Crash

[lI1|1!]

... and burn

[gt5816v]

I ride 100 miles per week and have done so for 3 years now. I haven't been hit but I have had some close calls. The two things that cause problems IMO are cars making a right turns across the bike lane or path of a cyclist and oncoming traffic doing the same with left turns. Once a car passes you they quickly forget you were there assuming they saw you in the first place.

 

I had a car full of kids huck a Venti Starschmucks at me one time. Fortunately it missed and exploded on the ground next to me. I chased the bastards down but they ran a light to get away. Another time I got nailed right in the ass by one of those plastic big gulp cups. That hurt like hell!

 

So in my experience projectiles are more dangerous than cars...

 

Sorry to hear about your accident Roger.

 

[tvashtarkatena]

They way to make cyclist more visible is to learn how look out for them. How you accomplish this mentally is up to you. If you always need to assume a cyclist is nearby and that works, fine. If you need to avoid cycle commuting routes, fine.

 

Cyclists can control their own visibility up to a point, but most accidents involving them are caused by careless, inattentive drivers.

 

For the most part, American cities do not have the imagination or willingness to create bicycle only pathways, so cyclists are forced to share the road and put themselves at considerable risk. The 'solution' to this is to separate the two, but politically this has not flown in Car Culture Land.

 

And frankly, many American drivers are fucking assholes to cyclists as compared to their European counterparts. It's an attitude thing, made worse by our steroid pumped vehicle sizes.

 

If you want to mitigate the problem; learn how to watch out for cyclists, and next time, buy a smaller car. Or take the bus. Or ride a bike. The onus is on the drivers, who cause most of the accidents, not the cyclists, who are limited in their choice of routes, their ability to 'get out of the way', and how loud a clothing ensemble they can sport.

[archenemy]

If you kill the cyclist, it is only your problem. His problems are effectively over.

[RogerJ]

hmm..I was just in New York City and brother there are little to NO bicycles on the road for good reason - they'r targets.

 

It's more a matter of how ride in NYC!

[RogerJ]

The driver's insurance company just called wihtout me having to pester them.

 

Good start.

 

-r

[ZimZam]

As someone who commutes to work via bike, I can relate. Glad to hear you've come out relatively unscathed.

[ashw_justin]

I had that happen to me once too. I was coming down Roosevelt toward the University Bridge, when some idiot realized they didn't want to go over the bridge or something, and took the last right before it, abruptly and without signalling. I bounced off the car but managed to stay on my wheels, thank god. Same b.s., "I didn't see you!", like that's some kind of excuse.

 

On a related note, here's SDOT's latest presentation for the "Seattle Bicycle Master Plan." While the effort is admirable and it's great that they're taking bike commuting seriously, I think that being legally required to get creamed by opening doors is outrageous.

 

http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/docs/DecemberPublicMeetings_120106_v3.pdf

 

Of course it's a start, and we already bike next to parked cars, but it would be better just to get rid of street parking on arterials altogether. It's going to take more than painting some lines. Remove a couple thousand parking spots downtown, and that's a couple thousand people who might actually start taking carpooling/biking/public transportation seriously...

 

[DirtyHarry]

I had that happen to me once too. I was coming down Roosevelt toward the University Bridge, when some idiot realized they didn't want to go over the bridge or something, and took the last right before it, abruptly and without signalling. I bounced off the car but managed to stay on my wheels, thank god. Same b.s., "I didn't see you!", like that's some kind of excuse.

 

That's weird. I had a similar experience in that same area, but I was going north on Roosevelt. Dude took a hard right and cut me off. I drove my shoulder into his van in order to make a wheel-skidding high speed right turn and avoid certain death.

[Dannible]

I have been hearing about a lot of people getting hit by cars recently. My roomate was hit by two cars in two weeks, and both times the driver pretty much said sorry and kept going on their way.

 

A few weeks ago my dad's car died on the freeway and the place where he worked just happened to be right next to where he was on the freeway, but on the other side of a fence. He cut his wrist really bad trying to climb the fence, and started walking to the next exit to get some help. Next thing he knew he was laying on the side of the freeway with a crowd of people around. He was pretty messed up, but survived getting hit by a car going 60mph. So far it's looking like the driver's insurance won't cover it because it is illegal to walk on the freeway. Not only that, but the driver has a legal right to take us to court to pay for any damage to his car (he is not doing that, but he can). Our insurance companies are giving us the runaround, but the hospital told us that we pretty much just have to demand that they pay.