On Thu, 8 Feb 2018 20:12:26 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:
On 2/8/2018 6:13 PM, Tim McNamara wrote:

How are most cyclists injured or killed in accidents? They are
struck from behind by an overtaking motor vehicle.

Sorry, that's not true. See
https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/PED_BIKE...f/swless04.pdf

snip

11. The most frequent parallel-path crashes were motorist turn/merge
into bicyclist’s path (12.2 percent), motorist overtaking the
bicyclist (8.6 percent), and bicyclist turn/merge into motorist’s path
(7.3 percent).

Do you know if the first type were exclusively drivers and cyclists
traveling in opposite drections? Or does this include situations where
the driver had passed the cyclist and then turned, cutting the cyclist
off? I would include that scenario in my original statement as they
were struck by a vehicle coming from behind. Not that it would be
likely to move that into the majority. Perhaps my information is out of
date, past research had indicated being struck by a vehicle traveling in
the same direction caused more fatalities.

The most frequent crossing path crashes were motorist failed to yield
to bicyclist (21.7 percent), bicyclist failed to yield at an
intersection (16.8 percent), and bicyclist failed to yield midblock
(11.8 percent).

In what scenario does a vehicle turning or entering the road in the
middle of the block have the right of way?

These six individual crash types accounted for almost 80 percent of
all bicycle-motor vehicle crashes."

What are the other 20+%? Bicycists hitting parked cars? Drivers
hitting stationary bicyclists (we had one of those incidents here a few
years ago when a semi driver turned right on a red, crushing the cyclist
in the bike lane waiting at the corner under the trailer wheels).

So motorist overtaking were just 8.6 percent of the total. And I'd bet
that a majority of those were of two types: Totally Unlit cyclists at
night, which legal lighting would prevent; and "I think I can squeeze
by" events, which would have been averted by lane control by the
cyclist.

I strongly suspect that 8.6% is a gross underestimate and that the real
number is at least double that. It doesn't pass the smell test. As for
you putative reasons, I think that certainly a percentage is the unlit
cyclist scenario (since I see a lot of that around here and those riders
can be hard to see especially in the glare of oncoming headlights). But
I think the greater cause is inattentive, negligent and incompetent
driving.

The lane control is a red herring, it is the driver's responsibility to
gauge that correctly and their fault if they don't- not that that helps
the dead cyclist or injured, of course. As my Mom used to say about
driving, "you can be right and you can be dead right."

snip

LAB's been useless for decades. Their devotees around here have managed
to get bike lanes created that are more dangerous than the situation had
been on the same roads without them.