vehicle.’ Framing a collision this way implies that the person on the bicycle was the cause, when in reality the circumstances had not yet been determined by law enforcement.”
(If reporters held back stories until law enforcement issued official determinations, news gathering would move at a glacial pace. Deadline pressures require us to report evidence from eyewitnesses and other sources, and we cite those sources.)
Hembree continues: “When collisions are routinely framed in ways that suggest cyclists or pedestrians are at fault, it contributes to a broader cultural narrative that treats people walking and biking as liabilities on our streets rather than as equal users of our shared public infrastructure.”
“Leading journalism organizations,” Hembree notes, “and transportation safety advocates have increasingly adopted clearer standards around this.” He cites examples:
“Use ‘crash’ or ‘collision’ instead of ‘accident,’ which implies no one is at fault and no action could have prevented the incident.
“Avoid constructions that make the vehicle or bicycle the grammatical subject when a person was driving or riding. ‘A driver struck a cyclist’ is more precise than ‘a car struck a bicycle.’”
“When a person is seriously injured or killed, lead with their humanity rather than their mode of transportation.”
Journalists are acutely aware of the humanity of people who are injured or killed. Such stories haunt us. We believe that if our work pinpoints the facts behind the tragedy, we are informing the public in a way that may prevent future tragedies.
So, let’s agree that we all must strive to heighten awareness of the contributing factors to these “crashes” or “collisions.” To that end, I’d like to offer two suggestions to biking activists that would meaningfully improve how their work serves the public.
Begin by acknowledging that high-risk biking practices, like running stop signs and stoplights, lead to a significant number of bike-related fatalities. You will build credibility by recognizing what we all see. Bicycling activists should focus less on promoting their rights and more on accepting their responsibilities.
Then embark on a vigorous and sustained public education safety campaign to remind cyclists that they must obey the law, if only for their own sake.
The Bike Coalition does offer courses in bike safety. But I doubt the young man I nearly killed would sign up for safety training. He’s the one at the greatest risk, and he’s the one you need to reach.
Instead of lecturing reporters on how to do our jobs, instruct cyclists like him on how to safeguard their lives.
As an avid bicyclist who bikes 500 miles per month or more on San Diego streets I agree that bicycle safety starts with the bicyclist. We (myself included) can do more to be safer when we ride. A lot of motorists in San Diego are very accomodating to bicyclists. Of course there are some motorists that create unsafe situations. Not being in a hurry and slowing down by by both the cars and bikes would help. Having a 360 degree situational awareness is also key.
Bicyclists and motorists can share the roads without issue. San Diego has done a lot to improve bicycle safety and is a great place to enjoy outdoor activities.
Well then subject bike riders to the same vehicle licensing, insurance, and road knowledge car drivers are subjected to for moving vehicles. Mopeds, E-bikes, all the way down the line. For all I care skateboards too. It’s bad enough these kids walk around in an intersection with their face in a phone as though there’s an app for a force field around them while never looking up that you are there or it’s not their turn to cross. But humorous Hembree wants to push being PC to a local reporter.
“I’ve never seen Circulate San Diego or the San Diego Bike Coalition mount a public awareness campaign, like Mothers Against Drunk Driving did, to promote safe cycling habits. The responsibility for safeguarding cyclists appears to fall entirely on motorists.”
The San Diego Bike Coalition routinely holds bike safety classes at schools, workplaces, and other locations that promote safe cycling habits. A one second Google would have shown this. Don’t let feelings cloud your arguments.
https://sdbikecoalition.org/classes
Greg, please read the story more closely. The next-to-last graf says: “The Bike Coalition does offer courses in bike safety. But I doubt the young man I nearly killed would sign up for safety training.”
Reckless cyclists will not voluntarily attend safety classes. Like drunk drivers, they need to feel intense societal pressure to obey the law. As the story mentions, a MADD-type public awareness campaign would deliver that message. The Bike Coalition is the logical organization to lead such an effort. And that leadership would, as Hembree says, “contribute to a broader cultural narrative” of cyclists as good citizens.
