I was riding my bike down a road today. I do so because I do not have a car. I do my best to be a careful, considerate, responsible bicyclist. If I need to make a left turn I either get into the far right of the left lane if there is a turn signal, or I just walk my bike across crosswalks if not. I use hand signals. I’ve got reflectors and lights on my bike, and more often than not, a bright yellow back strapped across my back. I’ve started wearing a helmet. I very much understand that I am much smaller and slower and hard to see than everything else on the road. I understand that I may cause someone else slight inconvenience, and I apologize for it. I will do everything I can to keep as far away from you as I can, because it’s much safer for me to do so.
Today a miserable jackass in a BMW (of course) made a fast, presumably unsignaled turn onto a side street on the right. He did this from the left lane of traffic, and came within inches of my front tire. He caused the car that was in the right lane to nearly hit both him and myself.
In my sudden, desperate, “ohfuckfuckfuckfuckCAR” attempt to avoid ending up embedded in someone’s windshield, I ended up jamming my foot against the curb, spraining my ankle, and leaving a handlebar-shaped bruise in my lower abdomen. Either Mr. “I’m too fucking important to pay any fucking attention to my own asshattery” didn’t notice or didn’t care about the accident he nearly caused, and went zooming on his merry way. The driver of the other car stopped and asked if I was okay. Neither of us thought to get Mr. Asshat’s plate numbers. I ended up only riding about a quarter mile more to the bus stop and taking the bus back, because the adrenaline was starting to wear off and my ankle was beginning to hurt.
Only once I got back home did I begin to feel outraged, because up until then I was still too damn scared. I honest to god thought I was going to get hit, because some fucker didn’t realize the street he wanted was coming up.
I’m sorry. There are some real idiots out there in cars rendered too oblivious and too apathetic by their vehicles. Just immature idiots that aren’t ready for the responsibility of tons of steel and plastic.
You have my sympathies. I am currently learning how to drive a bus, and understandably bicyclists make me nervous because sometimes circumstances force them to be close to the bus. Cyclists can act unpredictably- maybe they assume I know what they are going to do.
Generally I’ll give them a honk one bus length away if I have to squeeze past them. I’m not out to force my way through!
There are asshole drivers, but know that there are also drivers out there trying very hard not to hit you folks. Their careers depend on it!
Oh, I adore the bus drivers here. I think they understand that there’s a mutual terror between cyclists and buses , but the drivers here are generally very good at giving us cyclists as much room as possible. Plus, there are bike racks on all the buses in Santa Fe, which is just fantastic. Tourist buses are worse, but neither of those are as bad as the tourists driving the bus-sized RVs. They make me quake.
fetus - aside from the ‘driving on the wrong side of the road’ bit, I think Cork drivers were better. Something in their favor is generally smaller cars, so less blind spots and whatnot. Plus, this chunk of the Southwest has an insane DUI problem. (And you’re right, I was in Cork for a while. And then London. And then back in Philly. I’m probably in dusty Santa Fe for at least the next year and a half, though, until I finish my degree).
I’m not saying this was in any way your fault, NinjaChick but it is worth considering.
Further reading supports my claim that bike helmets aren’t as effective as most seem to think.
It seems as though you were following the rules of the road and were hit anyway. Perhaps the helmet would have prevented minor head trauma and lucky for you that wasn’t a concern as far as your OP states. Helmets are far less an effective measure against bicycle related injury than following safe operating procedures. And with as many people out there who don’t follow the rules of the road in an automobile I would not be surprised to find that a similar ratio of cyclists who don’t ride safely. No amount of styrofoam on your head is going to help you if you don’t know how to ride safely.
Further there are commercial interests in selling helmets who may be prone to exaggerate the effectiveness of bike helmets. If you can’t see that I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.
And how about some research from a source who isn’t a self-confessed anti-helmet type (“Walker himself has a dim view of pro-helmet laws and rarely wears a helmet when he rides.”) - apologies, it’s a PDF:
“A study of 538 motorcyclists and 523 pedal cyclists who attended the A&E Ward of University Hospital in Nottingham following a road accident, including post mortem reports of 19 pedal cyclists and 87 motorcyclists who died. Pedal cyclists who died more commonly suffered head injuries than motorcyclists who died. Pedal cyclists who survived also sustained head injuries more commonly than motorcyclists who survived.
