Fifty Plus (50+) - So Sad, A Hit and Run

Another reminder to all of us, our sport is healthy, invigorating and DANGEROUS at times. Can't tell from this the exact circumstances, but my neighbor and I were almost clipped by a cell phone wielding motorist two days ago............be very careful out there.

http://www.wcvb.com/news/local/metro-west/Police-investigating-fatal-hit-and-run-bicycle-crash-in-Wellesley/-/11983044/16257096/-/w2fwok/-/index.html?absolute=true

I don't think these posts accomplish much. We're all familiar with the risks. Do auto forums post every single traffic fatality? If so, they wouldn't have much else to talk about.

Just my opinion.

Actually, cycling is very safe. Even in the USA, many millions of miles are cycled each year per fatality. Here, it is one death for every thirty million miles cycled. Statistically, I am much more likely to drop dead of a heart attack than I am to be killed while riding my bike. And the latter reduces the chance of the former, of course.

Lots of fatal accidents happen in the home. Be very careful in there...

Actually, cycling is very safe. Even in the USA, many millions of miles are cycled each year per fatality. Here, it is one death for every thirty million miles cycled. Statistically, I am much more likely to drop dead of a heart attack than I am to be killed while riding my bike. And the latter reduces the chance of the former, of course.

Lots of fatal accidents happen in the home. Be very careful in there...
Exactly. Most things aren't as dangerous as they seem. Take texting whilst driving. It's perfectly safe. I'm doing it right now and there's nev

RIP to the fallen rider. For the last 7 months, I have been commuting 5 days a week. I know the danger out there on the roads. What do I do about it? I try to take the "oh I didn't see you" out of the equation. If you noticed I said I "try".. How do I do that? I run STRONG lights, night and day. Daytime, I got a strong front light on blinky, rear light, and sometimes a front and rear light on my helmet on blinky. That is during the daytime. I noticed that I am seen WAY MORE than when I don't run those lights. That was enough for me to start running them all the time. You should see how cars getting ready to turn in front of me NOW wait for me to pass.

IMO, we need every little safety edge we can get when we travel on the same roads that cars do. I have have several 100mph+ crashes on motorcycles (roadracing on racetrack), but nothing scares me more than the thought of a 3000+lbs of of moving steel hitting my frail body at speed on the street.

My commute puts me on roads where I have to take the full lane, and I move around in that lane to let others know, that I am taking the FULL LANE, and not half of it. That is a little trick I learned from eperience. No shoulder on the road, and I move to the right of the road, I get pass at 40mph+ in less than a foot. Now I zig zag in that lane, and no more of that close passing.

We never stop learning when riding on the street, never..

Again, RIP to the fallen rider.

As Chasm54 says, cycling is quite safe. In fact, if you remove the unlit night-riding salmon from the statistics there are very few deaths at all. I think the reason many of us focus on the senseless deaths is simply because they are senseless. It is ridiculous that we have people operating 5000 pound pieces of machinery with little training while texting, talking on cell phones, focusing on their gps devices, drunk/drugged, speeding, running stop signs/red lights, etc. We all see these things, some of us do them, and we all know that they make horrific outcomes much more likely than they should be and that makes us mad when someone is killed by this sort of behavior.

good time to stay off the road until the cagers settle down into their fall routines. hard to do, I even road saturday cuz I had free time. I heard this morning they found the driver.