chaadster

I don’t think I have it backwards at all. What you see as ironic I see as unlikely, namely that the political agenda of AAA is cycling advocacy. AAA is an automotive insurance company, whose only purpose is to maximize revenue and minimize pay-outs. That they want people to call car-to-car collisions in Wisconsin crashes rather than accidents has zero to do with cycling and everything to do with insurance structres.

indyfabz

Re-read the post I was responding to. Carefully.

Clyde1820

He's 7'6" tall and all but impossible to miss on the road. That said, in any bunch of 10,000 drivers there are going to be a number that aren't paying attention, a number disliking someone in "their way" on the road ahead, or whatever.

Doesn't make me particularly nervous. I've always been highly concerned over essential visibility. On the handful of roads where I ride that car's have limited options, I've always been more concerned than normally is the case, for good reason. Always will be. Nicely, since I'm more frequently doing larger parks on the MUPs for my basic pleasure riding, I'm dealing less and less with vehicle traffic coming at me from behind.

A good lesson for me from years ago -- Driving a vehicle in normal sunny mid-morning light, once, along a road I'd drive a thousand times, I came upon an 18-wheeler truck backing up into the street. (Two lanes each direction, with a center turn lane, so not exactly a small street.) There was no flagger in the street warning people of the truck's intentions. I was a bit more than a quarter mile distant as he began to slowly (really slowly) back up. I watched as he was doing this, slowing as I approached. But I was surprised and a bit scared by how nearly invisible the truck appeared. It's coloration and visual patterns happened to blend in quite well with all of the surrounding cues from the nearby buildings. At first glance, there was no truck, seemingly. I'd seen it from a good distance away, so I'd seen the tail end clearly peaking out into the roadway. But at a closer vantage point (~150ft or so), it was really hard to pick out the truck from the background. Point being: you never know if such a situation's going to arise, where a driver's glance or two simply won't register that a truck, cyclist or other vehicle is right there and about to be struck.

Trakhak

If you're right, and it seems that you do indeed know what you're talking about, how does calling car crashes "crashes" rather than "accidents" benefit AAA? Can you provide a link that spells out how AAA benefits?

chaadster

Huh? Do you not know how insurance works in Wisconsin? All drivers must have it, and selling it is how AAA gets their money. They have to pay out money when people make crashes, but they want to keep as much money as possible, so they don’t want people to have crashes. As I mentioned in my first post in this thread, yeah, I think it’s highly questionable whether calling accidents crashes will have any impact towards reducing the number of crashes, but when you’re in the vehicle insurance biz in big way like AAA is, anything that might reduce payouts and make your customers feel like you’re a company more concerned about their safety than their money is worth trying.

Chinghis

And I think the impetus for this change in characterization didn't start with AAA. It's more of an urban-planner kind of thing, I would think.

Let's just call them "episodes." I had an episode with a car when I was a kid, pretty much 51/49 fault. I came out into an alley between parked cars, and got hit by a car that shouldn't have been in the alley. She picked me up, took me home, and my mom took me to the emergency room.

I also had a bush episode - hooked my handlebar on an old bush next to the sidewalk that I had ridden on to avoid some construction. Bam, down I went, broken humerus.

First one is more of a crash, second one is an accident. Just a thought.

Not sure how I got there, but I watched a news report from Wisconsin about AAA's idea of making it a New Year's Resolution to say "crash" instead of 'accident."

Quote:

... accident can have the effect of making people think that it’s something that’s kind of unavoidable or just an inevitable part of driving,” says Jarmusz.

As Elvis Costello said, "Accidents will happen." But they don't need to, and hopefully calling them "crashes" will make people realize that they are avoidable. I mean, if they were all just "accidents," personal injury lawyers wouldn't make much of a living, right?

bbbean 

Millions of riders rode today without incident. The same the day before, and the same the day before that. While you should take his accident as a reminder of what CAN go wrong and take steps to avoid that, you need to have a sense of proportion and recognize that like millions of other cyclists, you're likely to get on your bike, have a nice ride, and come home safe.

Kapusta

And this point illustrates what?

downhillmaster

Well said.
Unfortunately, sheep will continue to be sheep.

aplcr0331

Of course not, keep riding.

I always respected Shawn a lot. Really enjoyed in the NBA that he would try to block shots. I know the cool thing to do was to "ooh" and "ahh" at the dunks...but those dunkers are a dime a dozen. At least Shawn would try to block the shots. Even after getting yammed on pretty hard, he was still trying to block them. Not to mention a LOT of disrespect from his peers.

