It keeps happening. Pedestrians, bicyclists and people driving cars keep colliding where the East Bay Bike Path crosses over roads. 

On Tuesday, June 9, a teenage girl riding a bicycle collided with a vehicle where the bike path crosses County Road. It was a serious accident. It sent a girl to the hospital. 

On June 2, police received a 911 call for an accident that occurred at the intersection of the bike path and South Lake Drive — a vehicle collided with a pedestrian. 

On May 5, police responded to the intersection of the East Bay Bike Path and Bay Spring Avenue for an accident involving a motor vehicle and a bicyclist. Police said a 42-year-old Riverside woman was attempting to ride her bicycle across Bay Spring Avenue at the bike path when she was struck by a vehicle and dragged about 25 feet. 

Intersections of the bike path are not the only places where crashes happen, but they are repeat offenders. Some of the collisions are minor. Some — including one in Bristol a few years ago — are fatal. 

There are an array of reasons these incidents keep happening, but in our opinion, the preponderance of blame falls on those actually using the path. In our informal observations, the vast majority of vehicles slow when approaching bike path crossings – at least enough to see if anyone is approaching. Too many bikers, boarders or runners do not. Believing they have, or should have, the right of way, too many of the bike path’s regular users behave as if all seas should part for them. They approach roadway crossings with the assumption that cars are stopping for them, rather than the alternative — which is in fact, the law.

At every bike path crossing, motor vehicles have the right of way. Once someone enters a marked crosswalk, the rules change, but until they do, the cars and trucks have every right to proceed through that space without expecting a bike or board to fly across their path.

Of course we urge motorists to use caution at these intersections and check both ways before driving through a crosswalk, but we more strenuously urge bike path users to realize their limitations. The bike path is built for recreation and enjoyment – not for speed. They would be wise to proceed accordingly.

Lastly, anyone and everyone who can influence visibility at these intersections has an obligation to cut back vegetation and improve lines of sight in all directions. This includes both private property owners and state maintenance crews. The intersections at Bay Spring Avenue and South Lake Drive are particularly dangerous, with dense vegetation making it more difficult for both motorists and cyclists to see each other approaching.