The OP has made a highly personal decision, and we should accept it as a fact without need for justification, nor try to quote statistics in an effort to change his mind.

Fact is that statistics are not destiny, and there are myriad variables that affect each person's risk level, and likelihood or extent of injury. Then, even with all manor of actions to tweak the odds, there's also an element of luck.

So, while I offer my condolences to the OP for the prior injuries and pressures that lead to his decision, I also understand and wish him the best.

Well, "my" statistics were showing that cycling is more dangerous than walking so I wasn't intending it to change his mind. I just think that it's helpful to have the facts when making those decisions, whatever the decision turns out to be.

And statistics are destiny 90% of the time for most of the population. I have a statistical proof somewhere around here ... :innocent:

I agree that having "facts" is useful when making decisions. But once a decision has been made, it should be respected, rather than challenged.

As for statistics not being destiny, I get and respect your effort at irony, but my lifetime of observation has shown me that outcomes aren't distributed evenly. Some people have far fewer than average accidents, while others suffer them far more than the average. So, either some people are luckier (and I know, first hand, how much luck plays in to it), or some people are more skilled or careful, or simply live in "safer" areas.

So, as I said, statistics aren't destiny, which is more likely determined by where, when and how you ride, than by macro statistical data.

I can't extrapolate my experience to the OP's, so I'm comfortable accepting that his decision is right for him, and understanding how he came to make it.

OP's decision can be right for him, but many newbies are drawn to threads like this. So I think it is important for others to offer their opinions, insight, and yes, even statistics, to help keep actual risks in perspective.

I understand completely. When I was a student in Greeley, CO 30 (ish) years ago, I rode my bike everywhere, and enjoyed training on the many lightly traveled section roads. A small but thriving bike/racing culture grew up around the Bike Peddler which was about a block from my apartment. I remember it as heavenly. When I moved to Albuquerque I wound up with a non-bikable commute, and when I tried to ride for exercise on what seemed like ample shoulders of state roads I was, for the first time in my life, intentionally harassed by drivers. Cars (or pickups, more likely), would cross the white line to buzz me, I was once forced off the pavement, insults were shouted, things were thrown. Clearly, the difference was one of place. I stopped riding. Being in conflict is one thing; being defenseless (not even a GoPro in those days) is another.

When I moved to Pittsburgh attitudes were a little better but roads far worse: twisty, narrow, no shoulder and frequently a deep rut immediately off the fog line. When I found myself overweight and overstressed a few years ago, I thought of my many happy miles back in Colorado, bought a bike and managed to drop 40 pounds by finding a few safe-ish training routes and spending several hours a week at an outdoor cycling track not far from home. When the kids are all gone to college, my wife and I intend to move to a place from which we can bike to work. There are some new and excellent bike lanes, and there are routes heavily used by bike commuters where drivers are habituated, and there are many places to live where one can safely access a bike artery to downtown. But trying to commute by bike from our current location would be suicide. Even my training routes would be suicide during rush hour, when people care absolutely nothing about anything but themselves and their own frustration and impatience. Any commuting route would have to go through various kill boxes, where an incident would simply be an eventuality.

So, to the newbie I would say that not all places and times and riders are equal. I often see young, strong riders, or no-other-option cyclists in traffic that I wouldn't dare. I have colleagues who commute by bike in all but the worst weather, with nary a care, never a horror story, by virtue of their locations. And I have survived as a cyclist by picking my spots and knowing my limitations, but know I have to move if I wish to commute from home.

Perhaps most important though is that it doesn't have to be this dangerous. We've seen in The Netherlands and to a slightly lessor extent in Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Finland, and elsewhere that it bicycling can be quite safe. That if roads and bikeways are designed properly about 90% fewer people will be killed.

I'm not saying that after four serious accidents that I wouldn't also give up cycling... after one serious accident I gave up motorcycles... however, I do not blame anyone else for my misfortunes. I do not see where the o.p. owns their part (and they do have one) in the outcomes of their accidents. It is my firm conviction that there are other cyclists riding completely accident free commutes or other kinds of public riding in the very city, the very same neighborhood even, that the o.p. lives in. Four accidents is three too many. Giving up cycling is probably the best decision, but to make it seem like a decision forced by the actions of hostile, antagonistic, unthinking, unfeeling drivers. I don't know... seems a bit much. Here's what I would do... I would go to a local bike store and see if there is anyone there I could shadow. Maybe join a local club, prolly they mostly ride on weekends only, but you might find some hardcore commuters in there... whatever, you find yourself a streetrider who is not having as hard a time of it as you are and see how they go about staying in one piece out there. FWIW.

Biking in the Netherlands and the other countries you mentioned would be safer than in the U.S. even if their bike infrastructure was exactly the same as in the U.S. People are different in Western Europe. Penalties for harming or killing vulnerable road users are different. In the EU you cannot overtake a cyclist except by first slowing to 19mph or less first. In the US you can blast by at the posted limit if you allow 3'... that only kind of works. Slowing down is MUCH better. Separated bikeways are NEVER going to be as extensive as the street-grid already developed over CENTURIES for motorized traffic. Please, stop pining for that biking utopia of a separate, but equal, system of barricaded bike lanes. it isn't going to happen. What needs to happen is that drivers (and cyclists) are given clear instructions on how to share what roads exist and this be enforced by strict penalties for lapses.

Not even that :/ I can send videos of cars going 55mph in a 35-45mph zone, passing me by 8 inches when the law mandates 2.5-4', and no one cares. There are 0 legal repercussions, why would they change? Agree with your post

Its not like that here unfortunately.