I hope he beats this and heals completely.

But I'm still riding my bike just as much (and more if I can).

Flip Flop Rider

another question. Should what happened to Shawn Bradley make other former NBA players more anxious to ride?

tomato coupe

We don't need no stinkin' details.

tomato coupe

I already ride. It makes me more anxious about joining the NBA.

indyfabz

I rode across the US back in '99. A year or so later I was at a rest stop during a local one-day event. Met a guy who had been doing the same a few years previously--until he got hit by a semi and somehow survived. The guy freely admitted that it was the end of a long day. He was tired. He saw his hotel on the other side of the road and crossed into traffic without thinking or looking.

In any event great job at another "I'm scared" thread not in A&S where it belongs (but would not get as much attention).

burritos

That tragic biking collisions don't always have to happen with a car.

Kapusta

Again, what is your point? I said you were less likely to get killed, not that it can't ever happen.

EDIT: Sorry, realized you were responding to someone else. But still, he was not claiming nothing could happen. You can also wreck and kill yourself on a road bike with no car involved. Cars are just one less thing to worry about when there are fewer (or none) of them.

Kdunce

I was hit from behind last September. Distracted driver moving at around 100 Kms. Luckily he only clipped my saddle and left hand with his mirror I believe. Broke my hand and sent me arse over teakettle down the pavement. Resulting in some spectacular road rash! I now have a much brighter rear light and a bar end mirror. Still extremely nervous when being passed. I will say that the brighter light appears to produce wider passing...but that could be wishful thinking! Ride safe✌️

Pop N Wood

If you look at bike accident statistics bicyclists getting hit from cars coming up behind them are pretty rare. Of all the things to worry about getting blindsided from behind should be way down on the list.

But realize asking people to put things in perspective is a difficult conversation.

jskash

I ride early in the morning before the sun comes up. What makes me the most nervous is cars turning right at an intersection. I always slow down to make sure they see me. If I did not have this practice, I would be been hit numerous times as cars turned right without stopping at the stop sign.

viffer

I was run over by a drunk driver exactly a year ago. She was driving completely on the wrong side of a narrow winding road. I never had a chance when she came barrelling around a blind corner within inches of the left hand curb. Popped me 6 feet into the air off her front bumper and I landed in the ditch by the side of the road. I still have aches and pains and scars which have not healed to this day. After briefly stopping she took off and tried to get away but thankfully some fellow riders managed to grab her license plate number and chase her down. Moral of the story is you could be the most careful rider in the world and do absolutely nothing wrong and still be a victim of some crazy reckless moron. Not a whole lot you can do about it. I’m back on my bike now but I do think about that day all the time.

Pop N Wood

Getting hit by turning cars/trucks is one of the more common causes of bike fatalities.

AlanO

A friend of mine was killed about 20 years ago and I changed the way I ride. If there’s no bike lane I take another route. If the speed limit is 55 I take another route. I’ll even walk my bike on the sidewalk if the road isn’t safe. I’m fortunate to have a lot of choices.

Marci

Well I can honestly say no because I have no clue who Shawn Bradley is. LOL But I am much more careful after one of my neighbors got hit on his bike and killed in a crosswalk. he waited for the light to turn green to walk to go but the big truck didn't. He plowed right over him. I do not go unless they show signs of stopping. Bike riders do not fare well against big cars. One must always be on the look out for idiots, and always veer to the careful side.
Guess that is a lesson I learned early when at age 5 I watched a schoolmate get hit in front of a school. She didn't look and dashed out to meether parent across the street. She never came back to school, but she did live. But was brain damaged. best to Err on the side of caution, you might not get a second chance.

comfort rider

No one should be riding in traffic.

friday1970

Mirrors.
I wear them religiously. I see a car coming up behind me much earlier than when I hear it. and I follow it until I know that it has moved over for me. If not, and I've had to do this, dash off to the side of the road.
I was hit once though, before wearing mirrors and not worrying about shoulders. Old US23 in Brighton michigan before it was recently paved. Dumb blond girl who claimed she was sneezing. Thankfully, I was only pushed into the dirt and was able to stay on my bike. Only my left butt cheek got hit by a mirror. It almost felt like my father spanking me again. Ironically, I had to calm her down after she freaked out thinking she could have killed me. I should have got her number since she was kind of cute. But my wife would have been none too pleased.