Nuh uh. My city painted pictures of bicycles on the asphalt in the right lane of a busy road, so now drivers know itโs also for bikes and itโs suuuuuper safe.
Thatโs what Big Bike Lane doesnโt want you to know. You donโt need to build a bunch of infrastructure to separate cyclists and cars - you just need paint! Especially the new kind that wears off the road in less than a year and doesnโt get repainted.
Separated bike lanes. Not by a line of paint or some curb at the intersection but by several feet of physical barrier. Raised planters work well and are attractive but putting the parking strip between traffic and bikes (as long as the parked cars can't open doors into the lane) also gets the job done.
I drive a motorcycle regularly. I make it a habit to check where people ahead of me are looking (by looking into their side mirrors) so I can predict whether they'll merge into me.
About 1/3 of drivers are on their phones, not looking at the road at any given time
Or are you one of those people that say noise is the only indicator completely disregarding the advances in car sound proofing that only makes loud bikes an annoyance to pedestrians?
Did you know by mile driven, motorcycles kill more pedestrians than cars or trucks?
Compared with cars, the RR of killing a pedestrian per vehicle mile was 7.97 (95% CI 6.33 to 10.04) for buses; 1.93 (95% CI 1.30 to 2.86) for motorcycles; 1.45 (95% CI 1.37 to 1.55) for light trucks, and 0.96 (95% CI 0.79 to 1.18) for heavy trucks. Compared with cars, buses were 11.85 times (95% CI 6.07 to 23.12) and motorcycles were 3.77 times (95% CI 1.40 to 10.20) more likely per mile to kill children 0โ14 years old. Buses were 16.70 times (95% CI 7.30 to 38.19) more likely to kill adults age 85 or older than were cars. The risk of killing a pedestrian per vehicle mile traveled in an urban area was 1.57 times (95% CI 1.47 to 1.67) the risk in a rural area.
Literally 3.77x more likely to kill a child per mile than a car, and you're focusing on peeping in windows as you zip by?
So can you please stop trying to see how many car drivers are on the phone while you ride one of the most dangerous vehicles possible for you and people minding their own business walking around?
Your hobby isn't more important than people's lives, even if it makes you feel better about other shortcomings you may be dealing with and can't change.
Note the publication year of the article, and the year of the data collected. 2005 and 2002, respectively. Trucks and SUVs are demonstrably larger and more prevalent on the roads in the last twenty years in the US, and those were pre smartphone.
And plenty of us ride motorcycles for commuting and economic reasons, they're not only toys... Even if it is a vehicle that attracts a bunch of assholes, which I'll clearly admit
Hey I think you missed this extremely important part of your quoted source:
Results: Passenger cars and light trucks (vans, pickups, and sport utility vehicles) accounted for 46.1% and 39.1%, respectively, of the 4875 deaths, with the remainder split among motorcycles, buses, and heavy trucks.
Is this per accident? or pee accidents that didn't happen with motorcycliats not on phones? People reading phone while driving are just selfish asaholes. Bluetooth exiats, talk to text exists, ok google, ok siri and yet...assholes
I ride daily, also skateboard and work in transport, my local political rep came past the other week and all I could say was "can we get those phone cameras every 200m on every road in the country? It's the only way we'll get the fuckers off their phones."
Anytime I'm cycling I make sure I know where every car is and never let any vehicle sneak up on me, because I expect car drivers to be distracted and oblivious to most laws of the road. Because of this I've not had any close calls yet
Perfectly legal in my state (MN) as long as that "asshat" would have the right of way if they stopped. I also see pretty much everyone doing a rolling stop in a car which IS illegal.
I've had a few times in a few metropolitan areas where I had no car, and commuted 15+ miles of urban riding a day.
Both times started super conservative with my riding. By the end of was blowing lights and stop signs, had a whistle necklace, carried pepper spray, and was happier than I had ever been in traffic in a car.
Stop signs and traffic lights are a car concept. Pedestrians don't need them and have NEVER needed them because they move slow and can see all around them without blind spots. Cyclists are a lot closer to pedestrians than to cars unless you're in an ebike with no governor. Ride on man!
I'll get downvoted and told I'm an idiot and whatever else, but I just ride on the sidewalk and it takes all the issues away. It's a million times better to me, and when I'm in a car I fucking hate cyclists in the road. You guys can keep putting your lives on the line if that's what makes you feel good, I guess.
In my experience you will generally only be stopped if you are riding in a way that's a risk to the pedestrians around you, and there's plenty of ways to avoid that. Police have better things to go after unless they are deliberately trying to fish for fines income.
We need a change in our culture. Selfish, foolish impatience, drivers insisting they OwN tHe RoAd is exactly what's killing pedestians and cyclists. You can get where youre going fast enough, but it's never enough. Fuck that noise, bunch of drunkards ( be it on alcohol or arrogance)
We all know there's no non-hostile way to interact with others when youre behind the wheel. Its just the nature of such a heavy vehicle traveling at speeds to where collision destroys the human body. Business men made it this way, and big business never cared about you or me.
Same, I live in a smaller city that has wide sidewalks. You slow down when approaching pedestrians and blind corners, stop at crosswalks, etc. It's alot lower risk in general.
The idea that we lump bikes in with cars, as if every biker is some competitive racer who has to go 40 on their bike, is ridiculous, and opens bikers up to being killed by cars. On the sidewalk, the chance of a crash is lower, an DM the results of crashes minor in comparison. Its a no-brainer for me.
If my city had fully founded bike lanes that didn't merge into the main road, though, I'd switch to those in a heartbeat.
Yeah it's honestly hilarious to me after a certain amount of comments. Like either I've found all the professional bike riders in one place or a lot of people who are very full of both themselves and a little shit. Why they're all acting like they ride their bikes at car speeds is beyond me. Maybe they all have cognitive issues that impair their reaction times?
I don't think the vehicle itself matters as much as its speed and whether is is paying attention or not. I would not mind bicycles going at a pedestrian pace on the sidewalk who slow down and stop if necessary, and I even think bicycles on roads should be limited to either low traffic situations or having pedal assist so that they are at least able to travel at 25km/h.
And I don't think we need to mention how much more dangerous a motorcycle is for the person riding it.
There's a big push to always blame drivers of four wheel vehicles, I've never heard a good response for why motorcycle riders kill almost 4x as many children pedestrians per mile driven than car drivers though.
I'm sure it's totally not their fault and if they make their exhaust more obnoxious it will fix everything tho...