FLCC> FW: crushing of local cyclist
Wayne Gottlieb
wgottlieb at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 23 15:55:40 EDT 2007
Inattentional blindness (if it is a real thing)
certainly provides a good reason to urge more people
to bike commute. A single person on the road is much
more likely to be overlooked (and hit) than if there
were bikers every 100 feet or so. If I were eloquent,
I would simply write a letter to the journal
encouraging people to ride. If someone starts a
scandle, they're much more likely to print it. In
fact, if we could somehow write it in a way that it's
critical of the highschool or DeWitt Middle School,
it's sure to get published. Cynically yours, Wayne
--- Bill Goffe <goffe at oswego.edu> wrote:
> On "claimed he didn't see" it might be a case of
> "inattentional
> blindness." Clearly I wasn't there, but this is a
> fairly common phenomena
> and I'd like to think that not everyone is that
> mendacious.
> One writeup is
>
http://www.visualexpert.com/Resources/inattentionalblindness.html
> .
> The one about the airliner flying into the ground is
> apparently a classic example.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inattentional_blindness
> describes how people
> missed a person in a gorilla suit in a film as they
> were looking for
> something else.
>
> It would appear that the take-home message for
> cyclists is to be extra
> careful.
>
> - Bill
>
> Alex said:
>
> > John, FLCC,
> >
> > It's probably just coincidence but the two
> times I was hit in the city
> > were by large Jeep SUVs. On the first occasion,
> the guy went right through
> > a red light and hit my car in the back,
> spinning me completely around
> > (claimed he didn't see the red, or any, light).
> On the second occasion, I
> > was hit while riding my bike to work by someone
> who turned into me trying
> > to get into a driveway (claimed he didn't see
> me).
> >
> > Yesterday, I saw an accident on Meadow street
> by the Ithaca bakery and,
> > you guessed it, a large Jeep SUV was involved.
> >
> > Ride safe,
> > Alex
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: John Dennis <jvd at baka.com>
> > To: flcc at icycle.org; 'Mike Simkin'
> <mes13 at cornell.edu>
> > Sent: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 8:29 pm
> > Subject: FLCC> FW: crushing of local cyclist
> >
> > 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 [1]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
> > [2]weight of a [3]road [4]vehicle or trailer
> that is loaded, including the
> > weight of the vehicle itself plus [5]fuel,
> [6]passengers, [7]cargo, and
> > [8]trailer tongue weight." In the [9]United
> States, two important GVWR
> > limitations are 6,000 [10]pounds (2,721 [11]kg)
> and 8,500 pounds (3,856
> > kg).
> >
> > Andy Bowers suggests in a [12]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.
> >
> >
> > [13]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
> > [14]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
>
=== message truncated ===
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