Living Car Free - so I got hit

and now despite that I'm physically fine and able to ride, I'm mentally ****ed up. I second-guess every movement like five times, and just really uncomfortable. my commute to work today wasn't the fun ride it usually is, I felt like I'd never ridden in the road before. has anyone else experienced this? is this something that will go away if I just try to ride through it?

I broke my hip once on a bicycle and I
always have the awareness that I am
mortal.

I actually consider it a benefit cause I
ride bold yet defensively and find myself
making left hand turns into the fast lane
and riding 50-100 yards near the center
yellow line of the roadway to make my
left hand turning pockets.

I always realize that the next left hand
turn may be my last.

So, learn to think of the experience as
a lesson of mortality and that you need
to be careful (even if it wasn't your fault.)

Ride bold and defensively and use hand
signals and you will probably be fine.

Again, ride bold and defensively!

Cheers,

Ned Goudy

Yes matt..been there. You didn't get into details, but just remember that when your on the road, you have to be more than "one step ahead". Just take your time in the saddle and the "you" will be back real soon. You may want to try some r/r techiques such as mediation and/or yoga to relax your mind.

i crashed the other day. i stood up to pedal hard and my lockring was loose ,suddley my pedals just kinda slipped like a half turn. i fell pretty hard, im fine bikes fine.now im a littel scared buts its going away.

I wiped out last year. I got hurt pretty bad and was off the bike (and off work) for about 5 months. I had flashbacks and apprehensions when I got back on, but used a lot of positive statements (to myself) and some light rides (which my body needed anyway). Before long, I once again felt comfortable riding.

The funny thing is, I am now more confident than ever on my bike. I know that I survived a very bad experience and came up swinging. Like my now healed bones, my self-confidence is actually stronger than it was before.

I sure hope you also have a positive outcome.

I got hit last year on my way home from work. It was in the rain. As I approached a stop light, I hear an emergency vehicle siren. I moved over right up agains the curb to let it pass. When I merged back out and clipped in I heard a car hit the brakes and slide. This guy tried to make the yellow/red light and was driving way too fast!

He hit me from behind (I wasn't even in the street yet!). Not hard, but enough to knock me off my bike.

It shook me up. My bike now looks like a moving Christmas tree. It took me a few days to shake it off.

Don't give up! Use your new knowledge to be a safer, smarter rider!

I ride with my headlight and rear blinker on day and night. I think it helps.

I got hit in about 1989 and still don't remember it, just waking up in the hosp. I actually got bikes a couple of times after, but rode them little. I recently got into biking again and I think it took some doing to get used to the idea of riding around again - there was an uneasy month or so. Now I feel great on a bike, because where there's room for 1 car there's room for about 6 bikes. And you can get out of the way of stuff.

I think on average bike accidents are less traumatic than car accidents. The vast majority of 'em, you get knocked off or fall off, and yeah you're pissed, but the actual damage is low. Compare that to the kind of financial and often physical too, damage of a car accident - car drivers are physically much more delicate than car drivers, and everything on a car is insanely expensive where on a bike it's insanely cheap.

I've never been hit directly, but I once had my handle bars clipped by a cars side mirror as I was riding very fast on a downhill. I didn't go down, but it shook me up quite a bit. It really does remind you that you are mortal. I got over it in a day or two and learned from the experience. Now, when I am going really fast I take the lane. If I don't feel safe for any reason, I take the lane. My life is worth adding 3 minutes to the motorists commute.

The vast majority of 'em, you get knocked off or fall off, and yeah you're pissed, but the actual damage is low.

