I don’t know why this has come upon me as of late, but I got to say it. I am a pretty big proponent of cycling, road safety, cars, etc. with my friends, family, and others. I talk about the new ‘3-foot’ rule, share the road, and all that. I also ride cautiously as well, obeying the rules of the road and trying to avoid a fight.
What I am worried about is what if the unthinkable happens and I am the one who is driving and hit a cyclist with my truck. I mean, it can happen, right? Even if it was a completely unavoidable accident, I would feel absolutely terrible especially since I ride, preach about it and all.
Are there any cyclists out there who have actually hit another cyclist while driving?
I don’t know why this has come upon me as of late, but I got to say it. I am a pretty big proponent of cycling, road safety, cars, etc. with my friends, family, and others. I talk about the new ‘3-foot’ rule, share the road, and all that. I also ride cautiously as well, obeying the rules of the road and trying to avoid a fight.
What I am worried about is what if the unthinkable happens and I am the one who is driving and hit a cyclist with my truck. I mean, it can happen, right? Even if it was a completely unavoidable accident, I would feel absolutely terrible especially since I ride, preach about it and all.
Are there any cyclists out there who have actually hit another cyclist while driving?
There have been times when I wanted to run down a couple of a**hole cyclists on the road in front of me. Even while I had my bikes on the rack in back. But instead I was nice and passed them w/out incident. Even though I had to pass in the gravel of the LEFT lane to do it. Those two idiots almost…almost deserve to be run down. They were practically asking for it.
I know what you mean. Quiet country road. Very low traffic, but enough twists, turns and hills to make passing a chore. I come up on two cyclist who are just ambling along … two abreast … taking up the entire line for no good reason. They make no effort to get single file. By their actions, they might as well say to me, “F__k you.” There are very few cyclists where I live and train. These cyclists were on MY roads and were pissing off MY local drivers. (That last part is in jest … sort of.)
We are our own worst enemies.
To the OP … I haven’t hit a cyclist, but I have a cycling buddy whose wife did. It was in a shopping mall parking lot. The cyclist was coming through diagonally without regard for the rows and painted traffic directions.
.
I don’t know why this has come upon me as of late, but I got to say it. I am a pretty big proponent of cycling, road safety, cars, etc. with my friends, family, and others. I talk about the new ‘3-foot’ rule, share the road, and all that. I also ride cautiously as well, obeying the rules of the road and trying to avoid a fight.
What I am worried about is what if the unthinkable happens and I am the one who is driving and hit a cyclist with my truck. I mean, it can happen, right? Even if it was a completely unavoidable accident, I would feel absolutely terrible especially since I ride, preach about it and all.
Are there any cyclists out there who have actually hit another cyclist while driving?
I almost hit two kids the other night in the bike-friendliest (at least in the U.S.) town of Davis, California. I get around town by bike mostly, but this was returning from an out of town shopping trip. It was dusk and I was one block from my house turning right from one quiet residential street to another. There’s a tall hedge on the inside corner of that intersection so limited visibility. Out of nowhere, two kids on bikes were illuminated by my headlights right in front of my car, literally inches from my bumper. They had ridden through the stop sign from the wrong lane of the street I was turning onto and were turning left onto the street I was on. Luckily, I was already going slow and slowing further to start the turn. I could easily nailed both of them. Would not have been my fault in the slightest, but I never would have lived that one down. I was pretty traumatized by the near-miss as it was. And my 6 year-old was in the back in a carseat. He rides his bike all over town with me, so at least it was a good opportunity for a “teaching moment” about lights, obeying stop sigs, helmets, etc.
Also, for some reason, although it is an incredibly bike-friendly town, you never see any adults with helmets on (kids are required to by state law). I’ve done enouigh stupid things on a bike to know that helmets are always a good idea.
I know what you mean. Quiet country road. Very low traffic, but enough twists, turns and hills to make passing a chore. I come up on two cyclist who are just ambling along … two abreast … taking up the entire line for no good reason. They make no effort to get single file. By their actions, they might as well say to me, “F__k you.” There are very few cyclists where I live and train. These cyclists were on MY roads and were pissing off MY local drivers. (That last part is in jest … sort of.)
