Two South Sac Bicyclists Killed in June - Where's Our Supervisor?

Ever See a Sac County Supervisor Bicycling in South Sacramento?

By Villy Fink Isaksen (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

UPDATE:  Today (6/28) The day after this post was originally published, we learned that a bicyclist was struck by a light rail train in the City of Sacramento.  See here.  Can we start talking more about bicycle safety and better infrastructure?

Two bicyclists were hit and killed this month by motorists in South Sacramento.  That's not okay, and our local leaders need to step up and advocate for bicycling and pedestrian safety.

Last year, the Sacramento Bee published an article entitled, "Sacramento is not a friendly city for cyclists," by Daniel Weintraub. 

In addition to describing how difficult it is to bicycle in the City, Weintraub noted that bicycling to the City - such as from unincorporated South Sacramento - is dangerous.

"Bike trails are almost nonexistent, and bike lanes outside the city center either don’t exist or aren’t continuous. They end randomly or are squeezed by traffic structures and shifting vehicle lane widths. Cars, trucks and buses speed by inches from your ear as drivers rush to and from work."

In fact, Weintraub might have been writing specifically about South Sacramento when he added:

"These problems are especially bad in the city’s lower-income neighborhoods, where more people depend on bikes as their only form of wheeled transportation. Bike lanes are even sparser, and the roads tend to be vast arterials designed to move cars quickly without regard to the safety of cyclists or pedestrians."

more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/the-conversation/article26030500.html#storyl

As they used to say, if they can put a man on the moon, why can't they come up with road designs where bicyclists won't get killed?  Actually they have, see here and here.  The solution boils down to funding and political will.

We realize that Sacramento County Supervisors must contend with numerous important issues, but the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians must be one of those issues.  If it's true, as Weintraub suggests, that bicycling is particularly dangerous (even terrifying) in areas such as South Sac, and design solutions are available, then shouldn't our County Supervisor be doing more to give us safer streets here?

Supervisor Kennedy?

Death From Bicycling

The first June bicycling fatality occurred when a bicyclist turned right on to French Road from a driveway.  You can read more about that accident here.

The map below shows the general location - the accident occurred south of the marker.




The second fatality - from a hit and run accident - occurred last Friday on the 4200 block of Stockton Boulevard, south of San Francisco Boulevard.  More on that accident can be found here.




Here in South Sacramento we're sadly familiar with bicycling deaths.  Last April a bicycle rider was hit by a car and killed as he rode south on Center Parkway C Parkway.  You can read about that accident here.




And before that, in 2014, a woman bicyclist was hit by a truck and killed on Florin Perkins Road, near Elder Creek. The story for that accident is here.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/the-conversation/article26030500.html#storylink=