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#91
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Ouch. This happened to me once
On Wed, 21 Feb 2018 12:22:24 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote: And those ignore interactions with bicyclists. I know a smart and dedicated bike advocate who has worked a long time trying to influence them to teach respect for cyclists, care when passing cyclists, etc. She's also lobbied to get appropriate questions into the official driver's license exams. She's been repeatedly rebuffed, but she keeps trying. She's holding the wrong end of the stick. No amount of instruction will give a driver the gut-deep understanding that is required when one's spine is making several life-and-death decisions per second. What she needs to do is to say "Our teenagers wrap themselves around trees and crash into other vehicles because they are trying to learn too many things at once. We should start teaching the rules of the road a few years ahead of time, and take our children out on their little bikes for on-the-road supervised practice. Then when they turn sixteen, all they will need to learn is how to control a car." *That* would give the drivers a gut-deep understanding of how bikes move. But it's quite out of the question, of course. It would cost almost as much as building ten feet of separated bike path, and you'd have to pay it again every year. No way the taxpayers would ever stand for such a ridiculous expense. -- Joy Beeson joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/ |
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#92
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Ouch. This happened to me once
On Fri, 23 Feb 2018 14:55:54 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote: On 2/23/2018 1:29 PM, Tim McNamara wrote: On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 11:21:31 -0500, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 2/19/2018 10:32 AM, AMuzi wrote: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...shing-car.html (I was test riding a customer's race bike when Asian Kitchen delivery turned in. They replaced his bike.) How odd! The magic paint somehow failed to prevent the collision! In the U.S. it would have been mirror image, so a right hook. Over there, it's a left hook. Either way, it's a common collision. And this illustrates the weirdness of the bike lane concept. Under what circumstances would a straight-ahead motoring lane be placed between the curb and a lane where turns are permitted? And when would a motorist think it's safe to "undertake" like that when a vehicle has its turn signal blinking? It's an interesting question. The legalities of course hinge on the specifics of the UK traffic laws and I have no idea what they are. For that matter, I don't know what the law says about this in Minnesota. As a cyclist, if I was in that situation I would stop and give way to the car- even if it was my right of way, in a collision the car would win. Sometimes drivers will signal to me that they have seen me and to proceed, but I never assume they've seen me otherwise. There is a discussion locally about pedestrian safety. So far this year, some 30 pedestrians have been hit by vehicles in St. Paul. A few years ago a law was passed giving pedestrians the right of way at all intersections except where controlled by a stoplight and walk signal as that governs right of way in those intersections. However, drivers and pedestrians are getting worse at it rather than better over time! between 1/1 - 2/11/16 there were 19 car-ped collisions and 2 car-bike collisions in St. Paul; the same period in 2017 it was 25 and 0; this year it as been 30 and 2. One pedestrian fatality and 27 injured this year, no bicyclist fatalities and two with injuries. https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/p...a-city-st-paul Yes, that's how the numbers usually trend. But somehow people fixate on bicycling as being dangerous. Go figure. Many times I see pedestrians- sometimes at the last second- on dark roads wering dark clothes with no reflective surfaces or illumination. These are also usually the folks walking out into traffic at a corner or sometimes in mid-block. Oi. The fashion heareabouts for dark clothing seems to be on the upswing. There are an amazing number of unlit, non-reflective cyclists out at night too. And what really amazes me is the number of these folks wearing hoodies and blocking their peripheral vision. Whassup with that? I find it a bit hard to blame the driver in those collisions. |
#93
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Ouch. This happened to me once
Joy Beeson writes:
On Wed, 21 Feb 2018 12:22:24 -0500, Frank Krygowski wrote: And those ignore interactions with bicyclists. I know a smart and dedicated bike advocate who has worked a long time trying to influence them to teach respect for cyclists, care when passing cyclists, etc. She's also lobbied to get appropriate questions into the official driver's license exams. She's been repeatedly rebuffed, but she keeps trying. She's holding the wrong end of the stick. No amount of instruction will give a driver the gut-deep understanding that is required when one's spine is making several life-and-death decisions per second. What she needs to do is to say "Our teenagers wrap themselves around trees and crash into other vehicles because they are trying to learn too many things at once. We should start teaching the rules of the road a few years ahead of time, and take our children out on their little bikes for on-the-road supervised practice. Then when they turn sixteen, all they will need to learn is how to control a car." *That* would give the drivers a gut-deep understanding of how bikes move. I suspect you're right. If that could be shown with some sort of quantitative evidence it's not completely inconceivable that car insurance companies would give young drivers a break for experience cyling in traffic. Obviously an objective measure of useful experience would be needed. Car insurance is a significant expense, so provides a significant incentive. One problem, of course, is that eventually one of those children would die, and the "if it saves one life" brigade would do their very best to shut the whole thing down. But it's quite out of the question, of course. It would cost almost as much as building ten feet of separated bike path, and you'd have to pay it again every year. No way the taxpayers would ever stand for such a ridiculous expense. -- |
#94
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Ouch. This happened to me once
On 2018-02-23 10:32, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 08:42:11 -0800, Joerg wrote: Maybe the guy didn't think a MTB could be doing north of 20mph. I think many drivers assume cyclists are going slowly and don't bother to actually look and judge the speed. Unless they are in the lycra clown suit, head down and obviously working hard. Good point. I don't own lycra stuff, always riding in jeans shorts and T-shirt. Most of them don't have Fox, Rockshox or similar logos and when coming off a singletrack they can look grungy. The MTB is generally in a mud-caked condition. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ |
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