Cyclists cause 10% of car-bike accidents

[Biciclista]

Wow, who knew!
http://www.research.utoronto.ca/behi...smart-cycling/
Who causes accidents—cyclists or drivers?

While there is a public perception that cyclists are usually the cause of accidents between cars and bikes, an analysis of Toronto police collision reports shows otherwise: The most common type of crash in this study involved a motorist entering an intersection and either failing to stop properly or proceeding before it was safe to do so. The second most common crash type involved a motorist overtaking unsafely. The third involved a motorist opening a door onto an oncoming cyclist. The study concluded that cyclists are the cause of less than 10 per cent of bike-car accidents in this study.

The available evidence suggests that collisions have far more to do with aggressive driving than aggressive cycling.

[Eden]

Hope you don't mind, but I swiped this link to post over at Cascade - there are pretty lively debates over there, even amongst cyclists about how to co-exist with automobiles. (and there are some there who are cyclists who still persist in blaming the cyclists for accidents - the phantom hordes of dangerous scofflaw cyclists..... )

You know - other studies have shown that a percentage of collisions have the blame assigned to cyclists only because the cyclist was unconscious or worse deceased and could not refute the motorists story.... so what does that leave 95% of collisions caused by automobiles.... and the remainder are likely those who have done really stupid things - riding at night with no lights is one of the is one of the major causes of cyclist caused fatality.

[dianne_1234]

Reminds me of "The Myth of the Scofflaw Cyclist"
http://washcycle.typepad.com/home/20...th-of-the.html

[Biciclista]

Ironically I got this link from Cascade!

[Kalidurga]

Interesting to read about this in light of a recent cyclist death in Baltimore. At this point, they're saying surveillance video shows that the cyclist was at fault, although it sounds as if the truck driver's actions may have contributed. I'd be willing to bet that there's similar grey area in a lot of bike/auto accidents.

[Crankin]

I have mixed feelings on this topic. In the past 2 weeks I've spent a couple of evenings in Cambridge (urban riding and lots of commuters, though mostly in designated bike lanes). Frankly I have never seen such blatant disregard of the law. Going through red lights, zipping through lanes of traffic, and no lights at night. And this is in a city that actually tickets cyclists. I hate to be seen as anti-cyclist, but this is one reason I don't ride in the city. The cars react to the riding and vice-versa, and everyone is angry, which is a recipe for disaster.
My son (the one who is not a cyclist) recently started riding the mountain bike we handed down to him around the city, as he realized he is a skinny out of shape person. He called us to ask why all of the other riders were going through lights and was this OK? We taught him the rules of the road a few years ago when he rode to a summer job and he was following everything we taught him last week. We told him to keep following the law!

[cattygrrl]

The most common type of crash in this study involved a motorist entering an intersection and either failing to stop properly or proceeding before it was safe to do so. The second most common crash type involved a motorist overtaking unsafely. The third involved a motorist opening a door onto an oncoming cyclist.

Instructors I know would tell you that in the first and third cases especially, the cyclists involved had a responsibility to ride more defensively (and thus lowering the likelihood of a crash), by 1) making sure other road users were not entering an intersection at the same time (bikes being a bit easier to stop than cars), 2) taking the lane, weaving a bit if necessary to make oneself more visible, and 3) STAY OUT OF THE DOOR ZONE!!

Yeah, the League teaches us that we are often our own worst enemies. That doesn't even begin to address those who use bicycles by riding on the sidewalks, against traffic, etc.