folder fanatic

https://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/12812220/article-Hit-and-run-bike-crashes-highlight-need-for-caution?instance=secondary_story_left_column

"....Gas is $4 a gallon. There's going to be more bicyclists on the road and they're not all going to look like me," Kane said referring to her reflective clothes and lights.

And despite her precautions, Kane said she is always worried while riding.

"People are rude. If you hold somebody up for 30 seconds, they yell at you and they scream at you," Kane said. "I've had people who came close trying to scare me. One of the reasons I ride on Austell Road is because there's four lanes, so there's enough room to get around me....."

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Hit and run bike crashes highlight need for caution

Even in the Atlanta area, cycling is just as risky if the bad elements and risk factors come together just right. Let us hope for a brighter, less crowded future on and off the roads.

Hippiebrian

Why does this always wind up with idiot reporters making cycling look dangerous without actually discussing automibiles, which are actually dangerous? I feel bad for the people hit, but wonder how many car drivers died in crashes in the same few weeks in the area. It's cars that are dangerous, not bicycles!

folder fanatic

Excellent point! But as road using vehicles, we are placed in the position to "interact" with vehicles that are many more times heavier, faster, and driven by mostly complete brain dead idiots that only know they can get away with anything. The "share the road" hype that well meaning, but sometimes clueless, people is nice to think about, but I would not wish to place my life in their fantasy driven hands.

Roody

Sorry, I don't even read crap like the linked article. Articles like this are based on lurid stories and ridiculous interpretations of unreliable statistics.

There are no forms of transportation that are free of risk. In general, transportation is getting a little safer every year. At the same time, people are getting more fearful. Soon everybody will stay inside and do everything on their computers.

ianbrettcooper

Risk is always relative. Statistically, lots of things can kill you faster than cycling - driving a car is almost certainly more risky. The sedentary lifestyle many of us follow presents more risk than cycling.

Sure, cyclists worry about being injured or killed. If we didn't, we wouldn't be as safe because we'd get careless. But worrying about staying safe does not mean that the risk to cyclists is high.

The problem is not that cycling is risky. The real problem is that cycling is 'assumed' to be risky. The article says more about the fear of cycling risk than it says about the risk itself.

Anecdotal evidence tends to give a skewed viewpoint. While it's true that people die while cycling, and that any one of us could be killed on our bikes tomorrow, that doesn't mean that cycling is any more risky than any other routine activity that has claimed lives. Life contains elements of risk - avoiding risk even contains risk. The real question is, do we want to live life, or are we going to live in fear of its dangers?

Nigal

I for one am not a bit surprised that someone in the media has come out with a story that based in fear. If you believe the media's bull**** you'll end up living your life in fear and thinking death awaits around every corner.

cycleobsidian

+1

Newspaperguy

Right now, those who commute by bike and those who use their bikes as primary transportation are seen as freaks who live on the fringe. As more people begin riding bikes because of high fuel prices, those who still drive will be a little more careful. The guy on the bike might not be a hippie vegetarian oddity; he might be Frank from the hardware store. When ordinary people are seen on bikes, attitudes will change.

zoltani

Who you calling a hippie?

gerv 

Who are you calling ordinary?

bragi

+1. Excellent post; I couldn't have expressed it better. Cycling, in my opinion, is probably safer than any other form of transport except flying if you're not an idiot about it. I personally feel a lot safer riding than driving. Statistically, you're less likely to die while flying than you are likely to get hit by lightning in your lifetime, and the odds of being hit by a car while riding, though a bit greater than the odds of getting hit by lightning, aren't much more, and still very much lower than being sedentary and dying of heart disease. I think many of us are afraid of the wrong things.

Roody

This sounds ridiculous, but I think a lot of modern people are afraid of being outdoors. They like cars because they are like little buildings they can ride around in. They fear cycling, walking or even waiting on the corner for a bus because these activities all tke place outside. It's really weird, since I'm fairly certain that more people die indoors rather than outdoors.

zonatandem

Houses are dangerous too . . . trees fall on 'em, they catch fire, get flooded . . .

freighttraininguphill

I wonder if that's why so many people won't open a window in their home or car to get some fresh air. I can't stand stuffy or "processed" air like what's in the typical car or home, with or without AC. I have to have real air. What's even worse are those people who won't open a window and won't cool their house or car, so it's like stepping into a sauna when you enter.

folder fanatic

It might be crap in Lansing, but I live here in the Car Capital of the US-perhaps even the world. Where blatant law breakers (free roaming undocumented, untraceable. license-less, and insurance free illegal immigrants and the usual drug dealers neighborhood) like to congregate and push out of the way anyone who gets in their way-that means cyclists that don't stay on the sidewalk like good children. The day I forget that is the day I get buried.

