Lessons to be learned

[ed_rex]

Adding insult to fatality?

I don't actually enjoy speaking ill of the dead, nor do I enjoy blaming the victim.

But sometimes there is an important difference between moral and practical blame.

The death of Ottawa civil servant and avid cyclist Danielle Naçu marks one of those times when it is better to risk hurting feelings than it is to observe the social niceties of soothing grief and anger.

So it is necessary to point out what many cyclists — and others — in Ottawa seem to have missed.

Namely, that if Danielle Naçu had been following two basic rules of safe cycling, she would not have been hit and so she would have almost certainly still been alive today.

For the rules and a bit of a rant, click here.

Comments

[evilawyer]

We have a huge "Share the Road" contingent here. Which is all fine and good. However, I find that cyclists actually mean "Stay the Hell Away and Give Us the Road". I reach this conclusion by the way large numbers of them refuse to stay to right of the lane as much as they can on the curvy mountain roads I drive. I realize that they are out having fun and feeling like they shouldn't have to watch out for themselves, but when they decide that they need to be in the middle of the lane to enjoy themselves instead of off to the right of the lane where they are supposed to be, the chances that they will get hit by someone on their way to work or home or wherever coming downhill coming around a blind curve who suddenly finds a bicycle in front of them are very, very high. Those chances get even higher when the cyclist crosses over the middle line and is coming downhill at an uphill driver in the uphill driver's lane. Not a pleasant place to be as a driver, but the cyclists are too self-centered to recognize that fact.

I used to be more tolerant, but experience with cyclists has made me the way I am now.

There's no arguing with stupidity

[ed_rex]

Those chances get even higher when the cyclist crosses over the middle line and is coming downhill at an uphill driver in the uphill driver's lane.

Raven and I recently rented a car and found ourselves in a nearby Provincial Park with very narrow and curvy roads. Quite a few cyclists, too, but I am happy to say most if not all of them were exercising quite a bit more common sense than those you report seeing.

The on-coming lane in blind curves!?!

Re: There's no arguing with stupidity

[evilawyer]

The on-coming lane in blind curves!?!

Yup. I guess they don't get enough of a rush from coming downhill at a 30 degree angle at 50 miles per hour when the speed limit is 35. They have to court death by car-splat, too.