FLCC> FW: crushing of local cyclist

Mon Oct 22 21:38:42 EDT 2007

Hi Mike and the FLCC listserv, 

Yes, I was in error in my earlier post to have implied that the driver of
the Jeep was at fault, as there was little or nothing first IJ article to
warrant such an implication. From the IJ today we learn that witnesses saw
the FedeX truck driven into the path of a Jeep Grand Cherokee which had
right-of-way. 

My point about momentum is that many SUVs are unnecessarily heavy and thus
are more prone to cause harm to others when involved in accidents.  Why not
complain about this? 

According to Wikipedia, “vehicles over 6,000 pounds are restricted from many
city roadways in the United States although there is some dispute about
whether this restriction is for actual curb weight or for GVWR (gross
vehicle weight rating). GVWR is the maximum allowable total weight of a road
vehicle or trailer that is loaded, including the weight of the vehicle
itself plus fuel, passengers, cargo, and trailer tongue weight.” In the
United States, two important GVWR limitations are 6,000 pounds and 8,500
pounds. 

Andy Bowers suggests in a HYPERLINK "http://slate.com/id/2104755/"2004
article that California has banned big SUVs from many of its roads without
realizing it. He claims that many big SUVs are banned from most roads in LA,
San Francisco and Santa Monica by pre-SUV laws that banned trucks weighing
more than 6000 pounds. Below I have made a table showing the GRWR and curb
weights for various 2007 model SUVs and a few 2007 sedans. Note that the
Jeep Grand Cherokee—the sedan involved in Friday’s accident--is just under
the 6000 pound GRWR threshold. 

HYPERLINK
"http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi?COMMONQUERY=LAWS"NYS’s
limits on vehicle weights appear to be very liberal.  The weight on a single
wheel “shall be not  more
  than eleven thousand two hundred pounds.” That’s the equivalent of an
entire H1 Hummer resting on a single wheel.

Vehicle weights in pounds for 2007 vehicles unless indicated

factor

GRWR is

GRWR

curb weight

>6000 lbs

Hummer H1 (2006)

10,300

7847

1.72

Hummer H2

8600

6400

1.43

Lincoln Navigator

7800

6008

1.30

Chevy Tahoe 2008

7300

5524

1.22

Chevy Suburban

7200

5505

1.20

GMC Yukon

7100

5635

1.18

Toyota Land Cruiser

6925

5425

1.15

Toyota Sequoia

6600

5140

1.10

VW Touareg

6493

5254

1.08

Jeep Grand Cherokee

5900

4488

0.98

Hummer H3

5850

4700

0.98

Toyota Rav4

4535

3444

0.76

Toyota Camry

3680

Toyota Corolla

2550

Toyota Prius

2890

VW Passat

3344

VW Beetle

2948

Does the Town or City of Ithaca have any weight limits?  Engineer Tom West
of the City of Ithaca told me today he didn’t know of any, but he will
check. I have found a limitation of truck weights to 5 tons in parts of
HYPERLINK "http://fhia.org/events/truckcount.htm"Forest Home.

Would it be out-of-line for cyclists as a group to ask that the Town of
Ithaca and the City of Ithaca to impose limits on the size of SUVs allowed
on Ithaca streets?  I think not.  For one thing, it would be a show of
solidarity with the cyclist, Edward Coil, who was crushed by the Fedex truck
as a result of Friday’s accident. Second, are streets would be safer for
everyone, no just cyclists.  Third, our pavements would last longer and
there would be less pressure to raise taxes. And fourth, our City and Town
would be on record as taking a stand to say, Enough is enough from a
sustainable livelihoods perspective.  In this age of global warming that may
yet have catastrophic impacts on many millions of people, there is no need
to drive to work or to the store or anywhere in a vehicle that weighs over
6000 pounds. Could a ban be imposed on a given street, when a (12,000 lb?)
snow plow was allowed to operate on that street. I have no idea!  The latter
is an emergency vehicle and the objective of minimizing weight stresses to
pavement and the number of heavy vehicles on our streets would still be
served.    

Friday’s accident is at least the second fatal SUV-related accident in
Ithaca in the past year, is it not?  In an earlier accident on Seneca St., a
female pedestrian was fatally run over by an SUV as she crossed the street.
The driver of the SUV continued on without stopping.  Police later found him
shopping at Home Depot and he apparently denied knowing that he had run over
anything.  According to the IJ on-line comment section, the driver received
only a traffic citation. 

One wonders if members of the community spoke up and asked the police and
District Attorney’s Office how much investigation went into the driver’s
claim to have been completely unaware of having hit anything? Was this
driver asked to submit to a polygraph or related test?  Did the District
Attorney’s office order simulation tests to be performed to test whether it
would be physically possible for an SUV of the model in question to hit a
manikin of the victim’s weight, size, and density without the impact shock
being clearly noticeable to a driver?  

If California’s major cities already have 6000 pound weight limits for most
of their roads, why shouldn’t Ithaca pass similar laws?  In our case,
however, I would be in favor of there being a clear intent to enforce these
laws for both SUVs and commercial trucks (with exceptions for fire trucks,
snow plows, garbage trucks and similar service vehicles). 

Best,   John

No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.15.5/1085 - Release Date: 10/22/2007
10:35 AM

No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition. 
Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.15.5/1085 - Release Date: 10/22/2007
10:35 AM

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://icycle.org/pipermail/flcc_icycle.org/attachments/20071022/f41cf74b/attachment-0001.html 