Florida woman on blue bike killed after colliding with truck

On the evening of June the 7th, a woman from Florida, 55 years of age, was killed cycling after colliding with a truck. Both vehicles were turning right going eastbound off Mt. Auburn in Cambridge. It’s a senseless tragedy made only more so by how avoidable it all was.

As long as collisions like this are possible they will keep happening. That a truck colliding with a bike is even possible should be horrifying by its predictability. There was a no right on red sign at the intersection, and a separate signal light for the bicycle. But despite that a woman died because a box truck ran her down. We all know car drivers are generally not good at paying attention to one another, let alone cyclists. But the city of Cambridge refuses to make construction of completely safe bike lanes a priority. As a result, dead bodies lay on our streets because drivers are killing people at the points where car and bike infrastructure blend.

There can be no half-measures in safety. This woman was killed in spite of multiple safety features for cyclists being present at the intersection. There was a staggered cyclist light and a few separated bike lanes but none of it was there when she needed it to save her life. Looking at the safety measures that could have saved you while being killed in their absence has to be one of the worst ways to die imaginable. Despite the presence of multiple bike safety measures they are evidently insufficient or an accident like this would not be possible. We should not allow such preventable deaths to keep happening. Something has to be done and can be done.

Cars colliding with pedestrians and cyclists doesn’t happen by accident. The only reason they’re on the road together is poor public planning policy. It is still possible to correct this but unfortunately the city of Cambridge has shown little appetite towards taking the initiative on this issue. They vote to delay the construction of safe cycle lanes, deaths like this are a result of legislative foot-dragging. Businesses benefit from cycle lanes much more so than parking by people who have to then rush two blocks to get where they’re actually going.

We as a society can’t allow the most dangerous part of a bicycle journey to be the one with the least amount of protection. Separated cycle lanes should be the minimum, ones that are constructed so cars can’t park there for just a minute and obstruct the cyclists' way. It’s not asking too much to say nobody needs to die on the road.

It is not possible for everyone to drive. Traffic would be impossible and there could never possibly be enough parking. Cars have reached the ceiling where their widespread use is as much a hindrance as a help. Car drivers would not be able to use the road without cyclists. The least they could do is ensure that those making the road possible to use are also allowed some measure of safety. To run them down is a tragedy on multiple levels and death should not be normalized as casualties of a car-centric society.

Sign a petition to stop the delay of Cambridge bike lanes until 2027.