Laura Keenan is even now adjusting to describing herself as a widow. Last year, her husband Matt was bicycling when he was killed by a wrong way driver.
SAN DIEGO — Approximately 300 people today ended up killed in website traffic collisions in San Diego County very last yr. This amount contains pedestrians and cyclists who ended up strike by cars and trucks.
Families for Risk-free Streets San Diego and the San Diego Bicycle Coalition are teaming up to have their voices listened to and visibly exhibit the effects of the reduction they have experienced by placing 294 empty pairs of sneakers in the courtyard of the Civic Middle Plaza in Downtown San Diego.
The 294 pairs of footwear characterize the number of life dropped in San Diego County from site visitors crashes in 2021.
Laura Keenan is still adjusting to describing herself as a widow. Her partner Matt was bicycling when he was killed by a mistaken-way driver in September 2021, leaving guiding Laura and their young son Evan.
“Twenty minutes immediately after he still left our household the mistaken way driver crossed into the bike lane and hit Matt’s head going at minimum 35 miles for every hour. She by no means observed him despite his blindingly brilliant lights, and he died on the scene,” Laura mentioned.
She states Matt rode his bicycle to the film theater just after they put their young son to sleep. She then fell asleep, waking up the next morning to understand her partner had in no way built it property. “I panicked,” Laura said. “Then I noticed that I experienced a skipped get in touch with and a voicemail from a San Diego range. It was the clinical examiner. They told me in excess of the cellular phone that he experienced been strike and killed. I did not fully grasp how to method that at the time. Then I went and acquired my 15-month-aged out of his crib and just bought via the day by some means.”

Utilizing ache for advocacy
Laura now utilizes her pain to advocate for bike lanes in San Diego with Households for Protected Streets San Diego.
“These (bike lanes) will save life. If the street that Matt was on had a guarded bicycle lane, he would be alive right now,” Laura said.
Laura was just just one of the numerous family customers represented at the accumulating who mourned the loss of beloved kinds from targeted traffic accidents in San Diego past year at the remembrance.
San Diego Metropolis Council President Sean Elo Rivera and Councilmembers Raul Campillo and Stephen Whitburn joined the accumulating supporting pro-bicycle lane laws. Mayor Todd Gloria expressed his help in a movie handle to the audience, citing an in-particular person obligation with Governor Newsom.
Laura informed CBS 8, “We need to have a connected, shielded network of bike lanes. We cannot just have a single-off ones in this article and there due to the fact we are attempting to facilitate transportation, and it doesn’t make perception if 1 lane has 1 and the subsequent won’t. We can construct safeguarded bike lanes working with economical machines, which can occur in a handful of times, delivering 90{e538325c9cf657983df5f7d849dafd1e35f75768f2b9bd53b354eb0ae408bb3c} of the defense as concrete kinds.”
Bicycle lanes have been a contentious situation for some San Diegans.
Several communities throughout the county have organized towards the set up of bike lanes in their neighborhood, citing confusion, safety, and the result on parking as worries.
Laura suggests she understands the pushback pertaining to bike lanes, but it is time to occur jointly to ensure no 1 else dies a preventable dying.
Households for a Secure San Diego and the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition are asking city and county leaders for 3 requests:
- Up-to-date bike grasp prepare by 2023
- Double funding for guarded bicycle lanes
- Lessen pace limitations across the location
“We are not striving to inconvenience anybody,” Laura explained. “We are not hoping to make their (critics of bicycle lanes) life more durable. We are making an attempt to help save lives and guard men and women from the ache that we live with for existence. These will preserve life. If the road that Matt was on experienced a safeguarded bike lane, he would have been alive currently.”
Check out Relevant: How lots of cyclists are using the 30th Road bicycle lanes? (Nov. 2022).
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