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Okay, I have read the post about who likes roads vs sidewalks vs Bike trails. During the week, I ride in a rural neighborhood with pretty wide streets and not a ton of traffic. Yesterday, a school bus ran me off the road. I was as close to the edge (going about 16 mph) as I could be . There was no on-coming traffic either, so if the drive felt I was in the way, he could of gone to the other side of the street. Luckily there was a cul de sac area I could veer off to. Otherwise I would have been eating dirt. :mad:
Kind of shakes you up a bit..
What do the experience riders do about these situations? Should I feel like it is probably a 1 time incident? Should I take the sidewalks?
I live in sunny Tampa, Florida where there seems to be a bicycle death every other day.
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And how many car deaths are there every day? Many more I'm sure.
It's possible the bus driver didn't notice you if you were all the way over to the right of the roadway. No excuse for sure on their part though.
Perhaps you want to ride a little further out into the roadway so that you are in the clear sight line of any approaching vehicles. This is important especially around right hand curves.
Do you use a mirror, did you know the bus was coming up behind you? If the road was wide, and you could give a quick glance back when someone is approaching you might be able to identify that they are riding the edge too close and either take evasive action, or signal to them for notice. This isn't easy to do if you are on a busy road with every car that comes by, but as you say on a rural street with little traffic it is easy to keep track of what vehicles are coming up behind.
Experienced riders do exactly what you did -- we get out of the way of the dangerous vehicle. Don't give up on riding. Every statistic I've seen says it's safer than driving. Just ride predictably, stay alert, and wear a helmet. The sidewalks are more dangerous because you are constantly going in and out of traffic. Plus, you unfairly annoy the [explitive deleted] out of pedestrians.
You should try to report the school bus driver. Even if you did didn't get any numbers, your local school district might be able to figure out who the driver was from the location and time. A phone call followed up by a letter followed up by a phone call would be appropriate. If the district cares about safety, they will respond, if for no other reason than the threat of increased liability for a non-near-accident.
Report the driver. If you got the number of the bus & the school district that will help. But often times just reporting where & when it took place is enough. At least a bus is easy to indentify, especially after running someone off the road.
Most experienced riders would take a more assertive line on the road. By riding wide, you force vehicles to make a positive overtaking manouvre, rather than just brush past you.
It is a pretty universal observation that drivers give you the same clearance that you give yourself from the curb.
You may want to write a polite letter to the people who run the school bus.
The sidewalk is a really dangerous place to ride. At every side-road, you have to observe through a 270 degree field, and yield to everything.
You may find that the cyclists who are being hit in Florida dont know how to ride on the road correctly. Everybody thinks they can ride a bike, but few people really know how to manage traffic on the road.
Check out the book and website Effective Cyclling. I wish I had read it when I first tried big-city cycling.
I didn't move next to the curb until I heard the bus coming.. I will definitely report the bus to the school.. I was in a bright red shirt, so I really don't know how the driver didn't see me. But I guess if the kids were acting up on the bus she could of been distracted..
Glad to hear the sidewalk isn't the place to be. It is way to bumpy compared to the street.
I'm going to try again today.. Wish me luck!
School bus drivers think they own the road! When I was still in college, I was walking across a pedestrian cross walk, cars were stopped in 2 of the three lanes for me walking across. In the third lane, a school bus came right through the crosswalk and never stopped. I saw it all of a sudden and jumped back. I was within inches of being hit.
I was cycling and a school bus pulled out of a cross street right in front of me, while the driver was clearly looking at me.
Okay, I have read the post about who likes roads vs sidewalks vs Bike trails. During the week, I ride in a rural neighborhood with pretty wide streets and not a ton of traffic. Yesterday, a school bus ran me off the road. I was as close to the edge (going about 16 mph) as I could be . There was no on-coming traffic either, so if the drive felt I was in the way, he could of gone to the other side of the street. Luckily there was a cul de sac area I could veer off to. Otherwise I would have been eating dirt. :mad:
Kind of shakes you up a bit..
What do the experience riders do about these situations? Should I feel like it is probably a 1 time incident? Should I take the sidewalks?
I live in sunny Tampa, Florida where there seems to be a bicycle death every other day.
A bus driver, like that of any oversized vehicle, needs to be especially courteous and aware of the amount of road space they consume. I find tractor trailer trucks and delivery vehicles to be this way constantly.
I find school buses (and regular buses as well) to be clueless in this regard. Suggest that his running you off the road was dangerous to the lives of the children in the bus.
roughstuff
Okay, I have read the post about who likes roads vs sidewalks vs Bike trails. During the week, I ride in a rural neighborhood with pretty wide streets and not a ton of traffic. Yesterday, a school bus ran me off the road. I was as close to the edge (going about 16 mph) as I could be . There was no on-coming traffic either, so if the drive felt I was in the way, he could of gone to the other side of the street. Luckily there was a cul de sac area I could veer off to. Otherwise I would have been eating dirt. :mad:
Kind of shakes you up a bit..
What do the experience riders do about these situations? Should I feel like it is probably a 1 time incident? Should I take the sidewalks?
I live in sunny Tampa, Florida where there seems to be a bicycle death every other day.What part of town was this in?