Private motor vehicles offer something most other forms of transit does not. You press a pedal and the surroundings blur becoming insignificant and you don't have to deal with the masses. Outdoors means being out in the open. Bikes do that, using public transit of any type does that, and walking does that. It not a fear so much as the less contact you have with strangers means that the less stress and hassle containing potential trouble you have to face. That is the real reason behind the mass exodus from anything other than private vehicles. My father told me that the large corporations killed then wiped out all traces of the superior trolley system we had here 60 or more years ago. But people themselves were also at fault by turning their backs to the system thereby filling the grave of the trolley system here.

bragi

Forgive me for being so blunt, but I find your view of things to be a little too fearful to be entirely healthy. Yes, LA is very car-centric, but there are a lot of cyclists down there, too, and I'm under the impression that most of them manage to survive.

folder fanatic

I posted the article to remind people to look around you every time you climb onto your bike. Helmets help some, but does not eliminate getting hurt enough for a long hospital stay or worse. Bicycling has came a long way, but still is not considered mainstream enough for acceptability among the general population beyond weekend recreational uses in the park.

I have managed to avoid becoming another bicycle injury statistic and long hospital stays resulting from this for most of my adult life. I am just growing too impatient to return to driving full time-smaller cars only- plus relocate like most of my cohorts have already have done. Then I don't have to constantly deal with this Los Angeles I grew away from a long time ago anymore. Remember that Los Angeles spreads across a huge area and other cyclists-most are from the nicer suburbs with money and play around with it as their "hobby"-don't experience the problems I do in an inner city ghetto environment. Those cyclists don't have inner city problems living next door. Cyclists around here reinforce the idea of bikes belong on the sidewalks by always riding their bikes there usually in poor condition hailing from the department stores, or are young hipsters that will grow tired of being "urban pioneers" playing "save the world" games and move away when the going gets rough (just like their parents did back in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s around here).

Sorry if I don't sound the way I should or others think I should, but the soured economy is keeping me (and many others like myself) prisoner in situations that I no longer have any interest in maintaining. I really like to ride my bikes for mostly utility purposes, live an car free life (I have done so since 1975 in Los Angeles way before it was in vogue or fashionable or even most of you were born), and still speak to my neighbors, but I have been facing my "be a nice girl" demons head-on and feel stronger for it-and safer too out there. Living a lie saps the strength I need to deal with the hypocritical situation in "revitalized" areas. Life is too short to waste it on things, people, and situations you can never change. The only person I can change is myself.

I gave enough at the office, it is time to retire to a better way of life.

folder fanatic

For people who are not familiar with Los Angeles and it's vicinity. I located this bicycle theft video to illustrate the strong differences between the places where the rich congregate and the poor struggle.

Thieves Get Whats Coming To Them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzJ1g-Ve8Ok&feature=related

Keep in mind that around here the economic outlook seems to magnify the problems of the "rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer" and resulting behavior from this.

Newport Beach: One of the most wealthiest communities in the country. While there is crime here, it is far more limited and controlled.

Compton (about 35 miles from Newport Beach) Might as well be located across the planet. One time nice stable middle class area, now a hot spot of crime & unstable people.

I don't live in Compton, but in an area very much like it. It does get old very quickly.

Roody

The funny thing is, by just about any standard, life is much safer than it was even 15 or 20 years ago. Crime rates peaked in the 1980s and have fallen significantly in almost every American city or region. Even the Great Recession has not yet triggered a rise in violent crime that many feared. Traffic injury and fatality rates have also declined a lot recently, in spite of more distractions, more congestion, and higher speed limits. Injury rates have gone down for all users, cyclists and pedestrians as well as motorists.

Nefertheless, people do seem more fearful of others, and more panicky about life in general, compared to a couple decades ago. I sure don't know why this is. I wonder if 24 hour cable TV coverage has something to do with it. CNN, Fox and others will pick up on a bizarre crime and cover it with such immediacy that it seems like it happened right in your own neighborhood, not some small town 1500 miles away. (Youtube videos like the one above probably contribute to this irrational fear also.)

sauerwald

I would claim that cycling is far safer than driving a car. in the U.S., approximately equal numbers of bicycles and automobiles are sold each year. Although I would argue that lifetimes of autos and bicycles are approximately equal, just for the sake of argument let's assume that cars last twice as long as bicycles, resulting in there being twice as many cars in the US as there are bicycles.

Each year in the U.S., approximately 40,000 people are killed in automobile accidents, and approximately 700 cyclists are killed - if you do the math, this means that a car is ~30 times more likely to be involved in a fatal accident than a bicycle. Now - which vehicle is the journalist calling dangerous?

Newspaperguy

And herein lies the problem.

Cycling shouldn't be a way to be an urban pioneer or to save the planet or to save money during a recession or to get fit. It's not a hobby or a sport in the conventional sense. Yes, all those things are cool benefits of cycling, but in the end, cycling is about cycling. It's about the sheer joy of riding a bike. Anything more than that is a bonus.

