Please look out for bikers

“Drivers overtaking bike riders are the biggest cause of death among cyclists, says a study released Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board. Bike safety is a growing problem that appears to be getting more worrisome, and, the board reported, “current available data likely underestimate the level of bicycling activity in the United States.” In 2017, 806 cyclists died in crashes with motor vehicles, which it found “was comparable to the deaths resulting from railroad or marine accidents and more than twice the number of deaths resulting from aviation accidents in the same year.” Last year, the death toll jumped to 857, its highest since 1990. The NTSB report, its most comprehensive look at bicycle safety in 47 years, comes as both Republicans and Democrats in Congress are pushing hard to provide more funding for what they see as a growing problem."

Call me crazy, but I don't expect Congress to solve this--they are much too busy trying to undo the election of 2016. However, why not lessen the hype on bicycles being a healthy lifestyle exercise and answer to fossil fuel global warming? Let's crack down on drivers using their cell phones--we lived nicely for years without talking on phones while driving. You might just save some bikers from death or injury.

I've looked at the report, https://www.ntsb.gov/…/Documen…/2019-DCA18SS002-abstract.pdf and unfortunately, it only includes the number of deaths, not the increase in bicyclists sharing the roads (if there is such a figure which would give the real story). Doesn't include the age of the bikers--is this like the huge increase in number of falls among the elderly--the boomers are taking more chances? Is there really any evidence that ripping up streets to create narrowing spaces for cars with bike lanes is actually decreasing accidents, or does it just encourage more bikers who eventually merge on to more dangerous roadways which have no protected lanes? That's what I think about when I see numbers, without rates, without percentage.

If accidents go up 2x, but the number of bikers has also gone up by 4x, then that needs to be included in the report before suggesting legislation and expensive regulations. Also, if it took 30 years to get to the 1990 number, then what has changed? Cell phones and age of riders trying to be "woke" is still my guess.

Bikers in Cleveland

 

Maybe you think this is harsh?  Picture an end-term abortion, and get back to me.

How America bikes

I thought riding my bike at Lakeside last summer would be a good option because my bursitis hurt too much to walk.  On the first day I rode my 1968, no-speed bike to a program, I fell.  Actually, I just tipped over and hit a stop sign.  That was the end of my biking for summer 2014.

U.S. Bicycling Participation Benchmarking Report

• Thirty-four percent of Americans ages 3+ rode a bicycle at least one day in the past year.
• Of those who rode a bicycle, 30% rode five days or fewer.
• Those who rode for transportation are much more likely to have done so to get to and from social, recreation, or leisure activities (70%) than to have commuted to and from work or school (46%).
• Forty-eight percent of adults in the U.S. don’t have access to an operational bicycle at home.
• Fifty-four percent of adults in the U.S. perceive bicycling as a convenient way to get from one place to another and 53% would like to ride more often. However, 52% worry about being hit by a car and 46% say they would be more likely to ride a bicycle if motor vehicles and bicycles were physically separated.

Download the Report
Methodology
FAQs

4098

The power of a web

Yesterday morning when I returned to the house from coffee (about 7:30), I noticed the garage door was up. Must have forgotten to push the down button when I looked for the eclipse, I thought. When I pulled in and pushed the down-button in the car, the door went down and right back up. Must have not pulled in far enough, I thought, and got out and looked. No, there was plenty of clearance. I went into the house and told my husband there was something wrong with the garage door. Later when I came back from running a few errands, the door was down. When I asked what the problem was, he told me there was a spider web on the bottom of the far side of the door with a leaf caught in the threads, and the leaf passed over the light beam that signals something is in the way of the door (which is very heavy and could crush a child or a bicycle). I'm amazed both at the power of the little spider (who probably rode back from the lake with us on the side mirror of the van), and the technology put in place due to injuries from garage doors.

This leads me to the thought that technology cannot always protect people, especially stupid risk takers. Within a 1/2 mile of our home yesterday, pitch black outside, I thought I saw something in the headlights of the car in front of me where the street splits to a Y, so I slowed down (I was already only at about 30 mph because of just having left the drive-way). Yes, there was a biker in dark clothing, including a hooded sweatshirt so not even his pale skin reflected light. There were no lights or reflective tape on the bike. He had apparently stopped because he'd taken the wrong leg of the Y and was waiting to change lanes. I just shook my head in disbelief. There must be an angel riding on his handle bars offering to light his way, because truly this man was a very dim bulb.