bicycle

A national bicycle advocate worries President Trump’s proposed budget will hurt Michigan and other states’ efforts to promote two-wheel commuting.

A Lima township man has been sentenced to probation and ordered to pay $3,000 in fines for striking and killing an Ann Arbor triathlete with his car. Terry Lee Lacroix pleaded guilty in March to a misdemeanor charge of a moving violation causing death.

Michigan State Police say the 70-year-old Lacroix was trying to pass another vehicle when he hit Karen McKeachie on Dexter-Chelsea road in Washtenaw County in August. McKeachie was a 17-time national champion in triathlon.

This week, a Senate legislative committee will consider bills that supporters say will make Michigan roads safer for bicyclists.

The package would require drivers to give riders a 5-foot-wide passing zone.

“It is kind of scary to have two tons of fast moving vehicle pass you,” Paul Selden says, “and the closer they pass, the more scary it is.”

Selden directs public safety for the Kalamazoo Bicycle Club. He says requiring a five-foot passing zone won’t prevent every crash, but he believes clarity about the rules will save lives.

A prosecutor says a man accused of plowing his pickup truck into a group of Kalamazoo-area bicyclists, killing five, was under the influence of drugs.

The disclosure was made Wednesday as new charges were filed against Charles Pickett Jr., who already faces second-degree murder charges in the June 7 crash in Kalamazoo County.

Authorities say the bicyclists were riding in a group on a rural road in Cooper Township when Pickett struck them.

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) - Lance Armstrong plans to be in Kalamazoo for a "Finishing the Ride" event in honor of the five cyclists killed when they were hit by a pickup truck.

Armstrong told the Detroit Free Press  the collision on June 7 in Kalamazoo County's Cooper Township, 160 miles from Chicago, is the worst he's seen and he's not sure he's emotionally ready for the ride. Armstrong says a fear of being struck by a vehicle is shared by all cyclists.

Armstrong plans to join Kalamazoo-area cyclists in a 28.5-mile ride Tuesday from Kalamazoo to Plainwell and back.

A Michigan prosecutor has charged 50-year-old Charles Edward Pickett Jr. with five counts of second degree murder after a pickup truck crashed into a group of bicyclists and killed five people.

Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeffrey Getting also charged him Thursday with four counts of reckless driving resulting in serious injury to four others near Kalamazoo.

The bicyclists were part of a group that called themselves "The Chain Gang," who ranged in age from 40 to 74.

Several thousand people are expected to swarm Sunday’s Ann Arbor Classic Bicycle Show and Swap Meet.

This is the show’s 35th year.

Organizer Paul Kleppert says people are drawn to see the rarest of the two wheelers.

Bike share programs are not a new concept – there are successful bike share programs in major cities all throughout the world. If you travel around North America, you'll find citywide bike share programs in Chicago, New York, Boston, Austin, Des Moines, Denver, Boulder, D.C., Madison (WI), Minneapolis/St. Paul, Philadelphia, Columbus, Charlotte, Chattanooga, Baltimore, the Bay Area, Toronto, and Montreal, among others.  

At the end of September the new ArborBike bike share program in downtown Ann Arbor debuted, becoming the first and currently only public bike share program in southeastern Michigan. 

Hundreds of cyclists are expected to silently ride to the state Capitol in Lansing Sunday afternoon.

The event is part memorial for a woman cyclist struck and killed by a car last month and part protest for stronger laws to protect people riding bicycles.

Mike Unsworth is with the Tri-County Bicycle Association.