Bike Forums - View Single Post - A cyclist Killed While Driving on the Shoulder

07-01-09 | 01:06 AM

#77

ChipSeal

www.chipsea.blogspot.com

Joined: Mar 2007

Posts: 1,026

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From: South of Dallas, Texas

Bikes: Giant OCR C0 road

Quote:

Originally Posted by njkayaker

One could present a fairly rational argument to support that position. I don't think you manage to do that (at least in the first post). You also are not being clear about the two different questions: 1) riding on the shoulder, and 2) taking the lane (ie, riding in the middle of the lane).

What questions do you mean? I don't understand what this means.

Quote:

Originally Posted by njkayaker

It appears that your position is that cyclists are always safer in the middle of the lane. A very slow cyclist is perceptually nearly-indistinguishable from a non-moving object (eg, a "picnicker" or a "grandfather clock"). Therefore, if a cyclist is always safe, a non-moving object is always safe. That (to me) is an absurdity (a reductio ad absurdum argument http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum reducio absurdim argument).

Yes, taking the lane by a cyclist presents the lowest risk profile for a variety of reasons and hazards when compared to riding to the right, riding on the fog line and riding on the shoulder. The relative advantage of taking the lane increases as the closing speed of overtaking traffic increases. So you got that part right.

A cyclist and a fixed object are perceived identically by an automobile operator traveling at speed. A motorist will take great care and give all his attention to avoid colliding with a stationary object. It would be unusual for a motorist to overlook any object in his path.

He will commonly not perceive objects adjacent to his path. This tunnel vision effect increases when the motorist is distracted from the task at hand. A distracted motorist is more likely to drift out of his lane. He is also more likely to drift to the right than to the left.

A fixed object, and a cyclist, are equally at risk of being hit by traffic if they are both on the same portion of the lane or shoulder. But that risk becomes less the further into the travel lane they go. The chances of being struck in any case is low, as experienced cyclists like Widsith (Years of shoulder riding) and I-Like-To-Bike (Years of taking the lane.) can testify.

Tragedy has struck cyclists in the lane, like the Virginia Beach death and on a shoulder, as in the case of poor Mr. Kunz. So neither extreme position can be described as safe.

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