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> Yet every close call or collision has been due to motorist impatience, inattention, and/or lawlessness. This reminds me of how every driver thinks they are a

• eulgro 3y ago
  But cyclists don't ride at 60 mph in a thousand kilograms vehicle, so it hardly matters to anyone but to them.
  • atdrummond 3y ago
    I’ve been hit by a half dozen cyclists (all in SF, despite having spent more time as an adult in more biking dense Europe) and never by a car. I’m probably not going to attempt to draw any policy or broader conclusions from this.
    • ben_w 3y ago
      I have been hit by a car; the driver didn't look my way when pulling out after having stopped at a minor-to-major junction. Even at, to guess, 10 mph, I don't recommend it. Wrote off my bicycle. But yeah, small samples are bad to draw conclusions from.
    • Symbiote 3y ago
      The people who have been rammed by a car can't contribute to this discussion as they're dead. It's around 10-20 every year in San Francisco. It looks like there was one pedestrian death caused by a cyclist in around the last 10 years.
  • dazc 3y ago
    You still wouldn't want to be hit by a moving bicycle though, regardless of speed. People can act recklessly when they perceive themselves to be invulnerable and this applies to everyone, cyclists included.
• eertami 3y ago
  It is our duty to yield for more vulnerable road users, since they are naturally more at risk. If a cyclist hits a pedestrian, they have failed in that duty. If a car driver hits a cyclist, they too have failed.
  • haswell 3y ago
    I’m a cyclist, and have experienced plenty of bad behavior by drivers. But cyclists also do incredibly stupid things, and I witness this almost every time I ride. I’ve had to make extreme evasive maneuvers on my bike to avoid a serious accident caused by inattention or dangerous choices made by other cyclists. One day, I was driving my car, and after stopping at a stop sign, began to make my way through the intersection. A moment later, a cyclist landed on my hood. They had - at full speed - gone the wrong way around a roundabout covered by dense foliage in the middle, and exited the roundabout the wrong way down a one way street, where my car was just beginning to roll. Maybe this circumstance doesn’t fit the “if a car driver hits a cyclist” criteria (the responding police officer and later, the insurance company agreed), but every collision is unique, and the cyclist plays a part. Cars are overwhelmingly at fault in most cases. Cyclists often contribute to or directly cause extremely dangerous interactions.
    • Gibbon1 3y ago
      I clipped a bicyclist once. He was riding on the wrong side of the road, along a chain link fence, and rode into the intersection after the light turned red. What would have prevented that was there was another car stopped at the light and when it turned green he didn't go. Today I would've slowed way down. I find I spend an inordinate amount of time looking for bicycles. They're small, fast, and often not where they are supposed to be. Also there is a lot of talk about cars but in my extended friends groups I know of a number of non-car related accidents. And a couple of cyclist hitting other cyclists. And I think we don't keep statistics on those. My take is the system wasn't set up for bicycles and it'll take a lot of time and money to fix that.