living with cars on the road

[mimitabby]

or shall I say, staying alive?

here's an interesting matrix; talks about what caused bike/car fatalities.

http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/matrix/list.cfm


I hear a lot of flack from time to time by irate drivers... but I found an interesting statistic. There are generally about 5000 PEDESTRIANS killed by cars every year. In 2003, there were 622 bicyclist killed by vehicles. Now, it's true, there are more pedestrians than bicyclists, but why the anger and invective against us?
The fact is, PEDESTRIANS are in the street and getting killed and maimed too.

Obviously the problem isn't the bicyclists, it's the people driving CARS!!!.

[Eden]

Drivers don't mind peds as much since pedestrians are soft, squishy and not at all fast and don't damage your car too much when you run them over???

But seriously I have just as many, if not more close calls with cars walking as I have on my bike. Mostly its people turning right on red who are looking left - looking for cars- who then turn without checking to the right for pedestrians. Though also I have been nearly run over several times by cars failing to stop at stop signs when I've been crossing he street - humph just what they accuse all us bikes of doing. Something tells me I'd prefer to be hit by a bike....

I think everyone, drivers, cyclists and pedestrians alike would be much safer if we eliminated right on red and/or had dedicated pedestrian only crossing times at busy intersections- like NO cars coming through intesections when peds cross and no peds when traffic is there. It would also help with the fact that it is nearly impossible to make a right hand turn downtown since when the light is green the intersections are full of walkers and when its red they are full of traffic. I can understand (but not really sympathise... I never drive downtown unless it is completelly unavoidable) that people get frustrated by not being able to get around down there.

[Geonz]

Also of importance to note: while some kinds of automobile fatalities have gone down, the actual amount of *crashes* hasn't - we've just insulated the cars better. The fatalities for pedestrians & cyclists have increased.
Lots of parallels here about attitudes of "safety means protecting myself against my carelessness," instead of finding ways to interact less destructively with our surroundings.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I read that after years of slow steady decline, the number of motorcycles fatalities has been suddenly rising dramatically due to increased car-motorcycle collisions. Could this be related to car cell phone use, I wonder?
Even here in NY state where it is ILLEGAL to use a hand held cell phone while driving- about every 10th car I see go by me has the driver holding a cell phone to their head and talking away....I don't think anyone is enforcing the law at all.

[MomOnBike]

OK, I can't cite my source on this (sorry), but the word-of-mouth statistic I heard this weekend is that we would have to stay in Iraq for 50 years to get the number of fatalities we have every single <deletable expletive> year from cars.

Working in a rehab hospital, I think I believe it. The older I get the more anti-car I become, and I never did like cars that much to begin with.

Cars and cell phones. Ugh. Don't get me started.

[Kimmyt]

I think it has to do with our bikes. They see us, riding our complicated shiny hunks of metal on the road, wearing our spandex and bright colors, sunglasses and funny-shaped helmets. They don't relate to us as much as humans. I'm not saying they don't think they're human.

But between a regular person walking, and a cyclist all kitted up, which one is the average driver going to relate to the most?

If they hit a ped, they relate to that person more, can see themselves in the ped's shoes, as it were. With a cyclist, they just see someone doing something they don't understand, and blame the cyclist because obviously it was their fault, doing such a weird and dangerous thing on the roads where they shouldn't be.

[spokewench]

I read that after years of slow steady decline, the number of motorcycles fatalities has been suddenly rising dramatically due to increased car-motorcycle collisions. Could this be related to car cell phone use, I wonder?
Even here in NY state where it is ILLEGAL to use a hand held cell phone while driving- about every 10th car I see go by me has the driver holding a cell phone to their head and talking away....I don't think anyone is enforcing the law at all.

It is my personal opinion that whether it is cell phones or other things that cause people to be inattentive to their driving obligations, this is a huge and major cause of increased collisions.

However, I think that the fact that more people are starting to drive motorcycles again due to the increased in gas prices, could have somethign to do with the increased in collision/fatalities with motorcycles as well.

[mimitabby]

It is my personal opinion that whether it is cell phones or other things that cause people to be inattentive to their driving obligations, this is a huge and major cause of increased collisions.

However, I think that the fact that more people are starting to drive motorcycles again due to the increased in gas prices, could have somethign to do with the increased in collision/fatalities with motorcycles as well.

In regards to motorcycles, right now they are the large purchase of choice
for men seeking their second childhood. The age of riders in fatality accidents has climbed because of this new population of harley riding middle aged guys who are actually just learning to ride these very heavy beasts. There was a write up in the paper about a year ago about this.