> there is no such thing as a too reflective vest for bicyclists
And to not jaywalk a bike across a street in the dark!
And to not jaywalk a bike across a street in the dark!
--edit: okay guys... no where did anyone argue that you shouldn't be watching for pedestrians crossing. Stop yelling "gotcha!" like you caught me in a trap. What I'm arguing against is the common refrain on these articles that there is no such thing as jaywalking and the pedestrian has the right to the road over the car. Maybe it's true in Europe judging by comments on previous articles, but it's not common in the US. It's illegal.
Congratulations on expertly knocking down your own strawman, though.
It's not even remotely rare. Drive on campus or downtown in AZ for a more than a few minutes.
Strawman. I argued the opposite. You made the grossly incorrect assertion "That is not a normal thing to happen in America, and no one expects it to happen. It is a very rare situation."
If preprogrammed cars cant handle random objects in unexpected places then they are uber DOA.
http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/pedestrian-cross...
But the legality is to some extent beside the point. Autonomous vehicles aren't going to be tuned to pedestrian yielding rules state-to-state, simply because hitting a pedestrian is never an acceptable outcome if avoidable no matter who is in the right/wrong.
Obviously the concrete level of awareness that drivers usually have is probably related to a lot of other circumstances (light conditions/amount of traffic etc.)
The last thread about this contained a very long argument from some Europeans who disagree with the core concept of "jaywalking". Some people really do hold the belief that roads are for pedestrians first and cars last, contrary to US law.
Judging by the replies in this thread, it would seem some American roads are more pedestrian than they are pavement.
You are conflating two different concepts. In every state in the U.S., it is illegal to hit a pedestrian whether or not they are where they are supposed to be. If you see a pedestrian jaywalking then you are required to avoid the pedestrian to the greatest extent possible. Anything less is at least manslaughter.
It is the responsibility of the driver to be alert and try to minimize the impact. Just because a cyclist shouldn't cross a four-lane road in the middle of the night, doesn't mean you shouldn't look for obstacles.
The particular combination of speed and distance may not be common, but the general situation isn't rare.
Still, the bike and rider were in view front-and-center for plenty of time for an alert driver to brake (if not avoid).
Regardless, it is the driver's responsibility to perceive and avoid hazards like this and I think that would've been pretty easy given it's a big wide empty road with overhead lighting. This looks like the kind of bad low light footage my cheap dashcam produces in similar conditions.