For me, this is true. In my case, it would not be true without a helmet. 3 of my helmets had to be thrown away because they took some serious whacks from the ground while on my head.

friday while riding in san francisco-

got clipped by: bus, hit by a truck and a bike...plus while waiting around cm some dork on a scooter fell into a friend and i as we were standing around talking.

the truck forced me over into the curb, causing a pedal to strike the curb which threw me back into the truck onto the hood where i pushed off, flipped the driver off and kept riding. there was another cyclist behind me that let into the driver, it didn't really set in until i made it over to critical mass where i was standing around talking to a friend and a guy out of no where falls off his scooter and if i would not of took a step back, would of took us out...

the bus...well muni bus drivers suck, what can i say... this prick was driving way too fast, must of been late the way he was swerving around... going absolutely no where since there was traffic... anyway he must of forgotten where a stop was, because out of the blue he comes over from the far left lane to the right, had i not been protected by the car i was riding alongside (bus cut them off as well) or if the driver of the car would of reacted, it could of been a lot different...

then while slowing for a yellow light, some jerk on a road bike decides that they want to charge the light, but while passing me clipped my handlebars causing me to almost crash. well after the light he was out of sight, in this place in the city called the wiggle. well i cut up and down haight st and was waiting for this prick on market street... his eyes were huge as he made eye contact with me, which for me was enough, he was scared and was trying to figure out how i made it to that point before him...

I broke my hip last Tuesday. It was a bright sunny morning asI was rounding a corner a block away from home with a car close behind. My mind was on completing the turn and totally disregarded the water running across the road from somebody's sprinkler. The wheels lost traction and I went down right on my hip. I didn't slide hardly at all, as I was expecting to do, so all the energy of my momentum was absorbed by bone when it hid the pavement. The right femur broke right below the hip. They put a pin inside the bone to hold the pieces together.

I get out today, Monday. No weight on the right leg for six weeks then another six weeks before I am good to go....riding!

If you have any words of advice, precaution or whatever, let me have 'em. I was riding too fast for the conditions. Needless to say, I am still marveling how a great 11 mile ride was transformed into three months' recuperation in the blink of an eye.

Rick

quick update - doing fine. confidence restored and not afraid or over-cautious anymore, but more aware (and more prone to curse automobiles).

I think on average bike accidents are less traumatic than car accidents. The vast majority of 'em, you get knocked off or fall off, and yeah you're pissed, but the actual damage is low. Compare that to the kind of financial and often physical too, damage of a car accident - car drivers are physically much more delicate than car drivers, and everything on a car is insanely expensive where on a bike it's insanely cheap.I totally agree, and I'm glad to find somebody who says this. So many posters here think cycling is dangerous. Why then do they do it? I honestly believe that cycling is safer than driving.

Yesterday, I was riding pretty fast just ahead of my stepson Jerry. I suddenly heard that sound of a bike hitting the pavement. I turned my head just in time to see Jerry sliding across the pavement. I braked hard and ran back to him. He was already getting up, and laughing his head off! He had a patch of road rash on his elbow, about the size of a quarter. Otherwise, he was just fine.

This was the same guy who almost died in the hospital last winter after a horrible auto accident. One reason he is cycling is as part of his rehab from the accident. I am so relieved that he rides a bike instead of driving now!

I broke my hip last Tuesday. It was a bright sunny morning asI was rounding a corner a block away from home with a car close behind. My mind was on completing the turn and totally disregarded the water running across the road from somebody's sprinkler. The wheels lost traction and I went down right on my hip. I didn't slide hardly at all, as I was expecting to do, so all the energy of my momentum was absorbed by bone when it hid the pavement. The right femur broke right below the hip. They put a pin inside the bone to hold the pieces together.

I get out today, Monday. No weight on the right leg for six weeks then another six weeks before I am good to go....riding!

If you have any words of advice, precaution or whatever, let me have 'em. I was riding too fast for the conditions. Needless to say, I am still marveling how a great 11 mile ride was transformed into three months' recuperation in the blink of an eye.

RickI guess you're one of the exceptions to the "rule" that bike accidents are less traumatic than car accidents. I hope your recovery is faster than predicted, and I hope you're not in too much pain.

