Jan-Felix Mueller was shocked to learn Americans’ main mode of transportation was a car.
In Wolfsburg, Germany — his hometown — people biked and walked everywhere. His friends here said he lamented the fact one had to drive to most locations and that Tallahassee wasn’t more bike friendly.
And it was this very issue that ultimately took his life.
Mueller, a 26-year-old doctoral student at Florida State University, was struck Oct. 17 while biking through the downtown intersection of East Call Street and North Monroe Street, according to the Tallahassee Police Department.
“Preliminary information indicates the bicyclist was riding in the crosswalk when the driver of the vehicle ran a red light and struck the bicyclist,” TPD said.
The driver stayed on scene and cooperated with the investigation. TPD said the driver was cited accordingly, but the investigation is ongoing.
Mueller died five days after the accident.
“His death is a great loss for his family and friends, and for philosophy,” said Stephen Kearns, who was Mueller’s advisor at FSU’s Department of Philosophy. Kearns said he was “an extremely talented philosopher whose work showed great ingenuity and promise.”
The Ph.D. student’s tragic accident is just one of many that have shattered hearts in the capital city, and his friends and mentors fear nothing is ever going to change.
‘Instant friend’
Mueller came to Tallahassee in 2022 to pursue his Ph.D. in philosophy at FSU, considered one of the best universities in the U.S. for researching his topic of interest: free will.
He was in the middle of his third year in the five-year program and had started working on his dissertation before his death.
During orientation, he met Renee Rushing, Jie Bao and Michael De Vivo, who were part of his “inner circle.”
“It was like an instant friend,” Rushing said. “He cares about everyone, and if you’re in his space, you have the opportunity to have a friend.”
He had a “remarkable combination” of intelligence, compassion and kindness, she said while noting it was strange to refer to him in the past tense.
Everyone could tell he was special.
Mueller was the kind of friend who put aside his life to be there for someone if they needed it. All three of his friends who spoke with the Tallahassee Democrat said Mueller helped them get through struggles and always checked in on them.
They hung out when they could find time in their schedules, typically to watch movies, grab dinner and debate philosophy.
Imposing some of his German culture, Rushing said they’d often go grab food and drinks after lectures to unwind. A few of Mueller’s favorite places in town were The Bark, the Black Dog Café and Square Mug.
Bao said she remembers Mueller took her and several other international students to The Bark last October. “This year, around the same time, he left us,” she said, followed by a heavy sigh.
If he wasn’t studying or working, Rushing said he really enjoyed being outdoors exploring the world. The week of the accident, De Vivo said they were planning a weekend kayaking trip.
Beyond this, Mueller loved to bike. Even though he found the biking scene undesirable, it never deterred him. He was “an enthusiastic cyclist,” De Vivo said.
“I’d be driving down Monroe or wherever and see him riding, and he always had a smile on his face,” he said.
Hopes for full recovery quickly crushed
Since his passing, Mueller’s friends struggle to work and study. “It just feels so unimportant,” Rushing said.
Rushing and De Vivo visited Mueller in the hospital until his parents flew in from Germany three days after the accident.
Initially, he was expected to make a full recovery. Doctors warned he might be confused and have changes in personality, but overall, he’d make it.
Then things quickly took a turn for the worse.
One day he was walking through the hospital halls with a physical therapist, and the next he was bedridden with doctors saying the swelling in his brain was worsening.
The day he was hit, Bao said Mueller was supposed to attend a conference on free will. She said she’d heard about the accident but was told it wasn’t that serious, and he was going to be released soon.
But when he wasn’t in his seat for class the following Monday, Bao began to worry.
“I asked my friend, ‘How’s everything going?’ ” she said. “On Monday night they told me that something very bad happened, but it’s unclear what it is, and the doctor said that he will not wake up anymore.”
Even in the face of the worst case scenario, Bao held out hope for a miracle.
But the miracle never came.
‘It’s really unbelievable’
It’s hard to have hope that cyclists and pedestrians will ever be safe on the roads, De Vivo said. Even Mueller’s father was almost hit on his way to meet De Vivo at the Black Dog.
“He can’t even walk to a café where his son used to visit to mourn and process without his own life being threatened,” De Vivo said. “It’s really unbelievable.”
But in Mueller’s spirit, De Vivo said it’s still worth trying to effect some kind of change because these tragic accidents happen all the time — especially involving students.
Last September, another FSU Ph.D. student and avid cyclist Jake Boykin, 25, was hit and killed by a drunk driver while riding his bike along Wacissa Springs Road in Jefferson County.
More: Leon County a crash ‘hot spot’ as pedestrian, cyclist deaths and injuries mount
And earlier this year, FSU sophomore Ellie Sims was killed in a hit-and-run at a crosswalk near the intersection of Lorene and Pensacola streets, not far from campus.
The 20-year-old’s parents spoke out at a June city commission meeting pleading with the city for change, and those who knew and loved Mueller now share the Sims’ laments.
“Drivers run red lights every day in Tallahassee. I don’t know what they’re thinking,” said Randolph Clarke, professor and chair of FSU’s department of philosophy. “The city has to address this problem. Things have to change.”
Bao, originally from Anqing in the Anhui Province near Shanghai, China, said, like Mueller, she too was surprised to see the driving culture in Tallahassee when she first moved. She typically gets around town on a scooter and frequently feels unsafe, having near misses of her own with cars on the road.
In Anqing, Bao said tons of people bike and walk through the streets at all times, so drivers are used to paying more attention and driving slowly. But she also said her hometown has more cameras posted around the streets, helping police swiftly track down people if anything were to happen, which also helps deter poor driving.
“I never see anyone pulled over, I never see people being held accountable,” Rushing said. “It’s just a culture of people can do this; they can just run red lights.”
Rushing said she wants to see law enforcement actually enforce the law. De Vivo said if that means he were to get a ticket, then so be it.
“Give me a ticket, let me know that’s not OK,” he said. “Give me some indication that the city cares enough to invest resources into stopping reckless driving.”
At the beginning of October, TPD announced its fifth year of ramping up its efforts to reduce the number of fatal pedestrian and bicyclist crashes. The agency will be using high visibility enforcement measures to ensure road safety and to educate through May 2025, as previously reported.
“Talk about irony right?” De Vivo said.
So far this year, there have been 54 crashes involving bicycles and 163 crashes involving pedestrians in Leon County, according to the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Crash Dashboard. Of those crashes, two bicycle crashes, including Mueller’s, have been fatal and nine pedestrian crashes have been fatal, according to the dashboard and the Tallahassee Democrat’s count.
While it’s too late for Mueller, De Vivo said he would’ve wanted this accident to be used for meaningful change. People driving in Tallahassee “disregard the fact that they’re operating machinery that’s lethal,” he said, and priorities while on the road must change.
Mueller always searched for the good in the bad, and his friends are trying to do the same. They’re floating ideas around about the best ways to advocate for safer streets and not let their friend’s unnecessary death be in vain.
“One less death is a good thing,” De Vivo said. “It might not be a statistically significant reduction, but the cost of a human life is intolerable.”
(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)
Breaking & trending news reporter Elena Barrera can be reached at ebarrera@tallahassee.com. Follow her on X: @elenabarreraaa.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Death of FSU student in car vs. bike wreck is last straw for friends
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