My biggest fear
I don’t drive often enough for it to be a very natural experience for me. I’m nervous as hell behind the wheel. And naturally, as tucsonbikelawyer, the thing that scares me the most is hitting a bicyclist.
Today I took the car to Ordinary Bike Shop to get some work done on my beloved Surly 29er single speed. On the way back I stopped at the intersection of 7th Ave. and Toole, where I was to make a right turn. Traffic comes up pretty fast there from the left, which is the direction my head was pointed . . . when a young woman on a bicycle flew across my vision, about six inches away from my front bumper. She was moving fast, the wrong direction, and if I had stopped a bit further on I might have hit her.
I suppose it was my fault for not looking both directions before advancing past the sidewalk, into where a crosswalk would be had one been painted there. But you just don’t expect wrong-way bicyclists. Even me. And you would think a wrong-way bicyclist would at least slow down a bit at the intersections.
Well, I’m sure glad I didn’t hit her.
Many people grew up learning that riding the wrong way down the road is the safest way to ride, because you can see traffic coming at you. It’s why I wish TPD would issue more warnings to such riders, and perhaps take the opportunity to let them know just how dangerous that kind of riding is (rather than just tell people not to do it).
I think it would pay bigger safety dividends than ambushing bicyclists at deserted four-way stops.
–Erik Ryberg
August 3rd, 2009 at 5:04 pm
I had the exact same experience recently. I felt guilty at first, and then angry when I realized what had happened.
August 3rd, 2009 at 5:57 pm
It is my biggest fear too. I can’t even imagine hitting a cyclist. Thank goodness I don’t have that many chances since I ride my bike almost everywhere.
August 4th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
[...] so rare, it merits major coverage — a cyclist commuting to work by bike. Tucson Bike Lawyer barely avoids a wrong-way cyclist while driving. A Kentucky man kills a triathlete on a closed course and drives off with the bike [...]
August 5th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Here in NYC, I fear wrong way cyclists more than cars. They are less predictable and are coming at me in my bike lane. I may Idaho stop at lights and signs but I do my best to keep flowing with traffic.
August 6th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Bike salmon have spawned everywhere!
August 7th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
“Here in , I fear wrong way cyclists more than cars” … I’m feeling a bit argumentative tonight: is there really anywhere on earth where the vast majority of cyclist fatalities are NOT the result of colliding with a motor vehicle?
On a related note, i was listening to some knucklehead from San francisco who claimed to be a pedestrian advocate — his concern? that bicyclists were a danger to peds. He lobbies against adding bicycle infrastructure on the theory that more bikes = more danger to peds. He expressed no fear of motor vehicles. There’s certainly a grain of truth to this, and lawbreaking cyclists (wrong way, stop sign running, etc) certainly pose some small risk to peds, but please. the vast majority of peds killed in traffic are run over by cars… not bikes, or not colliding with other peds.