Author: Bike Law
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Bike Safety in Iowa
The Des Moines Register is publishing a series of articles on bicycling in Iowa. My understanding is that they had planned the series, but the highly publicized hit-and run-death of Gregary “Wade” Franck brought bicycling safety issues to the forefront of many minds in Iowa.The current article is titled, “Why does Iowa have so many bike-car crashes?”
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Bike Law Tour: Detroit
Detroit Bike City! After leaving Maryland we headed northwest toward Detroit. As we got closer to Pittsburgh we were all looking for a place to ride. Our route was going to cross the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) at some point, but none of the assorted maps and GPS systems could tell us exactly where—at least
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Bike Law Tour: DC
Having rolled out of Charlotte at the end of the party, we made our way closer to DC and “slept” east of Durham for a few hours. Up early and out the door after a banana break we headed toward Richmond. At Richmond we picked up Bike Law Tom and switched drivers. Bob took the wheel
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Ignore NPR, Bicycling Is Safe
An irresponsible piece of journalism about biking injuries and deaths was published yesterday by National Public Radio under the headline, As More Adults Pedal, Their Biking Injuries and Deaths Spike, Too. The story noted the fact that the number of people biking regularly has substantially increased over the past several years, while spotlighting a “striking”
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Lessons from Crashing in a Bike Race
“There are two types of bicycle riders, those who have crashed and those who will crash.” I recall being told this when I first began cycling and time has proven it to be true. In my case, the crashes have been numerous. As my dad has pointed out, I have a need for doing everything
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Drivers May Be Liable When A “Near Miss” Causes Injury
To horseshoes and hand grenades I would add bicycling in traffic to the list of activities in which close may be enough to do damage. While riding a bike, coming close to physical contact with a vehicle, i.e. a car door, may be enough to cause a crash and serious injury. In a video making
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California Cyclists Buzzed — By Police Officers!
When the Beatles were in the studio recording what has gone down in music history as “the most important rock & roll album ever made,” Paul McCartney, working on one of his songs, sang “it’s getting better all the time”… to which John Lennon replied “it couldn’t get no worse.” Bicycling advocacy is like that.
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The Court Of Public Opinion v. Bicycle Fatality
There is an old saying in journalism, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” The legal profession is no stranger to this standard of diligence. You very well might get every lawyer to admit his or her favorite word is “allegedly.” Take the first policy I learned when clerking for Freeman Kevenides
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Illinois Hit and Run Death, but Driver Leaves Plate
CBS is reporting that a bicyclist was killed in Des Plaines last night by a hit-and-run driver. Apparently, the driver was a United Airlines employee driving a company SUV. At approximately 9:40pm the SUV, allegedly driven by United Airlines worker Daniel Wehr struck a bicyclist, 25 year old Jose Gomez of Des Plaines. The collision occurred on Algonquin
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Inspired by the Bike Nomad, Bryan takes a tour!
The idea for a journey from Madison, Wisconsin to Michigan started in Washington, D.C. at the League of American Bicyclists’ National Bike Summit. One of the benefits of attending the Bike Summit was the opportunity to meet bicycle advocates from around the country. At this year’s Summit, I was fortunate to meet Erick Cedeño, better known as
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Legal Reform Needed to Protect Cyclists
Friday afternoon I first saw a video of a driver viciously attacking a cyclist during the morning commute that day. The driver can be seen in a video running and punching a cyclist. As with many cell phone videos, this one doesn’t tell the whole story. The incident began at approximately 7:50 am Friday morning
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Detroit Bike City
A few years ago, I read a blog about bicycle laws written by a Detroit personal injury lawyer. It was clear the writer was a good attorney who understood the law, but not a person who spent much time on a bicycle. In the blog, the lawyer stated that Detroit was not a place where
