Trails

• Fifty-seven miles of trails for walking, cycling and other outdoor activities are planned. The locations of the trails are still being worked out, but they expect to make use of lakes and other well-used areas of the city. They will be built in three phases beginning in 2013.

• Estimated cost: $40 million

• Planned completion date: Late 2017

via MAPS 3 timeline at a glance | NewsOK.com.

The locations of these bike trails is still to be decided. I would expect there will be several city council meetings during the next year or so to make those final decisions.

Anthony Guzman, 14, was riding a 20-inch BMX bicycle in the 5700 block of Northwest Expressway when he tried to cross from south to north and was hit by an eastbound car.

Guzman was dead at the scene, said police Maj. Hugh Osborn. He lived in the area, Osborn said.

via Name of boy killed on bicycle in Warr Acres released | NewsOK.com.

The incident occurred at 8:15 PM but there is no information about whether the cyclist had lights on his bike.   However, the driver was not cited for any traffic violations, so there is ancillary evidence that the bicyclist was found to be at fault.

As most urban cyclists know, Northwest Expressway is particularly difficult to cross.  This is the second cyclist fatality in two years on Northwest Expressway. With very few safe lights and constant traffic it is hard to find a gap.  The intersection that I am forced to use for my commute (Independence and Northwest Expressway) is impossible to trigger by bicycle and has no crosswalk buttons to push on either side of the street.  So I’m often forced to wait for long periods for the light to be triggered.  Unfortunately, I consider it one of the best places to cross the road.

Without any information about how this accident occurred, I won’t blame the road for the accident, but it is certainly a dividing line for the city with no good means for crossing it.  If Mayor Cornett really wants to make OKC cyclist friendly, providing good crossings across this dangerous bit of roadway would go a long way towards that goal and hopefully could help prevent tragedies such as this one.

The city of Oklahoma City is laying out the first of what will be approximately 200 miles of new bike routes around town.

The designated routes are individual bike lanes or lanes shared by cars and bicycles, known as “sharrow” lanes — named as such because of the combination of “share” and “arrow.”

Designated by pavement markings and new signage along the routes, sharrow lanes are intended to remind motorists to share the road with cyclists, and convey that a specific street is a preferred bike route. They are marked with a bicycle symbol beneath two arrows.

via OKGazette.com > Oklahoma City expands its network of bicycling lanes, including ones to be shared by cars.

While not a rabid “vehicular cyclist” fanatic, I do share concerns about traditional on street bicycle lanes in that they, from the motorists point of view, box in the cyclist to a very narrow and potentially dangerous strip of road way.  I consider these “sharrow” lanes to be the best of both worlds.  They increase awareness of bicycles on popular routes while at the same times not boxing them in to places with limited maneuverability.  And while the city is still spending a large amount of effort in planning for the traditional bike lanes, it’s nice that these types of infrastructure changes will be available as well.

You can see a map of the full plan here: PhaseOneBikeRoutes.pdf.

About 8:15 a.m., a passer-by reported a bicyclist in a ditch in the 12600 block of N Midwest Boulevard, just north of NE 122, Patty said.

The bicyclist, identified only as a white male, was pronounced dead at the scene, she said.

"This appears to be a hit-and-run," Patty said.

Via: Oklahoma City police investigating two fatal accidents

I still find it absolutely disturbing and wrong that this kind of incident can be referred to as an accident.  Crash, attack or vehicular homicide all seem appropriate, but when it comes to a hit-and-run I can hardly think that the word accident applies.

It still appears that the cyclist has not yet been identified, so if you can provide additional information please contact the police.

A bicyclist was hit and killed by a truck on Kelly Avenue near Main Street in Edmond on Thursday.

The victim’s name was not immediately released. He appeared to be an adult male, Edmond police spokeswoman Glynda Chu said. The man was riding a bicycle on a sidewalk about 5:45 p.m. and lost control as he entered Kelly Avenue, Chu said. He collided with a truck and died at the scene. It wasn’t immediately known whether the victim was wearing a helmet.

Via: Six killed by accidents on Oklahoma roadways | NewsOK.com