Heads Up!
I am tired of the ever increasing number of so-called “bike safety” products. Especially when everyday I share the road with drivers like this. There needs to be a spray for them.
A product that would give drivers some perspective.
I can follow all the road rules, pay attention, wear bright colors, lights and shiny things while riding my bike. But I’m not the one operating heavy machinery on a public way. Let’s recognize the real problem.
Another fantasy product that needs to be real, but let’s be honest. Does anyone think aerosol methamphetamine is a good idea?
Yes! Why not? (Kiding of course)
True. We can only do so much to stay out of harm’s way and be visible. We share the road but we also need others to share the responsibility.
VERY much needed! Maybe infuse it in those little pine tree things that are hung from rear view mirrors. Change the pine tree shape to a “brain” shape. 🙂
Will there be a companion product to get cyclists to obey the traffic laws too?
Yeah! Let’s chase the red herring that kills about 6 Americans each **year** rather than the real problem that kills 100 Americans per **day**.
Dope.
What a way to celebrate Earth Day, Jim! You mean like all those drivers who scrupulously respect speed limits and leave the proper clearance for cyclists … and pedestrians?
I think you might have had trouble actually reading what Bikeyface was saying, Jim. She says that she can follow all the rules and motorists still drive appallingly round her. There’s huge evidence about what causes most crashes between motorists and cyclists and pedestrians – it’s motorists’ excessive speed, failure to pay attention and reluctance to yield as the rules require. It’s motorists’ reluctance to accept responsibility for their actions that leads them constantly to point the finger at others for a problem they create.
Personally, I as a cyclist am fastidious about following the road rules. I regularly have motorists deliberately drive at me, pass me too close and drive by me while distracted by mobile devices. Were I to break the rules, I’d run the risk that I might cause harm to myself. These law-breaking motorists threaten everyone around them.
In conclusion, you’re a fool and, worse still, you’re an unoriginal fool.
But you probably get tired of people telling you that, don’t you?
Granted, I am a motorist, but I can count on one hand the times I’ve seen cyclists break the road rules. Meanwhile I see motorists running stop signs (not even rolling stops, just outright running the sign), turning without signaling, signaling and then not turning, turning right with the left blinker on, tailgating, speeding, not leaving enough following distance, merging across a 4 lane highway all at once, not checking the blind spot, and these are daily occurences. I’ve had one near accident due to someone cutting in front of me on a highway, of course without any indicator, I just happened to “guess” that he was cutting in front and braked very hard. I am not a perfect driver either, but I try. I drive only small/local roads and I drive slowly in subdivisions and when turning to be sure I don’t interfere with other traffic (be they other motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, etc.). I drive a pretty large car and I still try to avoid the highway, because I know how terrible drivers are. Stay safe out there.
I don’t know why you feel compelled to come troll here with this annoying platitude. Everybody on the road breaks traffic laws at a pretty good rate, I was tailgated just this evening driving at the speed limit, and studies (for example http://streetsblog.net/2015/04/22/study-drivers-much-more-likely-to-yield-to-pedestrians-on-20-mph-streets/ ) show that drivers very frequently fail to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, especially when they are traveling at a speed that would make crashes likely to be deadly. And when I ride home and record my commute with a camera, it can objectively be seen that cyclists obey traffic laws; in particular, they mostly stop at red lights, and they mostly don’t salmon, and in either case, they almost always look carefully for other people and traffic when they do run the lights so that nobody else is put a risk or delayed — unlike the high-speed crosswalk runners.
Just remember, cyclists are the safety experts, not drivers. If you’re unwilling to count dead bodies and compare outcomes, then you’re talking about something other than safety.
I think one to make drivers obey traffic laws would have greater benefit
The difference between drivers and cyclists, is drivers admit there are idiot drivers out there. Cyclists won’t, and won’t address the issue, instead bringing up all the same tired arguments about drivers in order to avoid the responsibility. Typical. Childish.
