A female cyclist in my town was killed this morning. This is why I rarely ride my road bike now. If I get hurt or killed on my mountain bike, at least it’ll be my fault.

The laws and roads are mostly anti-cyclist. I don't really feel safe cycling in the USA.

Damn, if that was my 15 year-old daughter he left on the side of the road, he wouldn't want to be left alone in a room with me.

Whenever I ride outdoors these days (which is rare, since I'm not in the sport anymore), I load my bike into my vehicle and drive the 7 miles to the three linked state metroparks and ride it there. While I'm mostly still on the roads within the parks, they're much less heavily traveled -- and pretty much deserted on weekdays -- and the speed limit is 25 mph. I've never had a single incident there and the 25-mile loop I ride is varied enough to give me a good workout. I don't even contemplate riding on the roads around my home, that's for sure. I'm not suicidal, in other words.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I do all my riding outdoors on the roads of Central New Jersey (about 100-150mpw this summer), without any accidents (an outside mirror hit my shoulder once, no damage to me) for some 30 years. The roads are very safe, if you use your brain (don't ride impaired; don't ride on high-speed roads, roads with poor sight lines or inadequate width; avoid riding in low-light conditions; act like a car, not a sniveling wreck in the gutter; be visible and predictable).

When cyclists abandon the road, the car culture wins and those of use who still enjoy road riding lose out. Instead of the walls of my basement, I get to see hawks, turkeys, deer, foxes, chipmunks, blue skies, occasional rain showers, interesting architecture. I get to occasionally meet interesting people, some riding their bikes. Like these guys riding from the Princeton area:

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"Go yell at an M&M"

I've been riding for about 20 years now and have only had one real close call (bombing a descent and a guy started to pull out from a side road, I yelled, he hit his brakes, and I zipped by in front of him). I mostly ride a first light, which minimizes traffic interactions. That's what I attribute my good luck to.

This is why i turned to gravel riding. I see more deer than cars on a 7am ride. Plus cars cant speed as much on gravel.

It's a big country. Where did you ride?

I've ridden all over the world. Some places are far more dangerous than the USA. Some are significantly safer.

Sadly, I've known several people killed on the road from cars at fault. I have a close relative that died when a distracted driver took them out in broad daylight on an 8 foot wide shoulder, leaving kids to grow up without a father.

I've actually lived in the most 'bicycle friendly' cities in the USA and still had incidents with aggressive/drunk/distracted drivers. I don't know why I survived so many miles when others have died. I can say I used up 8 of my lives. I consider myself very lucky.

I'm under no illusion that cycling is safe. You are 100% dependent on drivers following the rules and paying attention.

I think the opposite. In lumpy Central PA, pretty much every road that's not a higher-speed road is curvy with poor sight lines in places, and shoulders vary from expansive to literally nothing. It is routine for drivers to pass me without thought. Blind corner? They proceed anyway. Car coming in opposite direction? They either move left and force the oncoming car to take evasive action, or just blow through the gap between me and the other car. And that doesn't count the passes with no oncoming traffic where they buzz me just because. Group rides seem safer in that with a number of cyclists, drivers are forced to acknowledge there's a situation that requires their attention. Although they still might deal with it in a totally reckless fashion. But because a group is a bigger distraction & imposition, they're even angrier at being delayed 20 seconds. I completely understand folks who just don't want to ride outside anymore unless on gravel.


At first light is when all the landscapers are heading out to their first job of the day. And when school buses are collecting kids. A dually towing a trailer and a school bus scare the shit out of me.

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Brian

Gonna buy a fast car, put on my lead boots, take a long, long drive
I may end up spending all my money, but I'll still be alive

Using your brain, includes not riding on roads with poor sight lines. There's a very handy road right around the corner from me, but due to poor sight lines, I take an alternate and less convenient road. "Lumpier" parts of NJ are also more rural, and therefore far less traffic than less-rural areas. On a blind corner, I take enough of the road so that a following car is less likely to try and pass on the corner; I also use a "stopping" hand signal to warn not to pass (although that is frequently ignored). There've been many times that a car came too close to me for comfort, but here I am, undamaged.

Know your roads, act predictably, expect the unexpected behavior from drivers, and act like a car.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

Less traffic isn't much of a benefit when some of that traffic has no intention of being delayed by a microsecond because of a cyclist. Or is actively antagonistic to same regardless of situation. Most of the local rural population have a job in suburbia/exurbia, and they all do their shopping there, so there's no avoiding them.
Not using a road with poor sight lines means riding no further than a couple miles from my house.
I've cycled in other parts of the Northeast, and there are big differences in terrain and attitude. To say that safety is a given as long as you ride the kinds of roads you describe and can function above invertebrate level is ludicrous.

I've been hit by a car twice - once 40+ years ago, and once 20 years ago. For the miles ridden, that's probably unremarkable. I couldn't even count the number of times I have had to take evasive action, leaving the roadway, jamming on the brakes, etc. Sometimes an inattentive driver, sometimes a distracted driver, sometimes a malicious driver. A few of the inattentive drivers have stopped, shaken by the incident. They just didn't see me. They're not looking for me, or you. Only bigger things that would cause them damage.

You can (and I do) position yourself to be the most visible to traffic, keep your head on a swivel, keep an ear out for engine and tire noise behind; but that doesn't guarantee your safety. You either accept the odds for your locale or don't, and I understand someone who decides the odds are too high.

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Brian

Gonna buy a fast car, put on my lead boots, take a long, long drive
I may end up spending all my money, but I'll still be alive

Since it’s almost always during the summer or weekends those are rarely an issue either.

I'm in an ER right now. Wife got hit by a hyper-aggressive driver who decided that the dude in the left turn lane was too tentative, pulled to the right and then made a fast left turn into my wife who was riding in the opposing direction.

Hope she’s ok!

Ouch! I hope your wife wasn't hit too badly and has a speedy recovery. Keep us posted!

Best wishes,
malte

Fractured pelvis. Hopefully no surgery.

Wow very sorry to hear that. GL with the medical/healing/legal process.

/r

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Steve

All that truly matters is that your wife gets well, and I hope she has a smooth recovery.

But. It would be really interesting (to me at least) to hear how your local law enforcement deals with the driver.

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Brian

Gonna buy a fast car, put on my lead boots, take a long, long drive
I may end up spending all my money, but I'll still be alive

Except that he apparently didn't hit her...



http://www.wkyt.com/...clist-491271291.html

The video and this from the article, "The girl was taken to a local hospital before being airlifted to Lexington where she was treated for a liver laceration, according to her family." don't make sense together. That is a hard thing to fake or cause intentionally, but it doesn't look like he made much, if any, contact.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Yep, something isn't connecting. I don't know if she had a wreck later, or if he did hit her but not hard enough to knock her over. But if that's the case, how could that have caused the injuries. I wonder if something else caused the injuries and they are using this incident as the excuse.

I'll second that on the school buses. When I don't time my ride well, I'm on a route where they come by as many as 4 at a time. Even though the road has a bike lane and I stay to the far right, they still violate the 3-foot law as well as the speed limit. I've contacted the transportation department of the local school board once and did see some improvement. A new school year just started though, and I'm guessing some of the drivers are new to the job or the route and it looks like I'm going to need to contact the supervisors again.

Now that's deplorable.