iforgotmename

Glad to hear that no one was seriously injured. I recently bought a magicshine head and tail combo and run it on strobe during the day. I don't see a lot of peds but it grabs the motorists attention. People are used to seeing blinking lights on emergency vehicles the neighborhood school bus...etc. My wife was my tail from a long way off while driving in traffic, she didn't see the cyclist but the blinking caught her eye. A daytime strobe can't hurt in my opinion.

iforgotmename

pics?

jharte

That's disappointing. I just put a cheap LED strobe on the front. I won't generally don't have as much ped traffic to deal with as I do car traffic. Oh well. Hopefully every little bit helps. Haven't tried the Airzound yet.

Jerry H

cappuccino911

people don't respect or don't realize the speed bikes travel at. I see people look right at me all the time then look the other way and just walk right into the street. I usually buzz them on purpose. for some reason they can't gauge the speed the bike is moving and seem to t hink they ahve plenty of time to saunter out across the street.

slcbob

I'd imagine it's even tougher to be seen on a 'bent.

I'm a big fan of the conveniently mounted dingle bell to add a little friendly audio cue to the multimedia extravaganza of the clown suit. Yelling gets old faster for me, and the AirZound has its joys but strikes me as more of a revenge weapon.

Dan, how many miles on the rider mower for 2010, and can you squeeze a third axis into your eco thing?

If the old gal bent your bar you may have broken her hip and just stunned her into not knowing, that would either be a hell of a hit or a hell of a cheap bar / stem. From the above shot, it looks a little out of alignment too far to the right (yaw axis) and can be corrected by twisting the stem back to the left (like another poster mentioned). From the front shot, there's either some weird parallax going on in the shot or the bar has displaced on the roll axis, which is strange, and/or it looks like it yawed to the left. Be sure to check that stem and fork, too. (and shorten up the front brake housing while you're at it)

Doohickie

I'm not sure this would have helped the OP, but I have a bell on my bike and it seems to be great for getting the attention of pedestrians. Unless they are deaf or wearing earbuds.

cooker

^^ I have gotten into the habit of often ringing the bell as I approach pedestrians, even if they don't seem to be about to step into the street. I think the most useful situation is if they are walking in the same directions as you with with their back to you - if they decide to cross the street and don't hear a car behind them, they sometimes don't bother to look back until they actually step into the road. Several have thanked me.

chipcom 

Sorry for your misfortune, but glad everyone is relatively OK.

This just goes to show the importance of planning for Murphy - expecting others to do the stupidest thing possible and planning your options accordingly. Expecting her to jump out in front of you might have enabled you to avoid hitting her.

hairlessbill

I totally sympathize. I have done the same thing. Hit a pedestrian so hard that her earrings popped off and she suffered a slight cut and possible concussion. She was in the crosswalk when she saw me so I figured I'd go around her (I was going uphill and was mashing those pedals) aiming for a spot behind her figuring she would keep walking. But as soon as she spotted me, she started walking backwards right into my path (she must have thought I was going to head her off) and I was standing on the pedals as I hit her so it was ugly. This was in front of her apartment building so I had to endure her neighbors' accusing stares and comments while waiting for the police, ambulance AND fire trucks to arrive (snarled 5pm traffic in both directions). When the policeman asked to look at my vehicle and realized it was my poor bent-handlebar MB-2, he kind of laughed and told me to go home - didn't even bother to ask my name. I took it real easy for months after that and was extra paranoid at crosswalks. This was in Brookline, MA on Beacon St. where there is always a lot of foot traffic.

slcbob

^ she was in a crosswalk AND moving reasonably to avoid you? That's not good, and that cop had no business being casually dismissive. The rare upside to not being considered a proper vehicle with full rights and responsibilities on the road. You should have gone to buy a lottery ticket straight away, as it was your lucky day (and not hers).

Zaneluke

Lucky.

