Are you afraid?

[flicker]

Hawiian cyclists find hit and run driver

http://www.kitv.com/r/26243008/detail.html

1000+ at cyclists funeral.

 

[Archibald]

yeah - its one of many flawed pieces of 'research' trotted out by the anti-helmet lobby. Its almost as good as "I didnt wear a helmet when I was a kid and I'm fine"...

it is such smart logic, isn't it...

after having seen someone actually split their helmet in half on the tarmac and walk away was enough for me to want to use one so that my head's never shattered like a melon on the road.
each to their own choice (and darwin award natural selection I suppose)

 

[stainlessguy1]

i recall someone saying that drivers have that reaction simply to helmeted riders - they give them less room under the assumption that the helmet will adequately protect the riders more...

Yes that too , the more dressed (in kits etc ) you are in what is perceived to be the politically correct way in our society ( regarding the helmet ) , the closer the driver comes . One assumption is always , the rider is perceived as being an expert , because he is dressed like one .

 

[Darryl Webster]

problem is ,, tinted windows .... we can no mo see da man tru da tint mahn

Not to many tinted windows here in the Welsh Valeys were the Sun is like a UFO sighting !

By "eye contact" I was refering mainly to passing juctions with drivers waiting to cross the carriegway. Im always ready to slam my breaks on in that situation.

 

[stainlessguy1]

Not to many tinted windows here in the Welsh Valeys were the Sun is like a UFO sighting !

By "eye contact" I was refering mainly to passing juctions with drivers waiting to cross the carriegway. Im always ready to slam my breaks on in that situation.

yes i know what you ment , and i used eye contact for years and it worked fine until all the modern yahoo's had to have full window tinting . Here in North America , there are more window tints than ever before . The old eye contact doesnt work anymore at any intersection or junctions . Perhaps in low lying areas with lots of rain people might forego the tint . I guess just keep at least one finger on the brakes and get your sixth sense finely tunned .

 

[Estonia77]

When I turn 75, I want to be riding on my favorite road between Fall City Washington and Redmond Washington (home of Microsoft) and I will stop to view a June sunset like I have seen so many times and a truck will come up from behind me and that will be the silent, painless end to this great life.

Why cut yourself short at 75 years of age? Aim high my friend!

 

[MR_Sarcastic]

No, I'm not afraid.
Over the years, I must have crashed 25 times (three involving cars). Out of those crashes, my head has touched the ground just once, cracking the helmet in half. The longest I've been off the bike, was two weeks, because of busted ribs.
After my first big crash, I was afraid when i rode, for about two additional weeks. Either you learn to put the fear aside, or you quit riding.

 

[tony83]

I have had seen experiences as some cited here, here in my country, bike lanes have been placed on roads for the safety of bikers and also to promote biking as means of lessening pollution but apparently people are discouraged all the more because reckless drivers use those lanes to overtake and cut lanes thus endangering life of cyclists/bikers that is why I think that safety measures should really be practiced more rigorously by bikers and be more cautious so as to prevent life-threatening situations.

 

[42x16ss]

I had a collision with a bus when I was 21. The driver sped up to make a left hand turn right in front of me(I'm in Australia) when I was maybe 2-3 metres from the corner, without indicating. I broke my femur in two places and have never been the same on the bike again

The worst part was when people asked me how I did it, then followed that question straight up with "What where you doing riding on the road?". This was 8 years ago and things have gotten a little better but I have had some near misses that make the mind boggle....

 

[42x16ss]

yes i know what you ment , and i used eye contact for years and it worked fine until all the modern yahoo's had to have full window tinting . Here in North America , there are more window tints than ever before . The old eye contact doesnt work anymore at any intersection or junctions . Perhaps in low lying areas with lots of rain people might forego the tint . I guess just keep at least one finger on the brakes and get your sixth sense finely tunned .

Another problem with eye contact is that here in Australia certain ethnicities take it as you having a problem with them. If they see you at the next set of lights you get the whole "What you looking at ****" routine

 

[Sanitiser]

It's more to do with males of a certain age, driving certain cars from certain suburbs usually in the west I've found.

Though women under 30 are pretty shocking as well sometimes.

 

[The Hitch]

Anyone had a bunch of drunken chavs shout "Dont fall off" at their top of their lungs as you navigate at speed between cars and curbs causing you to jump up in shock and narrowly miss crashing inti the lorry coming up behind.

I know Britain has a large number of drinking and driving fatalities and call me spiteful but if I were to hear that the young men who tried this "fun prank" on me were represented in the 2011 statistics, I wouldn't shed a tear over it.

 

[redtreviso]

Anyone had a bunch of drunken chavs shout "Dont fall off" at their top of their lungs as you navigate at speed between cars and curbs causing you to jump up in shock and narrowly miss crashing inti the lorry coming up behind.

