More than 52,000 bicyclists have been killed in bicycle traffic accidents in the U.S. over the 80 years the federal government has been keeping records. When it comes to sharing the road with cars, many people seem to assume that such accidents are usually the cyclist’s fault — a result of reckless or aggressive riding. But an analysis of police reports on 2,752 bike-car accidents in Toronto found that clumsy or inattentive driving by motorists was the cause of 90 percent of these crashes. Among the leading causes: running a stop sign or traffic light, turning into a cyclist’s path, or opening a door on a biker. This shouldn’t come as too big a surprise: motorists cause roughly 75 percent of motorcycle crashes too. [%comments]
Who Causes Cyclists' Deaths?
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I ride a bike every day to work. I’m glad to see someone looking at this rationally. Bikers are the red-headed step children of the commuting world – we get fined if we ride on sidewalks, or hit by cars if we ride in the streets.
Absolutely no surprise. I cycle a lot in an unfriendly bike town – Atlanta. I often go with a fast crowd of racers. There is almost no act of driver stupidity or inattention that would surprise me – I’ve seen so much of it. And in this town, plenty of outright hostility.
Bob Mionske, attorney & ex-collegiate racer, writes an excellent column on cycling & the law (used to be on Velo News, now on Bicycling magazine). He examines the legal implications of cycling on public roads all over the U.S. Besides drawing similar conclusions to this study regarding who’s at fault, another factor is equally dark for cyclists: police departments all over the land overwhelmingly are biased towards motorists. There have been many incidents where cyclists were seriously injured or even killed without the driver involved even being ticketed!
As a dedicated rider, got a witness. The most dangerous thing to a cyclist (aside from the curb that cost me a broken arm this summer) is a motorist with a cup of coffee in one hand, a bagel in the other, a cell phone conversation going on and God only knows how she’s holding that mascara brush.
Who are these “many” people who assumed it was the cyclist’s fault? People who’ve never walked or ridden on a bicycle?
From the summary: “1. Approximately three- fourths of these motorcycle accidents involved collision with another
vehicle, which was most often a passenger automobile.” and “6. In multiple vehicle accidents, the driver of the other vehicle violated the motorcycle right-ofway
and caused the accident in two-thirds of those accidents.”
My reading of the summary indicates that other motorists or vehicles cause about 50% of motorcycle crashes, rather than 75%. (66% of 75% would be 50%).
And some of the ones that aren’t inattentive are malicious. I got shoved into the gutter by some company van on freakin’ bike-to-work day. This guy decided he had to be in front of me at the red light (as *if* he couldn’t pass me as soon as the light turned green), pulled out to pass, and pulled back in while I was still beside him; he caught me on the shoulder with his side panel. If I hadn’t been so shaken by that, I’d have called his employer and the police, but I didn’t get the company name.
As an addendum to the above, a quick reading of the bicycle statistics indicate that about 40% of those accidents could be qualified as violating the cyclist’s right-of-way. That would put cyclists of either sort at roughly the same risk for the single largest cause of collisions.
“And some of the ones that aren’t inattentive are malicious.”
Bears repeating.