my faith in the judicial system is somewhat recovered

justice seems to have prevailed

[LifeinAsia]

[velonews.com...]

The guy's lawyer was trying to say the bicyclists were at fault because of the "inherent instability of bicycles." Yeah right!

[rocknbil]

Thompson's lawyer had argued that the cyclists were belligerent...

Go figure. Guy tries to kill us just for the hell of it, why would we get belligerent over that?

[lawman]

I assume he cut them off and then stopped abruptly.

[Syzygy]

Well, it says that one cyclist went through the back windscreen and the other flew over the top of the car. Their cycling speed was 30 mph. I'd say that was not so much abrupt as an emergency stop!

[swa66]

A bicycle doing 30mph, is that in any way a safe speed ? Dogs, branches, pedestrians, kids playing, priority rules at intersections, ... it all becomes quite impossible to get that bike to stop in a short distance.

There's no excuse for what the driver of that car seems to have done. But 30mph on a bicycle is something I've driven and your stopping distance become ridiculously long at that speed in my experience.

[Old_Honky]

IMHO cyclists should only be allowed on roads between 03:00 and 03:05. Most of them take unreasonable risk; jumping lights, cycling around the centre of a roundabout instead of the outside, riding two abreast etc. In the UK at least they pay no road tax and no insurance. I don't agree with trying cause an accident and perhaps kill somebody (even a cyclist) but I can sympathise with the car driver's motivation.

[swa66]

Last time I was in town out here, at an intersection where I had priority over a cyclist, he just didn't yield. While right in front of my car (a SUV) he even had the audacity to go as slow as he could and flip his middle finger (I hadn't done _anything_ to provoke the idiot).
It does get you envy to slip the left foot off of the clutch and hit the gas. So car drivers letting themselves getting caught up into this by some of the cycling terrorists: I do have sympathy for them, but controlling your rage is still part of being civilized, something some of the "weaker" participants in traffic tend not to have for some suicidal reason.

[wheel]

I've biked probably 4000K this year, with probably 500K of that in organized events with other cyclists.FWIW.

There's plenty of blame to go around to both cyclists and drivers. Lots - and I mean lots - of cyclists are full bore idiots, even to other cyclists.

Same goes for drivers. Every 3rd driver is an idiot, passing at unsafe distances - and I'm a courteous cyclist, keeping as far to the side as I can and I still get stuff thrown at me, tried to run me into the ditch, etc.

Suggesting cyclists are the problem is simplistic and little different than the typical MS vs. Linux argument. Yes they're a pain to go around - doesn't mean they shouldn't be on the road, it does suggest that it wouldn't kill drivers to slow down and give them some distance; wouldn't be the end of the world. At the same time, I've been almost knocked into a moving car by another cyclist who was trying to pass me on the inside (and that's only one example). It frustrates me too to see idiot cyclists, becuase that frustrates the drivers and creates problems for me - I'm the one getting run off the road.

And none of that excuses the drivers who throw stuff at me or try to pass me as close as they can at 120k/hr. At that speed and close distance the wind alone is enough to physically shove you.

[kaled]

Most of them take unreasonable risk; jumping lights, cycling around the centre of a roundabout instead of the outside...

I am not a cyclist, but so far as I am aware, cyclists are supposed to treat roundabouts just as cars do, however, the highway code provides the option of going around the outside.

In my experience, it's bad drivers that have problems with cyclists. I give them plenty of room and slow down for them, just as I do for horses. Sure, I've been delayed by a few seconds many times, but no more than when I let a car in from a side road during heavy traffic.

Kaled.

[wheel]

In terms of the story itself however, yes, sure looks like the car driver did this repeatedly - and I bet he drove past the cyclists, pulled in front of them, then slammed on the brakes. That seems more likely than the cyclists were following to close. If the cyclists were tailgating, clearly that's unsafe....but the driver had done this before.

As for 30K an hour, that's slow cruising speed on many road bikes and hardly dangerous if you're alert, no different than 70k in a car.

[wheel]

In my experience, it's bad drivers that have problems with cyclists.

In my experience, it's pick up trucks and seniors driving buicks. You see an F150 or a white car with hats in the back window you might as well put your bike in the ditch and save them the trouble :).

[Syzygy]

As for 30K an hour, that's slow cruising speed on many road bikes and hardly dangerous

I think the speed mentioned in the story is mph, not kph. :-)

Personally, when cycling on a road alongside motorise traffic, I find 30kph is about as fast as I safely want to go.