Cyclists/Motorcyclists hit by turning cars - where are they?

Factual Questions
1

So, watching a motorcyclist decide to try to pass a lumber truck in the same lane today reminded me of a question I have about deaths of cyclists and motorcyclists: one commonly thrown around fact is that both are most often killed by cars that are turning - but where is the cyclist in relation to the car at the time?

Are they:

a. in the opposite/oncoming lane, continuing straight and the driver somehow doesn’t notice them, possibly because they’re the type of driver who doesn’t look in the direction they’re turning

b. attempting to illegally passing the car in the same lane, possibly going through the light or stop sign when they should have stopped

c. at the intersection the car is turning into, therefore perpendicular to the car

d. stopped in the turn lane and the driver somehow fails to realize there’s already a vehicle ahead of them?

e. they’re in the designated turn lane and the victim of idiots who turn from the straight lane instead of the turn lane
It kind of surprises me that the number #1 cause of cyclist deaths isn’t people suddenly changing lanes without looking or being hit head-on by idiots who drift over the center line since there are so many two-car accidents for those reasons.

2

The Left Hook is always popular, though this site calls it the Left Cross. http://bicyclesafe.com/

3

The usual scenario is that the cycle is in its own lane driving normally - but being a small item, rather than a large automobile, the distracted driver turning left does not register the bike is there, or how close it is, or how fast it is approaching. In a normal car-on-car action (assuming the driver didn’t see the car coming) there would be a munched door, maybe an injured passenger. With a motorcycle, it’s more likely to be tomato paste.

The other typical scenario is that the impatient motorcycle goes around the driver’s side of a stopped car (into the oncoming lane), only to hit the car when the vehicle starts to turn left.

Then there’s the usual - didn’t see the cycle stopped to turn left and rear-ends him, hits a left turning motorcycle while running through a stop, and other forms of careless driving. Generally, the common thread is that a motorcycle is easier to not see than a car. Hence the bright headlight, always on.

Pizza Man - National Lampoon

*My Johnnie was a biker, So my parents hated him.
We used to meet secretly Out behind the gym.

Chorus
We used to go for Yoo-Hoos And gooey pizza pie
I loved him (she loved him) I loved him (we loved him)
Laugh? I thought I’d die …

They said I couldn’t see him, My love for him was wrong.
His bike was much too noisy, His sideburns were too long.
I said farewell to Johnnie, Over one last pizza pie
I hid my tears and even laughed When Johnnie said good-bye

He saw two bike lights up the road And thought he’d try his luck.
He tried to cut between them. He never knew it was a truck.
I ran out on the highway But I couldn’t find my guy.
Between the deisel’s headlights SOMETHING LOOKED LIKE PIZZA PIE

That’s why I stay at home now And don’t go out with boys,
'Cause when they order pizza I hear my Johnnie’s voice.

With mushrooms, with mushrooms, with mushrooms, with mushrooms.
Love that pizza pie
Anchovies (etc)
Love it till I die
Pepperoni (etc)
Oh that pizza pie
Green peppers (etc)
love it till I die.*

4

  1. driver in the opposite direction making a left turn in front of the motorcyclist

  2. driver on a cross street pulling out in front of the motorcyclist.

5

Well, with lane changing, there often isn’t a huge speed differential there so you can usually keep the bike up. With the wandering over the centerline, a good motorcyclist will be constantly adjusting his lane position and so when there’s traffic in the oncoming lane they’ll usually be far enough over.

And that kind of gets to the crux of why left turns are so bad, for motorcyles in particular. With most potentially dangerous traffic situations, a rider who’s riding defensively can avoid most potential problems or at least set themselves up to be in a good position to take evasive action. With left turns, there’s not a whole lot you can do. You can slow down a bit and cover the brakes, but if the car decides to go at the wrong time there’s not going to be any avoiding it.

6

Those were my two accidents.