It's this joy which gets me on the bike and keeps me riding in heat, cold, rain, snow and wind. Some days are heavenly; other days will have brutal conditions. But each day on the bike is a good day. If I were to lose the joy of riding the bike, chances are I'd find another way to get around.

And maybe that's the issue here. Those who are passionate about riding are not going to think too seriously about the dangers. We'll be aware, of course. We'll think about riding safely. But we won't see the streets as dangerous places. We see the bike as a way of life. And so we ride.

ianbrettcooper

Nice post!

When I chose cycling as an adult (after having the same childhood cycling experiences as many others did in the 20th Centiry), I did so purely as a convenient way of getting to work. The Tour de France leaves me cold, as in my view it's more about winning than about cycling. I've never appreciated 'sport cycling', although I see how it has driven bicycle improvements. As the years have gone by, my reasons for using a bike have remained utilitarian - I use it as a tool to get to work, to tour, to do errands, to travel, to get my daughter to school, etc. But my appreciation for the bike - for bicycles in general - has grown. I think people fail to recognize what a fantastic invention this is - it gives us so much freedom and demands so little in return. It's so simple that any cyclist can repair it with just a few tools and a little knowledge. You can leave it exposed to the elements and you can pick it back up after a year and still be fairly sure that the application of a little oil will make it go again. What other machine, in our hi-tech age can you say that about? Not many.

I laugh bemusedly at the contempt in which many people hold it, and I scorn the danger they falsely ascribe to it, and I also benefit from this contempt and fear: would it be as accessible without this contempt and fear? Surely not. Anyone can pick up a perfectly sound vintage/classic bike for $50 on craigslist. Astonishing! The perfect vehicle, going for the price of a restaurant meal! They just don't recognize the gem they're giving up. But folks like me do, as do the world's poor, for whom the bicycle is a Godsend, allowing them to travel cheaply and enjoy a level of freedom that they might otherwise be denied.

Sure, I think about how cycling is 'green', how it helps me avoid polluting, how it keeps me fit, how it will help people surmount the coming energy crisis. But those things aren't really 'reasons' to cycle. They are, as you say, added benefits. But when I'm on my bike I really don't care about them - I'm in that place in my mind where I feel fully in control of my life, performing turns, leans, calculating intersecting speeds and angles of traffic. In a way, the bicycle completes me - when I take my foot off the ground and place it in that pedal, something happens - we fit together, we move, and I evolve into something greater than the bipedal mammal I am. It's something you simply can't get from a car. It has to do with balance and movement, and with the fact that it's all you - not some engine translating your will into a sort of cheap, embarrassing and unnecessarily overwhelming power. It's like a subtle dance whose steps we know intuitively. It's as if the bicycle anticipates in some ethereal way, a being we just might, after a few millennia, become. Or perhaps it's that the bicycle gives us back some sense of the hunter-gatherer 'us' (the people we were before our lives were overwhelmed by complications and irrelevancies) - people who were nourished by the immediate application of essential mind and body skills.

In short, on a bike I feel truly and essentially human in a way that I really don't think I do when I'm off it. What's saddest about that is that many people never ride, so presumably they don't get to feel that. Maybe even if they did ride they would never feel it either. I'm just happy that I do.

Hippiebrian

Then again, it may just be a hippie...don't hit him (me) anyways....

contango 

100% agree. Before I bought my bike I could never understand why anyone would choose to cycle in a city with such bad traffic as London has. I figured that if I wanted to cycle around here I might as well take a running jump off the white cliffs of Dover on the basis it would achieve much the same thing only faster.

Roll the clock forward and I prefer cycling to any other mode of transport around town. There's only been a couple of times when I've actually been afraid on the roads, and one of those was down to my own decision to choose a 1/4 mile section of a very busy road rather than a 1.5 mile route to avoid it (I spent every part of that 1/4 mile wishing I'd taken the longer option)

Also entirely agree that a sedentary lifestyle poses so many risks of its own. When it comes to perception it's easy to see a cyclist's death as another reason not to cycle but typically we don't hear of the people who have heart attacks in their 40s because they never took any exercise.

Ironically one of the elements of being exposed on two wheels can also be a life-saver in its own way. Years ago my brother was on a moped (motorised admittedly, but not much faster than a fit person could go on a road bike) and was hit head-on by a car in a nasty crash. Had he been in a car he'd probably have died but being on two wheels he was thrown over the top of it all. He still sustained some nasty injuries but the crucial thing is he survived and healed.

work4bike

I've become addicted to the danger of riding a bike on the roads. Actually I don't feel threatened anymore, but I don't believe it's due to complacency. I'm always evaluating what I've done in a particular hairy situation and am always thinking of new ways to approach certain challenges on the road. And I always ride with a mirror, which I believe gives me some control over my safety. I just can't let my fate rest in the hands of drivers.

Any of you'll ever thought, of all the thousands (actually millions) of people that have passed you how many would run you over if they knew they could get away with it. I think the number would be surprising. That's why I ride with a mirror.

I love cycling.