That’s so scary. Many people I know of including myself will only ride in a group. And hell this was even an organized ride? We as a cycling community just can’t win it seems.

It makes you want to throw up.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Sadly this happens so often that it's not even a story that gets noticed. The frequency of mass murder-by-car of cyclists is in the same order of magnitude as mass murder-by-gun. A gunman shoots everyone in sight and we at least debate gun laws, a driver murders cyclists with a vehicle and it's accepted as 'the way things are'.

If you kill someone with your vehicle by your own negligence, you deserve to have your life ruined. You may not be a deranged gunman, but you are still a menace to society.

Sadly there have been several incidents where a driver struck and killed cyclists riding in groups. Remember the one in Texas where the kid rolling coal killed two cyclists in his Dad's souped up pickup truck? I actually don't ride my tri-bike on paved roads anymore (do gravel rides, mtn biking, and zwift). But when I did ride outside on paved roads, I felt safer alone or with just my husband. Then again, we had many malicious life-threatening incidents with vehicles (mostly trucks driven by rural men) that we gave up. It wasn't worth the risk.

Another very sad tragedy. My condolences to the families. I can't even imagine.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Woman charged today.

No alcohol in her system but she has a history of prescription drug abuse.

After three near-death moments riding on the back roads of California's Santa Ynez Valley, I finally said ENOUGH. I still have nightmares about one of them--six inches from a sure death by a guy in a pickup going at least 70 mph in a 45 zone. It's a shame because I love riding my bike(s). For the past few years my race preparation has consisted of spin classes at my local YMCA, more spinning on my old spinner in my garage, and very occasional mid-morning rides (after work traffic) on neighborhood streets within a half mile of my house. Sad, but there it is. Thank God for racing, on closed courses. It's the only time I feel the comfort and exhilaration of riding fast anymore. As with so many others in this thread, my condolences to the families and friends of the deceased.

I've been off ST for the past couple weeks as I recover from a shoulder surgery.
Lost within the thread is this post.... No alcohol in her system.
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Sad story. I ride those roads in Ionia, MI (about 15 miles from home) and share roads with people at that time of the morning frequently.
Regarding the Varia... it was the best gift I ever received! It was the item I never knew I needed / wanted until I got it.
Buy it! Buy it for your friends.

For those here in West Michigan, though, I always consider these roads to be safe, and although I consider it isolated, I also recognize the risks.

I’ve had two friends murdered on their bikes, more injured, and too many close calls myself. My wife was always a nervous wreck when I was out riding, and that wasn’t fair to her. Nothing will change in my lifetime, so I’m taking a different approach, along with my indoor riding. If I can swim 100 laps in the pool, it’s nothing to find a decent stretch of our local bike path system, and do laps. I also go to the university near me, on Sunday mornings, when it’s a ghost town, and ride a 3 mile crit type course. Not only do I rarely see anyone but campus security… but if someone does drive through, the speed limit is 20 mph. It’s got some punchy little hills that really add up after 20 laps or so, and an added bonus is bathrooms and water fountains at the tennis courts. I’m in my 3rd year of this strategy, and I’m getting my miles, and it’s working well enough to AG podium at IM Tulsa… and that was a bear of a bike course.

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Athlinks / Strava

I agree with you that nothing will change in our lifetime (probably get worse). I've changed my biking behavior to mostly riding trails (gravel) and the indoor trainer during the week and saving the long road ride for sunrise on Sunday mornings. When I do that ride, I'm using my Varia, my mirror, bright clothing, and my "spidy" senses are on full alert. So far that has worked well for me.

On another topic I'm having more close encounters with cars on my neighborhood morning run when I'm running on the left side of the road (sidewalk) and cars come hauling ass out of neighborhoods making right turns without looking right.

Sunrise and sunset can be very dangerous times to ride...

Fortunately, in the summer the sun rises quickly or about 15-20 minutes out of a 6-hour ride. Certainly, manageable if you are paying attention to your surroundings.

Motorists can be blinded by the sun and can't see you. When you are heading towards the sun, you are in danger of being hit from behind, and away from it people will turn in front of you. If you are perpendicular it's a better, but someone can still be impaired enough to miss seeing you with a quick glance. Very bright flashing lights front and rear help, but they need to be good ones.

"I also go to the university near me, on Sunday mornings, when it’s a ghost town, and ride a 3 mile crit type course."