7

There’s also the case where the cyclist is in the far right lane (which is often where they’re required by law to be), going straight through a green light or unsignaled intersection, and a car coming up from behind makes a right turn at the same intersection.

8

I’ve had both of these happen to me on a motorcycle.

Fortunately, I anticipated the actions of the “cager” and in situation 1) I was able to stop in time (although I used the horn, as well). In situation 2), there was no way I could stop, so I used the horn (not a “BeeeeeeeeeeeP!”, but "BeepBeepBeepBeepBeep! ) I’ve found the repeated beeps have a stronger effect than one long one.

In both cases, the driver was visibly “embarrassed”. I say embarrassed since I got the impression they realized they nearly killed someone (I hope they did).

When you ride a motorcycle, you have to expect the guys in the cars to do anything they can to kill you.

9

I witnessed a classic case of the left cross.
I’m going to work @ about 7AM. I’m in a residential neighborhood. The street I’m on has a stop. I stop. I Look right guy in the house next to the corner just kissed his wife and is walking to his car. I look left. Motorcyclist approaching at say 25MPH. I look right again guy is pulling out.
Look left cycle still coming look right (actually straight ahead by this point) guy in car is turning left.
Bike hits car right at RF wheel. I watch biker go over the hood of his car and over mine. Lands to the right of my hood. He was lucky only slightly injured.
Car driver was shocked. Had no idea where the bike came from. He was shocked when I told him that the guy on the bike had in view since he had kissed his wife goodbye.

10

I think this mainly happens when the cyclist is riding on the shoulder, or on the right edge of a wide lane. And the cyclist can prevent such an accident by riding in the middle of the far-right car lane, at least when approaching and stopping at an intersection.

11

I almost flatted a bike (cyclist) a few days ago in heavy downtown traffic. Luckily I saw him…on the sidewalk (or maybe on the street)…going way too fast to stop at the red light that I was planning to make a right at. I waited as he came up along my right side and went through the red light like there wasn’t even an intersection there.

If he was on the sidewalk, he should have been in the street. If he was in the street he shouldn’t have come past me on the right when my right blinker was on and I was starting to make my turn.

He was really lucky that I passed him about 30 feet before the intersection and waited for him to go through the red light.

12

Rick, I think you ride a motorcycle, but one of the things they teach you in MSF class is to assume, not only that cars don’t see you but that they’re actively trying to hit you. My teacher even mentioned that bikers will get hit and tell the police “the diver saw me, we made eye contact, then he pulled out in front of me”. I’ve had that happen so many times. People change lanes into me, people squeeze between me and the curb to make a right turn at a light, people waiting to make a right turn will look right at me, make eye contact with me, then pull out in front of me (google SMIDSY). One of the things that that I really hold closely from my MSF class is to act like everyone on the road is going to kill you. I’m such a vigilant biker it’s exhausting sometimes.

13

The pictures do help explain the left turn issue, but how is it that the car turning left fails to see a bike or motorcycle that’s already in the intersection they want to turn into? It can’t just be “being small” because motorcyclists die at higher rates than people on foot - people on foot are even smaller than a motorcyclist and a heck of a lot more people walk across streets than ride motorcycles.

14

A lot of motorcycles have only one headlight, which can easily be hidden or washed out by surrounding objects. Plus the rider may be wearing black clothing as well a dull black helmet, if one at all. If you want to stay alive on a motorcycle, make yourself visible.

My bike had two bright headlights, plus I added two driving lights lower down and furthur apart than the headlights. I also wear a hi-vis jacket and a white helmet. And sometimes that is not enough.

How often have you heard about a driver pulling out in front of a large truck? Often enough! And they do that to motorcyclists even more.

Be aware of the oncoming vehicle that wants to turn in front of you.

