Bottom line for me when I'm on a bicycle or motorcycle, I ride as if every motor vehicle on the road has the potential of colliding with me. Staying aware of that and my reaction time to close calls, and there have been quite a few, has kept me out of trouble for many years. I don't feel a diminished sense of enjoyment of riding on two wheels despite my personal realization that when I do so, I have to remain focused and ride defensive 100% of the time. I ride believing that every car surrounding me is going to cut me off, pull in front of me, hit me from behind, ect...When I ride in traffic anywhere, my paranoia warrants this attitude. In those cases, traveling on two wheels is not joy riding, its to get somewhere on the vehicle of my choice. If I want to joy ride, I'll stick to remote areas or park paths where I can let my guard down somewhat, but even then I keep aware of my surroundings.
We can quote statistics all day, but I think the single most important step we can take to protect ourselves when choosing to ride our bikes is to always expect the unexpected, use common sense, and have all safety measures in place, reflective tape, lights, rearview mirrors, helmets, and hand signals.
I wish there was a way to mandate a safety awareness course for everyone who rides a bike on public roads just to get the point across of how to minimize the potential risks, even if it saves just one life, it would be worth it.
I know that statistics help with designing and implementing safer biking lanes and routes, but despite all efforts to protect people, we still drive thru barriers, cross the road a half block from a crosswalk, fail to obey traffic laws, stop signs and traffic lights, so the human factor has got to be addressed equally if we are going to reduce bike / vehicle collisions. The average bike rider needs to learn how to keep out of harms way. There's a statistic worth fighting about, how much effort is going into acomplishing that? Debate and argue all you want about where and how the collisions are occurring, I've come to the conclusion that the human factor, the interaction between vehicle drivers and bikes riders are the reasons for accidents, and all the studies and funds going into barriers and bike lanes ect...validates that the human factor is practically an insurmountable issue, and that bike riding on public streets in inherently dangerous. Just say it like it is...and arguing over the stats, though entertaining, is counter productive to the root cause.
Last edited by the Genral; Aug 26, 2013 at 9:15 PM.
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