So looks like either the bicyclist or the 19 year old ran a red; both seem possible. I guess we’ll have to wait for the evidence.

I have a question about the following: “Atlantic Avenue consistently ranks as one of the city’s most dangerous streets for traffic crashes”

Is that just a total numbers metric or per volume metric? Meaning is it the most dangerous when accounting for the volume of people/cars/bikes, or is it about the same/safer/more dangerous per capita than streets with less volume?

Kinda hard to get inside the NYPD’s head on this one. A 19-year-old in a giant SUV couldn’t possibly have been doing anything wrong like, say, texting or speeding on a wide road, but a 47-year-old on a bike must have been extremely reckless? It doesn’t pass the smell test.

This might be another case of the dangerous traffic signal guidelines killing another cyclist.

The change from green in one direction to green in the perpendicular direction is 5 seconds for most NYC traffic signals. Atlantic Avenue is a wide street with an elevated railroad (LIRR) in the middle. The distance from entering Atlantic Ave northbound from Rochester Ave to westbound traffic lanes is between 88 and 110 feet (from the stop line on Rochester Ave to the westbound lanes). A bicycle traveling at 12 mph (18 ft/sec) will take between 4.9 and 6.1 seconds. This means that the traffic signal could have been green when the cyclist entered and been green for the westbound motorist, when the cyclist emerged from under the elevated structure. The elevated structure obscured the view for both the driver and cyclist.

The problem is even worse because the cyclist sees no traffic signals, once he crosses the eastbound (near) lanes of Atlantic Ave. The only traffic signals facing northbound traffic on Rochester Ave are on the elevated structure on the far side of the eastbound lanes. These are 50 feet from the stop line. The cyclist is in no man’s land, insofar as visible traffic signals are for Atlantic Ave’s remaining 60 foot width. The cyclist might have had a sporting chance, had he been able to see a traffic signal change for green once he committed to crossing Atlantic Ave.

The traffic signal timing criteria were developed in the 1920’s, before bicycles were required to obey them. The timing was developed for automobiles and have never been updated.

The timing cycle goes from GR to YR to RR to RG. The YR part of the cycle is to give approaching traffic time to safely stop before entering the intersection. It’s based on: reaction time; approach speed and braking rate. It’s 3.0 seconds for most NYC signals. This is the minimum. The RR part of the cycle is to give traffic that entered the intersection before the change to yellow to clear the intersection. It’s based on street width, travel speed and vehicle length. The travel speed is nominally the 85th percentile speed, which would place it in the 25-30 mph range.

NYC does not bother making such calculations. The YR cycle is 3 seconds and the RR (Red Clearance) cycle is 2 seconds. The crosswalk-to-crosswalk distance for Atlantic Ave is 120 feet and assuming a 15 foot long vehicle, the Red Clearance cycle would require a vehicle speed in excess of 45 mph to be effective. It would be inadequate for vehicles traveling at lower speeds.

This situation bears study by DOT’s Team Vision Zero. It’s not limited to Atlantic Ave. Just about every wide street, e.g. arterial highways, exhibit similar problems.

The safe procedure for a cyclist would be not to proceed, when a green signal is visible. The cyclist should wait until the instant when the signal changes from red to green. That’s the only way a cyclist knows he will have sufficient time to cross the intersection.