EDITORIAL: Vehicles, bicyclists share burden of making roads safer

To say Southern Nevada bicyclists and motorists have an adversarial relationship is an understatement. It's beyond disrespectful. It's beyond dangerous. It's deadly.

And it's not easily improved.

Last month, 37-year-old Matthew Hunt became the eighth bicycle fatality in Clark County this year when he was hit from behind by a car while on a Monday morning ride on the Strip. The death of Mr. Hunt, who was wearing a helmet, led to a Saturday memorial rally at the LifeTime Athletic fitness center in Summerlin, where local and state officials announced a bike safety campaign.

As reported by the Review-Journal's Jennifer Robison, beginning Oct. 1, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department will put spotters on bikes across the valley to ticket drivers who fail to give cyclists 3 feet of space when passing. The Nevada Highway Patrol will increase its enforcement of bicycle safety laws as well, and the Department of Motor Vehicles will rewrite the state's driver handbook and licensing test to include information about bicyclists' right of way.

These are excellent, important steps toward improving public safety in Southern Nevada. But they won't be enough, by themselves, to guarantee the safety of bicyclists and change the who-gives-a-flip culture of the valley's roads, where speed limits and turn signals are optional.

Having the right of way doesn't count for much when you're dead. Bicyclists, like pedestrians, will come out on the losing end of a collision with a vehicle 100 times out of 100, so they should take extraordinary precautions to protect themselves.

It was only two months ago that a different bike safety awareness event was staged at University Medical Center. At that gathering, it was pointed out that none of the seven bicyclists who were killed this year prior to Mr. Hunt's accident was wearing a helmet. And Las Vegas police Sgt. Richard Strader reminded bicyclists that they should walk, not ride, their bikes through crosswalks and use hand signals to indicate turns. What percentage of bicyclists bother to do either? For that matter, how many drivers have seen bicyclists, in groups or as individuals, blow through stop signs or ride in traffic when a dedicated bike lane is available?

A 2014 report by the League of American Bicyclists determined that a majority of cycling-related fatalities are caused by careless or inattentive drivers. But a 2014 report prepared for the Governors Highway Safety Association found that most bicyclists who were killed in motor vehicle accidents were riding without helmets, and that more than a quarter of those cyclists were legally drunk.

Vehicles and bicyclists share the road. They share the burden of making roads safer, too.