I rode today. Did you?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Apie (11) on
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I've been in 3 accidents in the last 5 weeks, which makes up for 3 years with NO accidents. None were avoidable in any circumstances, but I have changed the way I ride after every one. What I have learned: Anything can happen at anytime. A car can pull out of a driveway even though there is a ton of traffic and no room for him. An idiot will salmon and go right into your lane after hiding in front of a big box van. You will slip on ice.
I have no broken bones but a seriously bruised and bloodied body. Good thing biking hurts less than walking. Not a question of if, but WHEN. Careful everyone
notoriousDUG said:Yeah, +1
You have a lot of accidents, enough that I think you may want to rethink how you ride...
Not too hip said:That is what crossed my mind!
Kevin C said:Like everyone here, I'm sorry about the crash and wish you a speedy recovery. So what is this, like the 4th time you've collided with a car in the last 7 months? Have you ever considered the possibility that you're doing something wrong?
Michael Perez said:thanks folks. Unfortunately the report was done between me and the driver I crashed into but not the driver who cut me off. I should have let him or her hit me instead of me.swerving and crashing into the other vehicle. I thought I found a spot when I swerved but unfortunately the other driver closed it and bam bam
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Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on
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We're getting dangerously close to victim-blaming in this thread. Let's try not to tread there.
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Adam wrote:
We're getting dangerously close to victim-blaming in this thread.
My comment:
No, we are not. At some point, whether its two, three, four, five, or ten, the "victim" is no longer the victim but rather the victim is the other person in the accident. Riding a bicycle does not mean that the rider is free to disregard all laws and safety rules and policies. Quite to the contrary, as the person who takes the greatest damage in an accident, this person is under an obligation to pay the greatest attention to safety rules and policies. For example, one of Apie's accidents appears to be the result of another rider NOT paying attention to such rules and policies and engaging in the wholly unacceptable practice of salmoning. Is this person also a "victim:, and if so are we "blaming the victim"? If we are saying that the Salmoning is bad behavior and this is "blame", yup.
What we are saying is that if you are involved in multiple accidents over a short period of time, it may make sense to step back and examine your riding practices and determine whether some or all of them need to be changed. This is not "blame", this is common sense. A trait, which I might add, is sadly missing in a large contingent of all of the road communities... from car drivers and pedestrians to bicyclists.
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Who said Michael was disobeying any laws? And I disagree – the person who is capable of inflicting the most harm is most responsible for safety. Of course when I ride, I have my own safety in mind and ride in a safe and predictable manner, but it ultimately is the responsibility of the person driving the car to act in a safe manner because they are operating the machine that is capable of inflicting far more damage. You don't give someone a gun and say that it's everyone else's responsibility to get out of the way of the bullets.
Crazy David 84 Furlongs said:Riding a bicycle does not mean that the rider is free to disregard all laws and safety rules and policies. Quite to the contrary, as the person who takes the greatest damage in an accident, this person is under an obligation to pay the greatest attention to safety rules and policies.
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My comment:
No one said that he was disobeying any laws. No one specifically blamed him for the accident. What we said was that this many accidents requires an examination of ones practices. Maybe nothing needs to be changed. Maybe something does. And, of course, the easiest way to get killed is to assume that the other guy is taking the greatest care -- particularly when they have the vehicle that can cause the greatest damage. And that's why the BICYCLE needs to take the greatest care, because the bicycle must assume that every driver on the street is ultimately distracted. That's called good safe defensive riding. Should Car drivers take greater care? Sure. But there is a reason for nearly 1000 traffic deaths this year in Chicago. But hey, if you want to ride with those rose colored glasses and assume that the Cars are taking care, go ahead. I am sure someone will be willing to scrape you off the pavement and put up a Ghost Bike for you....
Adam Herstein (5.5 mi) said:Who said Michael was disobeying any laws? And I disagree – the person who is capable of inflicting the most harm is most responsible for safety. Of course when I ride, I have my own safety in mind and ride in a safe and predictable manner, but it ultimately is the responsibility of the person driving the car to act in a safe manner because they are operating the machine that is capable of inflicting far more damage. You don't give someone a gun and say that it's everyone else's responsibility to get out of the way of the bullets.
