Cyclists who deliberately ride on dangerous roads

The BBQ Pit
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The driver that tends rant first feels like they have been delayed; but I do agree most of it is out of ignorance. E.G. when drivers get agro about a bike rider doesn’t use an unsafe “bike lane” with parking to the right. Those bike lanes are extremely dangerous, it is only safe to stay six feet away from car doors.

In the following video you will see the bike throwing the rider out into the passing truck. That is called countersteering, when the front wheel is twisted right, the bike will lever over to the left and throw the rider INTO the traffic lane. That is one of the reasons getting doored is so dangerous and why many bike riders ride where is is safe…in the lane, where they are legal despite poorly placed paint.

http://news.sky.com/story/1124343/lucky-escape-after-car-door-opens-on-cyclist

As us cyclists know taking the lane puts you in a place where drivers are looking for traffic and avoids the temptation to “squeak by” but seeing as ThelmaLou says she doesn’t like data she wouldn’t understand that the main risk of traffic from behind is not them seeing you but a glancing blow from someone who is trying to pass too closely…thus why we take the lane and are “jerks” because we are putting our own personal safety above their travel time.

Unfortunately this is a normal part of the fundamental attribution error, a almost universal fault in human thinking where you tend to place the motivations of “out groups” as being a moral failing where is if you do it yourself, or those you can relate to are thought to have considered the situation before making a choice.

ThemaLou’s pit worthy fault is that she is blissful in her ignorance and will not consider any outside information that would show that her self-produced view has little to do with reality.

She will still ignore the reality that:

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](Do the Health Benefits of Cycling Outweigh the Risks? - PMC)

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Um…for fatalities yes.

Note I said surface roads which indicates at most non-highway arterials with speeds 45 mi/h (70 km/h) or less. Because the road design guides require grade separation for higher speed roads.

In modern times, in modern cars and for drivers who have their seat-belts on who are not driving at reckless speeds are less likely to die in a crash on “surface roads.”

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Back to the earlier posts referring to “Having the right to be on the road does not make the biker any less dead”:
I commute across town every day. If I leave early enough, I can stay on bike paths most of the way. If not, I’m playing “bike messenger” (and I just might be picturing myself as Kevin Bacon in Quicksilver)

I’ve been hit by cars a few times (and twice in one cold, rainy night). But that’s to be expected.

Because, like I warn my kids, on a bike you’re invisible to cars. Drivers are tuned into looking out for other cars. They’re not used to watching for skateboards or strollers or bikes. Time after time, I’ve approached an intersection where I had the right of way, but i could see the driver’s gaze pass right over me as s/he scanned for “traffic”. And I knew I’d get creamed if I didn’t take evasive action.

(Last time that happened, I was narrowly missed by a Smartcar, and I thought “Wonder if i can stick out my foot and tip it over?”)

My point is, whether a situation is the motorist’s fault or the biker’s, it doesn’t matter who’s right if someone’s injured (and my money’s on the biker). So let’s all be hyper-vigilant. While looking like Kevin Bacon in the 80s.

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“How Safe Is Cycling? It’s Hard to Say” NY Times