Originally Posted by
RobertHurst
It's true, I figure about once per eight hours of riding I come across someone who fails to register my existence even though I am right in front of their face and riding in the middle of the street; and there would be some kind of collision if I didn't see it coming first. I don't count the times that people fail to see me when I am riding in stealth messenger mode or on the sidewalk or breaking the law in any way. (I almost never have to deal with a right hooker, maybe once or twice per year.)
Many of those road users who fail to notice me however, are jaywalking pedestrians. And many others are drivers diving in and out of side parking. So if you're riding in an area that is primarily suburban or exurban, and doesn't have lots of wayward pedestrians or side parking, or some kind of intersection every 100 feet, then a rider could go quite a while before having to deal with one of these incidents, and will have quite a different view about cycling in traffic. Could that explain the discrepancy?
Happy new year one and all.
Robert
I ride in mostly inner city areas, not suburbs, so that doesn't explain the discrepancy. What does explain it is that I wasn't thinking about pedestrians or about low speed examples of clueless driving. If I include them, I won't dispute the eight hour estimate. What I had been thinking about in the context of this thread was mainly right hooks. (and hookers--I've hit them a couple times
)
It seemed that Bekologist was saying you almost get creamed by a right hook every eight hours. I was thinking that if this happens to one of America's 2 great safety experts, it's a miracle that the rest of us can even make it around the block in one piece.
Thanks for taking the time to clear this up. And Happy New Year to you also.