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In no way did I say I was assuming that car drivers are taking care to not run me over. I assume everyone driving a car is trying to run me over, for my own safety. I am merely referring to who should be held to a higher responsibility for safety by society. This does not always reflect reality, however. In the Netherlands, in a collision between car and cycle, the driver is always assumed to be at fault. American policies do not reflect this, and should.
Crazy David 84 Furlongs said:My comment:
No one said that he was disobeying any laws. No one specifically blamed him for the accident. What we said was that this many accidents requires an examination of ones practices. Maybe nothing needs to be changed. Maybe something does. And, of course, the easiest way to get killed is to assume that the other guy is taking the greatest care -- particularly when they have the vehicle that can cause the greatest damage. And that's why the BICYCLE needs to take the greatest care, because the bicycle must assume that every driver on the street is ultimately distracted. That's called good safe defensive riding. Should Car drivers take greater care? Sure. But there is a reason for nearly 1000 traffic deaths this year in Chicago. But hey, if you want to ride with those rose colored glasses and assume that the Cars are taking care, go ahead. I am sure someone will be willing to scrape you off the pavement and put up a Ghost Bike for you....
Adam Herstein (5.5 mi) said:Who said Michael was disobeying any laws? And I disagree – the person who is capable of inflicting the most harm is most responsible for safety. Of course when I ride, I have my own safety in mind and ride in a safe and predictable manner, but it ultimately is the responsibility of the person driving the car to act in a safe manner because they are operating the machine that is capable of inflicting far more damage. You don't give someone a gun and say that it's everyone else's responsibility to get out of the way of the bullets.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on
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While everyone on the chainlink either straps on their armour and asbestos underwear and/or makes a bowl of popcorn, why doesn't someone start a new thread to avoid muddying up the "I rode today. Did you?" thread?
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Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on
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+1 I can't find Gene's recent pictures amidst the other noise.
Kevin C said:While everyone on the chainlink either straps on their armour and asbestos underwear and/or makes a bowl of popcorn, why doesn't someone start a new thread to avoid muddying up the "I rode today. Did you?" thread?
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Until you reminded me last night, I had forgotten to re-set my Domenica Cresap clock when the time changed.
h' 1.0 said:No worries. The thread automatically resets at Domenica Cresap O-Clock.
Kevin C said:While everyone on the chainlink either straps on their armour and asbestos underwear and/or makes a bowl of popcorn, why doesn't someone start a new thread to avoid muddying up the "I rode today. Did you?" thread?
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Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on
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Had to go back three pages to bump Gene's inspiring "I rode today" photos.
Gene Tenner said:
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Permalink Reply by David Barish on
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...ah, thanks for the reset, that felt good...I rode today, did not snap any gorgeous pictures and fortunately, did not have an accident. It was nice to ride without a balaclava. It was also nice to have fenders. While we are on the subject, it was just plain nice.
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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on
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The first thing they teach you in road safety classes, and in accident investigation, is that almost all 'accidents' ('incident' is the preferred term) are avoidable. They also teach you that most collisions do not have a single cause and in multi vehicle collisions you can often find behavior on the part of both participants making them each partially culpable for the incident. One may be more at fault, say they blew a stop sign and were breaking the law, but the second party shares some amount of culpability because they failed to notice, or respond to, the fact that the other vehicle was not stopping.
The sooner you realize that ANY time you are in an accident there is something you could have done to prevent it the safer you will be on the road. I know that for me pretty much all of the accidents I have had could have been avoided had I been paying more attention, thought more about where I was on the road or had been riding more cautiously. Did other people make mistakes that caused the accident, yes they did but that does not change the fact that I still bore some responsibility for the accident.
Michael Perez said:This accident was unavoidable as the pavement was wet, the car who cut me off could have had it worse than me and I couldn't stop. Turning wasn't an option and I couldn't go left since I saw lights and heard cars speeding. Where does that leave me? Hitting a driver's window. I have changed my riding habits plenty of times, it's just a bad year.
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