I am a fairly slow biker, and I am a slow runner too. Today I went out to run for lunch. It was very windy and cool and I run on an urban, improved path, generally a very nice jog I have been running for years(many), and I was flying (for me) today, a very nice to special run. There are several four lane roads that T on an six lane that has lots of traffic and traffic lights. On these four lanes I always jog back several cars and only cross after the last one or when someone is making eye contact and think they see me. there are also a couple that are two lanes and only have signs and not lights. i learned a lesson today I will not soon forget. About a mile from work I came up on a two lane with a sign. There was a lady there in a green Ford SUV. I came up on the road that has a stop sign where there is rarely any traffic. Anyway this lady was sitting there talking on her cell phone. I came up to the intersection and I swear she was looking straight at me. There was cars coming too so I went ahead and ran in front of her car. She was probably 10 ft back from the intersection and I swear looked straight in my eyes, as I ran out into the intersection she gunned it, and there was cars coming so I dont know where the hell she was going. I almost made it, yet her passenger side side fender got me. I jumped up and supported my weight on my left hand, I was again looking at her in the face and she was looking somewhere else. I would have thought she tried to run over me but to clear the fender I smacked the hood of her car hard enough to leave a dent with my right hand. The look of terror in her eyes told me right then she had no idea what the hell was going on, she was babbling on the cell phone. I guess she was talking, realized she was several feet back from the intersection, gunned it to pull up.
She screamed so loud I could hear it with her windows up. She threw the cell phone across the SUV and was bascially flopping around the passenger compartment of her car when I looked back.
That was around 1 pm this after noon and I am still not a bit sore. I am not sure why I did not stop and cuss or yell at her, I could have been hurt or at least sore from smacking the fender, but absolutely nothing hurts. I hate to stop after I am a few miles out and I just kept running. Thank the Lord I can be out there riding or running again tommorw.
The moral of this story is just be careful. She was not a mean woman out to run over someone. She was not a redneck tring to run over someone working out. She was not drunk. She was probably a teacher at the university, just got off of work and was talking to the husband or something. she would have probably got me on my bike with similar timing.Sorry if I am babbling on but the moral of the story is the cell phone is more dangerous to bicyclist (and runners and probably other drivers) than all the rest, I think. Just be dang careful out there, and try to have fun.
Helmet Head
10-25-07, 06:11 PM
Humans cannot pay attention to everything all the time. They are often distracted, and not just by cell phones. It can be pure thoughts which have nothing to do with anything anyone can perceive going on outside of their brains. So, yes, be careful. And remember, you're probably approximately as susceptible to distraction as the average person. And intelligence has nothing to do with it, as the classic distracted person is the "absent minded professor".
elgalad
10-25-07, 06:52 PM
People need to learn that when you are in control of a motor vehicle, it is your responsibility to pay attention 100% of the time your vehicle is in motion. Unfortunately, people drive so much and so often that they become blase about the danger to other road users, whether they be cyclists, pedestrians, or even other cars. There's a good reason that driving without due care and attention is an offense (at least in Australia, I'm not familiar with your guys laws) that carries a minimum penalty of 6 months of license disqualification.
If the police were even just a little tougher on people who cause accidents, even minor ones, from talking on cell phones, or otherwise driving absent-mindedly, the roads would be significantly safer for everyone concerned.
Helmet Head
10-25-07, 07:38 PM
People need to learn that when you are in control of a motor vehicle, it is your responsibility to pay attention 100% of the time your vehicle is in motion.
What about the studies show that it is impossible for humans to pay attention 100% of the time? That makes it your repsonsibility to do something that is impossible.
Az B
10-25-07, 09:01 PM
I see a lot of people mention the "making eye contact" thing. Please stop doing this. It doesn't work. There is absolutely no way to guarantee eye contact with someone in a car. Was there a xwalk?
Glad to hear you're ok.
Az
Az B
10-25-07, 09:05 PM
What about the studies show that it is impossible for humans to pay attention 100% of the time? That makes it your repsonsibility to do something that is impossible.
It is our responsibility to make that number as high as possible.
Az
zeytoun
10-25-07, 09:34 PM
What about the studies show that it is impossible for humans to pay attention 100% of the time? That makes it your responsibility to do something that is impossible.
They can hang up the cell phone. It's not like paying attention the vast majority of the time is impossible. If a person ever has their radio on, uses a cell phone, etc., then they have no room to complain that it's impossible to pay attention 100% of the time. Until they've taken such simple precautions, I'm not interested in their excuses when they get in an "accident" because they inadvertently took someone's ROW.
elgalad
10-25-07, 10:27 PM
What about the studies show that it is impossible for humans to pay attention 100% of the time? That makes it your repsonsibility to do something that is impossible.
Hence my qualifying statement: "when their vehicle is in motion."
By all means, take a timeout when you're stopped at traffic lights or stuck in traffic, but when you're in motion, all of your attention should be directed toward the task at hand, even if that's only 97% of the time. Talking on a cell phone, or fiddling with your radio, etc. does not constitute an acceptable effort.
making
10-26-07, 03:36 AM
I see a lot of people mention the "making eye contact" thing. Please stop doing this. It doesn't work. There is absolutely no way to guarantee eye contact with someone in a car. Was there a xwalk?
Glad to hear you're ok.
Az
NO KIDDING about the eye contact thing, I learned. I was in the crosswalk and she was stopped back from the sign. I learned a lesson with no ill effects.
NoNaYet
10-26-07, 08:24 AM
When in doubt, like your situation or cars backing out driveways or entering the road from a parking lot, I give a toot on the Air Zound. I usually get the "I saw you" wave, but occaisonally it is obvious they did not.
genec
10-26-07, 09:21 AM
I see a lot of people mention the "making eye contact" thing. Please stop doing this. It doesn't work. There is absolutely no way to guarantee eye contact with someone in a car. Was there a xwalk?
Glad to hear you're ok.
Az
I agree...
I was hit by a motorist that appeared to be looking right at me. No, I didn't have a wave, a nod or a wink... nor did I have a signed waiver. He had a stop sign and was on a minor street. I was on a major road.
People can look right at you and through you.
The Human Car
10-30-07, 01:24 PM
When I first moved here people would try and run you over in a crosswalk even if you made eye contact. I was driving in the city and noticed that all the j-walkers made eye contact as the cars zoomed by while they stood on the centerline. But then there was this old guy crossing the road not looking at traffic and everyone stopped. So I tried just looking ahead (not making eye contact) while crossing the street and cars would stop and wait.
My theory is making eye contact is a way of agreeing on who has right of way based on local customs. In some places a lot of motorists feel that it is everyone else’s duty to yield to them so making eye contact tells them to go ahead. Or possibly as a society we spent so much effort to make sure pedestrians don’t enter the street if a car is coming that cars feel that they now they don’t have to stop for pedestrians.