Originally Posted by
ljsense
As a fellow rider who was hit by a car about three months ago, you have my condolences. It's traumatic to get knocked off your bike. I also think it hurts, upon sharing the experience, to hear back a lot of advice on how to ride safely. (Don't assume... Pretend you're invisible... etc.)
In my case, I was on a bike path crossing a street with the green cycling signal, right behind another rider, and a car ran a red light and put me on the hood and then the ground. My bike was smashed, so was my helmet. It was winter, so I had a lot of clothes on, but still had road rash on my face and neck. My boot and clothes were torn.
No one honked -- in this case, people just started calling 911 I guess, because the police and fire were there right away. The driver stopped and was cited by the police.
If I had a functional bike, I might have ridden off right in that moment. It's disorienting, crazy adrenaline. Turned out I broke my thumb and had a separated shoulder joint, maybe a concussion, but in that moment, it's more like WHAT THE F HAPPENED! OH I'M STILL ALIVE!!!
Anyway, I hope you can take it easy, find some peaceful riding on the bike and get back into it. It's a big perspective shift to all of a sudden get knocked down when you're out enjoying your bike.
That sucks. Glad you are recovered.
As someone who rides in one of the most populated and car centric parts of the country I am constantly re-evaluating how important cycling is to me compared to my safety. We have tons of dedicated bike lanes here and laws that favor cyclists but we have 100x more drivers then cyclists and every time I look into a car when I'm riding I see people with their phones in their hands. The latest thing I see is people with phones sitting in mounts on the dashboard with Facetime calls or other video playing. Paying attention to the road has really become secondary to most drivers now.