Non Motor Vehicle Accidents for Bicyclists (Survey for PeopleResiding in USA)

"Non-motor vehicle accidents constitute more than 90 percent of the bicycle
accidents in the United States (based on emergency room research). It is
therefore vital that we learn how bicyclists crash so that bike engineering
can address all of the safety needs of the bicyclists.
We would like to draw information of any non-motor bicycle accident you have
been involved in through this questionnaire"

-------------------------------------------------------

I have been a yearround transportational cyclist for 8 years.
I do about 4000 miles/year on roads and trails.
ALL collisions were motor-vehicle involved and in every case it was due to
the car driver breaking the law(s)
I find the figure of 90% of bike collisions to not involve a motor-vehicle
hard to believe.

I have been a yearround transportational cyclist for 8 years.
I do about 4000 miles/year on roads and trails.
ALL collisions were motor-vehicle involved and in every case it was due to
the car driver breaking the law(s)
I find the figure of 90% of bike collisions to not involve a motor-vehicle
hard to believe.


Well, I don't know. I too have cycled tens of thousands of miles, and have yet
to be involved in a collision accident with a motor vehicle (many, many near
misses!). On the other hand, I have gone down many times, whether due to high
speed downhill turns (very dangerous!), sand, mechanical failure, unseen
hazards, and (sadly) other bikes! My own experience would seem consistent with
this statistic. The study should perhaps ask about both types of accidents, to
clear up this preliminary statistic detail (?)

In article , says...
"Non-motor vehicle accidents constitute more than 90 percent of the bicycle
accidents in the United States (based on emergency room research). It is
therefore vital that we learn how bicyclists crash so that bike engineering
can address all of the safety needs of the bicyclists.
We would like to draw information of any non-motor bicycle accident you have
been involved in through this questionnaire"

-------------------------------------------------------

I have been a yearround transportational cyclist for 8 years.
I do about 4000 miles/year on roads and trails.
ALL collisions were motor-vehicle involved and in every case it was due to

I could see that for "collisions", but he said "Accidents", which would
include falling when hitting a patch of sand while rounding a curve,
mis-judging a bunny hop over a curb and falling, etc. IMO, these don't
count as "collisions".


the car driver breaking the law(s)
I find the figure of 90% of bike collisions to not involve a motor-vehicle
hard to believe.

--
Dave Kerber
Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

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In article , David Kerber wrote:
I have been a yearround transportational cyclist for 8 years.
I do about 4000 miles/year on roads and trails.
ALL collisions were motor-vehicle involved and in every case it was due to

I could see that for "collisions", but he said "Accidents", which would
include falling when hitting a patch of sand while rounding a curve,
mis-judging a bunny hop over a curb and falling, etc. IMO, these don't
count as "collisions".

And these "Accidents" occur mostly to newbies, either to little kids
or lard-asses starting to exercise. Hence safety measures recommended
after this survey will be useless and preferably miserable, eg
support wheels, speeding restrictors, helmets, corsets, kneepads and
whatever some clueless "expert" can think of when paid to do so. :-/

"Jay" wrote in message
...
"Non-motor vehicle accidents constitute more than 90 percent of the
bicycle
accidents in the United States (based on emergency room research). It is
therefore vital that we learn how bicyclists crash so that bike
engineering
can address all of the safety needs of the bicyclists.
We would like to draw information of any non-motor bicycle accident you
have
been involved in through this questionnaire"

-------------------------------------------------------

I have been a yearround transportational cyclist for 8 years.
I do about 4000 miles/year on roads and trails.

Yeah, yeah, me too.

I find the figure of 90% of bike collisions to not involve a motor-vehicle
hard to believe.

He said "accidents" not "collisions".

But every time I've fallen, it's been just me. I miss judged something, and
down I went. It's certainly possible that you're more skilled than I.
Another possibility is that I take more risks. I'm perhaps too fond of
adrenaline -- maybe it's just as well I don't drive to work, eh?

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com

Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm

New CD coming out this month! See: http://www.tiferet.net

"To forgive is to set the prisoner free and then discover the prisoner
was you."

