witnessed a bike crash

[mindstalk]

No one badly injured, probably.

Me: biking down the bidirectional bike path along Columbus Drive. This is black asphalt, with a median stripe, and lots of painted bikes on the surface. It is separated by a planted verge from a concrete sidewalk that is at least as wide and smooth as the bike path, and objectively safer (it's by the river, so further from anything that moves fast.)

Ahead of me: Oblivious Pedestrian, henceforth OP, a big middle-aged white man, walking down the middle of the path, maybe a bit over in the oncoming lane. Head down, looking at his phone.

Ahead of him: Oncoming Cyclist, henceforth OC, a younger white man, coming rapidly up the path.

I'd been wondering how to pass OP, but saw OC ahead. I probably slowed down, though I was still some distance from a crisis point.

OC started ringing his bell madly. OP did not react in any way. I do not know if he had headphones (earbuds) or was just that engrossed in his phone.

Crash! Bike down. OC down. OP staggered but now down. I came to a stop before reaching the site.

OC said he was okay when I asked, though I thought I saw a red scrape on his calf. OC yelled at OP, stuff like "Pay attention! And what were you doing on the bike path!" OP yelled back "It was an accident, okay?" [repeat]

Gentle reader, I am reminded of the manner in which many people claim it is an accident when a speeding driver slams into people and kill them. This was not an accident, that genuinely happens with no reasonable fault. This was a crash, and I judge them both culpable.

Designer: Unlike the case with many car crashes, I think the path designer is clear of this one. I don't know how you could make it more obvious that this is a space for bikes and pedestrians should go over there. The verge even prevents accidental drift across the line.

OP: seriously dude, WTF were you doing? I can understand why runners use the bike path, even if I don't like it, but someone just strolling has no reasonable business there, especially if they're not paying attention. It's not like he was crossing, he was walking down the path, just as I was biking down it. This is a less tragic version of walking against traffic, on a busy stroad, when there's a perfectly fine sidewalk 6 feet away.

I should note that there are bigger hazards on this path than bikes. E-bikes, motorized kick scooters, and outright light(maybe?) motorcycles use this path, at high speed, even though they probably shouldn't be. (Probably not, I mean, legally. They definitely shouldn't be zooming along that fast, morally.) If you're going to be staring at your phone, dead to the world, it's really safer on the sidewalk.

OC: Dude, slow down when you see potential hazards. I'm sure it's annoying to sacrifice your road bike speed because of some dumbass ahead, but it was dumb to proceed at speed and trust that your bike bell would get OP out of the way in time... Possibly OC meant to go around, then saw me oncoming and had to change plans. OTOH, going too fast to be aware of the path and react to things is itself a problem.

So yeah. OP made himself a hazard unnecessarily, OC handled it badly.

Comments

[mtbc]

Sounds about right on all counts, glad no serious harm done. Honestly, if OP is lost inside his phone, instead of wandering along he can get out of the way altogether until he's done, I have to dodge them as a pedestrian too.