Bike riders ask for prayers and laws to make streets safer

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Nonetheless yet another bicyclist was killed in Queensbury as the Albany Bicycle Coalition was scheduling a prayer vigil imploring God to protect bicyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians navigating the Funds Region.

This most modern collision between a Chevy Impala and person on a motorized bicycle scattered ebike sections along Quaker Street.

At Pine Grove United Methodist past week on busy Central Avenue (an especially nerve-racking highway for cyclists with its multiple lanes of zooming motor vehicles), the coalition study the names of dozens of bicyclists and pedestrians killed.

Coalition President Ed Brennan thinks most motor vehicle-bike collisions could take place due elements like distracted drivers—or cyclists–or speeding and intersection blind spots. But other people die in what he calls “road violence.” He sees reflections of our era’s enraged conflict in excess of values reflected on the highway. And a hefty motor vehicle can completely transform some people who are owning a tough day into bullies or “monsters,” he pointed out.

“Some motorists see bicyclists as thieves, someone trying to frustrate or group drivers on a road intended for vehicles,” Brennan sighed. “I’ve had drivers throw bottles or garbage at me, blow diesel smoke in my encounter.”

But as Brennan notes, streets are “supposed to be meant for all people, cyclists and pedestrians, even if roads are not generally designed that way.”

The Rev. Al Johnson’s church hosted the Central Avenue vigil and he miracles if angry motorists would tranquil down if they understood that some men and women are on bikes since that is the only transportation they can find the money for to get to do the job, worship services or a doctor’s appointment. 

“Not all people can afford motor vehicle repairs or today’s fuel charges,” Johnson mentioned. “We have a staffer who does maintenance perform on the church. He was homeless and performs tough, rides a bicycle just about everywhere … the bus is not the swiftest way to get to unique careers.”

Last fall, a Colonie Wendy’s fast meals employee finished her night time change and was biking residence in the rain when a driver struck and left her lying in the highway in a coma. She could not find the money for a motor vehicle. No buses run at 3 a.m. in close proximity to her workplace.


“This is my neighborhood, where I reside and perform,” Johnson explained. “I however truly feel like crossing Central is scary.”

The bicycle coalition supports the Crash Victims Legal rights and Security Act as a way to make roads safer for anyone. It enhances driver instruction and outlines legal legal rights to victims of site visitors violence. And proposed laws would enable New York towns and towns to decrease pace limits for specified streets.

 Dangerous by Design, a 2021 report researched by the Centers for Condition Management and nonprofit, nonpartisan Intelligent Expansion America, located only 5 p.c of cyclists are killed if a automobile is driving 20 mph, even though 45 percent of individuals strike by cars and trucks driving 30 mph die.
Longtime coalition member Lorenz Worden counts 13 fatalities and two really serious accidents in our place about the earlier decade centered on their study of nearby news and police studies. 
 
“Of 13 deaths, five had been evidently motor-auto-driver mistake,” Worden defined. “The other 8 are undetermined, fuzzy in some circumstances. Our evaluation is that law enforcement reviews and articles or blog posts dependent on them – specifically in circumstances of no witnesses other than the motor vehicle driver – leave space for lots of issues.”

Coalition users fear that law enforcement may well also often clear the driver of blame when the cyclist or pedestrian is dead—especially if the nondriver is the only other witness.

Troy Bike Fest will be outdoor with at Oakwood Neighborhood Middle, 313 10th St, Troy from 3 to 7 p.m. There will burritos, beer, a cake auction, trend exhibit, doorway prizes, and a wheelie contest with incredible feats of ability. Donations for the party are welcome at   https://www.gofundme.com/f/tbr-is-21-12 months-previous-allows-celebrate-maintain

Albany Bike Rescue at the Truthful Weight Foodstuff Co-op will be held that Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Insignificant bicycle repairs, bicycle upkeep tips, and a possibility to sell refurbished bicycles. Provide your bicycle and master extra about Albany Bike Rescue. [email protected] 


The bike team hopes the vigil will provide as outreach to the religion-dependent local community with whom it shares quite a few results in and values. 
They do extra than advocate for bicycle trails and highway basic safety. Members elevate money for a host of local community provider groups, such as Black Lives Issue. They rode to Allison Joseph’s launch of Black Girls Do Bike to demonstrate help.

When a small boy was killed crossing a road in the vicinity of Ezra Prentice low-earnings housing many years ago, coalition riders joined residents protesting diesel vehicles they explained generally drove also rapid by means of residential streets in the vicinity of the rail lawn.

Brennan raised funds not too long ago for Residing Assets, a nearby nonprofit that serves the disabled, using his bicycle from Williamsburg, Va., to Miami.

ABC occasionally mourns the dead by caring for their ghost bikes, a globally phenomenon.

Eight ghost bikes haunt Money Region destinations where cyclists have been killed. Bike frames (stripped of gears and chains) and tires are painted the palest ivory white, then chained to a close by fence or pole. They are cyclists’ variation of avenue altars. 

Following the vigil, cyclists paid out their respects to Jeremy Williams by driving to exactly where he was killed on Central Avenue, then to a Colonie corner where Roger Sawyer died and eventually to the Fuller Street internet site of Nicholas Richichi’s death. Ghost bikes weren’t required to honor the dead due to the fact the cyclists understood the places by heart.

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