I know Britain has a large number of drinking and driving fatalities and call me spiteful but if I were to hear that the young men who tried this "fun prank" on me were represented in the 2011 statistics, I wouldn't shed a tear over it.

For you, I would imagine that would apply to so many that it is not worth mentioning

 

[biff47]

We're all going out somehow.
Life is short; do what you enjoy doing.

I've been hit by a car.
I've had gangbangers come along side me and challenge me to a throwdown.
I never had a day riding in Japan where I didn't have a near-miss. (Not through maliciousness, though, just ignorance).

Between these low-points, bicycling has been a joy and well worth the time spent.

ymmv

 

[TigerFish]

Well put biff47. Most of my encoutners have been due to ingnorance. I have had a couple of things thrown at me. There have been a few other times I questioned if the driver actually wanted to "scare me". All in all I would say about 95%+ of the dirvers I encounter are pretty good. I regularly travel narrow roads with some bad curves and high traffic. A number of the posters here make New Jersey sound pretty good.

I am aware of the danger. I try to stay always alert. I try to position myself so that nothing will happen. No one can protect themselves against drunk drivers.

I really enjoy riding.

 

[fatsprintking]

Having not had any type of crash for a long time, I do start getting anxious about a big one being around the corner. When I was commuting to work each day as well as training, I was having a close call almost every day. I often though that it was only many years of riding that got me out of a few situations and I wondered what would have happened to someone with less experience - I am sure there would be a lot of times where a car/bike collision would have occurred.

I am still happy to ride on the road, but would tend to ride in a small group away from city if I could. I would be worried about my kids riding on the road though.

 

[TERMINATOR]

I cycle every day.and i dont want to die. But in this country the number of cyclists killed is high. I always cycle with a helmet, lights etc, and on pavement when i can and rarely on busy roads and i cross busy roundabouts as a pedestrian rather than tackling them on my bike etc etc. But its not really about me. There are bad drivers out there, and lots of people who drive drunk or high etc.

Ive had several instances where motherless ****s have endangered my life because they see getting where they want to be 10 seconds earlier as more important then my life. A lot of the cycling deaths in the news here are caused by drunk drivers.

Sometimes i feel it would be wisest to buy a gun and shoot at the tires of anyone who behaves like this. Once stories hit the news, some of these ****s might think twice about driving into a cyclist.

Anyway the point is, i feel that the chances of having a crash with a car are high, maybe even a fatal one, especially for someone like myself who cycles every day.

Im scared. A lot of the dead are students like myself. One moment there is a future ahead of you, the next moment there is nothing.

Is anyone else scared like this?

Anybody intelligent who really looks at the statistics and sees the gruesome results of a bike crash will tend to get caught up in that stage at some point in their cycling career, and it can be paralyzing at times.

Those people who don't are just kidding themselves.

For people caught up in this phase, the fear and anxiety is actually worse off the bike than on the bike.

 

[RedheadDane]

Come to think about it; the one thing which makes me the most nervous isn't other people. It's the wind! Riding your bike can be a little tricky when you don't know when the wind decides to push you around at random.

 

[TheDude]

I am a bit scared, but not enough to let it affect what I enjoy doing. I ride safely and follow traffic laws, that goes a long way towards safety.

When I take my son on the back of my bike (or now ride with him, he just traded the scoot bike for a pedal one) I remember that the #1 killer of children in the U.S. is auto accidents. Those are the kids in the cars. Get the kids out of their car seats and on to bicycles and perhaps we can make that statistic come down.

I do sometimes think it should be legal for cyclists to use handguns against cars...

 

[Ninety5rpm]

Is anyone else scared like this?

I can't believe that, until today, I missed this thread about my favorite topic by my favorite poster.

Anyway, no, I'm not scared like this. But, then, I've read Cyclecraft by John Franklin, the original UK version as well as the new N. American version. I've also ready Effective Cycling by John Forester and Urban Cycling by Robert Hurst. The information in all of these books is good (I'd say especially Cyclecraft), but the real benefit in reading them is it makes you think about your cycling, the various types of bike-car crashes, and how to avoid them.

Knowledge and confidence is the best antidote to not only fear, but getting hit. If you know how you might get hit, and you ride in a matter that avoids that, you have nothing to fear, except making a mistake yourself.

If I believed my safety was dependent on everyone else out there not making a mistake, I would be petrified, because everyone makes mistakes (some more often than others!). So they key isn't hoping that nobody makes a mistake, but being prepared for the mistakes of others. This idea lies of course at the heart of "defensive driving" and applies to car and motorcycling driving just as much as it does to bicycle driving.