It was the Land O Lakes/Lutz area..(NORTH TAMPA)
What the heck do you expect up there? That's Redneck City in the worst way. I've got to worry about the old farts down here. (I don't want to hear it Dnvr)
You obviously haven't been out to this area in awhile. Since they built the Suncoast and Veterans expressways, all the Northerners have moved out to this area. On one side of the street we have the native Floridians and on the other we have the "keep up with the Jones NYers..
There use to be just Orange Groves and Cows out here, now there is expensive subdivisions popping up all over the place. The houses in the subdivision around the block are going for 1 Million+.
You obviously haven't been out to this area in awhile. Since they built the Suncoast and Veterans expressways, all the Northerner have moved out to this area. On one side of the street we have the native Floridians and on the other we have the "keep of with the Jones NYers..
There use to be just Orange Groves and Cows out here, now there is expensive subdivisions popping up all over the place. The houses in the subdivision around the block are going for 1 Million+.
I'll admit it's been a couple years since I've had a good reason to go any further north than Waters Ave.
School bus drivers are not only drivers of large vehicles. They are supposedly professional drivers, working for the public, and hauling our most precious resources, our children. If he's driving like an idiot, call in on him! I have. The transportation supervisor for the local public school system knows that if he does not give me satisfaction, I will take the issue to the school board and the local TV station, because that's just what happened three years ago.
I am, by God and the law, a citizen, a taxpayer, an authorized user of the roads, a parent, and a VOTER. Plus, one of the anchors for the local TV station news lives around the corner. Idiot school bus drivers are a story that pot stirring news outlets will jump on. If you will hunt for the resources, you can bring much pressure to bear on public drivers.
Here endeth the rant.
You definitely should report the incident in a calm, tactfully assertive fashion. Since the public tends to hold school bus drivers to a lofty safety standard because of their cargo, your story needs to be told.
Well, I have found that school bus drivers tend to be road hogs and they also tend to figure that cyclists should get out of their way.
I suppose reporting the driver can't hurt.
The odd thing is is that one would hope that school bus drivers would be careful about cyclists but as I said, that hasn't been my experience. Now a group that gives me decent courtesy nearly all the time are garbage truck drivers. I guess here in Florida maybe they put the better drivers in garbage trucks. It is all a matter of priorities I suppose.
School bus drivers tend to be people who just got their CDL license and are learning their way before they become real bus drivers.
It's been my experience that once bus drivers get real comfortable with their vehicles, they start driving them like cars! The New York City buses come real close to me and expect me to hold my line on the road. But what if I didn't? Some of them would cream me in a second if I didn't hold onto my line.
What's so crazy is that many are on a schedule and have to deal with screaming kids and traffic that just love to cut them off! It's that schedule that forces them to go fast and take chances. I rode the bus several months ago and was scared shXtless at all the cars cutting us off! I really thought there was going to be an accident each time a car did that!
Anyway. Folks, Avoid the bus at all costs.
...the Northerners have moved out to this area. On one side of the street we have the native Floridians and on the other we have the "keep up with the Jones NYers..
And you can have them, I don't want them here either. They ***** too much about the weather. Bad drivers too. :p
A lot of districts are privatizing thier bus transportation, the company may not be all that choosy about who drives the bus.
Nothing against Northerners, most of my good friends are from up north.. I just laugh when I see my neighbors run because they are scared of the ducks. (IT IS TOO FUNNY)
Anyhow, didn't seem like the school district cared all that much. They basically said if I don't know what school it was from, etc.. etc... etc...
Anyhow, didn't seem like the school district cared all that much. They basically said if I don't know what school it was from, etc.. etc... etc...
Still, send them a written letter with as much detail as you can (time, location, direction of travel, description of bus and/or driver). If the school board has a lawyer (check their website), send a cc to the lawyer. It might scare them into tracking down the idiot driver. If not, and the idiot driver actually hurts someone, your letter might help the victim get more $$$.
As to my comment about experienced cyclists, I agree with MichaelW that experienced riders would take a more aggressive position to start out, but once a bus starts to sideswipe you, there is nothing you can do but get the heck out of the way.
As to my comment about experienced cyclists, I agree with MichaelW that experienced riders would take a more aggressive position to start out, but once a bus starts to sideswipe you, there is nothing you can do but get the heck out of the way.
Getting out of the way is only possible if you've given yourself enough room to do it. Now just imagine you are riding in the gutter and get sideswiped -- where are you going to go? If you're going to be sideswiped, the centre of the lane is the best place to be.
Well, that leads me to the question, if I should ride more in the middle of the road, what do you do about the driver who never passes you and just rides your tail... I am only usually going 15 -18 mph and not a lot of traffic. I don't really understand why they don't pass becaue most other cars do..
I have had that a few times as well and I just turn off until they pass because it makes me nervous
Well, that leads me to the question, if I should ride more in the middle of the road, what do you do about the driver who never passes you and just rides your tail...
Just let them sit and wait -- unless they start honking at you, in which case you stay in the same place but ride 5km/h slower for every honk you get (note, the second part of this equation is not essential, but just fun!). The onus is on the vehicle overtaking to ensure that they do so safely, not on everybody else to simply get out of their way. Your only responsibility when being overtaken is to simply ride safely and predictably -- if that means the centre of the lane, so be it.
Just let them sit and wait -- unless they start honking at you, in which case you stay in the same place but ride 5km/h slower for every honk you get
GREAT IDEA! Thanks for the tips..
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