… and the total lack of bicycle education in the US.
Is there really no road safety education in school? We have pretty extensive road safety education in Germany including a multiple choice and practical bike test [+]. It feels a lot like a dry run for the real driver’s license, at least for the impressionable mind of a fourth grader. I got a nice certificate when I made it.
It’s obviously seen as a first and important introduction to the traffic rules – what do the road signs mean, how does right of way work, and so on. You probably shouldn’t be confronted with all of that only when you are making your driver’s license. If only because you also have to know pretty much all those rules as a biker.
[+] At least in Bavaria. Education is the sole responsibility of the states. A quick search suggests that elementary schools in many if not all states in Germany have some form of road safety education including a bike test.
Incidentally, I ignore all this and bike to work every day, bike to stores when I go shopping, do all my grocery shopping with my bike, and of course go on long rides for no reason other than that it's enjoyable. Yeah, there are people who will give you mean stares at traffic lights, or engage you in discussion about how dangerous it is and how annoying you are to them. They also seem to enjoy demonstrating the loudness of their horn... which do end up being quite loud.
But what's good about the Internet is that it's allowed me to grow a very thick skin. I can deal with the yelling. I can position myself in a lane position that keeps me safe but slows down one or two drivers. It's hard, but I can do it, and I enjoy cycling a lot (and don't think drivers are bad). But most people don't have the self-confidence that I do, get yelled at, and never ride their bike to work again. Cars aren't ruining the environment, drivers are.
Incidentally, my second-biggest complaint is that it's hard to buy bikes that are set up for what people need them for. I had to buy my own chainguard (from Germany), rack (from Germany), and dynamo hub (from Germany), just because nobody in the US sells any products that are any good. Heaven forbid someone buy a bicycle that could carry a load and wouldn't ruin their clothes.
I love working on my bike and tinkering with things... but most people don't. So they just buy a car, honk at the cyclists that are increasing their commute time by five seconds, and keep the cycle of fear, uncertainty, and doubt alive.
You make excellent points, but in US law they are considered vehicles, and subject to the same rules of stop lights, stop signs, and waiting-in-line as automobiles.
Many, many bicyclists don't understand this, however, and run red lights and stop signs seemingly at will.
This never really bothered me until I had kids and was teaching them how to ride. I would always point out (because I knew they saw) when someone would bike illegally, in hopes that they would learn right from wrong.
As a counter-example, just two days ago a man was bicycling with two young children at a time when parents were dropping kids off at school (so, presumably he was taking them to school). I was driving a car down a road and passed them on my way to take a left turn. As I was waiting for traffic to clear for my turn (here in the US, to make a left turn I have to wait for a break in oncoming traffic), he and the kids came up on my right and started to ride in a pedestrian crosswalk (illegal- they are vehicles, not pedestrians) at that intersection that passed in front of my car. The man came within a few (maybe 10) feet of the front of my car before I made my turn. I only saw him at the last instant (a quick, reflexive check to my right, because I had already ascertained that there were no pedestrians).
I hope I scared him. I hope even more that I scared his kids who undoubtedly saw the event. I hope he had a long talk with his kids afterward.
But the real point I want him to understand is that if some child dies because they learned unsafe bicycling from watching his behavior, he is partly responsible for the child's death. Part of our jobs as adults in society is to demonstrate proper behavior for those in the process of learning it.
On my bike, I occasionally take refuge in cross walks in order to check cross-traffic. After reading your post, I'll look into the specific statues applicable to this practice.
I taught my kids to get off of the bike and walk it at cross-walks. I would be very surprised if they still do that because so few folks do.
He obtained the license plate number, and the driver was convicted of assult. Also, if you are intentionally run off the road by a vehicle, it can be considered assault with a deadly weapon.
If someone threw something at me, the police would have the license plate number so fast it'd be scary. Littering is a $500 fine.
That'd be assault, on top of littering.
I wish I would have got license plate numbers. The cars were usually too far ahead by the time I realized what happened.
An acquaintance was hit in the eye with an egg from an oncoming car, and lost the vision in his eye :(
On a separate and far less important note: As a relatively newbie bike commuter it would interesting to learn more about your set up and why you chose the accessories you mentioned in your post.
Where I'm from, there are many places with crowded traffic (not just in the bigger cities) and many, many bikes. It's common for kids to ride their bike to school, for example. There is such a thing as a "traffic test" for kids riding bikes, although I'm not sure if all schools do this. As for motorists, driving lessons are mandatory, and some of the things you learn are meant to protect cyclists: if your car has to take a right turn, you have to stop and look in your mirrors and over your right shoulder to check if there's no bikes coming (because they have the right of way!), and when you park you don't just slam open your car door, you look for bikes and other traffic first. (Failing to do so during the (non-trivial) drivers exam will likely earn you a failing grade.)
