Another awful tragedy.

This accident occurred long before dawn (with the time change), and of course the initial article has almost no details. I am very curious whether visibility was a factor. I don't know that it was, of course. But some citizens (including bicyclists) have recently pointed out that it's not uncommon to encounter bicyclists without lights and pedestrians moving around before dawn in dark clothing. That doesn't reduce the responsibility not to hit them -- but I am taking it as a wake-up call to be also responsible for becoming obvious when I'm around cars at night, and not just assuming they'll see me.

Oh no, RIP poor cyclist.

Page Mill road is like a cycling highway, where cyclists go off in various directions to climb up to Skyline Blvd. I know that particular intersection very well, and it's dangerous. Getting from Cristopher Lane onto Page Mill going south involves crossing two lanes of 50mph traffic. Cyclists don't usually encounter traffic this quick and underestimate how quickly the cars close on them.

Look at this aerial photo (Web Link Notice that the bike lane is on the left side of Page Mill in this area. It eventually converges on the right side after the 280 merge, but crossing these two lanes of traffic is freaking dangerous and scary.

"But some citizens (including bicyclists) have recently pointed out that it's not uncommon to encounter without lights and pedestrians moving around before dawn in dark clothing."

Yes, and also some citizens (including drivers) have recently pointed out that it's not too uncommon to witness drivers exceeding the speed limit, esp in that area.

You forgot to point that part out, maybe on purpose. Now stop it, someone died. No outcome or blame will be able to be used as justification for bigotry against an entire group. There is no "See, look how bad they are" moments to be had here.

@Common sense Sunrise today in Palo Alto was 6:35am, this collision happened about 20 minutes later. It didn't happen "long before dawn" at all, it happened well after dawn. The least you could do is check the sunrise time on the calendar before you start victim-blaming with scant details.

It looks like "Common Sense" above actually lacks common sense. The accident occurred well after dawn. With the time change, sunrise and sunset are both EARLIER!

I passed by seconds after this happened - I saw the poor woman in the median. It was indeed light outside. There were no visibility problems.

This was a tragic, tragic accident. People, please slow down get off your damn phones.

Point taken about the time change. Point (implicit) also taken that, as reliably as day and night follow each other, out come the automaic, knee-jerk charges of "victim-blaming" and (incredibly -- where did this come from? did that person even read my post?) "justification for bigotry against an entire group."

I used to commute by bike on that road. The issues of nighttime visibility are real, and they don't go away because a few people dislike seeing them mentioned.

We have no idea what happened there, so it's premature to blame anyone.

Southbound Page Mill road is downhill and turning just before Christopher Ave. Cars go fast. It's a 50mph limit down to the back of the hill, then goes down to 35 where the accident happened, many are still going 50 since people slow down gradually. On top of that, you've got the 280 traffic merging in, and the 280 on-ramps as well, and you've got two cycling outlets feeding into that, and cyclists having to cross fast traffic to stay in the bike lane. It's a hectic intersection. A driver could have made a mistake, and so could the cyclist. I've biked there at the crack of dawn, and the hills shield the sun, so making yourself visible as a cyclist is important, but we have no idea if that's what led to this accident. For cyclists, the curve of the hill doesn't allow for good visibility of traffic coming from behind you as you merge from old page mill road.