Originally Posted by
The Human Car
Lets sort of review one type of accident, cyclist going straight on major road through a minor street intersection and a motorist executes a right hook.
1) If a cyclist is riding right tire mark position and gets right hooked what was their bad decision?
2) If a cyclist is riding 2 feet from the curb (in a bike lane) and gets right hooked what was their bad decision?
3) If a cyclist is riding on a sidewalk and gets right hooked what was their bad decision?
Answers:
1) None
2) None, though it could be argued for safety they should be further left.
3) Failure to yield, you need to make sure traffic is clear before entering the roadway from a sidewalk (stop/yield) and failure to look over their shoulder to see if any cars were about to turn right is part of that obligation.
Essentially the sidewalk cyclist no longer has the right of way as the other two cyclists. Sure you can have another rule set for riding safely on the sidewalk but it needs to take into account the loss of right of way. You don’t need to test or study the same behavior in different situations you need to study what is the end result of what people generally do in different situations (as they might act/react differently.) And the end result is that whatever people are doing riding on the sidewalk is twice as dangerous as whatever people are doing riding on the road.
While technically correct... you are assuming that you having the right of way will mean diddily squat to the motorist that plows you over on their way to Starbucks... or that the investigating police will do anything more than write a minor ticket (if that) to the "grieving motorist" who "just didn't see the cyclist."
So while technically correct... even that cyclist in the right tire track has to crane their neck back and look over their shoulder for the idiot that just can't wait 10 seconds to merge behind you to make the right turn into Krispy Kreme, but instead sweaps into the left lane a bit and makes the quick right turn cutting you off or careening into you (as they vastly underestimated your speed).
While technically correct, that street cyclist has to watch just as carefully as the sidewalk cyclist... at each and every intersection. Don't be fooled by your "right of way."