Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
Rare but it does happen.
Right. And you also admit to not properly monitoring your rear view mirror when it happened.
Originally Posted by
Leisesturm
Seriously? People are run down and injured or killed like this all the time. The only difference this time is there was (spectacular) video footage of the event. I have no way to prove this, but my years on BF and other forums have exposed me to a background drip, drip, drip of data on crashes like this and my very unscientific analysis is that there is a clear bias towards the victims being either competitive cyclists participating in open course road events or serious amateur cyclists on training rides. There is a natural paranoia among commuter and recreational cyclists that keeps them out of the flow of motor traffic as much as is possible. Some may argue with me, but I think the lack of fear of cars and/or the desire to clock in personal best elapsed times makes performance cyclists less likely to seek the safety of off road surfaces or use an out of the lane bike positioning.
On that road, whether the passing frequency of cars is one per hour or one per minute, I would be on the shoulder or on another road. On a different road with more curves and/or a lower speed limit I would risk the fog stripe. Those roads often have no shoulder anyway. It may be possible to ride for a long time like the cyclist that got hit and it may be possible to ride like I do and get hit in the first three years of riding. The conversations AFTER a hit where the cyclist(s) were shown to have done everything possible beforehand to forestall a crash take a very different angle of discussion. So do the legal inquiries. FWIW.
P.S. A great many, possibly the majority(!) of cyclists in America fear motor traffic so much that they restrict their riding to exclusively off-road environments. This is sad and unfortunate. The bicycle is an amazing transportation device. I literally could not live as I do without the use of a bicycle several times each day. Bicycles belong on the road but perhaps not all roads. "Take the lane" is unlikely to have saved this cyclist. Any motorist distracted (or triggered) enough not to see (or avoid) a cyclist in clear view ahead would not have moved over whether the cyclist was lane center, lane right, or lane left. What you are calling a 'rare event' has much less to do with driver behavior than to cyclist behavior. The majority of cyclists are not out there on the road to be hit, and even fewer are riding in (or near) the flight path of motor traffic on the roads.
Yes, seriously. All the studies I’ve seen over the years have shown other types of crashes to be more common than hit from behind. Crashes at intersections and crossings are the leaders.
The issue in this particular crash that makes it so uncommon is
the motorist unknowingly gliding from a “safe” lane position, into the edge where a cyclist just happened to be at that exact moment, all in about 1 second... Leaving the cyclist almost no time to notice or react, even if he was paying proper attention. Sure it can and did happen, but nothing I’ve read or seen shows that it “happens all the time”?
Riding farther right on the shoulder doesn’t eliminate the risk of being taken out in this rare manner either. I suppose in
some instances it may give one another second to notice and react, but not all. If you fear this type of crash, even when taking all precautions and properly monitoring, then maybe don't ride.
Being fully in the lane means every car has to move left to avoid the cyclist. (or slow to their speed) This is much easier to monitor because there is more time to notice any errant behavior, (someone not reacting to your presence), and take one action or another to mitigate it. Riding on the edge/shoulder means you may only may have less than a second to notice the errant motorist who is suddenly on course to take you out. Like what happened here. Riding into the sun does change this equation, so I agree that take the lane may not have prevented it. Then again, if the cyclist was properly monitoring the event, he would have had more than one second to determine the driver did not see him and react accordingly.
Many “competitive cyclists participating in open course road events or serious amateur cyclists on training rides” also eschew the use of a mirror. No matter the lane position, it is simply not possible for a mirrorless cyclist to monitor motorist actions behind them with the same level of speed and accuracy as one with a mirror.