Yet another cyclist death highlights overpass dangers

A cyclist was struck by a car and killed on December 18 while crossing Hwy. 101 on Hillsdale Blvd. in San Mateo. The victim was an as yet unidentified 68 year old man. He was hit by a Caltrans vehicle.

If any good can come out of such a tragedy, it is the fact that such a sad incident refocuses the community's attention on the many dangers faced by cyclists in a car-centric world. As the San Mateo Daily Journal notes, the abhorrent state of many San Mateo County overpasses is a problem that has been on the back burner for years:

The city had considered painting bike lane stripes on the overcrossing, installing push-button pedestrian signals at the four interchanges and constructing a mid-structure path to accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists before a new pedway is constructed. The city’s Public Works Commission started considering these suggestions from the public going back to April 2006.

More on the incident can be found at:

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=121565

and

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/18/BAVF1B6CVP.D...

and

http://sf.streetsblog.org/2009/12/18/bicyclist-killed-by-caltrans-vehicl...