I won't ride a bike on city streets anymore. I used to all the time in Boston, which upon reflection was crazy. I got T-boned by a hit and run taxi that put me in the hospital for over a month. The end of the down style racing handle bar went in my sack and came out 1" below my bellybutton. I don't remember a thing after the accident until I woke up in the ICE 3 days later. It was a Catholic Teaching hospital in Cambridge (Mt. Auburn), I was told that I was given the Last Rites.

Perhaps 2-3% of the drivers on the road never should have received a driver's license. About 10 days ago, the idiot driver ahead of me clipped a bicyclist, and didn't even have a clue that she had done so. Fortunately, he didn't go down.

Fixed it for ya. SmileWavy

Ha .. Yeah, you're probably way closer to the correct guesstimate. It's a gamble out there.

Vancouver:
cyclists and pedestrians, the average here is 10 hits per WEEK, by cars.
quite often at crosswalks.
Vancouver is beyond dangerous, stick to bike routes or risk death.

We need to outlaw trucks.

Cycling in traffic on commuter roads is just ill advised. Its all very well to have rights on the road as cyclist, but any little old man or teenage girl in a Hyundai can kill you.

True true. Dudes commuting on bikes are the craziest. Sharing the road with homicidal inattentive drivers, who are too tired from lack of sleep, and in a hurry to get to work cause they're late again.

I try not to put too many miles on the roads anymore, it's not relaxing. And there's beautiful wide shoulder hilly rides in the country, 5k from my house.

Thats why I like closed road events, even though my pace is half that of the pack :-)

Another good option: nature reserve trails and single track.

Its mad. I see lycra warriors and commuter cyclists mixing it in three lanes of traffic zoned at 50mph, and I wonder what they are thinking. First rule of road survival- don't be where the crash is going to happen.

I ride about 70 miles a week, and I have one weekend road loop which is 30mph speed limit, and has so many bikes on it, its practically a bike track. But only on the weekends. Any other time, I use a local velodrome. Yeah, its mindless, but you can listen to the earpod, zone out , no road debris, no pot holes and no one is trying to kill you.

Bicycling is a pretty safe activity. See Fatality Per Million Hour table in

http://www.ohiobike.org/misc/CyclingIsSafeTLK.pdf

Vastly safer than motorcycling and private aviation, safer than water skiing and riding in cars, but less safe than flying commercial.

Yet people here ride motorcycles and fly private planes, and don't crap their pants in fear. We all get in cars and drive, without a second thought.

How about the safety of bicycle commuting, specifically?

Odds of fatality for bike commuters is less than 0.0007 per year - that is, 7 per 10,000, or 0.07% if you prefer.

http://www.webikeeugene.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/WeBikeEugeneMAP.jpg

Why do I say less than? Because the graphic linked uses total bicycling fatalities in the US, divided by number of bike commuters, and some of those fatalities were not of bike "commuters".

But, hey, if it is too frightening for you, then don't do it.

I dont like to see threads like these much less open and read them because of all the anger and hate. its not just about cyclists vs non cyclists. its really about how people that have no interest or knowledge of something perceive the interest of other people.
i know there are a lot of gun owners here. i am one, just got my CWP BTW. how do you like it when the non-gun owners try to tell you what to do with your guns? same thing with cyclists. soemone that does not understand their interest lableing them as something they are not or trying to tell them how to go about partaking in their interest.

it like this. go find the biggest. baddest hells angel motor cycle rider and try to make him understand your love of porsche's, much less try to to get him to drive one everyday. its the same as cyclists and non-cyclist. you will never understand why cyclists do what they do until you get out there and try to do it at a level more than just riding with your wife and kids in the neighborhood.
its like me hanging out with some of my redneck amercian made car lovers. they dont understand why i drive a "supped up volkswagon" nor do i try to convince them. they dont have an interest in porsches, never have and never will. but we repsect each other and what they drive or do.
so just have some repsect for orther people adn what they are interested in.

