titanium

i hear about lots of accidents and getting hit by cars, i havent riden on road recently but am starting again soon, i do offroad right now, every one posts alll their accidents here, i think it really freaks every one out, let me just say in all my time cycling i have never been hit by a car never been injured to seiriously to get back on my bike after a short break or 5 minutes. I thought i would let you know that in my 2 and a half years and thousands of km of cycling my worst injury has not even been serve enough for me to decide to turn back and go home early.

noisebeam

It makes sense that there will be nearly daily reports of accidents on a world wide forum. If everyone wrote in to tell of every 'uneventful' ride then the forum would be so bogged down with stories of beautful weather, friendly drivers, smooth roads and burning legs that we would be bored to tears.

Many folks go years between accidents.

I think instead of feeling fear when hearing of them, one can learn from what when wrong for others. I also think it help avoid complacency in assuming that one is invinsible - one can get careless after many miles of uneventful trips.

Al

kf5nd

In 29 years of riding on roads, I've never had a car-bike accident, only a bike-bike or single bike (stooopid me !)

webist

In Arizona this past Easter weekend, 9 motorists were killed in seven separate accidents. The usual toll is 2 deaths for the Easter weekend. We had a pedestrian hit and killed in our town this weekend. I haven't heard of any cycling accidents or fatatlities so far.

I appreciate the analytical discussions about accidents. I hope to learn from them.

I rode 20 miles and drove for 600 this past weekend and was involved in no accidents nor observed any.

UCSDbikeAnarchy

I have been riding seriously for 2 years, and have had 3 solo crashes, 1 bike-bike, and 1 bike car. two of the solo crashes involved wet roads and one involved railroad tracks. The bike bike involved me turning left with signaling, not realizing that there was another bike comming down right behind me. The car bike involved a car in a parking lot. I was fine, but my wheel was bent. The worse damage i did to myself was a skinned elbow. Driving for 6 years, I have been in one accident flipping end over end (freak once in a lifetiming thing), rear ended a guy, and been rear ended. I wouldn't say that biking is much more dangerous than driving a car.

titanium

man don't pharase it like that! lol

djbrod

Hey have I told you guys about my ride today? Beautiful weather, friendly drivers, and smooth roads but man are my legs burning.

CommuterRun

Beat me to it Dj

I think Noisebeam has it right in that we're such a concentration of cyclists from such a variety of places that there can't help but be a concentration of "This Bad Thing Happened to me Today" stories. But they do make good learning points.

atbman

I think the difficulty is that there is a tendency to read all of the accidents and near misses and assume that there are thousands of motorists on the roads who are likely to hit us.

The reality is that that by far the vast majority are fine. Since '55 Ive been on two wheels, pedal and/or motor powered and only been knocked off once and had 3 very minor "coming togethers". I have a moderately anxiety inducing experience about once a year/eighteen months and only very occasionally brown trousering ones.

Perhaps we should set up a "very boring, incident free ride" counter on the site adn compare it with the scary ride one.

webist

So far, so good. If however, I am ever killed while cycling, I vow to refrain from posting even one word about it

abarrios1961

I have been riding in Mexico for 16 years and so far I have been hit once by a Car (nothing serious), once someone hit me with a rock, and another time with a can of coke. The funniest thing was when I rode over a Mexican soldier and broke my collar boon and two ribs. I guess that in 16 years of lots of road and off-road bike, is ok and that I have been lucky. Any way I will continue riding as long as I can, I love everything that is involve.
Salud

Alejandro