Crosswalks can be serious in certain cities.

urban rider

I am sorry to hear about your accident. Bring her a pie or flowers she would like that. Unfortunately, I am seeing a lot of people riding on the sidewalks and they often do not annouce their presence behind pedestrians. It appears that they think their cycling skills are such that if a person suddenly stop, turn, or swing their arms will avoid hitting them. I was hit once by a cyclists as a child (40 Years ago) and I still remember the impact.

joewey

You'll never really know when accident will happen. No matter how you avoid them and how careful you are. I'm glad nothing serious happened to both of you and the old lady.

vol

Buy her a bike

hairlessbill

Yep, totally my fault. I admitted it to the cop, to the lady, to her friends, etc. I volunteered my information to anyone who would take it. Her friends took it down and I never heard from her. So, yes, I considered myself very lucky. Believe me, I ran out of way to apologize by the time the ambulance showed up. Accidents do happen - it's a result of being human.

slcbob

^ stuff does happen. Good for you (and her) for being so human.

KD5NRH

I wish I could find the link to the Dallas story from about 7-8 years ago where a woman hit a DART train while it was stopped. She turned at a clearly marked "NO TURNS" rail crossing, drove ~40 yards down the tracks, and hit a stationary 13ft tall, 10ft wide yellow and white train with strobes and amber flashers going in full daylight.

Here's the intersection; note the "NO TURNS," no left and no right turn arrows before and at the crossing, and "DO NOT ENTER" signs on both sides.
https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...129.51,,0,3.13

This is what she failed to notice until she hit it:


Fortunately, the only "damage" to the train was some pieces of her car stuck in the coupler, but she hit hard enough to total the car and injure herself.

Grim

I would be more inclined to think that she made that turn intentionally. Where things went wrong is that train was stopped and not coming at her at 40-50mph like she was counting on. Surviving was not what she had in mind.

JeffSG

Seven years ago I was riding with a group of buddies early one morning when the lead bike hit a jogger. The impact knocked out the jogger who was also running with his girlfriend. She didn't get hit but started screaming hysterically and we never got her calmed down. We called an ambulance who came and took him to the hospital...

I'm glad you or her didn't get hurt.

Ride safe,

Jeff

curbtender

Is that a "yellow Ledbetter"?

cyclingd

rider visibility is important. Most likely she was looking for large objects like cars and not a cyclist.

I was riding in the middle of the road and almost hit a runner when he suddenly decided to change to the other side of the road without looking behind.

I can see more accidents coming with electric vehicles since they're silent. They should have cow bells installed or something that make a car noise.

Titmawz

I have hit a person as well. Do I feel bad about it ?? No. Reasons why = I was going on the sidewalk, and the guy was walking looking at the floor instead whats in front of him. Plus wearing sunglasses. I thought he saw me, I have assumed and that was a bad mistake... It was a long time ago.

mustang1

I had something similar like that hapen to me just yesterday, only instead of a car person crossing the road, it was a car turning into my road (and straight into the bike lane when the driver then corrected herself). Just something I anticipated so I hit the brakes. I wasn't angry at the driver, if she didn't see me then she didn't see me, just uneducated (and most likely, unable to be educated) as to her environment. I'm sure she meant no harm just like you or your pedestrian meant not harm.

Not your fault, don't sweat it. Just learn you gotta hit the brakes sometimes, even though it's the other person at fault.

ryanwood

In my 3 years of commuting across a college campus, I have hit 4 pedestrians. The first one was a guy who was crossing at a crosswalk, but he had a green light. I yelled and he looked at me just as I was hitting him. We both went down, but neither were injured so we went on our way.

The second one was much worse for the pedestrian, I was hanging a left through an intersection where I had a green arrow and I was at speed. The kid just stepped off the sidewalk as if I wasn't there, again I yelled and he looked, but this time I put my hands out and knocked him over like some kind of an open ice check. He went down real hard, but I stayed vertical. I stopped to see if he was okay, but there was very heavy pedestrian traffic and I think he wanted to look tough so he just shook it off.

The next two encounters, I have been better prepared and have been able to nearly come to a stop before any serious crashes occur

ShinyBiker

I was in a left turn lane in my car. The street in front of me has a dedicated right turn lane. Out of the corner of my eye, I see somebody's legs up in the air in this right turn lane. Turns out this young woman driving a small black car just plows right through a ped walking across the turn lane. Didn't even slow down. She does stop 20-30 feet after she goes through the guy, though. Broad daylight about 2pm.

I read in the paper later that the guy was ok. Had some lacerations on his face. I guess it could have been worse. She could have run totally over him with her car. I think the driver was 99% at fault, however, the old axiom for the ped that you should "look both ways..." could also apply here.