Anybody using a public street MUST be held accountable, its their responsibility to obey and respect the rules of the road! ENOUGH with bicyclist doing as they please.
Every day hundreds of cars drive in the bike lane on Nimitz to turn left on WPL just to save seconds. It’s a clear traffic offense regardless if a bike is present. It’s a solid white line.
Maybe it’s time car drivers start by respecting the traffic laws that apply to them too.
I think you mean to turn right on WPL. I do it everyday and will not stop! Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Yes, turning right.
But you are the exact reason this article should never have been written. Car drivers endanger bike riders daily and no one cares but bike riders are all supposed to be perfect.
As someone who commuted to work by bicycle up to 20 miles (round trip) from the mid-1960s until the late 90s, my anecdotal experience was, and still is, that most bicycle riders run stop signs at least occasionally. I have to admit having done it a few times myself (at empty residential intersections near home with excellent visibility in all directions when it seemed silly to stop, but that’s not a good excuse).
But I think some bikers simply don’t care, and that probably describes the biker Kate encountered. Safety classes aren’t going to change the behavior of those kinds of people.
And it’s not just bicycle riders. Now that I’m retired and spend a good deal of time walking through different neighborhoods throughout the city, I’ve had some scary moments when crossing intersections because so many automobile drivers run stop signs when they’re turning right.
Yes, and I was knocked down crossing on a “walk” signal by a cyclist who ran the red light at Sunset Cliffs and Newport. Traffic laws are for everyone’s safety.
I can relate to this, George. One thing that drives me crazy is the number of cars that have heavily tinted, black windows. There’s no way to make eye contact with the driver, so you don’t know if they see you at the driveway or intersection. I recall that CA once had a law regarding tinted windows, but likely not enforced anymore.
Yeah,Steph and super-bright headlight beams. That’s my beef. Just a simple drive from OB to East County I see so many bad driving behaviors, I wonder why there aren’t more accidents and deaths / injuries. It’s like during Covid nobody drove much and got out of the “habit” of driving safely, so now, we’re back — and look out!
This is absolutely absurd. I remember when I was younger thinking that the OB Rag was progressive, and maybe it was back then, but this reads, as the Rag so often does these days, as a grumpy old person out of touch with reality.
There are some valid points in here, but the framing is entirely wrong and there is no data to back it up. Yes, some cyclists break the law. But so many motorists break the law that it has become the norm and we don’t even notice it any more.
I would love to see data on two claims made here: “motorists who obeyed the law can still face criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits.” When was the last time a motorist who was obeying the law faced criminal prosecution or was found liable in a civil lawsuit as the result of a collision with a cyclist in San Diego?
As for “high-risk biking practices, like running stop signs and stoplights, lead to a significant number of bike-related fatalities”. Again, I’d love you to provide data, what percentage of bicycle fatalities in San Diego are the result of running stop signs or stoplights?
Jeff, dont bother asking Kate for any bike data – her position has been that her anecdotal diatribes are infallible and authoritative over most organizations that spend years and thousands on research analyzing these things. Much less does she even bother to respond when people make strong points on her laughable arguments. Her main objective with these posts is to ragebait and drive up engagement to this website which has quite literally become the embodiment of the abe simpson old man yells at cloud meme.
Jeff, hey it’s been quite a while since you’ve made comments here. Is that what you mean when you say you were “younger” back in 2011, when your comments appear to strike up a sympathy for Carl De Maio’s anti-worker petitioners at Mesa College?
Frank, I don’t recall ever agreeing with anything related to Carl Demaio, so I’d be shocked if that were the case. But you got me curious so I went back and found that comment I made 15 years ago.
I wasn’t at all striking up sympathy for the anti worker petitioners, I was merely commenting on the shoddy “journalism” of that post showing a video of an incident that didn’t capture the full incident. I obviously don’t remember specifics from 15 years ago, but I can see the post was edited after the fact with three updates justifying and explaining why it was posted in the manner that it was. So back then someone felt that it needed more explanation, just like I tried to convey in my comment.
