That's how I feel lately

With the four recent deaths in Atlanta (all within about a week's time) it certainly has been on my mind more than usual and as we see a lot more debate from the public (mostly hostile) toward cyclists on popular commute roads. Two of the cyclists that were killed were being safe and charges are filed against the drivers. So what keep playing out in my head like a bad song is, "Dead is dead." To the cyclists that were killed they were all fathers that now have left a single income mother with children in at least two of the cases. We (Atlanta) can debate all we want about cyclist's rights, but it is now beyond a worthy debate for the dead cyclist and the widow.

I've come close to hitting commuting cyclists myself on a couple of occasions and here I am preaching about "share the road" on my blog and have the state license plate on my car. To the ones I almost hit I do believe they have the right to be in the lane in front of me, but I have to admit that in early morning hours before the sun comes up and there is a sea of red brake and tail lights on cars it is sometimes very difficult to see that one little tiny red blinking light on the commuting cyclists. It just doesn't stand out enough and that is with me being as observant as I can be. On the two occasions where I have had close calls and missing the cyclists I simply wasn't expecting to see someone crazy enough to be on such a congested road during the morning commute. So even if I had hurt or killed these cyclists does it matter if it is my fault or if they have a right or if they veered in front of me or whatever else? Dead is dead

Last week we had vacation in Orange Beach and I used a route that crossed a fairly busy large bridge. It has a wide shoulder much like the picture and had some spots of glass and metal debris here and there. I could have veered out into the traffic lane to avoid this (bunny hopping at speed is a worthy skill for smaller pavement imperfections), but figured a $4 tube was not worth dying for or even a stupid Strava segment trying to race down the other side. I was lucky 4 of the days, but on the 5th day I did have to change a flat before leaving the condo. To me at least I would rather have changed the flat (took less than 5 minutes) than to have taken the risk of going out into traffic just because I have the right to use that lane. If anything these recent deaths has really made an impact that if I raise the risk even higher (because we are still at high risk anyway) that leaves my wife with a lot of problems. She is terrified enough every time I go out that I am not going to come back. It is not fair to her for me to raise the risk even more just because I want to press my rights to use the roads.

I guess this is just a hot topic for me lately and in a good way because I want to be more careful and more courteous to drivers when I can.