Head injury was more likely to be the main (or only) cause of death for pedal cyclists whereas motorcyclists who died usually suffered other major injuries, but less severe head injuries. The report concludes that head protection could reduce the incidence and severity of head injuries among pedal cyclists”
or
“An Australian study which investigated 197 cycling accidents in which the cyclist
struck his/her head or helmet. At the time of the accident 75 were not wearing any
helmet, 69 were wearing a hairnet-style helmet, 37 a ‘poor’ hardshell helmet, and only
16 were wearing a ‘good’ hardshell helmet. Those who were not wearing helmets
were more likely to suffer head injuries. The report concluded that ‘good’ hardshell
helmets would prevent 90% of the deaths due to head injury in a group similar to the unhelmeted group in the study.”
or
“In the USA 1,000 deaths and 50,000 emergency room visits result from bicycle
accidents. Head injuries account for about 85% of the deaths and two-thirds of bicycle related hospital admissions. For this study 516 cyclists aged 10 years or over were interviewed at the roadside during the Summer of 1984 in Burlington. 19% owned a helmet but only 8% were wearing them at the time.
21 of the riders (4%) had struck their head in a riding accident in the previous 18
months, seven of whom sustained a head injury. 8 of the 21 riders were wearing a helmet at the time and 13 were not. None of those wearing a helmet sustained a head injury while 7 of the 13 not wearing a helmet did receive a head injury.”
There’s a hell of a lot more evidence to support cycle helmets save lives than there is to suggest they cause drivers to be more aggressive. Please also have a look at the methodology of your first link there:
"Walker decided to find out — putting his own neck on the line. He rigged his bicycle with an ultrasonic sensor that could detect how close each car was that passed him. Then he hit the roads, alternately riding with a helmet and without for two months, until he had been passed by 2,500 cars. Examining the data, he found that when he wore his helmet, motorists passed by 8.5 centimeters (3.35 inches) closer than when his head was bare. He had increased his risk of an accident by donning safety gear.
So the guy with the self confessed anti helmet bias measured the distance between himself and the cars. Fairly damned easy for him to distort the results, wouldn’t you say.
So sorry this happened to you - nearly the same thing happened to a friend of mine earlier this year. She got away with a sprained elbow and a good deal of road rash. My husband used to bike up to campus and almost got creamed by some asshole in a Bentley. You’d think folks in college areas would be a little less oblivious. Being a motorcyclist though I know it is too much to ask for people to pay attention to #$(# traffic. People are stupid; arm yourself with your brains. (Step one you’ve already covered - protect your brains with appropriate armor!)
From reading the topic, I thought this was going to be a rant against Santa Fe drivers.
A sprained ankle’s no fun, but it’s certainly better than what could have happened. I’ve been in similar situations before. It’ll never change so long as people with more horsepower than brainpower are on the street, and I don’t see that number going down anytime soon. It’s a big reason why I ride on the sidewalk most of the time. I’ve had visions of being mangled on a curb shoulder under the wheels of some shithead who’s too busy answering a cell phone, executing a poorly-planned lane change, or perhaps just simply living up to the expectation that they’ll actually stay in their lane in the first place. Frankly, when you’re a pedestrian or a cyclist, it helps to assume everyone, whether in a vehicle or not, is a fucking mouth-breathing situationally-unaware moron, and take appropriate measures to stay as much out of their way as possible regardless of what your local cyclist rights are. I figure it’s better to be safe (and alive) than legally-entitled (and dead).
I would agree if there were anything in that article that indicates that he had an anti-helmet bias to begin with. He should have made it a more controlled experiment rather than using himself as the test subject. But you don’t know if he previously had a pro-helmet bias and was subconsciously trying to skew the results the other way.
By the way, do you wear a helmet at all times? According to the CDC the most common cause of head trauma is due to falls. Seconded by motor vehicle accidents. Pedal-cycle accidents come in a distant seventh at 3%.
Why is it then that people are so adamant about wearing a foam hat when riding a bicycle? It seems that head injuries can occur at any time. Well, I’m glad you asked, DJ. It’s because the people who wear them are promoting their cycling lifestyle. All serious cyclists from Lance Armstrong on down wear helmets and lazy Sunday afternoon cyclists want to look like pros too. They heard bike helmets reduce head injury too so if anyone calls them on looking like a fucking tool they can safely cite the dozens of head injuries they prevented this year and feel smug about it. After all “Look at me! I’m a cyclist! I’m an active healthy person, and I’m saving the earth by leaving a smaller carbon footprint!” people need attention.
