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The unfortunate truth is that bicycles do no belong on the road with cars. The car/SUV weights 2000-5000 pounds and can go much faster than a bike. It is also h

The unfortunate truth is that bicycles do no belong on the road with cars. The car/SUV weights 2000-5000 pounds and can go much faster than a bike. It is also heavily "armored", in that most car collisions do not result in serious injury to the occupants. The bicycle has much lower weight, and lower speed. In addition, the majority of bicycle collisions are going to result in at least some minor injury. The solution to this problem is to build protected bike lanes where cars cannot come. Unfortunately, there is not the political will to do it, so we go with this fiction that cars and bikes are equals, even though that results in a significant number of biker deaths.

btrettel 8y ago
> The solution to this problem is to build protected bike lanes where cars cannot come. Unfortunately, there is not the political will to do it, so we go with this fiction that cars and bikes are equals, even though that results in a significant number of biker deaths. There's actually quite a bit of opposition to separate infrastructure from cyclists. While the risk of being hit from behind is reduced on separate infrastructure, there has to be intersections at some point, and that's where the danger amplifies. In Austin, I almost never ride on the Guadalupe St. cycletrack because about one third of the time that I do, a driver turns across it without looking at an intersection. There are signs saying to look, but that doesn't seem to stop the problems. Infrastructure can help, but it needs to be designed well, and what I see typically in the US is not designed well.