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How to Not Get Hit by Cars

bicyclesafe.com

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Re: How to Not Get Hit by Cars

#91

Post by kqr »

FatalLogic wrote: post #42

>#2 The Door Prize: A driver opens his door right in front of you. If you have time to react to a car door suddenly opening in front of you, is it best to go around the door? Or should you brake and stop in a straight line, even if you might crash into the door and the person stepping out of the car? The same site contains a list of cyclist fatalities[0]. In over 95% of the car door collisions, the bicyclist was kill…

I'd much rather take a low-speed door impact than a high-speed grill impact.

(Same as when you're landing too fast in an airplane: rather continue braking and make a taxi speed tree impact at the end of the runway, rather than open the throttle and end up making the same tree impact at takeoff speed and a few feet in the air.)

But this is why I "swerve" well ahead of parked cars so I can make a smooth, planned transition to the next lane rather than an abrupt sudden one. 99.7 % of the time it turns out to be unwarranted, but sometimes I glad I did it.

Re: How to Not Get Hit by Cars

#92

Post by anamexis »

Bostonian wrote: post #46
hammock wrote: post #2

So much of this advice is “ride to the left” and I wish to emphasize it. Novice riders are trained to stick to an invisible (or painted) bike lake which ends up with them being far less visible than they need to be. Your safety is more important than some car’s need to get to work 5 seconds faster, and you shouldn’t feel controlling anxiety if some idiot honks at you for riding in the main traffic lane. You have righ…

Where I live, the cars greatly outnumber bikes. Cyclists that go in the main traffic lane will slow things down substantially, and I think that is inconsiderate.

What would you suggest the cyclists do?

Re: How to Not Get Hit by Cars

#93

Post by dagurp »

devit wrote: post #62

I don't understand why crossing between sidewalks would be unsafe. Pedestrians obviously do that all the time, and assuming that you start crossing from a stopped state and not at speed, it seems to me that a bike is as visible or more visible than a pedestrian (about same height, much wider, similar speed).

It really depends on how the intersection is designed. Pedestrians do it all the time but why do assume that they feel any safer?

Re: How to Not Get Hit by Cars

#94

Post by DoughnutHole »

Bostonian wrote: post #46
hammock wrote: post #2

So much of this advice is “ride to the left” and I wish to emphasize it. Novice riders are trained to stick to an invisible (or painted) bike lake which ends up with them being far less visible than they need to be. Your safety is more important than some car’s need to get to work 5 seconds faster, and you shouldn’t feel controlling anxiety if some idiot honks at you for riding in the main traffic lane. You have righ…

Where I live, the cars greatly outnumber bikes. Cyclists that go in the main traffic lane will slow things down substantially, and I think that is inconsiderate.

You can always pull into another lane to overtake like you would with a slower-moving car.

The only situation I can see a cyclist making a difference like this is on an uninterrupted country road where it's dangerous to overtake.

In any urban area the time lost to waiting behind a cyclist will be negligible compared to the minutes lost stuck behind cars at every red light.

Re: How to Not Get Hit by Cars

#95

Post by Tuckerism »

polote wrote: post #39

That's not riding a bike which is dangerous it is riding in the same zones as cars as the article points out. May people say we shouldn't trust anyone to carry guns, but we allow anyone to drive a car, that's at least as much dangerous. All the examples of the articles are good, but there are two many to learn and remember. I follow one and only one rule when I ride my bike. Assume you can get killed at every time an…

> Many people assume that as a bike rider they have rights and as a result they should be respected by cars.

While I am not a bike rider, I am a proponent of defensive driving, which has the same principle: the laws of physics don't really care who has right-of-way.

Re: How to Not Get Hit by Cars

#96

Post by alistairSH »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #55

https://bicyclesafe.com/#wrongway I hate this term. The wrong way is simply the safest choice in blind hill situations with ignorant and distracted drivers.

The wrong way is simply the safest choice in blind hill situations with ignorant and distracted drivers.

Is it? I’m incredulous.

