- Lauren Huddleston
As you may have heard, a 28-year-old woman died Sunday after suffering head injuries in a collision last week on the Katy Trail near Routh Street.
Lauren Huddleston was jogging and listening to her iPod when she abruptly changed direction and was struck by a bicyclist, according to reports. Naturally, Huddleston’s death has prompted debate about what can be done to make the trail safer, including a front-page story in Tuesday’s Dallas Morning News.
In the article, one man proposes a 10 mph speed limit for bicyclists on the trail. Others say more signs are needed directing walkers and joggers to the pedestrian-only path alongside the main trail. However, this path doesn’t run the full length of the trail and — like the trail itself — becomes overly crowded during peak hours.
Anyone who’s ever walked, run or biked the trail has undoubtedly had a close call — one Dallas Voice employee was involved in a collision last year.
Perhaps the mere perception that the trail is unsafe will keep some away and make it slightly less crowded in the short-term, but that’s hardly a long-term fix. The ultimate solution is more jogging and biking trails throughout North Texas, so that the trail’s limited space isn’t so heavily in demand.
In the meantime, given that the gays are among the trail’s biggest users, what if anything do you think could be done to make it safer?
My personal feeling is that road bikes should be excluded from the congested part of the trail. Road bikes belong on “roads” – hence their name. It is very apparent that some cyclists – particularly some on road bikes – are unaware of their safety responsibilities (as the faster moving vehicle on the trail) to anticipate potential hazards. There are strollers, dogs on leashes and small children on small bikes among flanked walkers and runners (many with headsets) – no place for road bikes.
If both of these people had been following common sense rules, this wouldn’t have happened.
The biker was probably flying down the path, and Lauren should have at least turned around to look behind before cutting across the path.
This is emblematic of the larger problem facing our society today: self-inportance and obliviousness. It’s the same thing on the road, people yakking on phones, playing with DVD players and computers, drifting from lane to lane, suddenly cutting across traffic to make a turn or exit, oblivious to the other vehicles and pedestrians.
I think we need to treat trails like you would treat the highways. I jog on the trail at least twice a week and when I cross to get on the pedestrian trail, I look both ways and make sure there an no bikes coming. I’m sure setting a speed limit for bikes would help but I’ve never seen any bikes going dangerously fast. With the great weather, the trail has been extremely busy so bikes really can’t move at a dangerous pace. We can say that this was preventable but accidents like this happen all the time on our roads. Not paying attention, on the phone, changing the radio station, taking a sip of coffee. Are we gonna say we shouldn’t be doing those things? It’s just a horrible accident.
The safest thing to do is make the trail wider. The streamlined recumbent bicycles can cover more than 55 miles in one hour. In a record breaking sprint, a streamlined recumbent bicycle can exceed 80MPH.
The mistake is that people keep categorizing bicycles as “slow”. The truth is, it’s only the acceleration that lags motor vehicles; it takes a streamlined recumbent bicycle about ninety seconds to reach sixty miles-per-hour. Once it’s at that speed, it can cruise for miles and miles without slowing down.
Then there’s these motorists who insist that bicycles don’t belong in the road, without actually realizing how fast the bikes can move.
Pedestrians don’t belong on bike trails. Get a Bike.
Praying for Lauren and her family, as well as the cyclist who was involved.
Sad to hear of this young woman death . I walk or run the trail on a daily basis and its my scape from reality. when i get my thoughts together before I start the day.
I have had a few close calls with bicycle riders, specially the racing bikes, I believe that the path for bikes should be extended as well as the pedestrian one.
Its a lesson that we all need to learn and be more aware of what is going on around us, be able to have consideration with other people and think that they are there to work out and enjoy as you do and pay more attention and be more considerate.
First of all bikes and pedestrians is dangerous. Bikes almost always go too fast compared to walkers or joggers. Also there is a lack of courtesy with bikers announcing when they come up behind someone. They just don’t always do it. One option is to separate the two (divide the trails) and another option is have one way only with walkers and joggers going one direction and bikes going the other.