RALEIGH - In Andy Hart's world, many drivers are unwilling to let bikes and cars co-exist on Triangle streets. He's had the broken bones to prove it.

In the past two weeks, one cyclist was killed in Raleigh when a pickup truck demolished her bike. Another lies in intensive care at Duke Hospital, also from a driver's negligence in an accident May 4.

Some cyclists are reconsidering routes. Others, such as Hart, have decided group rides are now their only outlet.

"I won't ride alone ... because I'm too afraid," said Hart, 46, who for about four years has been riding as a hobby.

Riders have been reeling from the April 23 death of Nancy Antoine Leidy, 60, who was hit on Nazareth Street near N.C. State's campus. Brian Anthony Reid, who turned 21 that day, was charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, failure to control speed and driving while intoxicated. He blew a 0.12 at the Wake County Public Safety Center, a report showed. The state's legal limit is 0.08.

Then, just after 12:30 p.m. May 4, Wendy Savage and her husband, Cliff Swanson, were riding their bikes on Carpenter Pond Road in Durham County when a vehicle hit the back end of Savage's bike. Her helmet was broken in several places. She has been in the intensive care unit at Duke Hospital since the accident. A hospital spokesman said Sunday she was listed in fair condition.

"We don't know if [Savage] will ever be the same," said friend and fellow cyclist Rick Iovine, 53, of Raleigh.

According to an accident report, Gladys Phipps George, 83, of 3313 Carpenter Pond Road in Durham, was cited for failure to control speed.

Iovine said he and his wife were riding on Carpenter Pond Road when they came across the accident scene.

"It was a bright sunny day," he said. "To be slaughtered like that ... we can't figure out why this woman's now fighting for her life because she went out on a bike ride."

But accidents with motor vehicles are common for cyclists.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 770 cyclists were killed in crashes with motor vehicles in 2006. Twenty of those deaths occurred in North Carolina. An average of about 900 incidents occur each year in North Carolina where accidents involving a motor vehicle and a bike result in injuries.

Iovine, who took up cycling about seven years ago, said he has been hit several times on his bike, resulting in scrapes, bruises and broken bones. Once, he was knocked unconscious.

"The cars really feel it's their road and they don't have to share it with us," he said.

Animosity runs both ways. Some drivers complain that cyclists don't follow traffic laws and clog up the roads.

"Mainly, they're annoying," Josh Ellis, 21, an N.C. State student from Wilmington, said Sunday. "They have the right to be on the road, too, but unless they're going the speed limit, they shouldn't be out there. They can ride on the sidewalks."

But the roads, according to state laws, should be shared. According to North Carolina General Statutes, cyclists are considered vehicle operators.

Tell that to the drivers who tailgate, cut off and slam their brakes in front of cyclists, Hart said.

Cyclists familiar with a stretch of Baptist Road tell horror stories on online cycling groups of a blue PT Cruiser, whose driver yells and uses hand gestures to convey obscenities. There are many other drivers who respond to cyclists in the same belligerent manner, Iovine said.

But even that behavior is not enough to force cyclists off the road.

"Do we stop cycling completely? That's not gonna happen," Iovine said. "We just wish people were paying more attention."

(News researcher Lamara Williams contributed to this story.)