Mountain View bicyclist dies after being hit by car

Does it matter if he was wearing a helmet? A helmet won't save you from being hit by a car, those injuries are gruesome to a cyclist who is unprotected from all that metal. It might save you from having a concussion in a fall, but the rest of you will still break.

I've been biking around Mountain View for twenty years, and been hit twice. Once by an electric car that I didn't hear clipping me from behind that completely didn't see me, and once by being "doored" as I biked past a parked truck - that one really hurt. Helmet didn't help much in either case.

My condolences to Mr. Purcell's family. Any human life cut short is tragic.

How sad. This week there was also a woman in SF killed on her bike by a person opening a car door. The sooner we implement real bike lanes and connectivity, the more lives we will save. Both from reducing collisions and from more people getting a bit of exercise.

I'm afraid that this underscores why I think we need proper bike/pedestrian roadways, completely separate from auto surface traffic. With driverless cars and autodriving systems, I only see the frequency of this kind of thing increasing.

Condolences to the family.

I'm not sure anything is called for at this time except for condolences to this man's family.

Once the details come out we can all jump in with our blame or pet issues.

there was a post on NextDoor dated Jan 18 showing a pic of a kid on a bike getting cut off by a car turning right onto Covington from Grant. The kid almost got hit but slammed on his/her brakes. Grant road appears to be a dangerous road for bikers. Condolences to the victim's family.

Sadly, this gentleman DID have a helmet and brightly colored reflective clothing, but it did not help in this instance. I saw the immediate aftermath of this accident and it was very sad and disturbing.

My condolences to the family.

Do we know what happened? Assuming a bike lane would have prevented the accident is a stretch. While I fully support sharing the road with bikers, there are many bikers that don't adhere to the rules of the road, stop signs, red lights, etc. And there are many reasons for bike accidents which are unrelated to bike lanes. We should get the details before proposing solutions.

I'd like to comment here that Steve Purcell was one of our local giants of technology and a great human being as well. Condolences to his wife and daughters.

I’m so sorry for this man. That should have never have happened on that stretch of road. The bike lanes are wide and speed limit is 25? For school zone. I predict the next incident will be on shoreline due to the fact motor homes are parking in the bike lane and bikes must ride in the street to get by. R. I. P.

Sad that the streets aren't safe for all people. Would be great to understand the cause and have some corrective actions. Sounds like cyclist was experienced and wearing visible clothing. Not sure if the car was a high visiblility color or a hard to see gray as article didn't mention. Human error and poor road design are often involved in collisions.

Please update this article with the cause of the collision when the police release that information. We can't reduce future traffic casualties without understanding what happened in the past.

This is the second time a Los Altos driver has committed homocide here using their automobile in just a few years. Assuming there was no malice, why not send the whole city to traffic school to re-learn the safety rules of the road? First a pedestrian and now a cyclist...time to put our foot down and stop the madness.

Agree to wait for the full information from the police report.

But something to consider: No matter what the report states/finds: Riding a bicycle in Mountain View is dangerous. The roads are not safe for cycling and the abundance of an inordinate amount of potholes and debris in the streets has made even driving a car dangerous, let alone maneuvering a bicycle. Our infrastructure is in terrible shape and the conditions of our roads are a prime example. I have stopped riding a bicycle around town and do not allow my kids to go to school by bicycle anymore. It is very sad to say that this is where we live! One does wonder where all the TECH money is spent. Not on local infrastructure and making the city livable...

Miramonte, it's called Prop 13, and Californians voted 40 years ago to artificially suppress their taxes rather than actually fund their government. Intergenerational wealth transfer from the young to the old.

Steve was a great friend of the family and will truly be missed.

The Mountain View City intersection of Grant @ Truman has recent bike lane improvement including - green marked lanes and a separated bike right-turn protected lane (Truman onto Grant). This is a start.

The MVWSD and the City of Mountain View - a few years ago jointly worked to institute separated (protected) bike lanes on Castro St. in front of Graham Middle School. Besides the green marked lanes there are rubber bike-protect curbs (as a right is made from Mirimonte to Castro) and street parking 'outside' the bike lanes. It is hard to hit a student biker when there is a parked car between the moving vehicle and the bike lane.

However - as soon as this was installed - some driver/complainer from Los Altos stated that they would no longer visit downtown Mountain View - just to avoid these street safety features. I hope that particular complainer HAS stayed away.

I fairly recently learned - that the law is to CROSS AND GO INTO THE BIKE LANE when coming to a right-hand turn, where the bike line has a dashed line. With slow speed and caution, this helps from cutting off fast bikers (in THEIR LANE) when you make a right turn in a vehicle.

this is another sad example of how bikes and cars are not equals on the road, despite the popular fiction of "share the road". the stakes for bikers are so much higher than for drivers in any collision. when drivers complain about bikers not following the strict rules of the road, they need to get real: bikers will bend and break the rules of the road all day long if it means they can reduce or eliminate the likelihood of coming into contact -- or even entering the sphere of possibility of interaction -- with a car. no biker wants to compete for space with a car, and every biker fears they will be overlooked, ignored or even targeted by a driver in a hurry with an attitude of entitlement to the entire road. just like every biker has fallen or will fall, every biker has had a close call with a car or will have a close call, or worse. RIP Steve Purcell. ride safe out there, people, and drivers, slow down and leave some space for bikers