Are women cyclists in more danger than men cyclists?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8296971.stm

On Oct 11, 10:36*pm, "Claude" wrote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8296971.stm

The report article cites that 7 of 8 cyclists killed in accidents
involving cyclists and lorries were females.
And this is despite the alleged fact that only 28% of cyclists in
London are females.

So what's happening with the women that isn't happening with the men?

My own observations here in Canberra would indicate about 10% of women
on roads are female, and mostly under 30.

Some are remarkably aware cyclists, and all seem more prone to obeying
the rules of the road, ie, obeying the laws at intersections than the
men who are mostly under 40 and with many being quite reckless and
unruly about intersection behaviours.

Some men seem to charge across pedestrian crossings against red lights
telling them not to, so they ride according to their own perception of
the safety of their move and with no respect to any laws of the road.

But I have seem many women also blithely glide across intersections
against pedestrian red lights, often riding with no helmets and
without the hurried alert aware animal instinct survival instinct so
obvious in the males.
I have rarely ever seen anyone ever dismount and walk across a
pedestrian crossing, male ot female.

Meanwhile, I regularly get cut off by vehicles turning left across a
cycle lane I am riding along. I get pushed out high by cars emanating
from a merging flow from the left. Motorists don't like giving way to
slower cyclists much of the time. A large % of motorists HATE
cyclists, and regard us as vermin.

So with the mindset which prevails despite laws and awareness
campaigns and special cycle lanes, its no surprize that about 40
cyclists are killed each year in Oz.

If you ask me whether females are just as likely to ALWAYS be
wondering if they are about to be cut off from the left or right by
other vehicles, then I am at a loss to answer. Males have tunnel
vision, and concentrate on the sources of potential danger, and are
less likely to be thinking about other things while riding than the
females may be thinking about.
I am surely sensitive to the slight speed changes of vehicles in front
of me and I am always asking myself if a particular car is about to
swing left or right to block me. Usually I find myself braking to
avoid a vehicle without thought, then sure enough some ******* swings
and slows in front of me without having seen me, and just as well I
slowed. I have chased such people after they have stopped at a
building to drop off a passenger, or pick one up, and haranged then
with a good loud string of obscenities, and bang on their vehicle to
shame them.
Maybe women would not be so brave to actively defend their rights with
such vigourous protest. Motorists really hate my behaviour when I
point out to them that they are arsoles when they have threatened my
life.

I also protest in a vigourous manner to other cyclists who cycle
unsafely, eg, the idiots cycling against the direction of traffic on a
cycle lane or road lane. These mostly male cycling fuctards seem to
think playing chicken is fine with them.
Not while I am alive it ain't. They don't like my insults. I'm willing
to have a brawl if I need to.

At intersections with lorries, semi trailers, B-doubles, buses etc,
one must always make sure the lorry driver CAN SEE YOU when you pull
up. Good riding means you relate to the other road users. This means
you gracefully impose your presence without denying their rights,
while observing a duty of care to the other drivers; give them EVERY
chance they will see you at all times, and allow for their slow
reaction times. Beware overtaking traffic on the near side; that is
always risky, and against the law.

Females are said to have lower spatial abilities than males, but then
males seem to take more risks.

Maybe the statistics about cycling deaths amoung males and females in
Oz may be similar to the UK.
I'm too lazy to check right now.

All I do know is that if I were to ride on roads all the time in
Sydney I would class myself as a DTA, ie, determinedly temporary
australian. Being female might not help me. One might think that male
drivers who cause most accidents might avoid crashing into female
cyclists as an auto-chivalry response, but then this might be balanced
out by the number of men who just hate all females. Meanwhile the
women drivers see everything they crash into just a bit too late for
their spatially limited response times......

Wasn't it in last February that Cadel Evans said the country in which
he felt least safe while cycling was Australia?

Maybe he hadn't spent time in Canberra with its splendid cycle path
network which allows journeys of 100km without having to needing to
ride on road lane which has to be shared with motorists.

So ladies, if you feel nervous, COME TO CANBERRA!!!

And in the far flung suburbs of Canberra, there are very fine suburban
streets which have almost zero traffic for most of the day, especially
on weekdays when the occupants of the houses are all out at work to
pay off the huge mortgages and private school fees. Its all so
different to trying to cycle around say Punchbowl in Sydney.

Patrick Turner.

Patrick Turner wrote:

My own observations here in Canberra would indicate about 10% of women
on roads are female

Welcome to the 21st century.

John