here are some thing i did for my safety that until you are on a bike, you would never understand and just get madd at.
there was a short section of road, 25mph, i would ride in the middle of the road because it was not a good place for a car to pass, but they could not wait a minute to get past. too many times cars did dangerous things there TO ME for it to be safe, and it was only 25mph. to make it worse, I was doing 25-28mph, but they still had to try to pass.
there is just something about a bike on the road that brings out the worst in people.
even though i could break the speed limit, i would still get yelled at. i dont see them yelling at the car going 20 in a 25.

same road but now it is 4 lanes and 25mph. i take up the right lane, doing on average the speed limit. the reason for taking the lane? tourist town. too many people step off the sidewalk and NEVER look, so i need the room to avoid them. also, cars pulling out from side parking lots. they look past me, then shoot straight across the 4 lanes to another road. being in the middle oof the lane gives me a better angle to see them, and for them to see me, plus, a little more time for me to react to them.

so you see.. there are reason cyclists do certain things. jsut like motor cycle riders. even though i dont ride a motorcycle, i can understand why they might do things they do, but if i dont, i try to give them the benefit of the doubt, and go about my driving.

so the next time you see someone doing something YOU think is stupid or dont understand and you know nothing about it, no matter if its a runner, a cyclist, a MC rider or what ever, just be polite to them and treat them the way you would want me to treat you or your kids.

For me (and many) it's not a matter of understanding why you do what you do, it's the question of why you're allowed to. I could write a passionate post about how riding my shifter kart to work is a soul enhancing experience, uses much less fuel than my car, is easier on the roadway, etc... So what? It would be an explanation of my motivations not a justification.

To me the point is that based on outdated laws we allow people to "play" in heavy traffic for their amusement and entertainment. It's simply not safe and should not be allowed.

There simply should be much greater restrictions on which roads bicyclists should be allowed to ride on. I know full well it will never happen, I know you all think I'm nuts...maybe I am :)

You know what I don't like about these threads?

The complete absence of any rational, fact-based analysis.

Plenty of you have come on here and wrung your hands about how cycling on the street is so incredibly dangerous. Not one of you has posted any data supporting your statement, or shown any sign of possessing any such knowledge.

I did post data, above, showing the relative safety of cycling compared to other activities and specifically of cycling on the street. I doubt any of you even read the links.

Continue, please, thinking with your emotions, your fears, and your sample sizes of one. Supposedly a forum of educated, accomplished, thinking people, this seems to me more like a bunch of blind men feeling up an elephant.

I see this behaviour all the time. Not just in this thread. When we talk about an economic issue, a public policy issue, pretty much any serious question, all that this forum can usually come up with is, at best, anecdotes.

People are simply not numerate, and have no inclination to do the work of thinking in numbers, probabilities, and real risk analysis.

And yet most of you will wail that we need to teach more math in school. Why bother? No-one seems to know what to do with numbers anyway.

For example, len , you - how many cyclists die in your town every year? Out of how many cyclists total? What probability of death is that? How does that compare with the probability of death from all the other commonplace activities that you see every day, and don't bat an eye at? Like driving a car, riding a motorcycle, living while obese, smoking a pack a day? Do you know? If you don't, what basis do you have to conclude that cycling is so dangerous that it should be banned?

Long time cyclist here and like most, have seen it all and had experienced viscious attempts at my life from drivers. It doesn't matter if a cyclist follows the rules of the road or law, we're no match against the crazies, accidental types or victim of the wrong place at the wrong time. And yes, the knucklehead cyclist are out there to blame as well. When I see cyclist on the road, I sort of reflect of what I too enjoy... although much less than years back. So you know what works when behind the wheel and a cyclist, especially in a dangerous road? Sloooooow way down, perhaps even hit the hazzard lamps and create a train of pissed off drivers behind. Who cares about those drivers behind? Protect the cyclist, knucklehead or not.

Have any of you seen the 'ghost' bikes as shrines to a fatality? They take old bikes, stripped and paint them white. Some cities are are kind to having the 'ghost' bikes and they do have to be anchored or locked down. Quite an emotional sight when passing by.