15

People on foot move a whole heck of a lot slower than people on motorcycles. That gives the diver more time to see them and stop before they’re in each other’s way and more time for the pedestrian to step back onto the curb. Also drivers are more trained to see people walking on the sidewalk than motorcycles on the street. Try walking on the street and see how many close calls you have. This sort of intersects with the reason that bikes (regular, pedal bikes) shouldn’t be on the sidewalk. Cars back up to the end of their driveway and only look a few feet to each side because that’s how far away a pedestrian would be to cause an issue. But if someone is biking on the sidewalk they can be another 20 or 30 feet away and end up behind the car without the driver even knowing they existed. This can be an issue for runners as well. There’s a very blind drive-through I have to pull out of each day. I inch out of it, watching for people as closely as I can, about a year ago I had a jogger just about smack into the side of my car. I had no chance of seeing her, she was simply going too fast and my line of sight (in her direction) is about 10 feet sidewalk.

That’s a bit different. In that case, the big truck is going to win. With the motorcycle vs car accident that we were talking about, the car is at fault and the it’s the biker that’s going to end up hurt. In your case it’s the car at fault and the car that’s going to end up hurt.
Also, motorcycle accidents tend to end up on the news, especially fatal ones.

Again, these particular car vs bike accidents are common enough that they have their own name, SMIDSY.

16

On a bicycle, man looked right at me and then ran over just my bike as I jumped away.

IMO, people look for danger, not specif things.
Cars, buses, trucks, these are dangerous to car drivers.
Pedestrians by constant repetition they are slightly aware of but the pedestrians are actively trying to get killed most of the time.

“I am in the right so I’m not even going to look.” Being right is more important than living in many situations. Folks just don’t know they are doing it. I have lots of personal examples but as for motorcycle & bicycles, they are not dangerous to the car or driver so even though they are looking right at it/you their brain does not recognize the danger. It does not exist. So here they come. “But, but, I did not see him.” While the next three cars behind them all saw me fine and were about to lynch the poor guy.

Your wreck may have been different.

17

in most cases, “I didn’t see you” means “I didn’t look” or “I have my head so far up my ass I shouldn’t be driving at all.”

I have little sympathy for asshole cyclists who feel entitled to ignore traffic controls.

18

Meh. I almost “left crossed” a bicycle this morning (I was pulling out of a parking lot at a nearly blind exit, and he was riding on the sidewalk against the direction of the traffic.) You don’t look for stuff like that. If he had been a pedestrian, I would have seen him.

19

The human brain tends to only see what it expects. If you’re looking out for cars, your brain filters out everything else (including cyclists) as irrelevant detail. Which is why the more cyclists there are on the road, the safer it is for cyclists.

20

I almost hit a bicycle with my car about a year ago when I was trying to make a right turn on red. I was looking left to see if there was any oncoming traffic. There was none, so I started driving forward. At that moment, a cyclist came from my right, riding on the the sidewalk, moved into the crosswalk right in front of me at about 15 mph. This is the second time this exact scenario has happened in front of me. It’s worth noting that the cyclist in this scenario is breaking two laws in Oregon: #1 leaving a place of safety (sidewalk) without yielding, #2 Failing to slow down to ordinary walking speed in a crosswalk. And in most states, it’s illegal to ride on the sidewalk in the first place.

The times that I’ve almost been hit by a car when I was bicycling have usually been when the car changed lanes unexpectedly because they didn’t see me. Once, I was traveling in a bike lane (on the right side of the road) and a car passed me on my left then immediately turned into a driveway right in front of me so I almost hit the car’s passenger side (classic “right hook”). Another time, I was on a one-way street at an intersection with three lanes going forward, left lane is for turning left or going straight, center lane for going straight only, right lane for right turn only. I was in the center lane going straight. The car in the right lane (right turn only) didn’t turn right. The car proceeded straight ahead and then tried to merge into my lane. His left rear fender almost hit me.

The one time I actually did get collide with a car, I was going straight and the car was coming the other way, trying to turn left. He saw me coming but he misjudged my speed and thought he had time to complete the turn before I got there. I was going 35 mph downhill. I tried to swerve but I hit his right rear fender and flipped over his trunk. Bent the frame of my bicycle. It was totaled.