In article ,
says...
In article , David Kerber wrote:
I have been a yearround transportational cyclist for 8 years.
I do about 4000 miles/year on roads and trails.
ALL collisions were motor-vehicle involved and in every case it was due to

I could see that for "collisions", but he said "Accidents", which would
include falling when hitting a patch of sand while rounding a curve,
mis-judging a bunny hop over a curb and falling, etc. IMO, these don't
count as "collisions".

And these "Accidents" occur mostly to newbies, either to little kids
or lard-asses starting to exercise. Hence safety measures recommended

Mostly, yes, but not strictly.

after this survey will be useless and preferably miserable, eg
support wheels, speeding restrictors, helmets, corsets, kneepads and
whatever some clueless "expert" can think of when paid to do so. :-/

Probably true. I can't imaging what you could do to a bike to
help keep you from crashing when you enter a corner way too fast.
More education isn't going to help either when (like in my case) that
kind of screwup only happens once in 20 years of riding.


--
Dave Kerber
Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

Jay wrote in message ...
"Non-motor vehicle accidents constitute more than 90 percent of the bicycle
accidents in the United States (based on emergency room research).
....
I find the figure of 90% of bike collisions to not involve a motor-vehicle
hard to believe.

I've been cycling for 20 years, both recreationally and commuting. My
only mishaps were falls, mostly off road but three were on-road. I've
never collided with a motor vehicle.

Steve Goodridge

In rec.bicycles.misc Steven Goodridge wrote:
: I've been cycling for 20 years, both recreationally and commuting. My
: only mishaps were falls, mostly off road but three were on-road. I've
: never collided with a motor vehicle.

... heh. i've been cycling for 20 years similiarly (all road) and i've fallen
once from mechanical failure (1992, broken bb spindle) and three times from
vehicles .. twice hit a car (1993 and 2003, right turned in both cases) and
once avoiding an oncoming 18-wheeler in my lane on a rural highway (2002).

3 of 4 for vehicles for me.
--
david reuteler

I presume "bike collisions" should read "bike accidents." That being the
case I would suspect that far more than 90% of such accidents do not involve
a motor vehicle. I've had numerous accidents but only one required a trip to
the ER. Except for a friend who got a bad door prize I can think of no one
who collided with motor vehicles. It does happen and can be deadly, but is
extremely rare.
On the other hand, if you define "accident" as requiring a trip to the
ER the incidence would no doubt go up some.
--
Steve Juniper
"Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere."

"Steven Goodridge" wrote in message
om...
Jay wrote in message
...
"Non-motor vehicle accidents constitute more than 90 percent of the
bicycle
accidents in the United States (based on emergency room research).
....
I find the figure of 90% of bike collisions to not involve a motor-vehicle
hard to believe.

I've been cycling for 20 years, both recreationally and commuting. My
only mishaps were falls, mostly off road but three were on-road. I've
never collided with a motor vehicle.

Steve Goodridge

Steve Juniper at wrote on 2/5/04 9:29 PM:
I presume "bike collisions" should read "bike accidents." That being the
case I would suspect that far more than 90% of such accidents do not involve
a motor vehicle. I've had numerous accidents but only one required a trip to
the ER. Except for a friend who got a bad door prize I can think of no one
who collided with motor vehicles. It does happen and can be deadly, but is
extremely rare.
On the other hand, if you define "accident" as requiring a trip to the
ER the incidence would no doubt go up some.


In too many cases, collisions are called accidents.
In my opinion- there are **very few true accidents**.


Many collisions with other road users, poles, the ground, etc are caused **
mainly by inattentiveness by the driver ( of bike or motor vehicle).

We all need to take responsibility while using trails and roads to be
totally focused on the task, which is the driving of the vehicle.

We should be aware of how, when and where collisions tend to occur and steps
we should take to reduce the odds.
We should be considering daytime and night time visibility, safe routes,
road conditions, knowledge of road law and safe cycling principles.
Even many mechanical problems could have been avoided.

Most collisions are preventable.

When riding, if I have even a slightly close call towards a collision, even
though the other vehicle operator may have broken laws- I evaluate how that
incident occurred and how I can reduce the odds of a similar incident
occurring in my vicinity.

The word accident seems to reduce people's sense of responsibility to these
incredibly damaging situations in which lives are lost, people crippled and
millions of dollars in property damage occurs.