I was hit by a car on November 1st (a little old lady, who was at fault). Broken arm and teeth. My girlfriend has given me the ultimatum that if I have another serious accident I have to either give up cycling or move out. I don't want to do either. So what to do to decrease the risk. I plan to have flashing lights going on my bike (Cervelo RS) even during the daytime. (Most of my bike clothes are black, unfortunately, and they're too expensive to replace with bright yellow or red.) She wants me to take my bike by car to a bikes only route (not gonna happen). Anyway, I suspect there's not much else to do, and that some of you will be amused and crack jokes (make 'em good). But just thought I'd air the question.

I didn't see the question.

*edit*

Oh... "how to reduce risk"?

Change where you ride to a less risky location. Or ride less.

Mount a train horn on your bike. Motor cycle accidents 90% are the other motorist fault. Its mostly never gonna be your fauly people need to learn how to drive. The only way to be 100% safe from cars is bike trails.

Choice A: Buy your girlfriend a bike

Choice B: Get a girlfriend who's a cyclist

Choice C: Grow a set and have a heart to heart talk with your girlfriend. If you had an auto accident, would you have to give up driving?

Choice B: Get a girlfriend who's a cyclist

Head needs to be on a swivel, no daydreaming while on the bike, all intersections are a hazard, make sure people notice you. I was hit hard and got lucky. Law or not, I do what I need to do to be safe. Sorry you got hit, but it sure wakes you up to road issues.

Easy get a new girlfriend

I never understood the allure of black bike clothes. I wear hi-vis green on rides where I will encounter the most cars. Everytime I see a person biking at night, they are always wearing black. Darwinism on two wheels.

It kinda is your fault if you don't take account of the fact people can't drive, except for the odd freak accident where a rider's cleaned up from the rear.

Ride defensively and assertively. Defend your right of way when you're not breaking the law, and don't imagine following the laws makes you safe.

In 30 years on the road, I've never had a serious accident. Smacked into the back of a car pretty hard once years ago, because I was doing a mental speed downhill through gridlocked traffic; that's it.

Otherwise, my one rule has worked just fine: stay out of the way.

Get a new girlfriend. You don't want one who is going to make my way or the highway ultimatums like that. (that's true for all parties)

You can do a lot to keep from getting hit but nothing is risk free. Not even sitting on the couch.

pic of girlfriend to verify if she's worth it?

qft, brother.

I got mired in a silly thread about this a while ago.

ANTICIPATION; That's what will keep you safe(r).

Recognizing potentially dangerous situations and making choices before hand that eliminate these situations entirely is something a cyclist should learn to do. Most of this is sub-conscious but anyone can learn to do it and, with experience, it becomes second nature.

Totally random stupid **** will still occur. That comes down to reaction time, skill and blind luck. But that pretty much describes life, n'est-ce pas?

Yep, and learning to ride defensively will make you a much better driver too.

+1, unless she's smokin' hot

Also ... Ride as predictable as you can.

I understand what some of you are talking about riding defensively but seriously will you ride 30 miles defensively. Your gonna get in your zone and concentrate or just be relaxed riding your bike defensive won't even be in mind. Honestly bright clothes will help and just avoiding short streets with lots of intersections and traffic. And as much of you say that you ride defensively its not all the time. Sometimes you'll be able to see the obvious dangers but I'm sure some of you that got hit never saw it coming or it was too late. Just my .02

"Riding defensively" can mean different things at different times. Something as simple as positioning yourself closer to the middle of the lane, in a better line of sight for cars on those long country roads is also riding defensively.

You should know her ultimatum is illogical. A crash is just risk realized. Don't know what happened in your case, if it was avoidable or not, but I suspect what she is telling you is your crash scared the sht out of her and she would rather not have you come out dead. You have three options:

1) you address her concern, that you'll end up on the evening news as that cyclist that got squashed flat and convince her the benefits of your cycling is worth that risk. The risk didn't change before or after your accident. The accident is just that risk realized.

2) you quit riding. Had a teammate who did this when he broke his collar bone in a racing incident. Maybe the accident makes you reevaluate your initial risk calculation.

3) you and your girl split. If riding is a part of your life you aren't giving up and her fears are irrational, you either convince her your cycling is worth the risk or you don't and you split. If you stay together... well, you should convince her to either back out of the ultimatum or you should succumb to it totally. Don't leave it hanging there. That next accident is inevitable because there is that risk in cycling. You either embrace it and deal with the next accident when it comes, or you move onto other indeavors with different risk calculations.

There are things you can do. Firstly . . . well, so interesting to hear that spending on more visible clothes is more important to you than your girlfriend. Well, that's sure a non-starter. You're obviously wasting your time. Life's short. Move on. No one has time for frivolous yet entangling relationships.

But back to the subject, girl friend aside. The following is what everyone who cares about their survival already does. Yeah, so first get visible! I absolutely hate riding with people who look like pavement. I hate making 911 calls. Screws up the ride big-time. After you get visible, and I mean visible from the skin out, so no matter what the weather you're wearing high-vis on top. Next, get a 250 lumen flasher, put it on the front, and run it day or night. At night of course you'll have a 500 lumen steady lamp also. On the back, put a serious blinky, with a Superflash Turbo defining the lower end of serious. A Superflash and a helmet blinky is even better. At night of course you'll run the blinky in back in steady mode.

Next, start noticing vehicles. In any situation where there could be any question of the motorist not seeing you, assume they don't see you until you establish eye contact. If you can't get eye contact, slow down and don't proceed until you get it. I assume of course that you stop for red lights, and at least come to enough of a stop at stop signs that it's impossible that someone could hit you, even if they were doing 70. When vehicles come along side you, always look at their front blinker. It's normal for motorists to think you are going about 5 mph and give you just enough room for that speed.

A driver texting on the road look at there gps, they can veer over. Sidewalks are a pain sometimes to ride on but as least you won't get hit riding.

"Defensing driving" is sub-conscious. You do it without even thinking about it. In fact, it often works better that way.

Your senses are always working at the same levels. They generate the same amount of information 24/7. Our brain selects out what it decides is important and allows it to enter our conscious mind. If it didn't we'd go insane.

Once you learn to drive defensively, and with experience, your sub-conscious learns to anticipate potential threats and to make you conscious of it often long before any conscious effort could have done so.

Your REACTION TIME will decrease. You will HABITUALLY place yourself in the safest position on the road under any circumstance greatly reducing POTENTIAL RISK.



Anyone have the mortality vs mission data for fighter pilots in either WWII or Vietnam? I can't find it and I know it's been floating around the interwebs forever. This is a perfect example of what I'm on about.

Ding, ding!

You ride enough and anticipation (defensive cycling) comes automatically and without explicit concentration. But this takes practice and experience.

Actually, you could argue that you're less complacent and twice shy, so significantly less likely to be in an accident now.

Seriously?

Cars backing out of driveways not expecting you on the sidewalk...

kids...

dogs...

kids with dogs...

stollers...

Holy crap...strollers with kids AND dogs...

Riding defensively does not necessarily mean riding slowly. It means being aware of your surroundings and anticipating that drivers and even other cyclists/pedestrians can and will suddenly do stupid things. Riding defensively is not something you do for short periods of time. It's something you do every moment you're on the bike.