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It's Never a Bicycle Accident

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Re: It's Never a Bicycle Accident

#11

Post by anovikov »

Absolutely untrue. I am not a cyclist but i have about once in 3 months or so, a near accident where i just barely avoid crushing or rolling over some crazy cyclist that falls on his damn bike right under my car or drives from round the corner at full speed without damn looking anywhere. However careful i am trying to be it's just a matter of luck that i didn't kill anyone (and i once scratched my car and the other guy's a bit avoiding that in the last split second, once). And i totally can't see how it is my fault. At the very best, they are a hinderance because cautious people have to completely avoid a lane where one cyclist is driving on the edge of, thus slowing down the entire car traffic.

Bicycles are dangerous and those cyclists don't know what they are doing, they are a danger to themselves and others - because i am sure quite a few innocent people went to jail accidentally killing them.

Re: It's Never a Bicycle Accident

#12

Post by folex »

It's so strange to have this "areas of death" in our towns. You turn the wrong way - you're dead. You saw the wrong color - dead. I understand that it takes some evolution to solve that, but it's SO. STRANGE.

Imagine people who never saw that concept - high speed (>30mph) roads near pedestrians. And then someone comes and says "Let's build these danger zones with custom rules, they will allow people to leave public transport for personal vehicles. And if you step it wrong, you might get killed!".

Would these people agree? Would they take it as a natural idea? Insane.

Re: It's Never a Bicycle Accident

#13

Post by Jochim »

m_mueller wrote: post #3

I wish journalism was concerned less with words and more with pointing out how to solve problems. This one in particular seems to be mostly a failure at city planning and lack of drivers education. It seems to me that car companies should be way less powerful in the US than they were 50 years ago (in terms of % of GDP), thus there should be a way out of this. Compare good and bad cities, shame the bad ones. Get insur…

The usage of words affects people's perception of the problem though. The current wording minimises the problem to a degree that most people won't buy in to your solutions.

Re: It's Never a Bicycle Accident

#15

Post by WalterBright »

adrianN wrote: post #8
WalterBright wrote: post #6

Never? Some accidents involving bicycles and cars are the bicycle's fault, some are the car's fault. Some are both, some are neither's.

For none of them it's useful to think of "an accident" because that doesn't lead to actions that prevent future crashes.

An accident is an unintentional crash, which is not the same thing as not somebody's fault or not preventable.

Re: It's Never a Bicycle Accident

#16

Post by brnt »

WalterBright wrote: post #6

Never? Some accidents involving bicycles and cars are the bicycle's fault, some are the car's fault. Some are both, some are neither's.

Dutch law has a nice solution: liability correlates with weight. The more weight you put on the street, the more explaining you have to do, because you chose to potentially cause more damage. In a collision, the weightiest vehicle therefore is by default liable, unless they can prove otherwise. This means that in bicycle-car accidents, drivers almost always pay, and in bicycles pedestrian accident the cyclist.

Re: It's Never a Bicycle Accident

#17

Post by crygin »

anovikov wrote: post #11

Absolutely untrue. I am not a cyclist but i have about once in 3 months or so, a near accident where i just barely avoid crushing or rolling over some crazy cyclist that falls on his damn bike right under my car or drives from round the corner at full speed without damn looking anywhere. However careful i am trying to be it's just a matter of luck that i didn't kill anyone (and i once scratched my car and the other g…

> Bicycles are dangerous...

It's an interesting statement, given that every example you gave is about a driver of a car about to kill a cyclist. It seems that it's the cars, or rather, the drivers, that are dangerous.

Re: It's Never a Bicycle Accident

#18

Post by ehnto »

WalterBright wrote: post #9
ehnto wrote: post #5

I always tell people I am not a cyclist, I am a bloke who rides a bike. The vilification of a group is how you make harming them palatable to people, and we have all heard the rhetoric surrounding "cyclists". I am far sooner a friend, a son, a partner and someone you know, than a cyclist. I don't even qear lycra, and I spend my whole ride trying to be courteous so at least extend me the same courtesy. Also, get off y…

> get off your fucking phone I generally look not so much at the car, but the driver, to see if he sees me. If he doesn't, I get off the road. Also if he's on the phone. If I'm behind the car, I watch for his brake lights and backup lights.

Likewise, I look for where their head is pointed. More often than it should be, they are enamored by their crotch while barelling along.

It amazes me how quickly people shift attention too, some people are back on their phone before they even finish turning at a junction. You could almost be impressed, but then you realise it's just stupity meeting luck on a daily basis.

Re: It's Never a Bicycle Accident

#19

Post by WalterBright »

anovikov wrote: post #11

Absolutely untrue. I am not a cyclist but i have about once in 3 months or so, a near accident where i just barely avoid crushing or rolling over some crazy cyclist that falls on his damn bike right under my car or drives from round the corner at full speed without damn looking anywhere. However careful i am trying to be it's just a matter of luck that i didn't kill anyone (and i once scratched my car and the other g…

I'm both a cyclist and a driver. I regularly see middle-aged cyclists riding without the sense of a 6 year old. I don't get it.

I also avoid driving in residential streets if I can avoid it because of kids on bikes, and I know they're crazy. I did crazy stuff on a bike as a kid, and barely survived.

Re: It's Never a Bicycle Accident

#20

Post by joeyjojo »

folex wrote: post #12

It's so strange to have this "areas of death" in our towns. You turn the wrong way - you're dead. You saw the wrong color - dead. I understand that it takes some evolution to solve that, but it's SO. STRANGE. Imagine people who never saw that concept - high speed (>30mph) roads near pedestrians. And then someone comes and says "Let's build these danger zones with custom rules, they will allow people to leave public t…

Looked at a billboard designed to grab your attention - dead.
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