You’ve not seen some of the potholes on UK roads! I could bunny hop them, I suppose, but it’d be a bad place to have a bit of a wobble upon landing. 
Or cyclists who don’t follow traffic laws as they’re supposed to.
Um, if you’re walking or running in the street you are supposed to go against traffic. But yeah, as a sometimes-street runner myself, I avoid doing so during rush hour and try to stick to side streets.
And for people who want pedestrians to not wear black, do you not have headlights?
Do you stop everyone else using automobiles because a “significant” number don’t follow all traffic laws? I think the answer you are looking for is “No!”
-
Read my first link. They don’t address running against traffic, but apparently riding against traffic is considerably MORE dangerous. Which goes against conventional wisdom and what we were taught as kids.
-
In Chicago Milwaukee Ave is a diagonal street, meaning it doesn’t run N-S or E-W, so most streets meet it at an angle. It also has a surprisingly well-used bike lane, considering our recent snow. When I head west on a street that meets Milwaukee and plan to turn right my headlights are headed west, but traffic, including bikes, is coming from the southeast. My headlights are completely out of the equation.
That makes no sense. Just because a majority of accidents happen at an intersection does nor necessarily mean it’s always the driver’s fault. I see far too many cyclists who ignore traffic laws to always assume it’s the driver’s fault. And this comes from the viewpoint of riding for about 17 years.
Yeah - I’ve often heard this. But this was an example of what we have discussed here countless times, a runner choosing to run on the street instead of the available sidewalk (yeah, I know - knees, shovelling, etc.). And making that choice, he picked the busiest street in the area, at the busiest time of day, wearing the least visible clothes he could imagine.
I walk home from the train every day in an area that has little pedestrian traffic, and think most drivers simply do not think of pedestrians. At intersections the habit is to pull into the marked crosswalks instead of stopping before them. As a pedestrian, I am always on the lookout for such inattentive drivers. I have thought abut getting one of those flashing LED lights to attach to my briefcase handle, to make me more visible during the dark winter months.
It makes complete sense to me.
I’m agreeing that there might be cyclists who are responsible for accidents at intersections, but barring ALL cyclists on the basis of such idiots would be like barring everyone from using a specific road because there was a lot of speeding offenses committed on it.
Is that any more intelligible?
Not really - I have no idea what you’re trying to say. Why are you talking about “cyclists who are responsible for accidents”? Nobody is talking about that. The issue is how to avoid being hit by accident. A cyclist on the roadway is more likely to be noticed (by car drivers) than a cyclist on the sidewalk. This is why it’s safer for you to ride on the roadway than on the sidewalk.
Yeah, actually, I have. Possibly the first mountain bike in England, mind you. Quite fun, going down an old railroad track and watching every single ten-speed in the pack blow their tubes at once.
Potholes? Where I’m going, I don’t even have roads.
People are trying to say that it is foolish and irresponsible users of bicycles that are responsible for a lot of accidents between them and motor vehicles - true, or not? I haven’t seen any evidence yet that proves cyclists are more at fault than other vehicle users.
In the current UK driving test there is a section called The Hazard Perception Test, and part of its remit is to make sure drivers are paying attention to what is happening off the road. If drivers paid enough attention to this aspect of driving, I’d wager half of these accidents, if not more, would never occur.
I can’t speak for other people, but I’ve never said or thought that.
If a car driver hits a cyclist on the intersection, the car driver is generally “at fault” and therefore “responsible” for the accident. On the other hand, there are things cyclists can do to reduce the chance of such incidents. One of those things, on most roads, is to ride on the roadway rather than the sidewalk.
Just because you’re not at fault, that doesn’t mean you were powerless to prevent it. For example, if I walked through a bad neighborhood and got mugged, of course I’m not “at fault” for that mugging. But perhaps I could have prevented the incident by choosing another street.
Quote (from a bike messenger type Critical Mass attendee fucktard) "They can’t hit what they can’t see!". In other words, he believes that most drivers actually actively try to hit cyclists and thus riding blackout is safer.
Yes, of course I do, but I find that people wearing dark clothing at night blend into the darkness of the landscape amazingly well till you’re damn near on top of them. Even a light-colored top can be hard to see until you’re unnervingly close.
Of course, I do most of my driving in semi-rural areas with few and far between street lights, or none at all.
Avid bicyclist and a guy that hit a wrong way rider once.
So I am in a gas station that is on an east-west street just east of an intersection.
I have finished filling up and am going to turn right (east) as I leave the station.
I look both ways before I get to the sidewalk. No pedestrians, no bikes, no strollers. My right turn signal is on. I roll forward across the sidewalk until the front of my truck is about even with the left side of the car that is parallel parked next to the driveway.
Now since I am turning right, and all the traffic I should need to concerned with is west of me (to my left), I am looking left.
Finally the light turns red, and traffic clears. As the last car passes, I take my foot off the brake and hear a crunch. I look forward to see our future Darwin award winner going down to the ground in front of my vehicle.
Oh Shit! Thank OG I was a bit concerned about someone making a right off of the North South street, so I took my take off slow. If I had nailed the gas, I would have gone over the guy.
Anyway this idjit realized that he had fucked up, got his bike and before I could even ask if he was OK, rode off.
::: Whew:::
Since then I have given much thought to the issue of riding against traffic flow. A car pulling out from a parallel parking space is also quite likely to cream a wrong way rider as the driver will be looking over his shoulder to see if traffic is clear.
About runners in the street, and runners wearing black at night, my theory is that jogging kills brain cells.
Plus riding on the sidewalk is stupid IMHO
That would be covered by my 3rd point - when in doubt remember it’s better to give way than be right and dead. Cycle defensively (always looking around to see what other traffic is doing) and be pragmatic* - if there’s a dirty great BMW steaming up the right side of you and a pothole ahead, perhaps slowing down and letting the BMW get past before pulling out is in order - or indicate using your (lit/reflective) right arm that you are pulling out, checking to see that they have noticed this and then moving.
*Pragmatic being that all BMW drivers are assholes, and you should always expect them to do something dickish on the road.
[quote=“Randy_Seltzer, post:7, topic:528925”]
Sorry for the hijack, but in the interest of fighting ignorance, there are two myths here:
- The Smart is not as Earth-friendly as many people think. My parents’ Smart gets about 35 mpg. A comparable Honda Civic hybrid gets about 50 mpg, a Toyota Prius gets about 55. The main benefit of the Smart isn’t its fuel efficiency; it’s its size and its novelty.
Sorry, my 06 diesel VW Jetta gets a dependable 43 MPG, does not require any funktastic special fuel, or expensive batteries, is cheap to insure and has minimal maintenance costs [72K miles and only routine maintenance so far] and cost me $17K. Going by other VWs I have owned, I expect at least another 150K miles out of it.
My philosophy on the matter is, ride like they get points if they hit you. Always keep aware. I can confirm, riding with traffic is better: you’re more predictable to the cars, drivers get antsy when they see something classified as ‘moving’ coming towards them. (peds don’t count as moving, they’re too slow.) You don’t want other drivers antsy.
Driving on the sidewalk is just an excuse to wrack yourself up. Imagine being the only car among a hundred bicycles. Not to mention curb issues and uneven slab issues. Not worth it.