01 CAt Man Do

I couldn't disagree more. Case in point: I'm riding down a road at night without lights on my bike. Suddenly I endo because I've hit a pot hole and flipped my bike. While I can't remove the cause of the accident ( the pot hole ) I can increase my likely hood of "not hitting it " by using a good lamp. With a good lamp I'm not going to drive over a pot hole unless I'm not paying attention to where I'm riding ( which can happen ).

On the flip side of this point it is much harder to change the actions of another person ( the motorist ). While it is hard to do it is not impossible. Most people behind the wheel don't want to hit someone riding a bike. Sadly though the modern conveniences of life can be a dangerous distraction to operating a motor vehicle. Anything the cyclist can do to attract the motorist's attention sooner ( rather than later ) should be considered.


Summarizing, while no one can prevent every type of motorist/cyclist related accident you can still use products and tactics that will in the long run, "increase your chances of arriving alive". If this were not true there would be no reason for anyone to use lights on their car or bike.

Once again, you said, "You can't prevent something from happening...". While somewhat vague this would be true if you had said, "You can't prevent EVERYTHING from happening..." In light of this it should be noted, somethings can be prevented from happening when precautions are taken. Regardless, you can't prevent everything that is bad from happening. Simply not possible. Change what you can to realistically make yourself a safer more visible rider and accept what you can't change.

Okay Dave, you stick that rabbits foot on your rear seat post and see if that helps you. Good luck with that. Myself, I'll stick with my current set-up and call it a day. As for "real world of facts and stats" I'll use my own reality.