Errors in Engineering and Enforcement Affecting Bicycle Safety

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A bicycle accident with serious injury on the US 10/31 corridor highlights the fact that it is inherently unsafe to ride a bike between Ludington and Scottville, two fatal accidents over the last seven years show the same. 

Analyzing those three incidents in the same general area, we see two problems in common with each, both of which could be remedied with a paradigm shift of thought in public officials and a little initiative.  In general, those problems are with engineering and enforcement.

Engineers of the Michigan Dept. of Transportation (MDOT) decided five decades ago to put in curbs and gutters along the length of this corridor, even where they met other roads and private driveways, many of which exist along this highway.  Along with that they provided a thin (3-4 feet) and inviting asphalt path adjacent to the highway.  It's not easy to jump these curbs on a bicycle, they can severely damage a road bike's thin wheels when you try.  Ideally, these curbs along these driveways and roads should be cut and ramped, as they have across Ludington to afford easier travel by wheelchair, but they have only endured.

Law enforcement has traditional turned a deaf ear to bicyclists when they are involved in accidents, perhaps due to having an institutional motorist bias, using reporting frameworks that emphasize vulnerable user behavior over driver actions, and harboring cultural assumptions about who "belongs" on the road.  Often, the bicyclist cannot convey their side of the story due to critical or fatal injuries, leaving the driver to control the narrative of what happened.  The media affirm these biases.  The sheriff's office with jurisdiction, led since 2012 by Sheriff Kim Cole, have shown by their actions that they house these traditions.

On October 6, 2020, a bicyclist was hit from behind when they apparently swerved to avoid rolling over a metal grate used for drainage on the side of the highway.  Had the curb on the side of Dennis Road been made into a wheelchair-friendly sloped ramp, the bicycle would have never needed to enter the busy highway, the rider would not have had to die.  Nevertheless, Sheriff Cole's deputies did not (to our knowledge, after research) cite the driver for his part in the felony of Reckless Driving Causing Death.  As we said then:  "There is no excuse for running over a bicyclist from behind given the conditions that led to this, you have effectively taken over the lane they were riding in and had a right to be in."

On August 1, 2019, a similar accident almost directly across the street happened when an elderly man riding an adult tricycle was taken from behind by a semi-trailer.  The current situation is even harder on three-wheeled bicycles, but had the curbs been cut and sloped like they are across our county's cities, this fatal incident would not have ever happened.  Again, there was no citation given to the truck driver for his part in this accident, which was avoidable on his part as he admits to braking and signaling for a right turn into a nearby driveway, but not waiting for this man to clear it.

Then we have this July 21, 2026 incident, where Sheriff Cole told us that a 59-year-old Ludington man was seriously injured after he was struck by a vehicle while riding his bicycle eastbound on US 10 near Wildwood Crossing: “He was struck by a vehicle, which was pulling out of a private drive as the bicyclist crossed that drive."  

According to this report, the bicyclist was on the highway, which would actually make him quicker and be less visible than if he was on the asphalt, which he likely would have been had curbs been cut and sloped, the engineering part of this equation.  The enforcement part was horrible, with Sheriff Cole not indicating that the man had been ticketed.  This would have been an automatic right-of-way violation causing serious injury had the victim been driving a metal cage, because that's exactly what happened here.

Bonus Hit:  In June, MCP reported that Sheriff Cole announced: “A 15-year-old juvenile was attempting to cross US 10 on a bicycle while pulling a wagon.  The juvenile and bike had crossed the highway, however the wagon had yet to do so, when it was struck by a red four-door car, knocking the boy off the bike. The car failed to stop, (and) the juvenile received minor injuries.”

This was not in the unsafe corridor and not an accident where we can easily fault engineering, but with the way it has been reported by the sheriff himself, it appeared that they were not following up and seeking help from the community in not asking them for help in finding the hit and run driver operating a red four door car with front-end passenger-side damage or doing that job themselves.  And that's an issue, because would the sheriff had taken the same path if this was a hit and run accident with another vehicle if the other driver had injuries-- like what happened here with a young vulnerable user of the road? 

This was not an engineering problem, but it shows that the law enforcement issue is perhaps more prevalent in the area-- and it also shows there is another thing in common with all four incidents that is seldom mentioned.  Each incident could have easily been avoided if the drivers involved would have exercised a degree of caution in sharing the road.  Drive safely and be aware of the vulnerable users of the road.