If drivers are so responsible, how come they’re about 15 time more likely (per person) to kill a pedestrian in a crash than cyclists? Seems to me that the guys who are much better at not killing other people are the more responsible ones.
I mean, woo-hoo, you “admit” that you’re 15 times more deadly, that’s really awesome, too bad drivers aren’t an overwhelming majority that could vote for laws and enforcement that would get these bad apples off the road.
All cyclists admit there are idiot drivers. Or they would be dead cyclists.
No, he meant that cyclists won’t admit there are idiot cyclists out there.
I drive a recumbent trike. while it’s true I am lower to the ground than a bicycle, I am also higher than the squirrels people steer around in a panic, alive or dead. And I am damned sure higher than the lines on the road. I also use flags, actually windsocks like the Maryland flag and the US Flag. Plus flashy lights. If you don’t see me, put down the phone.
And yet I get drivers pull up to me and ask me if there isn’t a problem with drivers seeing me.
“Well, you saw me.”
“Yes, I saw you but I’m talking about all the idiots out here who don’t know how to drive.”
It’s never ever “me” who is the idiot who doesn’t know how to drive. It’s always the other guy who is an idiot driver. Says the guy who rolls a right turn on red or stop sign. Says the other guy who thinks the speed limit is posted plus 10 and that the posted is the minimum. Says it’s the other guy, no matter what.
Drivers admit that there are bad drivers out there. Just “not me. I am a careful and excellent driver.”
Jim, how about you commute by bicycle for a month and show us how it’s done; until then you’re just blowing hot air.
I grant you there are a few naive cyclists, like the ones riding against traffic, but a majority of serious bicycle commuters aren’t only safer than a majority of drivers, but are safer drivers behind the wheel.
Jim, it’s the ‘activist’ cyclists who always blame car drivers and never find fault with cyclists, because ‘cars are evil’, and anything that restricts/slows/bans cars is good (in their opinion). They’re a small minority of those riding bikes, but very vocal on the internet, so they seem like a larger group.
In truth, there are different kinds of people who ride on two wheels:
a) Activist Cyclists – members of cycling groups, very vocal about their ‘lifestyle’, usually wear helmet/lycra/too many lights (esp. during the day) and ride road bikes. Go on group rides. They’re the kind most likely to post on the internet and attend obscure transportation meetings.
b) Non-Activist Cyclists – like the previous group, except they don’t proselytize about cycling on the internet/preach their ‘lifestyle’. The most activist thing they do is bitch on the internet about people who annoy them.
c) GAMBBR – Going About My Business Bike Riders – These people just want to go from point A to B, and don’t really give a shit what you think of them. They commonly ride cheaper upright bikes and don’t bother with silly clothes. Occasional riders, they don’t generally post on the internet about their riding so, while large in number, not much attention is paid to them or their needs. The more affluent among them use bike share. GAMBBR are more likely to not have lights at night and ride on the wrong side of the road. They’ll also ‘shoal’ and ride on the sidewalk, because they’re not part of a ‘group’, so don’t follow group ride/groupthink rules. They may be annoying, but it’s useless to complain about them ‘breaking the law’ (although motorists always do, while ignoring their own lawbreaking). Besides, they tend to be slower, so they’re not much of a threat. The ones you really have to worry about are b), speeding lycra-clad cyclists who’ll dart out into traffic and zip past pedestrians.
I try to avoid all of them by taking low traffic streets with no bike lanes.
I’m a roadie who commutes, races and do social rides with both friends and young family, and must say, I agree with Jim. From what I see out and about the place, riders do need to do the right thing as well, it’s people as a whole we need to change, not just drivers, idiots are idiots regardless of what they choose as transport.
This is exactly why that glow-in-the-dark spray Volvo is making is a complete waste of time and money. Lighting myself up like a christmas tree won’t accomplish anything if the person behind the wheel of the giant metal bullet is a moron.