We are our own worst enemies.
To the OP … I haven’t hit a cyclist, but I have a cycling buddy whose wife did. It was in a shopping mall parking lot. The cyclist was coming through diagonally without regard for the rows and painted traffic directions.
.
Just for the benefit of the doubt…do you think that perhaps they didn’t hear you approach from behind? Perhaps due to wind noise?
No I really don’t have a great fear of HITTING cyclists. There aren’t many cyclists on the roads I usually travel because those of us on bikes usually stick to the least/lesser traveled roads (still I usually find I have to do something at least once per ride to prevent myself from being hit).
Therefore, I am much more fearful of being hit than hitting.
Actually, my greatest fear is that one day I will hit a root or curb or something with the lawn mower, loosening the blade which will frisbee out from under the protective cover, and slice my feet off. I know the odds of this are much, much worse than being hit on my bike (which has happened twice…albeit both were a long time ago), but for some reason while biking I can tuck the fear of being hit away somewhere and not think about it. But when mowing the lawn whenever I get near anything sticking up I find myself trying to get my feet out of the way.
Are there any cyclists out there who have actually hit another cyclist while driving?
I’ve come close a few times. I once missed t-boning a kid riding at night in dark clothes by less than a foot. There have been a couple times with “real” riders that I would have hit them if I had not been inside their head thinking like my crazy biker self and accurately predicted their next stupid move.
I worry about it too and am super super careful before making a right turn to shoulder check and be sure no one snuck up on me. My husband had a collision with a kid on a BMX bike. He, my husband, was driving his Harley fairly slowly and the kid literally just turned into him. Kid had on headphones and turned left across the lane without looking. Kid hit hubby’s front tire and the both went down. Harley $3k damage and hubby had badly sprained wrist. Kid seemed OK but we never heard anything except from the insurance company trying to get our insurance company to pay for it. I don’t remember who paid but hubby didn’t get a citation. Lots of witnesses backed up his story.
Hubby was pissed. He was being careful and passing slowly on a busy street. Gave the kid lots of room and the kid turned left, crossed the lane of traffic, and took them both down. Hubby would have felt a lot worse if he’d been driving a car as opposed to a motorcycle. He did worry about me much more than he used to when I was riding because he saw how easy it was to have something like that happen.
It has made me much more of a careful driver as well.
I know what you mean. Quiet country road. Very low traffic, but enough twists, turns and hills to make passing a chore. I come up on two cyclist who are just ambling along … two abreast … taking up the entire line for no good reason. They make no effort to get single file. By their actions, they might as well say to me, “F__k you.” There are very few cyclists where I live and train. These cyclists were on MY roads and were pissing off MY local drivers. (That last part is in jest … sort of.)
We are our own worst enemies.
To the OP … I haven’t hit a cyclist, but I have a cycling buddy whose wife did. It was in a shopping mall parking lot. The cyclist was coming through diagonally without regard for the rows and painted traffic directions.
.
Just for the benefit of the doubt…do you think that perhaps they didn’t hear you approach from behind? Perhaps due to wind noise?
have seen cyclists out on the back roads around here 4-abreast, taking up the entire lane, and staying that way while i approach on my (not very quiet) motorcycle with my thumb firmly on the horn, blaring away. due to oncoming traffic, had to slow in behind them, with tanker on his raucously loud bike right behind me, and wait to pass them. you can’t tell me that, wind noise or no, you can’t hear a v-twin snorting away behind you at a distance of 10’.
some people are just jerks. others aren’t, but the jerks tend to be more memorable.
I know what you mean. Quiet country road. Very low traffic, but enough twists, turns and hills to make passing a chore. I come up on two cyclist who are just ambling along … two abreast … taking up the entire line for no good reason. They make no effort to get single file. By their actions, they might as well say to me, “F__k you.” There are very few cyclists where I live and train. These cyclists were on MY roads and were pissing off MY local drivers. (That last part is in jest … sort of.)
