"Cali cyclists. I hate California cyclists."
Posted on 04/28/2012 2:17:55 PM PDT by Huntress
(CBS News) BERKELEY, Calif. - Police have arrested an Oakland man who allegedly hit two bicyclists with his car and then fled - an incident caught on video by one of the cyclist's bike-mounted camera.
The hit-and-run occurred around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday on Tunnel Road in Berkeley, where the bicyclists were traveling east and were struck by a car traveling in the same direction, according to police.
One of the cyclists had a camera mounted on his handlebars. The video, posted on YouTube by brunogfmtube, shows a black car veer into both bicyclists at about the 2:40 mark.
The video had more than 100,000 views on YouTube as of Saturday morning.
According to CBS Station KPIX, Police Capt. Andrew Greenwood said the driver of the black vehicle did not stop afterward, as is required by law, so police treated it as a hit-and-run.
The riders, both of whom were wearing helmets, had abrasions from hitting the road but did not require hospitalization, according to Greenwood.
After the incident Wednesday, the suspect, Michael Medaglia, reported to the Oakland Police Department that his car had been stolen. A police alert was placed on the car.
KPIX reports that Oakland police found the vehicle Friday morning and alerted the Berkeley Police Department. After an examination of the vehicle, Berkeley police were led to Jack London Inn in Oakland, where officers contacted Medaglia late Friday afternoon.
He was arrested on suspicion of possession of heroin, felon in possession of ammunition, violation of probation and felony hit-and-run.
Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3LatOGCWVc
Video captures both cyclists running a stop sign, too.
In California they own the Roads. Real Jerks most of them, always blowing stop signs. Sometimes on weekends they come up here to the Rural Roads and play havoc, take the whole lanes and have to follow them for miles until safe to pass.
Just because one is on a bike doesn't give them allowance to speed through a stop sign and expect a 1 ton vehicle not to hurt them.
Another close gene pool cleansing event there.
I rarely ride outside anymore however, because auto v. cyclist is just not a good fight. I'll ride road races and fun rides only because of the cops around and the number of bikes, but for fun I'd rather walk than ride a bike.
Did you notice the second sentence of my comment?
Hmmmmmmmmm. Let me see. He ‘allegedly’ hit them, except video ‘shows’ him hitting them, and the police arrest him, NOT Rodney King. Hmmmmmmm!
In many states, bicycles are allowed to treat a stop signs as a yield sign. Oklahoma is currently working on that law. By law in Oklahoma, cyclists may ride 2 abreat (not more than 2) and allowed to take the entire lane. It is safer for the cyclists to take the entire lane - it forces a car to change lanes around them to pass rather than passing the bikes in one lane and potentially pinching them into the curb or a parked car. I ride a bicycle and a motorcycle on the streets, the amount of abuse and stupidity from people in cars is amazing. People need to learn some manners (cyclists included).....red
That was the very first thing that I noticed. When I ride, I drive to a dedicated bike path because in a battle with a vehicle that weighs 20 times what I weigh, I know I'll lose. I have zero confidence that the driver of an SUV on a cell phone will notice me, right of way or not. The on-bike video is a nice touch, but wouldn't help me if I'm splattered over the highway like a deer. Maybe my heirs, though.
I generally don’t take issue with bicyclists on public roadways, but there are a number who give all of them a bad name. Expecting to be given right of way and blowing off traffic laws doesn’t engender respect, and neither does riding en masse during rush hour, intentionally snarling traffic. At times it seems as if there are just as many or more @holes on bicycles as there are in cars being @holes to bicyclists.
Maybe I’m scarred for life, having been set upon once in northern California by a screeching, whistleblowing pack of fascists on bicycles, but that’s the way it appears to me. Live and let live is great, so long as both sides practice and believe it.
Oh, goody. Now we'll have to chug along at 20mph behind bikes on one-lane roads with double yellow lines for 3 miles, just because they decide they want to take up a whole lane. And there's a reason most people dislike cyclists...
Did they blow through, or roll through?
There’s a difference. When I was riding my bicycle, I’d roll through stop signs, but I made sure of mine and other’s safety before doing so.
It just takes a lot of effort to get a stopped bicycle going again from an absolute stop.
When I rode a bicycle, it didn’t matter how close to the curb I rode, too many drivers still thought I took up too much room and let me know it by passing me just a couple of inches to my left.
Maybe if drivers, such as yourself, gave some way to bicyclists, bicyclists wouldn’t feel the need to take up the whole lane to ensure their safety.
They didn’t slow at all. I was expecting that to be the point when the vehicle hit them, to be honest. It wasn’t.
That is a stupid move, on their part, then. I never blew through stop signs at full speed. If I rolled, it was after I was sure it was positively safe to do it.
In Calif bicyclists must stop at stop signs.
What will the liberals do with this one if it turns out it was an illegal that was struck by the stop sign running bicyclists?
Isn't that a part of the aerobic health benefits of cycling?
-snicker-
I prefer the five minutes, that would have cost me to stop at every stop sign, for other things.
Like sleep.
BICYCLE HATERS PING!
Hey, look, has anyone noticed that they ran a stop sign? Two stop signs. Bad people, hang ‘em!
You are also supposed to wait 3 seconds before making a right-hand turn, in California. I read how a woman did stop, but didn’t wait, and got ticketed for it.
We have had bicycle paths built around here at no small expense. And they cross roads at odd spots; appears very dangerous to me. We have to slow and watch, but the cyclists just haul butt right through, without even slowing or looking. Walkers seem to have a lot more respect. Bicycle riders have the entitlement attitude around here. My opinion, of course. Hate that our tax money is paying for these paths. And, oftentimes, they will still hog the road.