The Dutch have a lot of crazy traffic rules, but some of them actually make sense. :-) This why there are relatively few accidents with bikes, people accept them as part of the regular traffic, and cyclists don't need to wear helmets. (They do need reflectors so they can more easily be seen at night.)
So, coming from this, when you then move to the US, your first reaction might well be, "why don't people ride their bikes (to school, work, etc)?" One of the reasons is that it's just not a very common or safe way of transportation around here (at least in most areas -- I don't know about downtown SF or something).
As it was explained to me, the rule was that in the event of any accident between a car and a cyclist, it was automatically the car driver's fault. Which seemed like a pretty good strategy for improving cyclists' safety to me.
I'd always wear a helmet though, since it doesn't matter who's at fault, it's always the cyclist that comes off worst.
But I think what he meant is that drivers aren't aware of bike-related issues, aren't looking out for bikes, do stupid shit whenever they see bikes, etc. I love biking, and it's a great way to get around, but stupid drivers make it really dangerous.
When I first started cycling as an adult, I had no idea how to cycle properly. Fortunately, fear led me to Google which lead me to resources that helped me teach myself how to cycle safely.
Most people, unfortunately, only have the fear, and they give up before the Google search. A bit of education in elementary school about safe cycling could do a lot for the obesity epidemic and that whole global warming thing!
What I liked best about my local town was that the cycling zones were put onto the sidewalk, so as long as you was in the cycle lane you didn't have to yield to pass pedestrians, but you weren't at risk from drivers on the unmarked roads. I don't think I ever heard of a cyclist being hit on the street, one of my friends was hit but that was because someone backed out of a hedged-drive way at a bad time and broke his leg. IIRC the driver got a caution and the council fined him and ordered his hedges be cut down as they violated height restrictions.
As for reflectors; they only work when there is a clear
path from an illumination source to the reflector and back
to your eye. Sometimes that happens, but more often than
not, it doesn't.
It sounds like you are repeating something you heard sometime just because it fits your argument, instead of actually having knowledge of the subject. Your assertions are completely untrue and on a bit of reflection (pun intended), you would see that, which means we are dealing with a lack of reflection on your part concerning this tidbit of 'knowledge'.
As a pedestrian, I've almost been hit by cyclists running red lights with reflectors. Since my eyes don't emit beams of light, I had no chance to see them until that last second. I assume any cars going through the intersection would have had the same problem, since the obstacle was to the side rather than directly in front of them.
Reflectors do help make the cyclist more visible to overtaking traffic, but they don't help with anything that does not emit light. The cyclist won't be able to see hazards in the road ahead or other cyclists with reflectors.
I do agree that reflectors are better than nothing in the limited case of overtaking or oncoming cars, but they're not as good as lights. And considering how cheap LEDs and AA batteries are compared with the cost of a bicycle, why are we even arguing about this?
LEDs are cheap, plentiful and actually safe.
http://www.floridabicycle.org/rules/bikelaw.html
If this dude was really riding without lights in the middle of the night then his fate seems more Darwin Award-worthy than anything else.
I'll never forget the surgeon when he first came out of the operating room. He said: "If she had been wearing a helmet, none of this would have been necessary and she'd be fine." You could see clearly in his face that he'd seen this way too many times.
Seriously, just buy the damn helmet and wear it. You might look like a dork but it keeps your brains on the inside where you want them.
I woke up a while later with the helmet completely disintegrated - if I hadn't been wearing it I'm pretty sure it would have been my skull.
I also had a snowboarding accident a couple of years back - it was the first time I'd been in years and I was just starting to get the hang of it again on the first day. Then I woke up in hospital which was a good hour away from the slopes. I'd been concussed, so I was awake the whole time they took me there (snowmobile off the slope, then ambulance to the hospital) but I don't remember any of it. I have photos of me chatting to the red cross which is surreal since I have no memory of it at all.
I now wear a helmet snowboarding too :-)
If bike lanes really are that dangerous, we need to get rid of them.
[Of course I don't want to start a drivers vs. bikers thread. I'm sure the reality is that 95%+ of both drivers and bikers are just fine. It's just that other five percent that we actually remember.]
That's correct. This is precisely what Forrester has been saying for years. Bicycle lanes that co-exist with vehicular traffic are simply too dangerous. Separate lanes inevitably have to merge with traffic lanes in order for bicyclists to turn left. Therefore, bicycle lanes are simply not practical for most transportation. At best, they reinforce the notion of a bicycle as suited only for recreation. At worst, they lead to fatal accidents.
