Bike ride, accident, and ambulance trip tracked on Runkeeper
sperber.posterous.com
sperber.posterous.com
A car slowing to make a left on the other hand looks like a driver acting properly. Slowly to a stop... waiting for cars to pass.... waiting for yo... and then the driver jerks the wheel and speeds across attempting to beat the next oncoming car. Turns out you're trapped halfway across the intersection with a 3000 lb vehicle crossing your T.
Or worse yet they just assume you're going to yield to them because you're on a bike. In that case, no amount of visibility will change the fact the other driver hasn't ridden a bicycle in 30 years and has forgotten the rules of the road.
Riding a motorcycle creates another issue in that drivers have trouble immediately identifying something small oncoming at twice the speed limit (relative). You end up with a dead rider and a driver confused because they saw the motorcycle, but their subconscious driving habits were not trained to deal with it properly. I think that is called beta reaction? e.g. absentmindedly braking when you see a red light without consciously connecting the red light with stopping.
6. In the multiple vehicle accidents, the driver of the other vehicle violated the motorcycle right-of-way and caused the accident in two-thirds of those accidents.
7. The failure of motorists to detect and recognize motorcycles in traffic is the predominating cause of motorcycle accidents. The driver of the other vehicle involved in collision with the motorcycle did not see the motorcycle before the collision, or did not see the motorcycle until too late to avoid the collision.
8. Deliberate hostile action by a motorist against a motorcycle rider is a rare accident cause. The most frequent accident configuration is the motorcycle proceeding straight then the automobile makes a left turn in front of the oncoming motorcycle.
source: http://www.motorcycle-accidents.com/pages/stats.html
PDF of Study: http://isddc.dot.gov/OLPFiles/NHTSA/013695.pdf
Playing by the same rules as everyone else works fine if everyone plays by the same rules - but a lot of drivers don't.
When I got home, I confirmed that biking on the sidewalk in San Francisco is in fact illegal. While I highly doubt it would be enforced for someone who was riding as I was (at a pretty slow-to-normal pace, and slowing to a crawl when around pedestrians), it's still frustrating to see how bicycle-unfriendly even the decent biking cities in the US are.
I wouldn't say it's all that safe on the street in DC. I've very nearly been run over by cars (especially cabs) that want to turn right out of a circle (which even has a bike lane).
If you expect drivers to yield to you, give you your lane, and (most importantly) not actively work to bring about your death, you can't be weaving in and out of traffic, running red lights, or not letting cars through to turn at intersections. Even if you don't give half a damn about your own life, it's just simple courtesy.
In general, people on bicycles in DC combine the worst parts of the "urban road warrior" cyclist stereotype with the intense sense of entitlement and privilege shared by most in the DC area: "why the fuck should I stop at a red light? I have places to be. I saw David Axelrod at Ruth's Chris yesterday. Do you know who the fuck I am?"
The drivers are insane as well, but I want to grab most of the cyclists I see around here by the shoulders and shake them hard: "Do you want to die??!? DO YOU??!!!?" They are just the worst and sicken me deeply every day.
Disclaimer: I am a frequent cyclist in DC.
Further, more injuries occur to cyclists on sidewalks than on roads. The sidewalk is narrow, so you have less escape route. Cars do not expect you on the sidewalk, so exit parking lots and driveways into you. Pedestrians, kids playing, and other hazards also appear without warning. Sidewalks are usually poorly maintained providing even more hazards.
Also, I live in Dallas - we don't really have sidewalk traffic. Every time I ride my bike, I can count on one hand the number of people I see pedesting.
Also, someone else lives in Dallas. Every time he drives his car, he can count on one hand the number of people he sees cycling. He uses that fact to justify driving in a manner menacing to cyclists.
I'd also add that in many cases, riding on the sidewalk is illegal. It doesn't bother me when I see little kids doing it, but if you're a grownup you should be riding on the street, with traffic, in accordance with traffic law.
When I still lived in a small rural "micropolitan" area before moving to Akron a few years back, I was a road rider and belonged to a local bike club. There is no way they would have tolerated members riding on the sidewalk, and they stressed heavily that bikes are legally regarded as vehicles and have to obey the same rules.
I've since given it up, since I live in a high traffic suburb of Akron and being deaf, can't hear oncoming traffic. This wasn't a big deal on rural back roads, but now that there's a lot more traffic around me, it makes me nervous.
Some states do have laws about what constitutes legally riding a bike on a sidewalk. For example, Oregon requires bicyclists to yield to pedestrians, and to generally go slowly, slowing down to walking speed when crossing a crosswalk or driveway: https://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/814.410
Common practice seems to vary a lot by area. Riding a bike on the sidewalk in SF would be unsafe, unnecessary, and against city law, but in suburban and rural areas with high-speed-limit roads (~50-55 mph) without bike lanes or paved shoulders, but which do have sidewalks, it's quite unusual for people to ride in the road. In suburban Houston, for example, I would be really surprised to see a bike in the traffic lanes on something like Texas Hwy-3, but it's not that uncommon to see bikes on the sidewalk.
