Unfortunately, our Governor bowed to pressures and vetoed HB 488, the Vulnerable Road Users Act. Many of the cycling advocates who preach John Forester’s teaching are applauding (two especially in the Dallas area). While we, as cyclists are currently “protected” under existing state laws, there is no real penalty for not being careful.
When I was hit whil riding a motorcycle, the lady who ran over me received a ticket for either failure to control speed, reculting in an accident, or failure to control vehicle, resulting in an accident. The fine for either of those moving violations is $183. I would gladly swap her less than $200 ticket for my in excess of $500K in medical bills, which are still ongoing, and will be for the remainder of my life. I am not bitter, and I am not angry, but I can candidly say that there is no justice. I am thankful that I have great insurance, but I will have to maintain insurance for the rest of my life, since I now have a “preexisting condition”.

At some point; hopefully later rather than sooner, I will be forced to amputate the entire lower portion of my right leg. Basically the salvage bought me time. However, due to the extensive injuries, and the compromised cardiovascular system, as my vessels begin to harden with age, the lost bloodflow will result in an “extremity that is no longer viable”. All of this because one person either, thought she could make it around me, felt that she had more right to the road than I did, or did not see me. I cannot even begin to say what she was thinking, but I do not for an instant believe that she did not see me. I honestly believe that she underestimated my speed. Even though I was doing within 2 mph of the speed limit, her frame of reference was such that it might have been difficult to judge the speed of an approaching motorcycle (or bicycle), and since there were no other vehicles for her to frame against, she thought she had time to get out and past in front of me. This is instead of waiting an additional 2 seconds for me to pass. I am in no way implying that our collision was a malicious act. I do not believe that she would have stayed on site if that had been the case.

Yep, I wandered a bit off topic here.