Effectively, I’m sorry to share miserable information as we head into the weekend, however this one is simply too near residence for me to disregard:
This was Thursday morning, at rush hour, on a bridge bike path I’ve described previously as a “full shitshow:”
Law enforcement officials responded at 8:21 a.m. after a 39-year-old man driving a stand-up electrical scooter crashed right into a 35-year-old bicycle owner. The e-scooter driver was touring westbound, whereas the bicycle owner was touring eastbound, the police stated.
The boys have been delivered to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Queens, the place they have been pronounced lifeless. Pictures taken within the aftermath of the collision present a white bike snapped clear in half, with an orange e-scooter mendacity subsequent to it. The crumpled entrance tire of the bike rests towards the bridge.
The scooter concerned will apparently do over 50mph:
The pictures of the crash web site seem to point out a Teverun Blade GT Swimsuit II+ e-scooter, billed on the corporate’s web site as a “wolf in a swimsuit” that may attain virtually 53 m.p.h.
“Beneath its modern, understated design lies immense energy and explosive acceleration,” the corporate’s description reads. “Each twist of the throttle delivers thrilling pace whereas sustaining easy management, turning your each day journey into a rare expertise.”
And sure, each riders have been sporting helmets:
Someplace I stated that when you really feel like you should put on a full-face helmet then you don’t have any enterprise being in a motorcycle lane, however I can’t keep in mind the place, so I’m going to say it once more, despite the fact that it’s sort of gross to take action proper after the individual has simply died. Sorry.
I in all probability haven’t ridden over the Queensboro Bridge (or the 59th Avenue bridge as I normally name it, or the Ed Kotch Bridge as no person calls) since at the least final summer season, since I dwell fairly removed from it, although previous to that I used to be utilizing it considerably recurrently, since my buddy who died final yr lived in Queens and I used to be going backwards and forwards to his place typically. As an everyday consumer of the bridge he’d typically discuss how dangerous the bridge had gotten lately because of all of the motorized contraptions on it, and holy crap was he proper. Actually, lately the Queensboro Bridge bike path had turn out to be infamous, and I’d say it all the time felt like an accident ready to occur, however that’s not correct, as a result of the accidents weren’t ready to occur in any respect–they have been very a lot taking place:
So I wasn’t shocked to study this most up-to-date crash, although the truth that it left each individuals lifeless is in fact surprising, as is the picture of the mangled bike. I’m pretty sure the Queensboro is the steepest of the East River bridges, so irrespective of the place you might be on the span there’s all the time actually quick head-on site visitors in at the least one course. Earlier than the proliferation of “micromobility” at the least the uphill site visitors can be shifting slowly, however because of motors now the uphill and downhill site visitors can simply be shifting at 20- or 30-plus miles per hour. So welcome to a brand new period of multiple-fatality head-on bike path collisions, I assume.
The opening of the separate pedestrian path on the south aspect of the bridge was imagined to mitigate the clusterfuckery of the bike path–and perhaps it did, although as somebody who hasn’t ridden over the bridge in like a yr I’m not certified to say, and clearly it didn’t stop this crash:
Plus, irrespective of the place you journey within the metropolis you’ll invariably encounter individuals on high-speed electrical contraptions just like the one concerned on this collision–that are already unlawful, although it actually isn’t stopping anyone.
Within the aftermath of this newest collision each the smuggies and the NIMBYs will inform us what the town must do to unravel the issue as soon as and for all, and I suppose there was a time I’d have completed the identical factor. However now I simply really feel unhappy for a fellow bicycle owner who didn’t get to complete a journey. Additionally, the zany e-contraptions simply preserve getting quicker, and I simply preserve getting older, and so I really feel extra decided than ever to journey away from the town as a substitute of additional into it. Why level my bike that method once I can level it this manner as a substitute?
Hey, I assume I can ignore it in any case…