The only exceptions to a person riding on the sidewalk is if the road does not have approved bicycle lanes, or the person is in a group with special permits, or the road is physically unfit for travel. As of the last 4 years, every paved road, with the exceptions of interstates, were approved for bicycle travel, even if they do not have designated bicycle lanes.
http://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r805/r805-001.htm
Granted, one may argue that any road is unfit for bicycle travel if the speed limit is 55 MPH or so, but you must prove in court how the entire road is unfit, which requires just as much effort as the DOT requires to gain permission to re-pave the surface from a graded dirt base.
And I'm familiar with the hazards of being on the sidewalk. Dallas isn't a place where people walk - I can count on one hand the number of pedestrians I see. When I approach some sort of intersection-like area where a car could be, I make sure a car isn't approaching, etc., etc.
I literally bike like everyone is out to kill me.
The nuances of how to do this well depend on rules of the road for your state, but it generally works very well.
No matter what you feel, the data shows that you're estimates and approach to safety in this case are just plain wrong.
I can't make a scene or get in the middle of the lane when I'm dead. And at best, I'd be affecting a few drivers a day by yelling at them. Maybe I'd educate some of them. The rest would just conclude that bicyclists are assholes, and every dead one is a net benefit.
Like I said in a different comment, I'll take my paranoid safety now instead of a possible payoff later.
Aside from all of this: your intuition is wrong. Please look at the statistics. The only disagreement in the statistics is over how much safer riding in the street is. There is no disagreement over street riding being safer.
I am certain this is a case of perception coupled with confirmation bias, much like those who would prefer to drive than to fly. Find a local cycling club to teach you tips on cycling safely around your metro.
I've never had a problem driving my bike like a car. Sure, sometimes someone honks at me or yells, but that's what your middle finger is for. As soon as someone is mad enough to yell at you, you know they see you, and you know you're safe. It's the people that don't notice you that will kill you.
(Of course, there is the 1-in-a-million homicidal maniac that just wants to murder something for the fun of it... but that's something that you can't prevent -- bicycle or not.)
His book has many diagrams explaining many common riding in traffic scenarios.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_Cycling
> Forester summarizes the rules of the road for vehicle operation in five principles:
Use the correct half of the road, and not the sidewalk.
Yield to other traffic as required.
Yield when moving laterally across the road.
Choose the correct lane and position within the lane at intersections and their approaches, based on your destination. For example, a cyclist planning to go straight through an intersection should avoid getting stuck in a right-turn-only lane, where it is easy to get clobbered by a right-turning car; a cyclist in a through-traffic lane may get a few surprised looks but will probably not get hit. Choosing the correct lane and position often involves taking the lane when the lane is not wide enough for a car and a bike side by side. Between intersections move away from the curb based on speed relative to other traffic and effective lane width.
In 2001 I was biking Market Street to downtown SFO. Agro Biker, several hundred feet in front of me, was heading straight through a green light. That didn't stop Stupid SUV from rushing to turn right, nearly causing Agro Biker to t-bone.
In response Agro calmly reached into his messenger bag, pulled out what I can only describe as a smoke grenade, and lobbed it at Stupid SUV's rear window. Direct hit. Shock and awe filled the streets!
The last thing you want to do is be a nuisance, all it takes is one unhinged, rageaholic to end your life for a very stupid reason.
However, I don't really know the driver's perspective.
There was also a guy who experimented with wearing a bicycle helmet finding that drivers would leave less distance when overtaking him when he wore the helmet. Apparently they assumed he was a more skilled cyclist because of the helmet.
And I ride in Trivandrum, a city in South India with aggressive drivers who get mad when they have to slow down and get caught in the really intense sun, minus air-con. (I've noticed a lot of middle-class folk here save on fuel by skipping air conditioning in city snarls)
Never ride on pavements.
Never ride on the edge/shoulder especially in India where a 'shoulder slip' could easily leave you with a broken neck.
Never ride near the dividing line.
Ride in the 1/3 of the road that lets you spot and recover from surprises served up by pedestrians AND Learn cross-steering if you ride fast on a road bike.
Being visible and noticed early-on is the key to survival.
Being 'in their face' is an effective way to stay alive.
Bicycles are vehicles. Sidewalks are not a place for vehicles. It's not fair to pedestrians or yourself. Also if anything were to happen while you were riding on the sidewalk I believe it would be you that would be at fault.
