For the newer cyclists here

[johnridley]

From Bicycling magazine, The Five Most Common Causes of Bike-Car Collisions and how to avoid them

Not surprisingly, all five of them are the fault of the car driver, the advice is how to avoid in the first place, or how to get out of the situation if it happens.

I don't personally think the advice is really aggressive enough, but it's not bad as far as it goes. It's good to at least know what the biggest hazards are. They're mostly not the things most people worry about who haven't much experience in traffic.

Comments

[isherempress.livejournal.com]

I agree that the advice is not aggressive enough. This is one of the areas where K & I disagree: my attitude is that it's my right to be on the road, so I'm going to ride on the road. And I don't hug the right edge, either, I ride just to the right of the center of the lane, leaving a good 2-3 feet on my right. Cars can go around me if they want or they can slow down to 17 MPH, my usual road speed.

Yeah, I got the flashing lights on front & back, and use them, too. Maybe it's because I'm bigger than K, but I also do mental projections to make myself even bigger. My intention is to scare a driver enough to realize that if she hits me, I'm going to make a hell of a mess of her car.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's a thread on BikeForums right now where a guy (a trail rider, from the sounds of him) is complaining that a couple of cyclists "caused him to be run off the road" - they were rounding a blind corner, a FedEx truck came up behind them and passed them on a blind corner - the guy was coming the other way and figured it was the cyclist's fault for "forcing" the FedEx truck to go around them on a blind corner and force him off the road.

Not surprisingly, he got trashed on the forum. If you come up behind someone on a blind curve, there's only one even vaguely reasonable thing to do, and it's NOT to pass them. As I said, the only thing the cyclists did wrong was that if it were me, I'd have been very far left, nearly to the center line, to make absolutely sure that the driver knew I was there, I wasn't moving, and he'd better just slow the hell down and wait 10 seconds, and I'd move back right as soon as sight lines were clear again.

People get hurt on bikes when they're A) not behaving like vehicles (riding on sidewalks, riding the wrong way, not being visible to drivers, sneaking between lanes, running lights, etc), or B) being too timid, inviting bullying. You need to control your lane, if you can't dominate the space that you're entitled to, then you're going to get walked on. It's unfortunate that roads in this country are run by intimidation, but that's the reality.

[forestweather.livejournal.com]

Yes, what John says is totally how I used to ride. However, I am essentially a brand new rider in terms of stability/balance, being able to right "straight" without wobbling, starting from a complete stop, turning, etc. So right now I am more comfortable on sidesteets or sidewalks--which are sometimes bikepaths in Walker, as along Remembrance. When my skills increase, I expect to ride like that again. While I agree that it's my right to be on the road, practically, I'm not ready to challenge the cars/trucks.

As for being a driver, I always wait behind the cyclist on a blind curve or double yellow going uphill--and good cyclists signal the driver when it's safe to go around--by moving over and/or with an arm wave.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

That's a valid point. The whole aggressive VC argument kind of hinges on fairly competent riding ability. I'm not the best, I can't trackstand for beans, but I can ride straight within an inch or two down to walking speed. If it's hard to hold a line and steer rapidly and accurately exactly where you want to go, it's probably best to just avoid high traffic situations until those skills come to you.