A white ghost bike has been placed at the location of last month's fatal collision at 5244 River Road in Bethesda. The victim, Bethesda resident Sarah Langenkamp, was riding in the unprotected bike lane there when she was struck by the driver of a flatbed truck. Langenkamp was a Foreign Service officer with the U.S. State Department, who had just returned from an assignment in Ukraine in July. A memorial bike safety fund started in her name with a goal of $50,000 has already raised $267,435, as of this morning.
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| The bike lane (seen at right) does not have a green paint surface or physical separation from vehicle lanes |
17 comments:
This was so sad. Has an official report been issued on the cause of the incident?
8:25: I have not seen one yet, but I would be interested in what the findings were. The way it has been described to have happened in media reports, would have required great negligence by the truck driver. The driver would have had to pass the cyclist, and therefore be aware she was there, which would negate the issue of a blind spot. If you're approaching any type of turn across the path of a bike lane, and you know a cyclist is approaching in that lane, you can't responsibly make that turn until you see where the cyclist is.
Now, it's possible the truck was stopped at that traffic signal and did not pass the cyclist. But it would still be incumbent under traffic rules on the driver to check that bike lane before turning.
This would be different, for example, from the accidents on Old Georgetown Road or Little Falls Parkway, where a cyclist suddenly enters the roadway in front of a driver.
Regardless, we are going to see knee-jerk reactions to River just as we did on Old Geo'twn Road which is now ruined and an entire travel lane has been taken out and very likely will ever return. Deaths, while tragic, obviously will happen. The widower of the cyclist wants River Road to be drastically changed to increase bicycle safety. Judging from the big turnout by politicians, for the walk they had recently along that stretch, he's liable to get them.
River Road, under no circumstances that I can ever see, should be shared with someone on a bike. Remember, these are roads designed for automobiles. The CCT is right around the corner. Use that or walk if you don't want to add to your carbon footprint.
@8:57 AM: Great points, Robert. I'm very interested to know the findings as well. I have a feeling that the truck driver passed the cyclist and then forgot they were there, if they were indeed trying to make a turn off of River Road. It's also possible that the cyclist was stopped alongside the truck but in a blindspot on the right side of the cab. So sad.
Just awful. My heart breaks for this family.
9:14, I often use that narrow bike lane along River Rd. to get to the CCT. I think it should stay just the way it is, neither enlarged or eliminated. That being said, every bike fatality is sad. This one definitely is very sad.
The driver was turning right into the Beacon construct supply place. They were driving a flatbed and I guess didn't see the cyclist in the bike lane.
I'm not sure how a "protected " bike lane would help here -- vehicles still need to make right turns across them. It's also nor a speed issue -- a truck like that would be going well below the 35mph limit to make the turn.
I think the driver just didn't see the cyclist. After they hit them, they didn't realize it so they kept driving into the parking lot.
@12:04 PM: The truck driver would have seen the cyclist if the truck passed her on River Road before the turn. In that case the truck driver would have had to forget that the cyclist was there in the bike lane, or maybe the driver thought for some reason that the cyclist would have yielded to him while making the right turn. The only way that the truck driver wouldn't have seen the cyclist at all before the collision would be that the cyclist merged onto River Road and the truck driver checked his right side mirrors and didn't see her (or that he didn't check his mirrors at all) before making the turn.
11:17 - I would not support major changes here you know why? Because, bike accidents could just as easily happen on nearby MA Ave or any other road for the matter that don't have barriers, etc nor should they. They will continue to happen as they do in every town. No question that all deaths in this manner are sad. They're all horrible. Preventable though? I really don't think so. That's why they're called accidents.
@1:27 Maybe the driver didn't check their mirrors, or maybe the truck was driving so slowly (traffic) that the bike caught up and ended up being beside them by the time it came to turn. Regardless, I don't think a protected bike lane would have prevented this, since vehicles need to turn into businesses there.
Self-driving cars can't get here soon enough. I don't care when a drug dealer gets murdered or an addict ODs on heroin; those are simply high risk illegal activities that someone chooses to partake in. A real tragedy is someone simply trying to move from A to B and never gets home because our bike infrastructure is shit and someone's too lazy to look in their mirror.
"our bike infrastructure is shit and someone's too lazy to look in their mirror."
No where do I ever see that the biker, or pedestrian is EVER at fault, even partially. There's such a thing as personal responsibility, yet the government creates a false sense of
security with their crosswalks, bike lanes, etc. These ARE roadways, after all.
We have an Ad Hoc system of bike lanes and until they completely redesign all the roads to include wide bike lanes on each side, there will still be deaths.
Denmark has 1 million cars and 5 million people. They ride bikes because gas is $8 a gallon. That type of thing is coming here at breakneck speed.
In the meantime, keep your head on a swivel.
Drivers barreling down River Rd. at high speeds often don't adjust to the congested conditions once past Ridgefield Rd. (the future Westbard intersection). I saw one yesterday doing 40-45mph past Talbert's. That is way too fast but everyone around here is in a big hurry.
5:50 - And they lowered the speed limit north of Kenwood CC and people ignore it and go 60+ as you approach Whitman on the right.
8:25 - Thank you for echoing my sentiment. These are called roads and were and are designed to carry motor vehicle traffic. Bikes are not meant to be on River Road really are they? Would we put bike lanes on Conn. Ave or Wisc Ave? Biking is great and there's no issue with that. But we don't have trains anymore mostly and the former rails have been transformed into multi-use pathways and that's awesome. Accidents are going to happen on River, Old Geo'twn, etc, etc no matter what because they can't be changed to accommodate bikes. No, what they're knee-jerk done here is ruined those roads as the traffic is horrible. Cars need to move and no, they won't ever go away no matter if they're Tesla's or big trucks.
@6:02 Don't hold your breath waiting for them, the reliability rate is extremely poor. https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2022/05/16/semi-autonomous-car-hit-cyclist-in-5-out-of-15-test-runs-finds-aaa/?sh=6b26bb603d03
Mixing cars with bikes on any road is an idiotic idea...
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