Last week on May 6, Hilari Oller was riding home from work at 2AM when she was hit-and-run by a car on W. Oak St near Welch. She says she was in the right lane, when a car hit her left side from behind so hard that the car mirror broke off, cutting her arm open and severing arteries in the process. Eighteen stitches later, she was released from the hospital, found the broken mirror on the road, and she made a police report. The driver is still at large.
Last October, UNT teaching fellow David Gonzalez was struck only a block away. Despite a 2009 city initiative to put in bike lanes on this stretch, the proposal was tabled by the former Traffic Safety Commission. Now in 2011, the city Bike Plan routes look to have steered clear of this part of Oak St, citing fear of backlash from the historic Oak/Hickory neighborhood.
Bike Denton 
Feel better Hilari!
I’m more concerned about the victim having to retrieve the evidence from the wreck than the lack of bike lanes. Wasn’t there a cop at the wreck site to direct traffic or secure the site? Couldn’t he have secured the evidence before someone walked off with it? This is unacceptable.
[…] to home is a hit-and-run with serious injury just up the road in Denton. Oak St hit-and-run Another TX hit-from-behind wreck with typical TX LEO reaction, the victim had to go retrieve the […]
Since when is the historic Oak/Hickory area more important than the safety of the citizens?
I think it’s important to note that for every bicycle on the road there is one less person who is driving a car, that’s one less motor vehicle on the road! I think that should be considered when people try to demand that all parking spots be retained when putting in a bicycle lane. If there was a bike lane on Oak, Hilari Oller would not have been hit. She would have been in her own lane. I hope that those individuals that blocked the Oak/ Hickory Bike Lane Proposal feel responsible for this accident and all accidents between bikes and cars on Oak and Hickory.
we need bike lanes to/from downtown and UNT, and TWU – get it done, please city council people!
Bike lanes don’t necessarily keep you from getting hit. Just Saturday about 9am on Custer we had an idiot driver speed past a line of cars (who were going the speed limit)…passing in the bicycle/parking lane while yelling and shooting the finger. I’m just glad there were no cyclists occupying it at that particular place and time. A-holes are gonna be A-holes regardless of lane designation.
It’s likely that at the time of her hit and run (2am) Hilari was probably hit by a drunk driver. Hope you heal quickly Hilari, and I hope they find the buttwad that hit you and put him away.
That’s true…it’s also true that stop signs don’t make drivers stop and speed limits don’t make them drive the right speed. But they help.
It’s absurd to object to bike lanes in a historic district. I mean, if they really want to be “historic,” shouldn’t they also remove the pavement, forbid cars, and allow only horses and buggies?!
I hope they catch the driver and prosecute to the full extent.
@ Bud
I agree. The City of Richardson has been adding bike lanes as “traffic calming” tools…They work fairly well (much better than the “pinch point islands” that some cities use) and are definitely better than nothing. I have to admit that I like them and actually use them when they are along my route.
After reading this, I inquired with one of the long-term residents of the Oak/Hickory neighborhood. She assured me that the neighbors would not object to a bike lane as long as it did not necessitate the implementation of one-way streets. Would one-way streets be a perquisite of bike lanes on these streets?? If not, the City has little excuse.
msn, Oak (from UNT to the Square) and Hickory already are one-way streets. Likely, the issue comes down to some big-wig historic property owners who don’t want to give up their street parking space to make room for a bike lane.
However, as it’s been said before, by adding a bike lane, there potentially would be less demand for their precious parking space as more cars would be off the road. Hickory can be a pain, but when I lived there, it was never impossible to park.
Be grateful that Denton doesn’t have to deal with brick streets — because HEAVEN FORBID — someone paints a stripe for a bike lane on a historic brick street.