Dear Editor,
I witnessed a sickening hit and run of a cyclist on Washington Blvd and Landmark St early afternoon on Nov 1st. It happened in the crosswalk with the cyclist going east. The driver was westbound on Washington Blvd and turned left onto Landmark when their sedan struck the cyclist. The driver stopped for a few seconds and drove down Landmark street, which is a dead end street.
I was on a bench in front of Sweet Green when it happened and walked to the cyclist, who was stunned and must have had a ton of adrenaline running. We exchanged phone numbers and I got him to call the police. He said he got the license plate number of the driver.
A skateboarder also exchanged info with the victim as a witness. We both encouraged him to go to the hospital.
After the police and ambulance left the victim was still there, so I checked with him and he said he declined to go to the hospital but that his girlfriend was coming to pick him up with his bike and take him to the hospital. He texted me later to say he’d never been through a hit and run and was getting an MRI.
My own adrenaline was running and I felt nauseous afterward. I still feel sickened by it.
I’ve always waffled on whether the term “traffic violence” used by my urbanist peers was appropriate to describe car crashes since it sounded bombastic. In my mind, crashes somehow seemed abstract, with my own crashes (including one that put me out of work for a month) being far back in my memory. But “traffic violence” is 100% appropriate after what I saw. That cyclist’s bodily integrity was violated by the roughly two ton sedan that hit him while he was on his bike.
It’s too easy to just pose this as an accident. The driver was crossing two lanes of higher speed traffic than the one lane that was there before, meaning there are more points of conflict for the driver to be alert to that they missed. But I want us to think bigger picture about what could’ve prevented this, not merely in the immediate, but in terms that would bring down traffic crashes overall:
-Paying bus drivers a good, living wage, so we could hire more and have 5-10 minute frequencies connecting the city. If buses were more reliable, it’s possible that driver wouldn’t have been driving, but would’ve been on a bus. Culver City Bus drivers are paid $40k/year to start. The city can pay more to its workers; cops are paid $70k/year to start.
-To the first point, connected bus lanes all over the city to keep buses out of traffic and keep them on schedule
-Greater metro frequency (meaning more metro funding and paying metro operators better) so that that driver may not have had to drive but could’ve taken the metro
-A fully connected bike network, which could’ve meant that the driver biked instead of drove since it would’ve been a viable transportation option
-A fully connected bike network for the benefit of increasing bike usage overall which would teach drivers to expect cyclists around them, which may have caused the driver to be more cautious
-Building affordable housing in Culver City so that the driver could’ve lived within walking/biking distance from their destination and avoided driving altogether
-Curb bulb outs at that intersection that force drivers to examine the intersection more carefully when crossing and thus they might have noticed the cyclist and stopped for him
-A raised crosswalk to give drivers physical feedback indicating to slow down and be alert, which could’ve gotten the driver to stop before hitting the cyclist
-A better intersection layout, perhaps with a roundabout, and a better timed light
-Reducing private vehicle traffic to a single lane so there is less cross traffic to watch out for when turning left
-Better educating people on the cost of car ownership and car loans so that people understand what a drain they are not just on their own finances but on a city’s in terms of the infrastructure required to sustain them and compare it to how cities around the world provide greater mobility with safer, more joyous streets
-Closing the street to private vehicle traffic altogether (not necessarily desirable on that street, but an option on streets where possible so that people and not just cars are encouraged to use streets, and maybe this driver would’ve chosen not to drive if they had streets you couldn’t drive on to get to their destination)
-Vote the conservatives out of city council
There are probably other, big picture, more creative measures that I missed. My modest request is that we get people to think about these issues in a much bigger picture so that we understand why America is largely an outlier in traffic deaths.
I hope this cyclist recovers well and that we as a people value people more than cars.
Thanks,
Angelo Mike
