Clif Pro Team's Benjamin Sonntag Struck & Killed While Riding

 I live in an area without mountains, off roading barely exists, yet the amount of HUGE and lifted trucks that have become common place in the past couple years astounds and confuses me! An F-150 is small compared to what is all around this area. No one uses these trucks for anything more than show, they aren't all contractors carrying building supplies, they aren't living on farms...it's people living in cities, trying to prove how manly they are with zero access to rugged nature. It makes me crazy! This is yet another reason why the idea of slowing down "global warming" and being more "earth friendly" just isn't going to happen....most people don't give any shit about anything and anyone outside their own self centered bubble

 But how else will we know how small their dicks are?

 @Patsplit: if they wore Raffa Lycra on their Pinarello bikes we would know for sure.

 Totally agree with the motivation here, but rather than widening roads consider a different strategy that's much more effective in saving lives, the planet, and cost: ban the cars.

 Of course it should be news duh

 @markar: he is saying that we shouldn’t even have these kinds of incidents happen by fixing the underlying problems with car culture.

 Not sure whether wider roads are the solution. Instead what we're starting to see more here (in The Netherlands) is trading one car lane for two completely separated bicycle lanes (separate for both directions or one wide lane for both directions together). Ideally the bicycle lane is separated from the car lanes by means of physical obstacles like curbs, trees etc. One other more recent solution they're implementing in more crowded areas are the high speed bicycle lanes. Obviously still accessible for those going slow on regular bikes, but wide enough for fast riders on road race bikes and high speed e-bikes to overtake. The most recent development I'm seeing here in Amsterdam is that some bigger roads are dedicated to cyclists. Cars are "guests" and have to adapt to cycling traffic or 30km/h at most, whichever is slowest. We may see the the urban speed limit drop to 30km/h eventually, except for a few main roads. This obviously doesn't just go for cars, but for mopeds and high speed e-bikes too in these areas. The goal is to reach zero cycling deaths. They'll probably never reach that as elderly can always still lose their balance just on their own and get injured (and the consequential immobility eventually leads to a quick drop in their condition). But obviously someone getting hit by a car traveling at 30km/h gets off much better than someone getting hit by a car traveling at 50km/h, so it still makes a lot of sense to me.

I definitely think this is what needs to be done if you want more people out of their cars and on their bikes. If it takes more courage to ride a bike in traffic than to ride a car in traffic, there is just something fundamentally wrong with the infrastructure. Sure there is an aspect of bravery in riding technical mtb trails and high speed road racing. But it shouldn't be an element in general traffic. It should be safe enough for the kids to ride to school and friends and for the elderly to go places.

 @vinay: very well said. I don’t think car will be gone ever so giving more than ample separation makes perfect sense. Netherlands sounds like a pretty awesome place. Do you guys have much hydroelectric infrastructure there?

 Making roads wider encourages people to drive even faster with less attention paid. Great idea!

 but my gun is more accurate than their truck...so my ego wins.