If you read that post and my comments and come away with the idea that I am sympathetic to anti worker protestors you have a reading comprehension problem.
Don’t be so freaking offensive. Okay,maybe I read your comments wrong. You seemed to be nit-picking and missing the main substance of that article so many moons ago.
Your bicyclist friend may be a candidate for a Darwin Award. However, you are right to be over cautious when driving your car and the closer you get to OB the more cautious you should be! We humans are a crazy bunch, but there are places in Sandyago where our craziness is more concentrated.
Jeff and Javiar, I appreciate that you took the time to comment. Reporters need to hear from people who disagree with us. We learn from that; it helps us think more clearly. I respect your views, and I hope we will continue this dialogue.
Nice olive branch, Kate, but there’s nothing wrong with a story based on an anecdote. Are we supposed to buy the local government’s position that homelessness is going down despite what our eyes (and nose) tell us. I’m an avid cyclist around town and if you want to act like the guy in your story at this intersection, then you’re playing with fire. It is still a dangerous town to bike around if you are not keeping your head on a swivel. I have more avid cyclist friends who are happy to throw caution to the wind. They are hell bent on improving on their time and maintaining pace. My friends will scream at delivery drivers in the bike lane. I get that blocking the lane is problematic and potentially dangerous, but not grounds for cussing someone out. There is a mean streak in the cyclist community.
If the cyclist did exactly as you describe, yes it absolutely would have been his/her fault. Most cyclists (myself included) do treat red lights and stop signs more as caution/yield signs. We have a higher visibility so we’re able to see if there’s cross traffic and take advantage of that. So for me, guilty as charged (shrug). Some states it’s actually legal (known as the Idaho stop). That being said, I see drivers every day doing the same thing, just at a slower pace.
Funny you mention how drivers would face criminal charges even if it’s truly the fault of cyclists. As you know Kate, drivers often face no charges even when it clearly is their fault and when they do it’s nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
So, Chris, you admit that you do not follow the traffic laws. You seem to think that doing so is optional, and that it’s no big deal. Just sayin’.
Unfortunately, to many of us, both cyclists and drivers, feel the same way. Wouldn’t it be nice (and refreshing!) if we all decided, just for one day, to follow the traffic laws as written?
Looks like CA could use the Idaho & Portland stop law. Idaho adopted the law way back in 1982. Portland adopted the law in 2020, I think. The laws state the cyclist can treat a stop sign as a yield & simply slow down before moving through.
Yea, I ride one of those carbon fiber units with the carbon fiber wheels, & I would say that I am a bit of a scofflaw, especially if I’m wearing my colors. I usually do the track stand at minor intersections & stop signs.
It’s tough out there in San Diego streets. I simply hate being passed by a garbage truck; scares the shit out of me; & they stink. Drivers have a multitude of distractions in the vehicle these days: GPS on phone or dash; music on phone or dash; driving while eating; drinking something like hot coffee while driving; slapping the kids in the back seat; doing make-up (boys ‘n girls); texting; flipping off ICE.
It’s a jungle out there. And many of the roads suck for cyclists. (La Joll Shores Dr. was
resurfaced a bit, so I can now hit 40 mph on that downhil section) But the benefits of riding outweigh any benefit of perched upon the couch watching the television, doomscrolling or eating donuts.
I encountered this self-serving semantic argument several years ago. Attempts to control language like this is not anything new, but that is what it is about, control. The suggested language changes are clearly designed with an agenda. The people “correcting” the journalists are not journalists, they are parroting what cycling leaders want them to say. It boils down to, your account of what happened is wrong, therefore ours is correct. That passes as logic for some people.
I had a similar near miss in Point Loma. Cyclist ran a stop sign as I was traveling 20 mph . Luckily, I saw him. I slammed on my brakes and he passed about two feet off the front end of my Ford van. My dog flew to the floor under the dash. I was so shaken I just stayed in place for a few minutes. The idiot never looked back. THAT’s the part the cycling community does not recognize, the trauma drivers experience and carry with them for a lifetime if they are in one of these accidents that were not their fault. What language do we use to describe that?
