#bikesafety — Public Fediverse posts

A few days ago, a 15 year old was killed in a collision with a van in Bend, Oregon, while riding an #ebike.
Disappointingly and predictably, people are harping how dangerous ebikes are, and that the rider wasn't wearing a helmet.
My first thought was, "wait a minute, do we know whether the ebike motor or lack of helmet had anything to do with the poor kid's death?" Pedestrians and (non electric) cyclists are killed by vehicle every day in America. This felt like victim blaming and pearl clutching over new technology, avoiding discussion of the real problem (#FuckCars!).
Turns out, I'm right...
https://bikeportland.org/2023/06/28/opinion-lets-have-the-right-conversations-after-tragic-bend-e-bike-death-376575

This is where the kid died (in attached picture, yellow arrow). Does this look like a safe place for bikes or kids? Fuck no.

As Jonathan Maus, the author of that article states:
"Folks need to spend less time pointing fingers and more time in front of a mirror. I’m hearing a lot of people demand “more education!”, “more enforcement!”, “more laws!” Those are lazy responses because they put the onus on someone else to do something. If we want to make streets safe for everyone, we must reflect on our own behaviors. One of the major tenets of the “safe systems” approach to traffic safety (that PBOT and many other cities are working on as part of their vision zero goal) is that our streets should allow people to make small errors in judgment without the consequence of death."

#cycling #ebikes #safestreets #biketooter #bikesafety #bikeportland