81–90 of 262 posts
I've been commuting by bicycle for nearly 40 years, under a broad array of circumstances, and the article's advice checks out with my own personal rules. Although the vast majority of the crashes and wipeouts I've suffered involved no cars, just me losing control. However, over hundreds of wipeouts accumulated over a lifetime of cycling, I have never hit my head! Wiping out is a skill. A skill best cultivated when on…
Lets get cars out of cities. No car in the city centre no car hitting bicycles and pedestrians. Clean air less noise.
Problem for elderly and sick people who need cars to get around.
Pretty interesting advice with lots of less obvious advice along the lines of "doing this may be less legal but safer". An additional fact like this is riding without a helmet can actually make surrounding drivers perceive you as more dangerous, end up giving you more space, and there by make you actually safer. I still always ride with a helmet but it goes with this website auite a bit: doing things that are less ob…
These are all fine tips, but I'm wondering how/why they are not mandatory in the US? Getting a headlight, having a bell, having a rear-light, not riding on the sidewalk are all mandated by law here in Germany.
There are in some areas and/or certain contexts. Adults are not allowed to ride on sidewalks in many areas. I've heard about lights and bell requirements but not sure if that was a law or just listed as recommendations and/or for multi-use paved trails. As with many things in the US, whether these sorts of laws exist is up to each individual state to decide on for themselves. Question. Are the laws you listed just fo…
I've been commuting by bicycle for nearly 40 years, under a broad array of circumstances, and the article's advice checks out with my own personal rules. Although the vast majority of the crashes and wipeouts I've suffered involved no cars, just me losing control. However, over hundreds of wipeouts accumulated over a lifetime of cycling, I have never hit my head! Wiping out is a skill. A skill best cultivated when on…
Here is one that bicyclists really hate: Don't ride on narrow back-county roads where you block the regular flow of traffic. I used to live on one such road and the bicyclists regularly insisted I travel >30 MPH below the speed limit because of a long uphill section that was double yellow due to many curves and hillsides blocking the line of site for passing. Bicyclists would get visibly angry at drivers who were not…
Pretty interesting advice with lots of less obvious advice along the lines of "doing this may be less legal but safer". An additional fact like this is riding without a helmet can actually make surrounding drivers perceive you as more dangerous, end up giving you more space, and there by make you actually safer. I still always ride with a helmet but it goes with this website auite a bit: doing things that are less ob…
This seems to be a widespread belief, but I don't think it's plausible, for a couple of reasons.
First, I doubt that most crashes occur when motorists have had time to make a reasoned judgment about the safety of the cyclist. Being passed too close by a car is only one possible crash scenario. In many others, claims that the cyclist "came out of nowhere" or was "invisible" come to mind as being more likely indicators of the real hazard.
Second, as a cyclist, I would not perceive a cyclist without a helmet as more dangerous. I would know that other factors are more important, such as the cyclist's situational awareness and bike handling skill. In fact I am perceptive to whether a cyclist is controlling their bike safely, not that I pass them any closer because of it.
I've been a daily year-round bike commuter for a couple decades. I regularly wear a helmet unless I'm going 2 blocks from my house to the store along a particularly tame neighborhood route, which brings up another issue about safety. I've read this article, and it usually gets thumbs-up by cyclists on web forums. But in addition to its excellent study of crash scenarios, one piece of advice lights up at the bottom of the page: *Avoid busy streets.* You can't get hit by a car where there are no cars. I'm lucky to live in Madison WI, which is gradually building bike infrastructure into new street designs, and has a number of nice bike paths. But it also has a network of neighborhood streets that can get you a pretty good ways without having to worry about traffic at all.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think hitting cyclists with cars and horrifically injuring them is inconsiderate. But each to their own.
Both are. I've done both for a long time, forcing everyone to go at 30 km/h in a 50 zone is inconsiderate. Not as inconsiderate as not being careful around cyclists when you drive. This looks like a system design problem to me. The needs of the cyclists don't match the needs of the drivers. This is why we are fighting over this. There has to be a solution, but I know nothing about civil engineering.
Keep cycles, cars and pedestrians physically separated. Inside towns and cities we should be looking to give up road space for cars, to put in dedicated cycle infrastructure.
Dedicated cycle infrastructure keeps cars and cycles separate, makes cycling safer, and most importantly more accessible and friendly.
Every additional cycle on the road during rush hour is one less car. If removing a car lane reduces the capacity of a road segment by 20 cars, but causes 50 additional to swap their car for a bike, then you’ve just created an 30 cars of capacity on your road.
That’s just the start, a bike lane can easily carry 10 times more people than a car lane, and requires basically zero maintenance. They don’t get pot holes because cycles weigh so little their damage to the road surface is practically unmeasurable.
Here is one that bicyclists really hate: Don't ride on narrow back-county roads where you block the regular flow of traffic. I used to live on one such road and the bicyclists regularly insisted I travel >30 MPH below the speed limit because of a long uphill section that was double yellow due to many curves and hillsides blocking the line of site for passing. Bicyclists would get visibly angry at drivers who were not…