[beggi]

This is utterly tragic. I lived near Hillandale rd in Durham and drove there almost every day. Not sure if it had any part in this accident, but the road is really poorly lit like most roads there.

When I moved it actually struck me how poorly lit the roads in Durham were, compared to where we come from in Europe. I'm guessing it's a mixture of being much more expensive (wider roads and much longer) and the city organizers not giving pedestrian/cyclists much thought (sidewalks seem to be scattered randomly around the town).

[ethomson]

This stretch of Hillandale is really lousy, as it narrows from a multilane interchange to a two-lane road in about a block. But it should be fairly well lit (at least around the interchange) and I imagine that Seth was as visible as possible.

But mediocre roads in Durham are the norm, unfortunately. My least favorite was always University heading South/Southwest through Forest Hills. In a hundred feet, your bike lane disappears and you are suddenly on a narrow two-lane with little shoulder, in a right-hand curve with an uphill elevation. There's precious little visibility in either direction thanks to the trees and curves, and the oncoming traffic (northbound) traffic has an awkward intersection that tends to cause people to creep into the middle of the lane. (I may be misremembering the exact details, but that intersection has really stuck with me.)

The drivers in the Triangle are also pretty awful. I've never been yelled more or had more things thrown at me. The cup of ice landing on you is not so bad (it can even be a little refreshing on a hot day) but the handful of change is pretty frightening.

Durham is a great town in many ways, but its bicycling infrastructure is not one of them. Such a shame that it claimed another life.

[joonix]

Welcome to most of America. Really no sense of municipality, for the government is expected to strive to spend $0 lest they be accused of hoarding tax dollars.