Well said and this should be the main point of the discussion. No matter what form of transport we choose for various reasons to use, none of us want our families to suffer the way this family and so many other families suffer every year.

While I am very sorry for Ms. Leonard's loss and do not know anything about her husband's riding habits, I will say that as a car driver, I am really tired of bike riders who refuse to obey the rules of the roads they are riding on. Just because you are on a bike doesn't give you the legal right to go through red lights, stop signs that are treated as yield signs (barely), not using hand or mechanical turn signals, etc., etc. The rules and laws apply to you as well as to us so FOLLOW THEM.

@Mar - I am a car driver and a biker. I can tell you from experience that a biker who follows all the traffic rules is only at a slightly reduced risk of being run off the road or hit by a driver. The bottom line is that a driver is in control of a highly deadly weapon (arguably more dangerous than a gun) and therefore the burden is on him to ensure that the road is safe. After all, the purpose of our built environment is (or at least should be) to serve PEOPLE, not cars.

@mar hahahah... very good joke! You act as if even a simple majority of Baltimore drivers heed the law! I ride my bike a short distance to work, and do stop at the lights. However, in the few blocks I ride, there are no bike lanes, and drivers barrel past me at 10-15 mph above the legal speed limit. They have no concern for other vehicles, let alone a lone cyclist just trying to survive. Forgive me if I don't feel any sympathy for Baltimore drivers -- some of the least courteous (and least law abiding, probably) in the nation -- when I hear about one killing a cyclist who rolled through a stop sign at 5 mph.

This past Friday night while biking home a driver attempted to run me over.

I had just turned off of Charles eastbound onto E Lafayette, when a green Ford Taurus wagon crossed the yellow median line, and accelerated hard directly into my path.

I swerved into the curb and jumped to the ground to avoid being struck. The driver came to a stop at the red light on Lafayette. I got back on my bicycle, called the police, and approached the vehicle, which spun out through the light and took off Northbound on Charles St.

There were many other people in the area (the Film Fest was letting out), and several bikers offered to help me chase the vehicle, however the police advised me to wait at the scene.

45 minutes later officers had yet to arrive, so I rode my bicycle a block north to the Northern District, where there was a stopped cruiser, and reported the incident. The officer took down some notes, but that's all that came of it.

I view incidents like this as attempted murder, and ride defensively because of this. Next time someone deliberately tries to kill me with an automobile, they are getting a 10 pound bike chain through the window.

A bike is my only means of transportation. Please don't kill me because you think that's stupid or funny.