A big part of life in the Bay Area is how we get around. We drive and complain about parking; take MUNI and complain about delays; bike and risk car collisions (and complain), and of course, we walk. Even that’s not always safe – at least 10 pedestrians have died in the city so far this year. The vast majority of people are hit by motor vehicles: cars, trucks, buses. But sometimes those conflicts are between pedestrians and bicyclists.
Bicyclist Chris Bucchere was charged with felony vehicular manslaughter earlier this summer after hitting and killing a pedestrian. Accidents between bikes and pedestrians are really rare. But the Bucchere case has gotten a lot of media attention, tapping into a perception many people have that bike riders are a bit too cavalier.
But in last year’s pedestrian fatalities, the police found that in six cases, the walker was at fault. All of which brings up the question:
How do we know the rules of the road? And what does it take to make us follow them?