Old shopping malls and new or abandoned housing developments (with no inhabitants) work a treat. It's usually just me, dog walkers, and the rookie fire department drivers getting training with the big trucks at a development near me. I would not feel safe in a state or county park, since there are often so many blind turns, but these parks often have great road surfaces and low speed limits. Might work for some of you. I'm headed to my local university in a bit for a ride and run myself.

I don't know hold old you are, but I disagree that "nothing will change in our lifetimes." I think autonomous cars are the game-changer, and assuming I don't die young, I hope they'll be readily available by the time I need them in my 70s / 80s. Elderly drivers, drunk drivers and distracted drivers - an autonomous vehicle will fix all these problems. Will autonomous vehicles mow down cyclists? Probably occasionally but not nearly as often as human drivers. And we can reverse the crazy low speed limits being imposed in some places.

Maybe I'll be e-biking in my 80s, but I do acknowledge that we're probably two or three decades away from this solution. It's possible it won't make much difference to those of us cycling today. But I hope my daughters will be able to cycle more safely in their 40s.

As for me, for safety I cycle on the trainer on weekdays rather than riding at rush hour. I stick to early morning rides on the weekends when traffic is light. It's far from foolproof, but it's a compromise I can (hopefully) live with for now.

Whether or not it pans out the prospect of autonomous vehicles has the potential to change this like nothing else possibly could.

What’s the real time line of that becoming common? At min 20 years away?

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Tried to capture how the mirror and varia work together on my ride this morning but found it to dangerous to try with a car passing. You can get a pretty good idea of the visibility I have behind me with this picture.

I assume in 20 years I'll still be alive and I'm no spring chicken.

I used to live in the Richmond area and knew of this athlete through the Richmond Tri Club who was hit and killed by an 18 year old drunk driver at 7:15am on a Saturday.

Eta: driver was charged w manslaughter and dwi

https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/jeffrey-brooks-charged-dui-osborne-turnpike-crash-carla-holland-dead

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Don't need autonomous vehicles, just improvements with ADAS, so cars brake/steer upon detecting imminent collision with a cyclist or pedestrian. Even when being manually driven. The tech is pretty much all there. Radar/lidar/vision, 5G V2X, path planning, etc.. Just a matter of engineering it into a cohesive system, etc.

I think the first cars that do this are pretty imminent. They're already deep in R&D, which usually means 2-4 years to consumer production.

But it may take a decade or more for cars equipped with the new generation of ADAS to become the predominant vehicles on the road. And it just takes one muscle car bro with his retro Hemi to kill a bunch of cyclists, even in ~2035.

So we are still likely decade(s) away and I'm guessing the biggest factor in all of this is the resources to make it cheap and affordable. We can talk about all the technology being there, but until the end user is using it on the open roads and all road users are safer because of it...the issue is still going to be getting to that point. How many people will die in the mean time?

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Oh tons. Also people in cars, who die in droves every day.

I'm not singing kumbaya. Just laying out what I think is a reasonable timeline for something that could be hugely significant for the generations that follow us. Or ourselves in middle/old age.

Which is why I wrote all road end users (as I didn't want it to be only about cycling deaths). I just shoulder shrug when I read that the tech is all but there, and then yet it'll still be 10-20 years away. Dont tell me the tech is there then imo. Kinda makes it worse, but again it's only because of the cost of it. So yeah you can say the tech is there, but we as a society don't want to pay for it at the current price setup.

which is why i've said it's at min 2 decades away from actually thinking we are more safer, and actually are more safer. And yes we'll still have issues and people will still dirve 80 mph and crash and kill each other in highway crashes, etc.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Everything sucks. Society is in a downward spiral. We are all doomed to either Zwift or death/dismemberment.

Is that better? :)

No the rub for me is when you say the technology is there. And in the next sentence say it's going to take a decade plus. Which I'm 100% in agreement with you, in fact I think it'll take 20 years before we can all be in a much better place on the roads. So then I have to figure out how I'm going to get from 2022 to 2035 without dying personally, or have an athlete killed or group ride that I lead die in, etc. Or even have to read another ST article about cyclist dying cus they got hit by a drunk or drugged out driver. So yeah when I hear the tech is there, and yet it'll take decades likely still, I'll eye roll you....cus I know what will happen in the mean time.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II