> bikers ride with lawless abandon, ignore common courtesy,
As opposed to the saints known as motorists?!?
I mostly obey the law, but you'll see me dismounting and walking my bicycle across a crosswalk on the same day that I see you doing this with your passenger car or motorcycle. If there's a conflict between the law and keeping myself (relatively) safe, the law loses every single time. Assuming that other vehicle operators are batshit insane is a very good idea (regardless of whether you are on a bicycle or not!), as is the assumption that the cops can't do much. At the end of the day, the reason SUVs were so popular is that you're pretty much on your own out there.
I much prefer downtown traffic to suburbs or country roads; rush hour is much more predictable and it's hard for drivers to quickly make bad decisions when they're gridlocked. On suburban streets you get to deal with distracted soccer moms in 5-ton SUVs trying to adjust the radio, smack the kids, and pass at the same time. Odds do not favor bicyclists.
Except Forrester is wrong. You'd be hard pressed to find cyclists here on the SF Peninsula who don't love the bike lanes we have. In other words, reality triumphs theory here. The only time Forrester is right is in those communities that do a poor job of implementing/maintaining their bike lanes (something that is not uncommon).
> As opposed to the saints known as motorists?!?
Yes, I find it (not) amusing when a newspaper article writes about a cyclist's death they feel the need to regurgitate rants about lawless cyclists. As if the cyclist is somehow responsible. And as if "cyclists" are a single entity (an 'other'), rather then being largely composed of weekday commute motorists who when riding are now called cyclists and, when they do something wrong, all cyclists get branded with this. I like to turn those bike rants around and describe how many more dangerous and/or absent-minded moves I see from motorists every week then from people on bikes.
People's perceptions may vary here, for example I also have my eyes when they put on the stroboscope in clubs.
None of these things are normally sold at all in the US. All red LED rear lights blink violently by default, and even fancy expensive headlights have idiotic round flashlight beams. One man has a US monopoly on importing the German products: http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/lightingsystems.htm — but you can import for less than the wholesale price he gives to shops by buying direct from Germany: http://www.starbike.com/php/product_list.php?prodcatid=37...
I own both generations of battery-powerd IXON lights, and a generator-powered IQ Cyo senso plus without reflector. They are amazing — these (and the Schmidt Edelux) are the best lights available by orders of magnitude. Everything else is a piece of shit for road use, even at 5x the price and with brief runtimes on proprietary batteries.
They are the best consumer products I own, and I own some fancy fucking shit. I am dead serious. I've ridden 2500+ miles in pitch black darkness in the last year — and these lights have saved my life dozens of times where nothing else would have.
In the UK I don't think flashing lights are allowed on moving vehicles/cycles unless they're emergency vehicles or otherwise hazardous. Lots of cyclists still use them though.
Huh?
Yes, but all it takes is one that doesn't and you'll be in the same position as the guy in this article. (dead).
Not getting 'doored' is easy, spot which cars have occupants when passing on the left and simply assume that any of them can throw open their doors at any moment.
Driving in a car lane in the middle of the lane is going to get you murdered by the first person that doesn't expect you to be where you are. Being right doesn't matter much when you have a ton-and-a-half of Detroit (or Japanese or German) steel on top of you.
In some countries the laws are such that if you injure a bicyclist or a pedestrian you are automatically in the wrong, this sort of legislation actually helps a lot.
This is a common misconception. Reflectors are worthless. Riding in the bike lane exposes you to great danger -- car doors flying open to the right, aggressive motorists passing too closely on the left. If you take the lane, you're out of the "door zone", and motorists have no choice but to slow down and pass you like they would pass any other vehicle on the road. You may feel like you are being an annoyance, but annoying people is what makes them pay attention and not kill you.
As for reflectors; they only work when there is a clear path from an illumination source to the reflector and back to your eye. Sometimes that happens, but more often than not, it doesn't. You don't need a $300 super-bright rechargeable light system -- get a $5 blinky and throw an extra AA battery in your seat bag. It may save your life.
Also, read Effective Cycling: http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Cycling-6th-John-Forester/dp...
Please don't get yourself killed because you don't want to inconvenience a motorist or buy an LED light. Oh, and get a helmet; the $30 ones are just as safe as the $200, if not as comfortable.
I hate to be preachy, but it makes me sad when people die because they are using a safe and efficient form of transportation. (And believe me, I am not blaming the cyclist for his own death here -- the motorist who murdered him is to blame, with a close second to poor city planning and the total lack of bicycle education in the US.)