Cycling is Too Dangerous. I’m giving it up/cutting back to be safe
 

Maybe we could have a sticky for this subject so those interested could read/post about it in one place. Wouldn’t that be nice? Kinda like the helmet thread but even safer and more fun! What should it be named?

I don't know what's the big deal. People decide to stop doing sports of all kinds for a number of reasons, usually injury or fear of injury. It is very common. Not just a bike thing.

A&S is the right place for this discussion. I don't go to the Road Bike forum, or the Touring Forum and try to talk anyone out of their passion. But if they wander in here then they should get the ENTIRE safety spectrum. You can't be safer on a bike than on a wind trainer in your living room except by selling the bike. Quitting riding is obviously the absolute surest way to avoid injury or death ON A BICYCLE. This is a bicycling safety forum after all. Not sure why some people are so fixated on this issue. It's part of the safety spectrum.

riding on the road? or just riding in general?

Joey: Agreed! I did say "Safer and more fun" Not riding = safer, (as long as you still exercise) More Fun = Reading/posting in the "Where didn't you ride your bike today" thread. :)

Mostly road, it seems. But serious off road riders tell me it's quite common to crash. Doesn't sound very safe to me.

uh huh, agree. I'm lucky enough to be selective where & when I ride, meaning don't commute by bike. I can pick & choose fair weather days with normal traffic for road riding. & as of about 3~4 yrs ago I started riding off-road. not hard core, just unpaved trails. sometimes remote, but mostly tame & always away from cars. had a cpl falls but they were silly & didn't result in any injury. I still like the pleasure of easy rolling on pavement & I like having racked up miles as personal records. but 'm really enjoying this unpaved stuff away from cars!

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4f7aff3117.jpg

I'm giving up walking. It's the most dangerous thing I do. Especially trying to be a good citizen and cross only at "protected" intersections and crosswalks.

It's a legitimate topic, but I vote no on the sticky.

Strikes me as rather odd that someone who gave up the activity would want to continue posting on the subject for very long.

OTOH You could trip at top of some stair, fall down and bread your neck. Living is a danger keep riding.

I walk a ton, especially this time of year. My morning commute alone is 1.75 miles each way. More close calls and feel more threatened on foot than on a bike.

My focus here, and how I altered my cycling, was to do far fewer road miles with auto traffic but ESPECIALLY high speed roadways with speed limits over 35mph, often with rumble strips and no shoulders. I toughed it out for many, many years - 43 to be exact. Cars got wider, motorists look at their phones more than the windshield, and urban sprawl has turned quiet farm-to-market roads into death roads for cars and cyclists.

So I felt I had rolled the dice long enough. Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em! I don't want to judge anyone, but when someone comes in here searching for safety advice it is certainly legit to give them ALL of the story as each of us sees it. Then they can decide for themselves.

All road users in the USA - motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians are being killed and maimed like there is no tomorrow. Using our nation's highways may not be as dangerous as alligator wrestling, but it's not safe and so much is out of my control that i try to tilt that playing field in my favor in a car or on a bike. Just so happens I can't figure out how to survive a car collision on my bike with a 30-50 mph speed differential. Ever seen a deer, large dog, or pig that has been hit on a highway? That's what we're gonna look like when our luck runs out. Blown to pieces.
And if one more person compares playing in traffic on the highway with walking down a flight of stairs I am going to lose it. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...95ab68a1a0.gif

Darting in front of vehicles on a highway is indeed dangerous. Cyclists should indeed avoid such actions.

We are basically "standing still" on a high speed highway. At least an animal darting across the road is only in the line of fire for a moment. Cyclists LIVE in the line of fire. We linger there. We spend our entire ride in the cross-hairs. All of the mayhem threads in A&S bear witness to this. Cyclists are getting plowed over. You can find a new case in the news every few days if you look.

How 'bout an "Oh, the Drama!" stickie for the Drama Kings, Queens and Henny Penny's of BF to post their Sky is Falling rants?

How would you describe yourself in this place? Just curious.

There's only one thing that puts cyclists in danger: cars.

A cyclist can ride on a major highway and be perfectly safe if there are no cars there. A cyclist can be killed on a quiet neighbourhood street by a speeding car not paying attention.

I know of no instance where a cyclist just fell off his bike and died.

Cyclists who dart in front of cars do so when those cars aren't moving or moving very slowly in congested traffic.

Wouter Weylands would never disagree with you.

On a lighter note, there was a video on here somewhere about a (I think) Canadian guy who slammed into a parked van while riding.

Anyone coming here for "safety safety" doesn't need to hear "Don't ride." That is asinine. They would be looking to Ways to Ride a Bike More Safely. Obviously they have already chosen riding.

A "safety" forum On A Cycling Website" is prima facie about CYCLING safety, not Non-Cycling safety. Offering up "Don't ride" as an option is pure idiocy or pure trolling.

The people coming here posting about stopping road-riding are not looking for advice, they are making declarations. Why the Sturm und Drang, I cannot fathom. Go ride where ever you like.

Some people post on forums often looking for validation, even if it is a negative response---people just want some sign that the world knows they are alive. Some people post to feel smarter than whoever else posted.

Some people really want to share with what they imagine to be a group of like-minded people.

If people want to be told "it is okay if you don't ride on the road ... " well, deeper issues. Whatever.

Funny how little kids find riding a bike so basic and easy it is done almost entirely without thought ... and those kids grow up and suddenly cannot even figure out the most basic things.

Not saying most people are too into themselves or anything ... just saying ....

As for the sticky ... what's the point? Why not post a list of people who don't post any more?

Some folks reach a point where road riding becomes no longer rewarding. They say so. What's to discuss?

It might be kinda like religion. When some people "see the light", they want to go out and save others.

Most cyclists already gravitate to lower speed roads and avoid motor traffic when they can. Especially noobs. No learning from the elders required there.

43 years of "toughing it out" with traffic, running reds, carving through traffic and peds, and you're still here to ride and talk about it. Seems pretty safe to me.

EDIT: Extra points for admitting cycling is not as dangerous as alligator wrestling! :thumb:

I know people who's lives will be cut short by decades because of their fat, sedentary, or substance-abusive lifestyles, or by drunk driving, or by any number of other poor lifestyle choices.

My life may be cut short by bad automobile driving while I'm trying to share the road on my bike. Statistics are in my favor for my life ending through any other cause despite riding 3000 miles a year. I could die on my bike, and the more I ride the higher the probability. But it will never rise to the level of the more common causes of death for typical non-smokers/non-drinkers who leadvacrive lifestyles. Statistics bear out that my life will be a couple years longer, in average if I'm cycling regularly.

There are anomolies. Someone dies on a bike every day somewhere in the world. For that individual, life would have been longer had he or she given up cycling.

If road cycling and mountain biking seem too much risk, and to be sure there IS risk, then there are MUPs, parks, countryside roads less travelled, and indoor setups, all of which will allow you to increase the statistical lifespan while avoiding the low statistical probability of a calamity

I respect your decision but for me giving up a healthy, life-improving pursuit is too much to ask in the name of avoiding the remote, statistically low possibility of meeting with an untimely demise.

That's the SPIRIT!!! :injured:

That being swallowed by a whale bit doesn't sound advisable either.

If you recall I started a thread once in Pills and Ills called, "Did You Die Today"?