Bicycle Accident Survey

[PiaO]

My local bicycle club, the New York Cycle Club, is conducting a worldwide bicycle accident survey. The results will be published as part of a cycling risk assessment study. Please consider entering one or more accident survey responses. The more responses, the more meaningful the results will be. Thank you.
http://www.nycc.org/ras/

[mimitabby]

thanks Pia, and welcome to TE!

[Mr. Bloom]

It looks like it only wants New York respondents...

[Beane]

No, I think it wants everyone:

"Whether you had a minor or major accident, or observed one, live in New York or far away, please click here to enter a survey response."

[bmccasland]

I liked the last question about risk tolerance... Didn't quite know how to answer that one! I don't consider myself a high risk seeking individual, but some might - is riding 20 mph in a pace line considered risky?

No matter, it's too late to change my answer (I answered "neutral").

[Eden]

I put in two responses and I answered neutral to both, though I'm not so sure that's true. If I was risk averse I probably wouldn't race....

I'm not sure that either crash I've had recently could be made too clear with their questions. I touched wheels with a teammate in a sprint and went down early this year - my fault, but there wasn't really a place to indicate that it was a race, which I think presents a different set of circumstances to a regular ride. I do tend to be more risk taking when I know that traffic is not an issue, though I would hesitate to call myself thrill seeking (or what ever their last rating was). I'm not the most aggressive racer out there. (as well I should not be, as if I try to throw my "weight" around at 104 lbs, I lose....)

The other one was having someone (in a car) slam their brakes on in front of me on a rainy day. (probably after having just passed me, though I do not really recall, I ride the road often as it is on my commute and I think that unless he had just come out of a side street or passed me its unlikely I would have been very close to him). Technically I rear ended him, so I suppose that means that I am at least partially at fault, but he did slam on the brakes..... I damaged him more than he damaged me... I actually put my hand through his taillight. Cracked one of my nails clean through down near the base. Its growing out now and it looks like it will probably be a bit funky from now on, but taillights don't grow back :p.

[PiaO]

Thank you all for the interest and for submitting survey responses. The feedback provided here is quite interesting to read, too.

A couple notes: you are correct it is a worldwide survey. Currently the survey is in English, but we're working on translating it to other languages and other, more local English-based vernacular and spellings (Australian, U.K., etc.).

The question bmccasland posed is an excellent one. The risk tolerance question concerns how you perceive or measure risk at the time of the accident. For example, see Eden's train of though in her post. Given the feedback, perhaps this question should be clarified a bit more on the survey form.

You are correct to point out there is no question in the survey to capture whether the crash happened in a race. Perhaps there should be. There is a wheel touching selection under bike vs bike though.

Thanks again for the feedback. It's quite helpful.