Cycling safety became Dave Mathews' passion after a bad bike wreck 18 months ago, and he grew more serious on the subject after a pickup struck and killed cyclist Paul Taylor.
Mathews became downright angry after authorities announced last week nobody will be prosecuted because they don't have evidence to make a case.
"We're human beings too," said Mathews, who started a Facebook page about bike safety in Atlanta. "We're not disposable creatures."
This kind of anger and frustration has spread through the Atlanta biking community, which has long complained about lack of respect on the road. As a commenter on a Patch story said,
Let me get this straight, if I run over a cyclist at 6:20am and the 4 lane road is otherwise empty of cars so that the bike could be avoided -- I still get to kill somebody for free? I may not be an experienced investigator of traffic fatalities — but it is clear that neither are the Decatur City Police. These other police agencies can "review" all they want — if the initial investigation (by Decatur) is incomplete or flawed, it is too late.
Decatur police said they simply didn't find evidence that would allow them to prosecute Jorge Mercado-Perez, 58, of Snellville, who was driving the Ford Ranger truck that struck Taylor. Two other police agencies reviewed their findings.
DeKalb County Solicitor Sherry Boston announced Friday she would not prosecute. If she had moved ahead, the case would have been a misdemeanor.
Taylor, 53, worked at Emory at Grady. The truck hit him about 6:20 a.m. April 30 on North Decatur Road, route: {:controller=>"articles", :action=>"show", :id=>"bicyclist-killed-on-n-decatur-rd"} -->, near the intersection with Willivee Drive. Mercado-Perez
Those ghost frame purchases would buy a lot of safety on the road. Where are the bike lights? even motorcycles ride lit up. Lastly, please consider pulling off the road and let faster traffic pass. I know you want to develop endurance and range, but the build up leads to antsy operators and its just not worth the chance. Follow rules of the road, stop at lights and DON'T blow through, when you run the red you could be surprised how fast it can be filled in the direction of the green, Motorcycles FLY too.
A cyclist has every right to the road. Similarly, a 16-year old girl has the right to walk down a dark ally alone at 2:00am. Is exercising either one of these rights a good idea? Er....I say no.
you obviously don;t care about driving laws or people wle
he probably wasn;t on n decatur for long you have to be on it right there, to get ANYWHERE, unless you want to go 6 miles to avoid it he may have been intending to turn off at the first opportunity which would make it REALLY bad luck wle
you're just too angry wle
1) Heavy fines for parking/stopping in the middle of traffic (UPS/FedEx/etc.) 2) Put cones in areas where drivers frequently cross double yellow lines These two things cause problems for both cars and bikes. The violators are selfish drivers who inconvenience everyone.
In my view, the big problem is some selfish drivers causing a cascade of problems when they impede traffic flow. This forces both cars & drivers into opposing lanes and reduces road capacity. By the way, I totally acknowledge that some some bikes (especially large groups in a cluster) can cause problems. But the bike riders are more putting themselves at risk when they misbehave.
bikes should take the lane get out of the 'door lane' to the far right if cars have to wait half a minute, they can calm down does anyone on north highland expect that to be a high speed route? no same thing in downtown atl lots of lights, crosswalks, buses, carriages, double parkers, why take it out on 2 or 3 bikes? there are plenty of other things to slow you down chillit wle
i think it is just something to charge a motorist with after a cyclist is killed obviously if there is a collision, the space was 0 feet wle
It is just a bad road and was a bad decision that day.