You can everything right, and still lose your life
Really sad. Just riding along in a bike lane, then bam, it's over. Not that it would make a difference for this man, but I ride with active bright blinker lights front and rear and a Take-A-Look mirror. I know if a vehicle sees me and moves over. If they don't I watch the vehicle all the way to me, ready to emergency ditch off the road if needed.
Teenage driver was apparently texting while driving...... -- |
Eat, drink and be merry....:beer:
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Originally Posted by drlogik
(Post 22153907)
Really sad. Just riding along in a bike lane, then bam, it's over. Not that it would make a difference for this man, but I ride with active bright blinker lights front and rear and a Take-A-Look mirror. I know if a vehicle sees me and moves over. If they don't I watch the vehicle all the way to me, ready to emergency ditch off the road if needed.
Teenage driver was apparently texting while driving...... https://youtu.be/XrTbAPq2Xu8 Wow, so sad! This is why I avoid riding on the streets. Half of the drivers out here in California are on their phone while driving. |
Always considered sky diving and mountaineering inherently risky activities, but posts like the above really drives it home about our chosen passion. Enjoy life, enjoy cycling, enjoy it all.
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Nothing will change until we completely overhaul the current paradigm and use words like "negligence" instead of "accident," "crash" or "collision" to describe drivers who are indifferent, incompetent or outright hostile toward other people who are lawfully using shared public infrastructure.
The easiest way to get away with mayhem, assault and murder in the US is to hit a pedestrian or cyclist with a car, then invoke the magic words, "They came out of nowhere! I never saw them! The sun was in my eyes! I feared for my life and was just trying to escape!" If you survive being hit, you'll be lucky if the cop doesn't write up the citation implying that the pedestrian or cyclist was partially at fault for failing to dodge the Dodge. Been there. Despite having the green light, pedestrian walk signal, and being established in the crosswalk, the cop implied I was partially at fault for not jumping out of the way of the driver who ignored the flashing yellow yield signal and was looking down rather than up. I never ride a bike now without running video, usually front and rear facing. |
I seek out rural roads as much as possible, to minimize the risk... like maybe 3 cars or less per mile. Also have a hypothesis that if a road is curvy, drivers won't be able to text and drive as much compared to a straight road.
Also use the Garmin Varia radar / light combo. That's an amazing piece of tech for rural roads... wouldn't want to ride without it. Aside from that, safety is one of the reasons I'm getting into gravel riding more... at least on gravel, cars usually aren't moving quite as fast. |
Originally Posted by canklecat
(Post 22154005)
Nothing will change until we completely overhaul the current paradigm and use words like "negligence" instead of "accident," "crash" or "collision" to describe drivers who are indifferent, incompetent or outright hostile toward other people who are lawfully using shared public infrastructure.
The easiest way to get away with mayhem, assault and murder in the US is to hit a pedestrian or cyclist with a car, then invoke the magic words, "They came out of nowhere! I never saw them! The sun was in my eyes! I feared for my life and was just trying to escape!" If you survive being hit, you'll be lucky if the cop doesn't write up the citation implying that the pedestrian or cyclist was partially at fault for failing to dodge the Dodge. Been there. Despite having the green light, pedestrian walk signal, and being established in the crosswalk, the cop implied I was partially at fault for not jumping out of the way of the driver who ignored the flashing yellow yield signal and was looking down rather than up. I never ride a bike now without running video, usually front and rear facing. I don't care if they call it accident or crash, but what is galling about the language is the headline calls this a "bicycling accident". According to the story, the bicycling was fine. The driver swerved the car into the bike lane. |
Bummer. Lots more similar incidents here https://www.bikeforums.net/advocacy-safety/
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I always hate to hear such tragedy. I live in rural Alabama and have to ride a mountain bike on the road so I can hit the ditch whenever necessary. I only ride my road bikes in town where vehicles are as slow as I am, and I still have to get out of the way. A mirror is absolutely a necessity. The closest bike lane is 1.5 hours away by car in the next big town.
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Originally Posted by jayp410
(Post 22154007)
Also use the Garmin Varia radar / light combo. That's an amazing piece of tech for rural roads... wouldn't want to ride without it. Amazing piece of kit and works flawlessly (which is not always the case with Garmin). Fortunately drivers in our local rural area are usually pretty good with bikes, but there's always a few idiots around. The Varia is a road riding essential for me. |
Originally Posted by jayp410
(Post 22154007)
Also use the Garmin Varia radar / light combo. That's an amazing piece of tech for rural roads... wouldn't want to ride without it.
Aside from that, safety is one of the reasons I'm getting into gravel riding more... at least on gravel, cars usually aren't moving quite as fast. Mixed surface rides are what almost all my solo riding is at this point. 5mi of paved roads to hit gravel, then however many miles I want to ride that day, plus 5mi of paved roads home. The gravel roads are quieter, slower, and hillier. Its a win all the way around. |
Originally Posted by drlogik
(Post 22153907)
Really sad. Just riding along in a bike lane, then bam, it's over. Not that it would make a difference for this man, but I ride with active bright blinker lights front and rear and a Take-A-Look mirror. I know if a vehicle sees me and moves over. If they don't I watch the vehicle all the way to me, ready to emergency ditch off the road if needed.
Teenage driver was apparently texting while driving...... https://youtu.be/XrTbAPq2Xu8 Very sad, and enraging, actually. The displayed link |
Originally Posted by mstateglfr
(Post 22154296)
I bought a Varia a couple weeks ago and love it. It provides yet another little bit of interest/entertainment to break up the miles by watching dots move on the screen. But really, I like that when riding gravel I can pick my line and more confidently know that I am not annoying a vehicle behind me if I am in the center of the road. Once a vehicle pops up on radar, I can move over and not slow them down.
