I wonder how much rider skill and experience has to do with it. I've been biking in city traffic for a long time and have had a few crashes and close calls but not so much recently. The worst situations (e.g. getting cut off by right-turners or cars entering from the right) can be made less risky by defensive riding practices.
Roads with protected bike lanes make both cycling and driving safer: study
21–30 of 199 posts
Re: Roads with protected bike lanes make both cycling and driving safer: study
#22As a commuting cyclist I usually prefer to ride in the street than in a bike lane. Protected cycle lanes are great only so long as nobody turns to the right directly in front of you. When there are cars parked in between the cycle lane and the car lane it's much easier for the driver to miss the cyclist, and few people check the cycle lane before turning right. I was definitely guilty of this until I started cycling.…
In NYC I think they're counterproductive to safety. Cars use them for temporary parking and pedestrians use them as a sidewalk. When I visit Europe and Japan they seem to be far more effective. I think it comes down to etiquette and that goes both ways - non cyclists need to respect bike lanes and cyclists need to obey traffic laws. Admittedly I don't obey traffic laws when cycling, but I would if they were enforced.
>Cars use them for temporary parking
How? If cars can get into the bike lane, then it's not protected.
Re: Roads with protected bike lanes make both cycling and driving safer: study
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with your general sentiment, but don't think people on electric bikes are going to improve the situation, rather make it much, much worse based on the electric bike share pilot in my city. Someone who owns their ebike might be better, but those on shared bikes are a danger to everyone and never wear a helmet.
Wearing a helmet increases your chance of death on a bike according to the statistics. I personally don't, I feel less safe wearing one. I can't locate cars as accurately with audio with one on my head, the extra weight makesy head turn slower, and I think subconsciously left often. Drivers pass more aggressively and illegally (most drivers passing break the law here that requires a meter seperation when passing a cy…
Care to substantiate that?
Re: Roads with protected bike lanes make both cycling and driving safer: study
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
The stats are quite clear that protected bicycle lanes improve bicyclist safety. The article literally cites such a study.
Maybe overall this is true, but in NYC there are very few lanes I’d consider truly protected - the rest are minefields and generally less safe
Yeah, which is why NYC needs more protected bike lanes, and we should call out DeBlasio when he uses garbage definitions for "protected" like "two lines of paint instead of one" like he did last year. https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2018/12/20/fact-check-city-did-n...
Re: Roads with protected bike lanes make both cycling and driving safer: study
#25In Cincinnati, it's illegal to ride a bike on a sidewalk, which makes sense, it's not very pleasant for the cyclist or pedestrians. The result is that bicyclers ride in the street. You'll regularly get harassed for riding in the street, even when you're all the way to the right, or people will just open their door right into the lane when they street park. It's really difficult to travel with bicycles safely in a med…
Which is why there need to be bike lines, either between the parking lane and the sidewalk, so that it's protected from traveling cars, or on the left side of the travel lane so they're more visible and less likely to get doored.
Re: Roads with protected bike lanes make both cycling and driving safer: study
#26Over here in Europe, Grenoble just built a bunch of new, separated bike roads. This is a small town, with ~300K population in the area.
One thing they built, and which I'm not sure yet how it plays because it's not "in production" yet (waiting for other parts of the roadworks to finish) is a bicycle lane in the middle between two bus/taxi only lanes. It is a few centimeters higher than the surrounding road. So we'll see how that goes. But in the meantime, bike infra here is amazing. :)
Re: Roads with protected bike lanes make both cycling and driving safer: study
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with your general sentiment, but don't think people on electric bikes are going to improve the situation, rather make it much, much worse based on the electric bike share pilot in my city. Someone who owns their ebike might be better, but those on shared bikes are a danger to everyone and never wear a helmet.
Wearing a helmet increases your chance of death on a bike according to the statistics. I personally don't, I feel less safe wearing one. I can't locate cars as accurately with audio with one on my head, the extra weight makesy head turn slower, and I think subconsciously left often. Drivers pass more aggressively and illegally (most drivers passing break the law here that requires a meter seperation when passing a cy…
Fairly certain that's bullshit. https://www.iihs.org/topics/pedestrians-and-bicyclists
Re: Roads with protected bike lanes make both cycling and driving safer: study
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with your general sentiment, but don't think people on electric bikes are going to improve the situation, rather make it much, much worse based on the electric bike share pilot in my city. Someone who owns their ebike might be better, but those on shared bikes are a danger to everyone and never wear a helmet.
Wearing a helmet increases your chance of death on a bike according to the statistics. I personally don't, I feel less safe wearing one. I can't locate cars as accurately with audio with one on my head, the extra weight makesy head turn slower, and I think subconsciously left often. Drivers pass more aggressively and illegally (most drivers passing break the law here that requires a meter seperation when passing a cy…
> Wearing a helmet increases your chance of death on a bike according to the statistics
I've heard that too. If it's true, could the causality be the other way? As in, people wear a helmet when the chance of accidents is bigger.
When I road bike on open roads it's both fast and higher chance of accidents, so I wear a helmet. Same with downhill cycling. But when using a city bike, I bike slow in the inner city, and don't have a helmet.
Re: Roads with protected bike lanes make both cycling and driving safer: study
#29I ride extensively around the Providence, RI area. Cars are simply a scourge to biking here, at a time when we need less global and local pollution and we need to improve health via air quality and exercise. We have VERY few protected lanes, mostly there are "sharrows" aka faded pictures of bikes on the road that do absolutely zilch. I am routinely honked at and ignorant/rude people yell things out of their car windo…
I agree with your general sentiment, but don't think people on electric bikes are going to improve the situation, rather make it much, much worse based on the electric bike share pilot in my city. Someone who owns their ebike might be better, but those on shared bikes are a danger to everyone and never wear a helmet.
Having lived in China, I can tell you it doesn’t get better when they own their own e-bikes.
Also, bike helmets are mostly an American/ Anglo sphere thing, there are whole countries with mass bike cultures that don’t bother with helmets and are still much safer than the USA.
Re: Roads with protected bike lanes make both cycling and driving safer: study
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with your general sentiment, but don't think people on electric bikes are going to improve the situation, rather make it much, much worse based on the electric bike share pilot in my city. Someone who owns their ebike might be better, but those on shared bikes are a danger to everyone and never wear a helmet.
Wearing a helmet increases your chance of death on a bike according to the statistics. I personally don't, I feel less safe wearing one. I can't locate cars as accurately with audio with one on my head, the extra weight makesy head turn slower, and I think subconsciously left often. Drivers pass more aggressively and illegally (most drivers passing break the law here that requires a meter seperation when passing a cy…
I’ve never heard anyone say it’s actually less safe to wear a helmet. What kind of helmet are you wearing? Most helmets are so light you’d hardly even notice. I’m just confused about this comment.