However. If it's night time, and i'm riding up a busy 45mph street with no bike lane, you bet your ass i'm riding the sidewalk. I'll be paranoid and stop at every single vehicle or pedestrian crossing, but i'll ride the sidewalk. I know the kinds of people that drive these streets, and I know it only takes one asshole veering 12 inches into the side of the road to send me flying at a pole and potentially back into traffic.
Drunk drivers, drivers on cellphones, people not watching the road, people looking for loose change in the glove box, or just freak accidents. Any single event could kill you on a bike. Where I live we don't have the luxury of taking up a whole lane of traffic to bike safely - if you do, the least you get is harassed (horns, trash thrown at you, threats). If they're driving an expensive car you're more likely to get run out of the lane because they know they own all the lanes.
What type of injuries though? And is this in any way biased by the fact the young or inexperienced riders are more likely to be using the sidewalk. On the sidewalk you'd expect inexperienced riders who do not cover much distance to be having a lot of small scale accidents. On the road you'd expect experienced riders who cover a lot of distance to be having fewer accidents (per mile, hour, rider?) but are significantly more serious on average.
I'd personally want to see more evidence before overriding my natural instincts that many busy roads are often just not worth it. As much as I admire those 'road warriors' who are educating drivers this is one of those situations where I have to put me first.
One thing I have not seen mentioned is that cyclists are effectively INVISIBLE to cars when on sidewalks due to their speed. I work on a college campus and have watched motorists tune out sidewalk cyclists on a number of occasions - they aren't tracking objects moving faster than a pedestrian. On two of those occasions, the cyclists were hit - one was taken away in an ambulance with head injuries. Any near collision I've had has involved a pedestrian walkway of some sort.
As a cyclist your highest priority is to be seen. It's much harder to ignore a cyclist riding in the road.
One thing though - and it may seem counter-intuitive - is that riding on sidewalks is considerably more dangerous. I believe a 1985(?) study showed that it was roughly twice as dangerous, and another study (1998?) also showed an increase in risk. Granted there are always exceptions, but on average you're better off on the road.
Cyclists should be riding in the middle of the road, like you said, like they own it and force drivers to take notice. However, this is likely to increase road rage and increase the risk of non-accidental cyclist injuries.
I know where I lived in the UK I was legally obligated to be on the sidewalk as a cyclist. By the local road layouts, I actually found it safer, because the sidewalks and junctions were made with pedestrians and cyclists in mind, not just motorists.
What I believe was the most beneficial was no anti-J-walking law. It seems bizarre, but because of the rural nature of the area, I could cross the road in the middle of downtown on a busy street and people would have to yield right of way to me a pedestrian, which made all pedestrians and cyclists more visible to motorists because they had to routinely watch for us.
Unfortunately, bicycle safety is not primarily a behavioral issue, but a structural one. Road and sidewalk etiquette are important, but these territorial disputes between car, bicycle, and pedestrian are inherently unsolvable. Cyclists, being neither heavy fast steel nor slow moving soft tissue, really belong on neither road nor sidewalk.
A different layer of infrastructure is needed to really solve the problem, but unfortunately such a layer doesn't easily retrofit to existing US cities. Even dedicated bike lanes along existing roadways can be an overly compromised and unsafe solution, for instance when they are bordered by a line of parked cars, doors just waiting to be opened in front of the cyclist.
As much as I love all things bicycle-related, it's for these reasons that I believe cycling as transportation will always remain a niche activity in the US.
For me, riding near traffic requires zen-master focus, alternating between the attitudes of assertiveness and invisibility. I view the sidewalk as a tool to be used when appropriate, e.g. when there are few pedestrians and vehicular traffic is murderous.
I spent some time commuting on a motorcycle through some heavy traffic. Going through intersections, the rule is to have another car go with you at the same time to act as cover.
On an side note, what about technology to better defend cyclists? I've seen motorists in the US try to intimidate cyclists off the road. I think some sort of bicycle defense system may very well be appropriate here, and there's room for innovation.
If anyone's interested in working together on making cycling safer, PM me.
I guess you could make one in software and have it run on a smartphone in a special mounting bracket somewhere. You could even have it interface with a bluetooth headset/helmet for any audio annotation you want to make (e.g. "that guy in the Mustang is driving really aggressively")
I have had two (thankfully minor) accidents on my Vespa, neither of which were my fault. Having video of the guy making an illegal left turn in front of me could have made the ordeal with the insurance companies less painful. Maybe.
Other embarrassment could be arranged too -- but the line to harrassment here is narrow...
Also, sometimes the reaction/result of aggressive drivers isn't catastrophic. For instance, today on my way home from work I had 2 different drivers decide to come within a foot of my bike while passing. This is a calculated move, intended to scare me and teach me a lesson. I know because in one case, I asked when we both got to the same red light, and in the other, the rude gestures of the driver. An accelerometer would have shown nothing, as any reaction on my part would probably have been worse than just hoping the driver didn't judge wrong.
