San José Father, Grandfather, Bicyclist killed on July 3rd

It is with a heavy heart that we report the death of a father, grandfather and avid bicyclist, Bob Lavin, 62, a little before 1 p.m. on July 3rd near the intersection of Curtner Ave and Briarwood Drive in San José. This collision was caused by a person driving who was later reported to be intoxicated. This person fled from the scene and was later caught and arrested. SVBC has been in communication with the family and sends them our deepest condolences.Lavin was killed while riding in the bike lane on Curtner Ave in the middle of a sunny day. A person walking was killed at the same intersection of Curtner and Briarwood only one year ago. We don’t yet know the full details of the collision and will update when we are able to access the police report.While there are bike lanes on this stretch, the current infrastructure is clearly not adequate to create a safe space for people biking. The existing bike lanes on Curtner were repaved and restriped with green in 2017. Curtner is also recommended to be upgraded to a separated bike lane (Class IV) in the San José Bike plan. However, it is not currently designated as a Vision Zero priority safety corridor. The City of San José is studying how to add new corridors to its Vision Zero plan, which will get higher priority for improvements. SVBC is actively working with the City to improve and implement its Vision Zero plan and we will advocate for this corridor and intersection to be included. We’ve worked closely with San José to create the Vision Zero Action Plan and to implement the Better Bikeways downtown. The Better Bikeway network represents the type of changes that we would like to see throughout the city: green, protected bike lanes that are connected so that people are able to travel safely. We will continue this work with the city, along with Lavin’s family to help reduce collisions and eliminate fatalities and major injuries in San José so that no one has to suffer a similar loss in the future.There is a NBC news video update on July 11th about Bob, the collision and the aftermath of his death.On August 2, there was a memorial ride for Lavin, organized by a new group,  Ride for Silence-San José,  and Lavin’s family.Lavin’s death marks the City’s 24th traffic fatality of the year.