Why Cyclists Get Hit

[dasgeh]

Love it. Thanks. It’s good to have that link in our pocket.

On a related note, a couple times now, when asked about how to bike safely, I tell people “I assume I’m invisible to drivers, until I have evidence to the contrary (nod, wave, see then change speed, etc)”. I think that’s resonated. Biking like that sucks, in that it’s slower, and we shouldn’t _have_ to bike that way. But I do think it’s the safest way to bike.

*Note: just because I assume drivers don’t see me doesn’t mean I think they’re in the right for not seeing me. When faced with the situation where they don’t see me/yield, I yell, stare them down, etc. But I try to be going slow enough to stop/avoid a collision.

[Terpfan]

@Tim Kelley 57886 wrote:

http://www.bikede.org/2013/07/13/invisible-cyclist/

That’s a great story.

Not to restart a few week old debate, but it highlights exactly the point I was trying to make about the uselessness of cell phone laws–

“Having the phone removed from the ear by legislating hands-free calling does nothing to improve our attention – it’s the attention to the call itself that impairs our attention. .”

The same could be said of any distraction, ergo the need is to cut down on distracted driving less than the object and focusing on the object sends the wrong message that having a hands free conversation is somehow better consider it’s exactly the same problem, a distraction.

I digressed from the original story. I think they wrapped it up perfectly, which is people have to get used to it. It’s interesting to observe that people will go slower and look to their sides in neighborhoods because they’re worried a kid may bounce a ball into a street, but in the city they seem to have tunnel vision–unaware of us or the pedestrians who may be in the street. The other way to get people to look is to have them be in the opposite situation. Ie, once you’re almost hit by a car biking, you won’t drive the same again when it comes to cyclists–but that’s a too tall an order I suspect.

[fuzzy]

Bikers get hit because of human error. Same reasons why planes fall from the sky (except bird strikes & criminal acts).

[Author]

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