My point is this... can you name even 5 of the 10 most common types of bike-car crashes? I doubt it, because most cyclists can't, so it's nothing personal! But how can you possibly know how to avoid something if you don't really know what it is? If it feels like you're just a sitting duck out there, you're giving far too much responsibility for your safety to complete strangers (that's a theme that Hurst in particular really explains well).

Once you order a copy of Cyclecraft, spend some time on these websites:

http://www.bicyclesafe.com
http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/

it could save your life.

 

[Ninety5rpm]

I never had a day riding in Japan where I didn't have a near-miss. (Not through maliciousness, though, just ignorance).

A near-miss nearly every day? Was the ignorance that of the drivers, or yours? Seriously, I know there are situations where there is really nothing you can do to avoid the near-miss, but I suggest that anyone who has a near-miss more frequently than once every few years has quite a bit to learn.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Easy on poor biff. You never know what kind of car driving / cycling practices exist in some other countries. I don't know about Japan, but take for instance some places in the Arab world or India, where lines painted on the streets are just viewed as "guidelines" and you'll see cars criss-crossing the lines every which way. How could anyone possibly anticipate anything in situations like that.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

i can't believe that, until today, i missed this thread about my favorite topic by my favorite poster.

Anyway, no, i'm not scared like this. But, then, i've read cyclecraft by john franklin, the original uk version as well as the new n. American version. I've also ready effective cycling by john forester and urban cycling by robert hurst. The information in all of these books is good (i'd say especially cyclecraft), but the real benefit in reading them is it makes you think about your cycling, the various types of bike-car crashes, and how to avoid them.

Knowledge and confidence is the best antidote to not only fear, but getting hit. If you know how you might get hit, and you ride in a matter that avoids that, you have nothing to fear, except making a mistake yourself.

If i believed my safety was dependent on everyone else out there not making a mistake, i would be petrified, because everyone makes mistakes (some more often than others!). So they key isn't hoping that nobody makes a mistake, but being prepared for the mistakes of others. This idea lies of course at the heart of "defensive driving" and applies to car and motorcycling driving just as much as it does to bicycle driving.

My point is this... Can you name even 5 of the 10 most common types of bike-car crashes? I doubt it, because most cyclists can't, so it's nothing personal! But how can you possibly know how to avoid something if you don't really know what it is? If it feels like you're just a sitting duck out there, you're giving far too much responsibility for your safety to complete strangers (that's a theme that hurst in particular really explains well).

Once you order a copy of cyclecraft, spend some time on these websites:

http://www.bicyclesafe.com
http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/

it could save your life.

great post!

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Anyone had a bunch of drunken chavs shout "Dont fall off" at their top of their lungs as you navigate at speed between cars and curbs causing you to jump up in shock and narrowly miss crashing inti the lorry coming up behind.

I know Britain has a large number of drinking and driving fatalities and call me spiteful but if I were to hear that the young men who tried this "fun prank" on me were represented in the 2011 statistics, I wouldn't shed a tear over it.

Ya, I know the feeling... just this past week. Only not by drunks, just deliberate ***. But fortunately not in traffic.

Chav:

 

[fatsprintking]

I can't believe that, until today, I missed this thread about my favorite topic by my favorite poster.

Anyway, no, I'm not scared like this. But, then, I've read Cyclecraft by John Franklin, the original UK version as well as the new N. American version. I've also ready Effective Cycling by John Forester and Urban Cycling by Robert Hurst. The information in all of these books is good (I'd say especially Cyclecraft), but the real benefit in reading them is it makes you think about your cycling, the various types of bike-car crashes, and how to avoid them.

Knowledge and confidence is the best antidote to not only fear, but getting hit. If you know how you might get hit, and you ride in a matter that avoids that, you have nothing to fear, except making a mistake yourself.

If I believed my safety was dependent on everyone else out there not making a mistake, I would be petrified, because everyone makes mistakes (some more often than others!). So they key isn't hoping that nobody makes a mistake, but being prepared for the mistakes of others. This idea lies of course at the heart of "defensive driving" and applies to car and motorcycling driving just as much as it does to bicycle driving.

My point is this... can you name even 5 of the 10 most common types of bike-car crashes? I doubt it, because most cyclists can't, so it's nothing personal! But how can you possibly know how to avoid something if you don't really know what it is? If it feels like you're just a sitting duck out there, you're giving far too much responsibility for your safety to complete strangers (that's a theme that Hurst in particular really explains well).

Once you order a copy of Cyclecraft, spend some time on these websites:

http://www.bicyclesafe.com
http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/

it could save your life.

While I think we can all continue to learn, I would just be a little bit careful of overestimating what you "know".

I was a lot more confident prior to one of my clubmates getting mowed down from behind while looking like a chritmas tree on a road I had ridden hundreds of times.