Mixed surface rides are what almost all my solo riding is at this point. 5mi of paved roads to hit gravel, then however many miles I want to ride that day, plus 5mi of paved roads home. The gravel roads are quieter, slower, and hillier. Its a win all the way around. The only false positives I've had with the Varia is when I pull off the road and the back end of the bike is pointed toward traffic, or after an intersection with cross traffic. The only false negatives have been when the car matches my speed for a while, but that's after the Varia has already alerted me. |
Those that use the Garmin Varia: Do you use it with a Garmin device or your cellphone or both? Does it audibly alert so that if using a phone (android in my case) you can have the phone in a pocket or handlebar bag and still hear an alert - that is, if you don't want to mount phone/garmin on the handlebars? I was hit by a pickup truck from the rear many years ago and while he really dinged up my body, I managed to dent the entire length of the pickup truck bed with my butt!!!!
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Originally Posted by kahn
(Post 22154812)
Those that use the Garmin Varia: Do you use it with a Garmin device or your cellphone or both? Does it audibly alert so that if using a phone (android in my case) you can have the phone in a pocket or handlebar bag and still hear an alert - that is, if you don't want to mount phone/garmin on the handlebars? I was hit by a pickup truck from the rear many years ago and while he really dinged up my body, I managed to dent the entire length of the pickup truck bed with my butt!!!!
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Originally Posted by drlogik
(Post 22153907)
I ride with active bright blinker lights front and rear and a Take-A-Look mirror. I know if a vehicle sees me and moves over. If they don't I watch the vehicle all the way to me, ready to emergency ditch off the road if needed.
But flashers are a must. And a take-a-look or helmet mirror greatly improves situational awareness! But even after minimizing risks, there will still be unexpected factors beyond our control. |
The Garmin Varia radar unit, how well does it recognize cars behind and either to the right or left of you? How about interference such as hills, signs, traffic lights etc? Any false positives, or is it pretty accurate?
I don't really want my bike to start looking like Batman's duty belt but these sound interesting. I also wear a Garmin Fenix 5x watch all the time and as my bike computer and it's compatible with the Varia. |
Originally Posted by kahn
(Post 22154812)
Those that use the Garmin Varia: Do you use it with a Garmin device or your cellphone or both? Does it audibly alert so that if using a phone (android in my case) you can have the phone in a pocket or handlebar bag and still hear an alert - that is, if you don't want to mount phone/garmin on the handlebars? I was hit by a pickup truck from the rear many years ago and while he really dinged up my body, I managed to dent the entire length of the pickup truck bed with my butt!!!!
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Originally Posted by drlogik
(Post 22155097)
The Garmin Varia radar unit, how well does it recognize cars behind and either to the right or left of you? How about interference such as hills, signs, traffic lights etc? Any false positives, or is it pretty accurate?
I don't really want my bike to start looking like Batman's duty belt but these sound interesting. I also wear a Garmin Fenix 5x watch all the time and as my bike computer and it's compatible with the Varia. It really is one of those rare pieces of tech that exceeds expectations. It would maybe be of less use in an urban setting when cars are passing you literally every few seconds anyway, but out in a rural setting it is utterly brilliant! |
Originally Posted by jay4usc
(Post 22153944)
.
Wow, so sad! This is why I avoid riding on the streets. Half of the drivers out here in California are on their phone while driving. gm |
Flashers are a must for emergency vehicles traveling at high speeds. Solid front lights are great for all other road users especially those with a good brightness and beam pattern.
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Originally Posted by PeteHski
(Post 22155111)
It is pretty flawless in my experience. It picks up any vehicle approaching from behind regardless of its positioning to your left or right. It picks them up very early too, usually well before you hear them so you get a good 10 seconds or more warning before they actually reach you. It can even see up to 3 cars approaching in a line behind you. Signs, traffic lights, hills etc don't seem to be an issue. It only drops out if it loses line of direct sight to the approaching vehicle, like if you are going into a very sharp bend where the approaching car goes out of sight again. But it will pick it up again once it regains line of sight. I can't honestly remember getting any false positives or negatives. It also alerts you more aggressively if something is approaching unusually fast.
It really is one of those rare pieces of tech that exceeds expectations. It would maybe be of less use in an urban setting when cars are passing you literally every few seconds anyway, but out in a rural setting it is utterly brilliant! Pretty good review of it here: |
Sigh, so much to buy:
(1) Garmin Varia to alert me if a car is approaching; if only this device could tell whether the car is about to pass or run me over! (2) Apple Watch with fall detection to alert my emergency contact and emergency services if #1 does not prevent someone from running me over. (3) Front and rear cameras so that I (or my estate) can recover from the negligent or reckless driver who ran me over. Total all three and it's more than what some people spend on their wheels. |
Originally Posted by SoSmellyAir
(Post 22155394)
Sigh, so much to buy:
(1) Garmin Varia to alert me if a car is approaching; if only this device could tell whether the car is about to pass or run me over! . It gives you a LOT more awareness of what is travelling approx 10 seconds behind you and how fast it is approaching. |
Originally Posted by mstateglfr
(Post 22154834)
I use it with a garmin gps. it can work on a phone with the garmin app. notification is an audible 'beep', a little moving dot that represents the approaching vehicle, and side colors that turn a light shade of red and turn green once the vehicle passes.
I enjoy that on most rural roads you can take the entire lane with confidence knowing that you have plenty of time and awareness to adjust for the occasional vehicle. |
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