The best thing that can be done to improve bike safety is to build our cities with bikes in mind. Bike lanes and paths that keep cyclists out of traffic to begin with will do far more than all the shiny foam hats in existence. If there had been a bicycle/pedestrian underpass at the intersection where NinjaChick had her accident it would never have occurred.
If you normalised those results relative to the amount of time people spend on average doing each activity, you would find your point rather undone. People spend vastly more of their time driving than they do cycling, therefore you’d expect motor-related trauma to be more common, even though the relative risk is lower.
Would you care to take a guess at the ratio of time spent driving to time spent cycling in the States? Because if it’s much higher than 7:1 (and I’d be utterly amazed if it were within an order of magnitude of that) then your chart handily proves that cyclists are significantly more at risk of head injuries than motorists.
Unless of course I took 30 seconds to do a google search and dig out a bit more background:
"Dr Walker said: “This was something I had suspected, as many cyclists had told me of similar experiences. The perception is that those wearing helmets are experienced and more predictable.”
So, an experiment with very easily influence results that confirmed the initially held suspicion of the researcher. I think I’ll go with all the studies that link of mine gave as evidence, thanks.
You think that people who are on bicycles wear a lid to let other people know that they cycle? You don’t think that the bike might be a bit of a giveaway?
Just as an alternative, how about perhaps people wear a helmet to give some protection to their heads whilst riding a vehicle that has no roll cage and can easily be knocked over or skid out? It won’t save them in the event of a head on collision with a car, may well soak up a fair bit of damage in a lesser incident.
I must admit though, I am starting to think that in your particular case you are right to say a helmet is not really going to provide much use. It will, after all, only protect your head. Well padded shorts may offer more security to your intellect
Yes, well spotted. And until that day arrives, wearing a helmet will still be a good idea. Fuck it, as someone whose commute involves a mixed pedestrian/cycle footpath, I’ll still recommend a helmet just because you never know when a dog will run across the path in front of you.
I’m glad you’re ok, Ninja Chick, and hope your ankle is better soon.
As for the bike helmet discussion, I can only speak of one experience close to me: my stepson was hit by a car when riding his bike, he was thrown off and fell on his head. The helmet took the impact, and he was ok except for some bruising and a sore neck. I’m convinced he would have died in that fall were it not for the helmet.
He’s not a child, btw, he’s in his early 30s and rides a bike to work 3 seasons a year.
My goodness. I moved to the Netherlands a few months ago, from North America, and my is it a paradise. They have bicycle highways here, with route numbers and grade separation and traffic signals and everything. The bike paths are generally numerous and well-maintained, and mostly kept away from the motor traffic. There are places where bikes use the street with cars, but motorists generally cede to cyclists. I can pedal leisurely to work in a jacket and tie from my apartment four towns over and be here in the same time it would take to ride the bus, give or take a couple of minutes.
I just adore biking in the Netherlands.
Except the bus drivers. No gripe with the bus drivers who’ve commented in this thread, but the Dutch bus drivers are crazy. They’ll ride right up behind a cyclist and match his/her speed, keeping less than a bike length between the rear fender of the bike and the bumper of the bus. I see this all the time and it gives me the kind of nervous apprehension I haven’t known since I was an eight-year-old on cross-country skis in the middle of the forest at night and heard the whine of approaching snowmobiles.
But yeah. That aside, biking in Nederland is a daydream, and I honestly smile a bit most days when I go down to my bike to pedal home.
(Oh yeah, and the blasted horseback riders who use the bike paths around here and leave piles of crap all over them. Go take your horses to the dunes to crap! It’ll help keep the country from flooding.)
I didn’t find it to be, but then again, I A) walked more there and B) was less in tune with the local news, and NM is really hyping the problem to try to get it to stop. I don’t have numbers or anything, just my impression.
I don’t really want to wade into the helmet/no helmet thing too much. I’ll just say I’ve read a lot on it, and my personal conclusion has been that I’ll wear a helmet in some situations but not in others. Cycling is inherently dangerous no matter what; it’s up to you to weigh the risks and how you’ll deal with them.
Thanks for all the well-wishes. My ankle’s feeling a bit better today, after spending last night with my good friends RICE and ibuprofen. What scares me is that I know how much, much worse it could have been. Had anyone involved been going even the slightest bit faster, or had the roads been slick, or anything like that, I probably would have at least had a visit to the local ER to get sewn back up. Yipes.