My only advice is, do what the doctor says. Take your pain meds when you need them as there is no point in suffering more than you already have. Try to keep busy so the time passes more quickly, and order your friends and relatives to pay a lot of attention to you! If you have computer access, the internet sure makes recovery less boring than it used to be.

quick update - doing fine. confidence restored and not afraid or over-cautious anymore, but more aware

That's good, Matt. The trick, as you've learned, is to get back out there immediately. I was hit in 1981 and again in 1989. I ride confidently in traffic and haven't been hit since.

I'm with nedg on this. Since getting doored I'm hyper-aware of possible doorings, making me a safer (though maybe slower) rider. I sufferred a sprained elbow which prevented me from getting back on the road for a while, but not for a lack of trying (a few very painful trial rides before I was really ready...). Get out there and ride!

I wrecked two months ago and shattered my shoulder. (I now have a titanium plate to match my frame)
This is my first week back on the bike.
Tonight I was riding my FG when an SUV pulled in front of me and slammed on the brakes.
Luckily I have a front brake and was able to hit it hard enough to do a front wheel stand.
I missed putting my helmet through the back window by about 3 inches.
Ahh...it's good to be back.....

Enjoy

I've had some bad crashes but none with a car door. I'm glad I read about other people's door experiences- I'm more wary about doors than I would be otherwise. I gotta be careful how fast I pass stopped cars in the road though. It's hard to guess what they're gonna do when you don't know why they're stopped.

i had a bad accident (with a jogger!) in 2000 that kept me off the bike for six months. Since it was mostly dumb luck that threw me on the pavement, i guess it wasn't mentally too hard. No cars involved, etc. But when my friend was killed by a car while cycling to work in 2003, it seriously changed the way I looked at riding.

In the past two years I have become a completely different cyclist. It used to frustrate me how I couldn't see exactly what was coming at stop signs. Until I realized that if I actually stopped, put my foot down, and looked both ways, I could see exactly what was going on.

My eyes and ears are better attuned to everything. I try to keep tabs on what's going on for a block in every direction. I am more willing to wait, or to move slowly, rather than to try and rush past obstructions. I swallow my weird fear of inconveniencing drivers (!?) and just take the lane when it's the safest thing. Honking used to piss me off; now I hear it as a loud affirmation that the car behind me is not going to kill me.

Robert Hurst has some good advice in his book "The art of urban cycling": Be ever vigilant. Take responsibility for your actions. Expect mistakes to happen and you will more likely be ready for them. And choose the appropriate route for the day/time/weather.

Rules to live by.

Assume nobody can see you.

[QUOTE=Roody]He was already getting up, and laughing his head off! He had a patch of road rash on his elbow, about the size of a quarter. Otherwise, he was just fine.
QUOTE]

What is it about the crash that brings the laughter? I had a brake come off my bike and stick in the spokes a few weeks back (learned on Monday I should have fixed it Sunday), and I landed with the bike on my back. When a skateboarder asked if I was ok, I couldn't stop laughing long enough to tell him I was fine.

What is it about the crash that brings the laughter? I had a brake come off my bike and stick in the spokes a few weeks back (learned on Monday I should have fixed it Sunday), and I landed with the bike on my back. When a skateboarder asked if I was ok, I couldn't stop laughing long enough to tell him I was fine.
I told Jerry he was laughing because he was embarrassed and he agreed. Maybe part of it is relief that you didn't get hurt, plus the endorphins are probably pretty high then.

