Originally Posted by ghettocruiser
My question is, why did you drop that original topic?
My intent was to ask about square-on from-behind crashes in narrow lanes where the motorist never saw the cyclist riding in his path/lane in front of him, and where driving into the sun is not a factor. But I asked it wrong, and it ended up being about all kinds of narrow lane crashes.
You say: Cyclists are much more noticeable when taking the lane ahead, and from-behind collisions are rarer than drift-over and hit the guy in the bike lane collisions.
I say: We're a bit more noticeable in the central part of the lane, and I move left during gaps in traffic just like you. But I think you're ignoring evidence if you think hit-from-behinds are rarer than drift-overs, since I have never heard of a drift-over-into-a bike-lane accident anywhere other than A&S.
I respectfully suggest that you probably never paid attention to whether a given crash involved drift into an unnoticed cyclist or not. Sometimes the word "drift" is not used, but the situation is clearly inferred. For example, it might simply say the cyclist was in the bike lane, the motorist was going in the same direction, didn't see him, and hit him. Another might say a cyclist in the shoulder was killed from behind by a hit-and-run.
But from now, start paying very close attention to overtaking collisions, in particular with respect to whether the cyclist was separated by a road edge stripe of one sort or another.
You say: Even though motorists run into the back of each other, they are unlikely to run into the back of a cyclist because we are unusual and grab more attention than cars.
I say: We do grab more attention than cars. But these accidents happen with cars VERY OFTEN. We know that even minor ones are in cars would be major on a bike. We're clearly not grabbing enough attention, either off to the side OR taking the lane, as accident studies and news reports from my area suggest.
Do the accident studies and news reports you cite differentiate between cyclists hit square-on from behind by a motorist who simply did not see the cyclist up ahead in his path/lane and cyclists riding in stripe demarcated road margins who were drifted into?