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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
If I hadn't worn a helmet, I probably would have had a concussion. I never biked without a helmet again.
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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.
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.