I have the worst story of being hit by a car. It was my first day back as a messenger i was heading home down state street when a patty wagon's door swung open and smacked me right in my right hip. I was down on the ground in seconds writhing in pain. The cop came out and asked me if i needed a doctor i said no (no insurance). He then procced to yell at me for riding to close to cars and going to fast even though if he had looked behind him as he was opening the door this would have never have happened. I wanted to tell him how much of an ******* he was but I was afraid of chicago PD's infamous love of locking up those who question their authority. Anyway i limped home and got my friend to buy me 40oz to relive the pain. I worked the next day with a giant bruise on my left side fortuatly nothing was broken. often times I do find bike accidents i get in funny but this one not so much perhaps because it highlights some serious problems present in society, namely soft flesh meeting with metal door=Chicago PD bunch of jerks.

yeah, isn't it funny how people nearly kill you, then proceed to honk at you, flip you off, yell at you, as though they had nothing to do with almost forcing a 3000 pound hunk of metal down at you at 35 mph?

i've only actually been hit once, the good ol' "car doesn't signal, and pulls out to make a right turn right in front of you, forcing you to skid to to a screeching halt". at least the driver got out, apologized profusely, picked me up and made sure i was okay. a little shaken after that, but not much. just aware. when you drive, you should pay attention to a thousand things, but most people don't. when cycling, i have to watch parked cars for doors, cars ahead of me for all the numerous stupid things driver do, cars behind me to know where i can go if doors open or to make a turn, watch pedestrians, blah blah blah...you can't ride if your eyes aren't open to all the potential dangers there are. and there are a lot.

I had my bike ripped off from-underneath me. One gang was following me on bikes, trying to surround me another gang just cut to the chase and pinned me to the curb with their '60s Impala. The last I saw of that bike was it 4 feet in the air with one gang on each end struggling for it.

I wasn't hurt physically. Fortunately I had a heavy duty curly cable and books in my backpack when they hit me there with a baseball bat. I walked to the cops HQ two blocks away. The treated me like a liar till a lady called in a report of it. She even knew one of the perps, but the cops never did anything.

But the next night I rode my back-up bike and my commuting time over 10 miles dropped by 10 minutes, and never got slower again. For the next 9 months I rode paranoid. I pedaled hard and didn't let anyone catch up with me. I finally decided to leave LA and go back and finish my degree in Santa Barbara. The change of scenery did me good.

after being hit by a car two time in my lifetime. You will definitely get back on that horse again. Trust me. Of course, getting hit in the car really makes you think. I use to be one of those cyclist who would try to beat a yellow light or run a stop sign, but now I've become a lot more law abiding in terms of riding on the road. There's one street in San Diego called Broadway that I just flat out avoid. I walk my bike through and vowed myself that I will never ride my bike on or through the internsections of Broadway in DT, SD.

Stay safe. If you ride enough, the chances are that you will into an accident. Just make sure that it's the driver's faulth b/c paying the evil folks at the insurance company is a pain in the butt.

For those of us unfortunate to get hit, it's easy to relive the accident and see how it's going to happen over and over again. Fear perpetuates fear very easily. The best advice that I can give is to think about the accident in very basic, factual terms and you should come to the realisation that each one, as bad as it may be, is the individual product of a unique group of factors that will not repeat themselves easily.

And pay attention more. There are few of us who can claim honestly to have been paying absolute attention when we went down.

I've had quite minor accidents compared to some of the other posters. I got cut off (right hooked) by a car turning into a gas station, couldn't turn up the slightly elevated curb beside him, dove to the pavement, and dislocated my left pinkie at the second joint. Weird to see it pointing left. It popped back into line as soon as I flexed it. I also got knocked down by a sidewalk cyclist one time when I stepped out of a bus shelter. I've had a couple of MVAs with no serious injury.
As you keep riding, you will gradually lose the constant anxiety and hypervigilance, but you will retain at least some of that watchfullness. I think that eventually, it actually becomes a pleasurable sensation to be highly aware of your surroundings as you ride. It's like a state of elevated consciousness.
RGC

I've had a part of my street which I always walked across, not cause it was busy but cause their was this magpie, always swooping on my helmet. (it probably thought of me as a predator). It always came very close to my helmet. I decided to walk that area when someone told me that a cyclist in my city of Melbourne was killed by a magpie that swooped and struck him in the neck.