We’re very sad to report that Sher Kung, who lived near the Ladybug here in Wallingford, was struck and killed by a truck while on her bicylce Friday morning. KIRO reports that she was traveling in the left side of the street bicycle lane on 2nd Ave, and that “witnesses said the bicyclist was heading south in the bicycle lane next to the truck when she was hit as the driver made the left turn.”
Sher was a lawyer at Perkins Coie law firm. She leaves behind her partner Christine Sanders and their seven month old daughter, Bryn.
Her neighbor Paul McClinton let us know that Sher was earning a living for the family at the time of her death, so a fund has been created to help the family. More information on the fund here.
(Photo from Sher’s Facebook page.)
I ride 2nd Avenue all the time. I used to take the bike lane, but stopped when I realized that drivers don’t expect cyclists to be on their left, and passengers exiting parked cars don’t expect cyclists to be on their right. After too many close calls I began taking the center “car” lane, and since it’s downhill it’s pretty easy to maintain the speed of auto traffic.
Years ago I emailed SDOT, asking them why the bike lane is on the left side of the road, and not on the right, which is where drivers expect bikes to be. I was told that Metro bus drivers did not want a bike lane next to the 2nd Avenue bus lane because they didn’t want to have to deal with bicyclists while making stops.
So the bike lane remained in place, and this was the inevitable price that was paid for poor road design that time and time again had been pointed out by cyclists, pedestrians and drivers as being unsafe. A bicyclist was killed.
As a cyclist and a neighbor my heart goes out to everyone who cared about Sher Kung. And as a citizen of Seattle who feared that someday this was going to happen, I am so incredibly angry at SDOT, Seattle City Council and King County Metro bus drivers. A lot of people will so, “Oh, what a terrible accident.” But accidents aren’t avoidable, Sher Kung’s death was.
It isn’t hard to find other examples of this poor design quality in bicycle accommodations around Seattle. Motor vehicle roadway design will rigorously follow well understood rules, but they make things up as they go along for bicycles, and put up striping or other features that demonstrate a questionable understanding of how bicycles work physically or low priority for safe, predictable traffic design. Individually, you’re better off to ignore these features and do what seems right as an experienced bicyclist, but of course that isn’t a complete solution when the other half of the cyclists continue to follow SDOT’s directions. I see the Mayor has stepped up and promised there shall be all kinds of signals and flags installed right away to make up for the poor engineering, so it will be even more awkward to ride on the right like a sane bicyclist after the city has done so much to make the left “safe” for us.
Being a regular bike commuter, this news truly hits close to home and my heart goes out to Sher’s family and friends. Biking in the U.S. should not have to be such a life threatening experience as this article can attest: http://www.economist.com/node/21528302.