Cyclists Have Rights On The Road
Maybe it’s happened to you. You’re driving along in your car, running errands and suddenly a bicyclist appears in the middle of your lane. He’s obviously not peddling the speed limit. Do you honk your horn and curse him out? Do you zip around him, like he’s some kind of nuisance? Or do you give him the space and safety he rightly deserves and after checking your mirrors and signaling, you carefully switch lanes to pass him?
According to the National Transportation Highway Safety Administration, bicycles on the roadways are by law, vehicles-which have the same rights and responsibilities as motorized vehicles.
“A bicyclist can take up an entire lane, and it’s perfectly legal on Omaha streets,” said Omaha accident attorney, Sean Rensch, who practices law with his father, Richard.
As Omaha slowly adds bike lanes and trails attempting to be a more bike friendly city, it’s going to take a shift in the way car drivers think and react to keep cyclists safe. At the same time, cyclists need to take every precaution and make sure they also act as responsible riders by following traffic signals, and safety requirements.
“Bicyclists should always wear a helmet, without exception-especially children. They need to learn early on to respect the weight and size of vehicles on the road and know that drivers aren’t always hyper-focused on them,” said attorney Richard Rensch.
With more distracted drivers on the roads than ever before, cyclists must use extreme caution on Omaha roads, as many are simply too congested and narrow to accommodate the growing trend to peddle to work or school. Bright reflective clothing and gear is encouraged to give drivers every opportunity to see a cyclist. Rensch suggests cyclists learn and practice hand signals when turning, to communicate better with the drivers around them.
Even then, sometimes every precaution is not enough.
On a recent sunny day in March, an 82-year-old driver struck and killed an avid Omaha cyclist as he peddled his bike on the shoulder near 260th and West Center Road in Omaha. Deputies said the car driver veered across the center line and hit a well-known athletic trainer and coach, while on his daily bike ride. The admired coach was airlifted to Creighton University Medical Center where he died a short time later.
Numbers from the NTHSA show in 2011, 48,000 bicyclists were injured in motor vehicle traffic crashes in the United States. Of those, 16 percent, or 8,000 were children under the age of 14.
Richard and Sean Rensch have represented numerous bike accident injury victims over the years in both Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa. They’ve helped clients recover damages from broken bones to serious spinal cord and concussive brain injuries.
While the solution might point to more bike paths, it’s difficult to incorporate them into already narrow thoroughfares like Dodge Street. Omaha does seem to do better than many cities attempting to encourage trail riding. A cyclist would be hard pressed to find a trail system that will safely get them from west Omaha to downtown, avoiding street riding.
According to Biking.com, Omaha makes the list of top 50 bike friendly cities in the country, ranking #36. The ranking is based on 20 miles of new bike trails, a pilot bike share system and the unique Bob Kerrey pedestrian overpass, linking downtown Omaha with a trail across the Missouri River into Iowa.
For a list of Omaha area bike trails and trail head locations go tohttp://www.traillink.com/city/omaha-ne-trails.aspx.
The organization Activate Omaha also offers a free waterproof map and downloadable map of area trails and bike friendly roads in Omaha. To access the map, go tohttp://www.activateomaha.org/downloads/OmahaBikeMap2010-05-05.pdf.
