According crash statistics studied by Chris Cavacuiti, bicyclists were at fault in car-bicycle collisions in Toronto only about 10 percent of the time. “The available evidence suggests that collisions have far more to do with aggressive driving than aggressive cycling,” Cavacuiti said. His advice for staying safe:
- Know and follow the rules of the road. Always.
- Consider taking a course to learn how to share the road as safely as possible with other vehicles. CAN-BIKE courses are offered through the City of Toronto.
- Find a balance between being a careful rider and being confident enough to claim adequate space on the road within lanes of traffic and around parked cars.
- Remember that motorists will not necessarily understand what the needs of a cyclist are—so educate yourself. There’s a difference between being assertive and aggressive. Self-preservation should be your primary motivation.
- If you’re planning to become a regular cycling commuter, there will inevitably be times when you may need to ride in the dark or in the rain, so invest in some lights and some reflective clothing and also buy yourself some good quality rain gear. I ride my bike almost all year round and what I’ve come to realize is that there’s really no such thing as bad weather; there are only bad clothing choices!
Cavacuiti also gets into the whole helmet thing, which I think is distracting (and he agrees, although he brought it up anyway). I disagree with his assessment that perhaps laws could be passed to make wearing a helmet manditory so that “work could move forward with the issues that really matter, like improved infrastructure for safe cycling.” The problem: I think such a law would do more to discourage riders than to keep them safe. We need numbers on the road.
Comments 3
Interesting. All three of the “most common” accidents can be dramatically reduced by the bicycle rider maintaining a more visible (harder to miss) position instead of the typical “really far right.” This despite the motorist being officially “at fault.”
I was a little confused by all that infrastructure talk. That doesn’t seem like something a cyclist can do anything about on a day-to-day basis regardless of whether one LIKES a particular type of infrastructure.
Posted 22 Aug 2009 at 1:46 pm ¶Steve… Yep, move left.
Posted 22 Aug 2009 at 3:29 pm ¶I wear a helmet on almost every ride. For me it’s routine, a habit. Riding a bike without my helmet feels as strange to me as driving or riding in a car without a seatbelt. But (like you) right now I don’t think government should make it mandatory for adults. (I’m less libertarian about children and helmets.)
What I do know is that I am very, very weary of European sites–a few blogs in particular– that claim that only folks from the UK, North America, and those with mental defects (and that list is a very close paraphrase) wear them. Whether that approach is satire or (as I see it) ridicule, it’s unpersuasive to me. I’ll go with the American and British Medical Associations over the bloggers almost every time.
Do you get into the “whole helmet thing” anywhere in these pages? If so, could you point me to that post or posts? And are you aware of a survey that supports the notion that helmet-wearing discourages entry to ridership? (That second question is a friendly query, by the way, not a challenge.)
Posted 22 Aug 2009 at 4:24 pm ¶