Serious news, Systemics. Here in DC there’s a bunch of extra people in town due to a nuclear security summit. That means extra police, blocked off roads, and extra traffic. One of these extra vehicles, a National Guard truck to be specific, struck and killed a cyclist yesterday around 6pm. No details have been released about the cyclist. No details as well about the exact circumstances from the accident as well. UPDATE: The identity has been released. Given the fact that the cyclist was a 68-year-old woman, I somehow doubt she was breaking traffic rules.

I know I often do comics about cars vs. bikes and bikes vs. cars (including Friday’s comic), and a wonderful discussion has been raging about the nature of this dynamic. At the core of these comics is really this: when a vehicle and a bike go up against each other in a collision, regardless of who is at fault, the cyclist is going to lose catastrophically.

Take a few things from this incident, since that is all we can do:

• Cyclists, be careful out there. Obey laws as best you can and don’t take any risks you can avoid.
• Motorists, calm the hell down. You’ll get to your destination 2 minutes later but much much safer for all of us (cyclists, motorists and pedestrians alike.)
• Sure I’d like more advocacy for cyclists and loads of other things (like a pony, possibly on a bike), but let’s save that for another day.

Stay safe, Systemics.