We are our own worst enemies.
To the OP … I haven’t hit a cyclist, but I have a cycling buddy whose wife did. It was in a shopping mall parking lot. The cyclist was coming through diagonally without regard for the rows and painted traffic directions.
.
Just for the benefit of the doubt…do you think that perhaps they didn’t hear you approach from behind? Perhaps due to wind noise?
have seen cyclists out on the back roads around here 4-abreast, taking up the entire lane, and staying that way while i approach on my (not very quiet) motorcycle with my thumb firmly on the horn, blaring away. due to oncoming traffic, had to slow in behind them, with tanker on his raucously loud bike right behind me, and wait to pass them. you can’t tell me that, wind noise or no, you can’t hear a v-twin snorting away behind you at a distance of 10’.
some people are just jerks. others aren’t, but the jerks tend to be more memorable.
cheers!
-mistress k
Nope, that they should hear. I know that in the country my group spreads out and talks some and on an occassion we’ll find someone behind us quite unexpectedly and dart as quick as we can to single file and feel a bit sheepish.
to the driver, it should be obvious how it went down because when someone sees them back there and calls it out we all dart like cockroaches to the side of the road.
if they’d actually moved into single (or even double) file, i would have written it off…but even after tanker and i went into single file to pass them, after having waited for opposing traffic to clear, they still didn’t budge. still had to move into the other lane to pass.
honked me off, since we ALWAYS put our group (whether it’s 2 motorcycles or 20) into single file to pass cyclists, even if they’re on the opposite side of the road…just so a car coming the other way will be able to come over the centre line and give them lots of room if our group, the cyclist(s) and the car are all in the same stretch of road at once. we return to staggered formation once the last scoot in line has passed the cyclist, not before.
if they’d actually moved into single (or even double) file, i would have written it off…but even after tanker and i went into single file to pass them, after having waited for opposing traffic to clear, they still didn’t budge. still had to move into the other lane to pass.
honked me off, since we ALWAYS put our group (whether it’s 2 motorcycles or 20) into single file to pass cyclists, even if they’re on the opposite side of the road…just so a car coming the other way will be able to come over the centre line and give them lots of room if our group, the cyclist(s) and the car are all in the same stretch of road at once. we return to staggered formation once the last scoot in line has passed the cyclist, not before.
I don’t know why this has come upon me as of late, but I got to say it. I am a pretty big proponent of cycling, road safety, cars, etc. with my friends, family, and others. I talk about the new ‘3-foot’ rule, share the road, and all that. I also ride cautiously as well, obeying the rules of the road and trying to avoid a fight.
What I am worried about is what if the unthinkable happens and I am the one who is driving and hit a cyclist with my truck. I mean, it can happen, right? Even if it was a completely unavoidable accident, I would feel absolutely terrible especially since I ride, preach about it and all.
Are there any cyclists out there who have actually hit another cyclist while driving?
I once tried to tow a friend on a toboggan and accidentally ran over him. Does that count?
Just for the benefit of the doubt…do you think that perhaps they didn’t hear you approach from behind? Perhaps due to wind noise?
Uh … right. They were going about 12 mph. I was driving an F150 4x4 farm truck. My tires on the chip and seal pavement could drown out their conversation even at that low speed. No chance whatsoever they didn’t know I was there. They were just being stupid and rude – or oblivious (same difference).
Never happened to me but I know exactly what you mean and also worry about it- accidentally hitting a cyclist who is following the law and doing nothing wrong. The only thing I can say is this fear has made me a better driver. I try to make sure every time I drive that if something did happen, I could say there was nothing I could have done different. I throw my cell phone in my glove compartment. I don’t drive when tired. I don’t push lights. One beer is too many. The last one is tough but the reality is if something happened and I’d had even just one beer, there would always be that thought in the back of my mind- could I have avoided it if I was perfectly sober?