As a driver, I would hate to crest a hill on a country road and have a cyclist coming straight at me. I’d have to swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid him. That’s bad.

As a cyclist, I would hate to crest a hill on a country road and have a car coming straight at me. Because if it doesn’t swerve, we run into each other head-on.

If there’s room on the shoulder for me to go the wrong way, I’m probably better off in the shoulder on the correct side of the road. Or just in the main traffic lane like I normally am.

Re: How to Not Get Hit by Cars

#97

Post by wongarsu »

paulnpace wrote: post #72

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…

How are the bicyclists both insisting that you travel below the speed limit and getting angry at you not overtaking them?

That doesn't add up, I'm more inclined to believe they were road users minding their own business and you were annoyed that the road didn't provide an opportunity to overtake them.

Re: How to Not Get Hit by Cars

#98

Post by dotancohen »

Car driver here, not a bicyclist. I don't see your side of the story, and probably never will unless I kill one of you. Don't want me to hit you? Make yourself visible and courteous.

Put on a bright jacket, bright helmet, or something else bright. And use a steady (not flashing) red light in the back and a steady (not flashing) white light aimed at the ground in the front. If you use flashing lights I cannot tell how far away you are. If you aim the light in my face it looks like you're farther away because I cannot see you through the glare and your light is dimmer than car headlights.

And if you drive in my lane, respect me like you want me to respect you. You've got a right to use the lane just as much as I do, but be a good citizen and actually let me pass you safely. If you hear me coming up behind you or notice my flashing high beams, please dip to the right a bit so that I can continue past you and leave you safely. Don't make me squeeze past you unsafely, and don't think that I'm going to sit behind you patiently.

"You" being all bike riders, not necessarily the guy reading this post. I don't care how any single specific bike rider does things, I'm talking to the worst of you.

"Me" being all car drivers. I specifically might not try to squeeze past bike riders, and I specifically might actually be patient on the road. But the proverbial "me" is the worst of the car drivers for purpose of this post.

Re: How to Not Get Hit by Cars

#99

Post by avianlyric »

ch4s3 wrote: post #80
OJFord wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK, cycle lanes stop or are explicitly painted out in front of cars in such areas. Such as: http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/57/34/2573447_7290591... (it's not clear without more context why the lane's on the right, remember we drive on the left so usually the lane is too, but my point is the area in front of the cars, forcing cars to see you and allowing the cyclists to clear the junction first.)

I was just in London, and while the boxes were nice the lanes were terrible and overly narrow. The drivers were homicidal compared to drivers in NYC. I wouldn’t say it was a positive experience.

Depends what part of London you’re in. Unfortunately cycle infrastructure is mostly managed by the local boroughs, who all have very different views on cycling.

Westminster and Kensington are famously hateful of cyclist, and do every they can to avoid building anything but the most pathetic cycle infrastructure.

However boroughs like Southwark are far not forward thinking. My area is covered in wide dedicated cycle lanes. I can get from my home to the office on almost entirely grade separated and wide cycle lanes. The only fly in the ointment is that my office is in Westminster, the second I cross the borough boundary, it all goes to crap.

Re: How to Not Get Hit by Cars

#100

Post by Findecanor »

polote wrote: post #39

That's not riding a bike which is dangerous it is riding in the same zones as cars as the article points out. May people say we shouldn't trust anyone to carry guns, but we allow anyone to drive a car, that's at least as much dangerous. All the examples of the articles are good, but there are two many to learn and remember. I follow one and only one rule when I ride my bike. Assume you can get killed at every time an…

If I had the power to, I would downvote you because you are blaming the victim, being smug about it, even abusive.

If you are riding your bike in the city and the streets are congested enough, there will always be a car close behind you. As there are cars ahead of you, to the right of you and on the street to the left that you would have to look out for. There are limits to how defensively you can ride, and at the end you have to rely on that the driver behind you is required by law to heed to any vehicle that has signalled that it will be turning left.

I have myself been in exactly that situation, almost run over by some idiot who sped up left of me because there had appeared a gap on my left as I entered an intersection. That driver belongs in prison.

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