It's not just "tight driving" either, other times drivers are rude, make threatening actions with their vehicles or just plain block my motion preventing me from changing lanes, making turns, and so on, which should be captured, but don't cause anything particularly noticeable in accelerometer data.
Alternately, the false positive rate is probably pretty high here too. I have at least 2 places on my daily commute where I short-cut thru alleys and make some pretty jarring curb passages. There is one particularly tricky transition from street to bike path involving 3 turns in a very short distance (30ish feet). On fast days I bet it looks more like reacting to an aggressive driver than most aggressive driver reactions (from an accelerometer point of view).
http://www.vagabondish.com/looxcie-wearable-bluetooth-camera...
And also the GoPro
Neither of which quite match your requirements, though.
http://cgi.ebay.com/808-Car-Keys-Micro-camera-Spy-DVR-Suppor...
and _really_ inexpensive - you get ~60-70 mins of recording on a 4gig card, which is about the internal battery life too. I bough a few of them and am playing with recording my 40min (motorcycle) commute every day...
Again, they miss some of the stated requirements, but at $15 or so they can be forgiven some faults...
two of these accidents were in the heart of cambridge, ma (very bike friendly) on streets with wide bike lanes. one in Arlington (mass ave.)
had i a 360 record of each incident i could prove that each of the drivers was operating as recklessly as a drunkard. i probably would have no-harm-no-fouled the two that profusely apologized and wanted to make sure i was okay. i'm sure they are very careful around bicycles now. the hit-and-run, well, i would have played my role as a litigous american and sued his pants off.
i guess it's time to spec-out a cyclist's black box.
too bad i have to go to work now...
ON MY BIKE!
On a bike, okay, you wear a helmet, but it's not even as good as the open-face helmets you get on a motorcycle. I know I've fucked up my face pretty good getting off a bicycle. (the dentist did a pretty good job, but if you look closely, you can still tell that my front teeth are not, uh, factory.)
And then the rest of your body; I mean, I know you can't wear 20lbs of dead cow like I did on my motorcycle if you've gotta pedal, but it seems like some kevlar and some of those CE pads for the shoulders, hips, elbows and knees would work almost as well.
Now, I'm probably clumsier than most people, and I'm not a particularly good driver in general (though I'm also a fairly conservative driver, so my record is good enough that I get the 'safe driver' discount on my auto insurance.) but god damn, good safety gear makes a huge difference on a motorbike, why not on a bicycle?
http://www.motorcycleinfo.co.uk/index.cfm?fa=contentGeneric....
I'm sure it would work for bicycles as well if you have a headlight installed.
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Whenever I ride, I assume every driver is an idiot. That means they run red lights, speed, don't pay attention b/c of being on a cell phone, etc... Actually that sums up a lot of Massachusetts drivers. ;)
There needs to be some sort of proactive movement in-and-around Boston to increase bicycle safety. Ideally, under cover police on bikes, handing out tickets and pulling licenses whenever they see a motorist doing something dangerous. Make this very visible and public. If cyclists wear cameras on their helmet, hand the video to police to track down bad drivers who cut them off or do other things that are illegal.
Bikes and cars have equal right-of-way on the roads. Most people in this state don't honor that law. It's an attitude problem that has to change.
Of course cyclists must obey laws too. Riding on the wrong side of the road, not obeying road laws, not using hand singles to turn, are all recipes for disaster.
One of the best pieces of advice I've read for cyclists is to always ride predictable. That lessons your chance of being hit by a car.
Definately a problem that needs to be solved.
The another thing is the issue of mental automaticity of driving, of monitoring of the road situation. For example, i frequently notice that driving behind a motorcycle on highway i automatically keep right distance ... to the car in front of the motorcycle.
It is important for the bicyclists to be as noticeable as possible. And to look bigger - i'd paint the whole bicycles itself, including wheels, into extremely noticeable bright colors, may be some blinking in the daylight texture, and would make them fluorescent at night, so that the "automatically driving part of the brain" would pay them more attention.
If I hadn't worn a helmet, I probably would have had a concussion. I never biked without a helmet again.
The recording is an interesting souvenir. I was in a strange mood for the first few days (suddenly confined to my apartment with very limited mobility) and got a kick out of showing the recorded track to anyone that came to visit, watching their horrified reactions to "Here's where I got hit, and over there is where I landed..." Thanks to a little Python script I'd written a while back, I had the track colored according to speed, and that made it even more "fun" to look at.
It's weird to think that stuff like that -- and with that level of detail -- will be around for future generations to look at.