An Open Letter To News 10 NBC (Comments: 8)

8 comments to “An Open Letter To News 10 NBC”

Cedric, August 21st, 2008 at 1:28 am:

• I had something similar to what happened in the video happen to me. I was riding down Park Ave after Park Ave Fest (the fest had shut down for the day). There is limited traffic on the road at this point. As I come up on the Wilson Farms parking lot, a cop pulls up to the exit, looks directly at me, and then pulls out in front of me. I managed to hit my breaks and swerve hard to the right so I didn’t crash into him, but I came within 6″ of his front bumper. I had a flashing light on the front of my bike, and I was going at a good clip, trying to get through the crawling traffic and crowds, so what he did wasn’t on accident.
  I ride to work and back every day, and this is the only time, so far, that I’ve had and problems with traffic.

  Also:
  Make sure to watch the video. The cyclist was going straight through that intersection, and it doesn’t look as though the cop car had any kind of turn signal.

  Way to go RCPD!

Stephen, August 21st, 2008 at 8:47 am:

• Are you required to have and show ID when cycling on public roads in NY as you are if you are driving a motor vehicle?

cyclonecross, August 21st, 2008 at 9:09 am:

• Jason-

  Thanks for the shout back! I knew you guys would be all over this one; I can’t believe the way this was featured on News 10…

  -Gary

RUDY!, August 21st, 2008 at 2:01 pm:

• I don’t think it is fair to say any driver, cop or not, being overtaken on the right by a bike that, prior to overtaking them, was cruising in behind them and in their blind spot, could adhere to that that law. In fact, that the cyclist wasn’t hit, shows that the driver this use due care. I won’t be partaking in this open letter and I think it would be naive for anyone to do so. “When passing by a cyclist…” are the words, but this instance is reversed, the cyclist is clearly passing in the video.

Khalil Spencer, August 21st, 2008 at 4:47 pm:

• I cannot tell whether the officer overtook the cyclist immediately before making the turn or whether the cyclist was overtaking the officer. If the cop passed the cyclist and then slowed to make the turn, this indeed is the classic right hook.

  But overtaking a vehicle on the right (i.e., the blind spot) and along the curb just before an intersection is not particularly wise, and it appears the cyclist did not slow down as the officer slowed down to make the right. Neither the officer nor the cyclist neccesarily showed good form. Hard to tell who was more at fault from this little clip. But the officer should have been given a lecture, too. I might be writing the TV station a letter tonight wearing my League Cycling Instructor hat.

  More ominously, the cyclist about to be turned into road kill is used as an example of the need for “zero tolerance” against crime. What crime was committed here? At worst, a moving violation or bad traffic judgment. Or are we (i.e., the police and willing TV station accomplices) stereotyping this kid as some sort of street hood? If there was a near-victim, it was the hapless cyclist–victim of bad training and hostile politicians. This was shoddy journalism at its worst.

  As a former Rochester, N.Y. resident (19th Ward) and native of Western New York, I am a little appalled.

Richard DeSarra, August 22nd, 2008 at 12:46 pm:

• I agree with Rudy and Khalil. I ran the sequence, frame by frame, on the Channel 10 web site.

  It appears the officer did not signal the turn but he was aware of someone on his right. He did stop in time to avoid the cyclist.

  When the cyclist was interviewed by the reporter the cyclist says his bike’s brakes were not properly operating. It appears the cyclist was very inexperienced in urban cycling.

  I think he was riding to close to the curb and should have been behind the officer’s car in line behind the right rear wheel. In that road position the cyclist is controlling the lane of any car behind, avoiding a right turning car in front, and showing direction of movement, straight, or hand signal for a left or right turn at the approaching intersection.

  The officer was very aware of traffic (pedestrian or cyclist)before executing the right turn. How many motorist (you or I) look behind, on the right side of the vehicle, before executing a turn?

  In my mine the officer saved that cyclist from a collision.

Dave, August 22nd, 2008 at 1:30 pm:

• I am not surprised this happened. In that neighborhood cyclists wander all over the road leaving you to believe they are truly trying to get hit. Forget lights on your bike at night too, that isn’t enforced (but a law). This is not true of all cyclists however.

  The biker may have needed better brakes but any bike brakes feel inadequate when you are trying to avoid hitting faster moving 2.5+ ton vehicles. When traffic is passing you, why would you slow to stay out of a blind spot? You will just end up in the next blind spot of another vehicle. Keeping a steady, straight line and signaling (as the officer clearly failed to do) is best. Had the officer done so, I have little doubt the cyclist would have been able to stop in time. The officer should have waited to turn if he did know the cyclist was in fact there as the lane was shared. The cyclist can’t ride in the middle of the lane for every intersection to keep cars from overtaking, then right-hooking them. I have seen such poor driving from the city police (wrong way down on-way streets, not stopping for right turns at stop-signs, etc) it is no wonder this happened. It is also no wonder that people find it ok to pass on the right in turn lanes in order to get 1-2 cars ahead when there are parked cars in front of them. Yup, you guessed it, seen that from RPD too. Why should anyone follow the ruled of the road when RPD doesn’t. The news program had no educational value as well, they didn’t go into the rules of the road. My guess is they thought what the cop did was obviously “wrong” as well.

  Most of my near misses have been people in too much of a hurry. Numerous times people try to pass when there is a red light and I am slowing. Why the hurry, its red. Also, many people don’t realize what sharing the road means…yes…you can overtake me…and yes…I can overtake you. I can pass lines of cars (carefully!) sitting at red lights who aren’t happy. Its just attitude, not knowing the law, and not being used to being passed by a cyclist.

  Thoughts?

Jason Crane, August 22nd, 2008 at 2:29 pm:

• I think the commentary about who was at fault is missing the point. Whether or not you feel that the cyclist or the driver or both were in error, it’s still the case that News 10 NBC (the recipient of my letter) decided to do two things with this story:

  1. Use it as an example of “zero tolerance,” when it’s clearly nothing of the kind
  2. Use it as another example of cyclist misbehavior, rather than an opportunity to help inform the community about road safety

  I’d like to see less of “he did/he did” and more constructive engagement with the media to try to put cycling safety and driver safety in the spotlight.