Yes, I resent the cyclists. No offense meant towards responsible riders. And, the yield instead of stop? Fine, as long as a car is allowed the same. I always thought bicycle riders were supposed to follow the same rules as motor vehicles.
Streets and highways were not created for both bicycles and vehicles so if you choose to compete with the cars and trucks then you had better be prepared for the inevitable. In other words, make sure your health and life insurances are paid up to date.
Here in Austin, the local radio station had an interview with a cyclist hospitalized and “lucky to be alive” after a hit and run with a motorist this week. The cyclist could only remember the color of the vehicle and that it had one of those “COEXIST” bumper stickers on the back as it was speeding away from the scene.
Blowing through a stop sign, without having assured your safety is a legitimate complaint, I think.
At 40 mph, a car travels almost 60 ft/scd. This means, that if a car is 120 feet away, the driver may not have the time to stop for a bicyclist who chose to not ride in a safe and courteous manner.
I once a right-hand turn into a parking lot, after checking it was safe to do so, and a bicyclist blew past me. If I had been just a fraction of a second quicker, he would have run full speed into the side of my car.
It’s happened to many if not most of us. Nevertheless, it is irrelevant here as the bicyclists were in the bike lane when the accident happened. And even if it were relevant, why keep on harping on it here without adding anything to the discussion, it is lame, pedestrian and unoriginal. By the way, I watched the video and didn’t notice them going through the stop signs, though I’m sure they did, but as I said, it is irrelevant to the story, OK?
Only if you’re prepared to drive at only 15 or 20 mph, like most bicyclists. Then you can yield and not stop. :)
I despise anyone using any conveyance whatsoever.
The worst is those slave-oared galleys. GAH! You ever get behind one of THOSE pokey beasts on the expressway???
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say on this post, so sorry about that.
But I think that bicyclists who don’t ride with safety in mind are stupid beyond belief, because they will lose on every encounter they have with a car.
Having said that, aside from reasonable expectations, I don’t think that bicyclists should be held to the exact same levels as a car.
I see as many bad drivers as bad bicyclists. Running stop signs? Does anyone in a car ever come to a full stop? Do I ever drive under the speed limit instead of at what I know I can get away with? And so on. And you’re right, bicyclists can be pests, no question.
Also in Austin today, one cyclist was killed out on 360. There’s hundreds of them out there on weekends. I’ve seen first hand how stupid some can be, riding right on the line with cars going by them at 60 mph.
***I couldn’t help but notice the bicyclists blowing through two stop signs. ****
I almost nailed me a couple of bicyclists many years ago when they blew through a red light like I wasn’t even there. Lucky I had good brakes.
There...fixed it.
As long as the cops didn’t have a problem with it, I don’t have a problem with it.
A law is only good, if it’s reasonable. The fact that a law might ezlxist, doesn’t mean it’s reasonable.
im guessing, had they stopped at the signs, the dude in the car would have never met them at that spot and they wouldnt have been hit
I never knew that a stop sign really means yield. Good to know.
I hop you try it. You might be able to convince a cop you were only simultaneously riding two bicycles.
I have learned to ride as if drivers cannot see me. As Andy Grove once said, only the paranoid survive.
Now that I’ve watched the video, it does look like the cyclists did nothing to incite the accident. They were in their bike lane and struck from behind but it does bring up a lot of the problems I have with bike lanes.
1) Many streets have been retrofitted with bike lanes so that four lane streets are now two lane streets. This adds unnecessary congestion which I believe is intentional by the socialists who want us all out of our cars and using blight rail.
2) Cars park on the side of the road - in the bike lanes. This is not illegal - yet. But just wait until the socialists win their demands at City Hall which they are quite good at. When cyclists have to negotiate around cars, they inevitably have to squeeze in among passing vehicles.
3) Bike lanes disappear and reappear, particularly around intersections and where streets narrow, adding confusion as to where all vehicles should be and creating confusion where everyone feels they have a right to that piece of the road. I don’t know how you get around this but, trust me, the socialists who show up at City Hall will demand special rights for the cyclists, not the motorists.
My main problem is the “healthier than thou” superiorist attitudes of many cyclists who then take that attitude and become willing traffic hazards which amazes me that they are so stupid. My sister lives in the Colorado mountains with many windy roads with blind turns and every weekend these roadkill wannabes show up and clog up everything with their selfish desire to use the road for something other than what it was designed for. It was designed to get cars up and down the mountain, not for yahoos to joyride around blind curves at breakneck speed. Makes my blood boil.
I’ve always assumed that drivers cannot or will not see me and I rode accordingly. If a car was ahead of me, for example, I always assumed that it would make a next right, so I wouldn’t be caught off guard when it actually made that right hand turn.
Our local postal carrier almost got me that way a few weeks ago. He came from behind me and I thought he was going to pass me on the left. He did, but then he cut me off by turning right directly in front of me. I slammed on the brakes, avoided the collision, and, um, politely informed him that I thought he should improve his driving.
There were no other vehicles on the road, just my bike and his car. It was broad daylight. He simply did not see me. Drivers get into this car/no car mindset. Cars exist, bikes don't.
Hey...let me know when one of your children is broadsided after running a stop sign. Afterall, they learned that from Dad (or Mom) when Dad (or Mom) run stop signs (because it's not a reasonable law).
Maybe i should teach to also take up an entire lane, if they have to obey the traffic laws to the same extent as cars, then?
After all, I do pay taxes for the full use of the road, whether I drive or bike.
Several other vehicles to pass them without incident after the last intersection and traffic signs, so it is not a case of they entered his path without giving him the chance to stop. The car that hit them weaved into their lane and sideswiped them. No defending the driver for this. He was at fault for hitting them and criminally at fault for not stopping.
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