Everyone should be following the rules of the roads – stops signs, lights, etc – yes. But it’s us drivers who have the privilege to operate a two ton vehicle for convenience. With that privilege comes added responsibility, “fair” or not. I’m imagining how this article would read if it was about jaywalkers or runners. They too are not following the safest street practices, but they aren’t operating a two ton vehicle like we are.
Last week I parked on Pt Loma Avenue, on the north side of the street, maybe 2 houses up the hill from the stop sign at Froude (where there is an elementary school). I went to cross the street (yes, not in a cross walk) and I looked up the hill and saw a bicyclist coming down the hill 2 blocks up, so I crossed. He nearly hit me, he was going so fast, and I could hear the whizz of the bike as it flew past me (and through the stop sign at the elementary school, probably 50 miles an hour (which is way above the speed limit, doesn’t matter if you’re a bike or a car). If I saw a car in the same location when I started to cross the street it would have been nowhere near me by the time I crossed. Just saying, these types of cyclists give cycling a bad name. But it scared the @#$% out of me for sure.
Back in the 60’s I rode my bike to Junior High (from Bird Rock to Muirlands) every day. One day my neighbor Jeff & I blew past a four way stop on our bikes and were stopped by a Cop who was parked at the intersection. We got tickets. We had to appear downtown, which meant that Jeff’s Dad had to take time off work and we had to take time off school. Our punishment was that we had to look through a photo album with pictures taken at bicycle/car crash scenes. As I recall, they were pretty bleak pictures, not just showing curbside candles and flowers as is common today. As I write this, I’ve watched two cars and one e-bike blow through the stop sign visible from my view of Chatsworth Blvd. Without consequences (or enforcement) behaviors are unlikely to change.
Yes, cyclists must obey the rules of the road. But then, so too must motorists and that’s a far greater problem.
I walk a lot every day and I am often confronted by drivers who fail to give legal right-of-way to pedestrians as the law requires. Almost daily I see motorists speeding through residential neighborhoods and not exercising caution as they approach and drive through uncontroled intersections.
Of course, all this means it is prudent for cyclists not just to follow traffic laws, but to keep a vigilant eye out for those who drive recklessly without regard to others.
And more importantly, this emphasizes the essential need for bike lanes to assure cyclists have a safe refuge within which to travel.
I live right down the street and witness motorists running that stop sign and many others in the neighborhood regularly… it’s an everyone problem, not a bicyclist problem. But the real problem is how many single-occupant cars are on the roads. Less cars on the road would mean less fatal accidents in the streets. Maybe you should take the bus next time.
the real problem is how many single-occupant cars are on the roads.
Been that way forever. So many people from so many directions from so many professions going so many places. Um, won’t change despite mass transit.
If by forever you mean the last 100 or so years, yes. But smarter cities than us invested in mass transit and are more efficient for it! I’d love to see San Diego get smarter about how its people move around.
Let me know when you find one. I travel cities and not much different from place to place. Going to Canada this fall, I’ll let you know what I see. Or are you saying our mass transit is not very efficent? Or smarter?
Arguing that “motorists are reckless too” misses the point. If I hit a motorist inside a car, he will almost certainly live. If I hit a cyclist on a bike, especially if he’s speeding. he will almost certainly die. Being faultless wouldn’t spare me the graphic horror of that experience. And that horror would linger a long time. This is what flashed through my mind that morning, and it’s why I wrote the story.
All of which justifies the installation of protected bike lanes along our collector and arterial streets. A motorist can seriously injure or kill a cyclist whether or not that cyclist is following traffic safety laws.
Yes, let’s admonish cyclists to follow the rules of the road. I agree with you. But let’s ensure those that do have a safe lane in which to travel.
Folks also need to be reminded that State law allows cyclists to take up an entire lane of travel if bike lanes are not present. A lot of people don’t know this.
Kate, you’re missing your own point. The problem is always the dang cars.