No one commutes in my part of town. Ten miles from me where there are bike lanes, a few people do, but even then not many. Where I live I'm surrounded by 45mph roads people treat like 55mph roads. Not a shoulder, sidewalk or bike lane in sight. Heavy industrial traffic including 18 wheelers that buzz me within inches. There are no alternatives, any neighborhood I cut through dumps me on to these roads, and I can't merely cross them into another neighborhood. The best I can do is drive half the commute, then share 35mph roads with antagonistic drivers. The same 35mph roads where my last two accidents happened.

I was going 7 miles out of my way on my 25 mile one way commute to take the least busy roads I could. I spent over 500$ in various lights and safety gear. I ran front and rear lights any time I got on my bike, and doubled up on them when the sun set. Wore nothing but high-viz clothing with a high-viz helmet. I avoided confronting drivers who buzzed me or threw things at me. I rode the fastest bike I could (Trek Emonda) as hard as I could (20mph average including stopping at lights etc.) to alleviate how much I slow car divers down. I obeyed every traffic law I could so people don't get pissed at me for ignoring traffic laws. I move over to give cars room to pass when they're behind me, I signaled every turn and lane change. Despite my best efforts I was repeatedly harassed and knocked off my bike by moving cars.

There's nothing an advocacy group or shadowing another biker could change about my situation. The one time a month I see another cyclist out where I live they look just as stressed and miserable as I did.

I have talked with bike mechanics at the nearest bike shop (14 miles away) that live where I do. They don't bike commute to work for the exact reasons I don't anymore.

I've tried the nearest group rides. They don't bike within 8 miles of my house for the same reasons I no longer bike there.

What part of that exactly should I be owning?

I did everything in my power to be safe and legal and got sent to the ER.

How is shadowing another cyclist going to prevent me from getting hit while being stopped at a red light? How is finding another local bike commuter to ride with going to stop a motorist from turning left right in front of me?

Your firm convictions are very wrong.

that is one of the most confounding aspects of post-war american suburban sprawl. these disconnected tangles of twisty single-use residential streets that all eventually end in cul-de-sacs that stretch across dozens or even hundreds of acres that are designed exclusively for single-point automobile access are really a bane for alternate modes of mobility.

i thank my lucky stars that i live in a city with a fully interconnected street grid with a regular hierarchy of major, minor, and side streets that give me a plethora of options to conveniently avoid the most obnoxiously trafficky sections of the major streets wherever i happen to be riding (except for when there's a stupid freaking cemetery in the way, oh how i hate those gigantic wastes of space).

If you plan to try to get Leisersturm to say that somebody else is right, you'll end up as frustrated as when you were bike commuting, although hopefully less physically injured...

Agree about shadowing another bicycle rider. Advocacy can have a major impact though. In NYC, Minneapolis, Portland, Indianapolis, Chicago, London, and Barcelona it is advocacy that has led to increasing numbers of protected bikeways which has led to significant increases in the number of people who ride bicycles and to decreases in crashes, injuries, and deaths.

In 1971, Amsterdam and much of The Netherlands was much like other countries - very car centric. It was advocacy that began in 1972 that changed things and that led to their becoming the safest place to ride bicycles and to having the highest number of people who ride. Similar advocacy led to results in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Sweden, Finland, and Germany.

Here's a before/after comparison of one Dutch street:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CHs359CUMAIN1q1.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CHs36BPVEAAUA7j.jpg

Which looks more inviting?

The top photo is what all of The Netherlands looked like prior to 1972. There were no bikeways. In 1972 they began efforts to make bicycling and walking safer and more appealing. The top priority was creating bikeways. At first these were painted bike lanes but they found that drivers still veered in to them, parked in them, and that road debris collected in them. They then switched to building the protected bikeways and time separated junctions (no conflicting movements allowed) we know there today and which has led to their safety and modal share records.

If the Dutch can do it, we certainly should be able to as well. And fortunately we are on our way. Increasingly cities and counties are building protected bikeways and junctions and including safer pedestrian crossings.

I like the top photo better. The kid gets to ride his bike, and have a friend on the handlebars. In the bottom picture they have to walk their bikes.

OP, I don't know if anyone has suggested this yet, but are their offroad/trail options you could ride on a MTB?

I'm certain that you are wrong about this. I've agreed with you more often than you know...

Why would anyone suggest this? We are talking about commuting. I don't know... I think if their was a handy MUP or Greenway that just happened to run right by the o.p.'s house and also... just by happenstance, also right by their place of work... I think they'd know... avoiding traffic will not get us to the 'after' photo in [MENTION=179437]CrankyOne[/MENTION]'s post. It is my firm conviction (where have you heard those words before) that even places like where the o.p. lives are far more bike tolerant in 2016 than in the 1980's. I survived those days. Lots of us did. S/he can do this. If s/he wants. It's ok to hate me... I'd rather you didn't... but it's ok. I've got to call them as I see them.

Do you have any credible information about the percentage of the Dutch population that used a bicycle for transportation purposes in 1972 and earlier years vice today? I suspect that it was no less than than it is today.

Just an anecdote, I'm currently reading Journey Through the Night, about a Dutch family during Nazi occupation in WWII, and there are bikes ALL OVER that book.

The bottom photo looks like what is called a Fußgängerzone in Germany and exists in just about every city in Germany as well as NL. A fine destination for bicyclists to ride to and park or walk their bikes and enjoy as a pedestrian.

It is meant for pleasant shopping, dining and walking by pedestrians and is NOT inviting for anyone riding through on a bicycle. It is NOT a bicycle route or bicycle path. It is a destination and may have places dedicated for bicycle parking.

This is bar none the worst advice in this thread. Do not listen to this victim-blaming, victim-shaming person.

I'm all for advocacy. I plan to be vocal and active regarding this issue.

But joining an advocacy group or shadowing other cyclists (which I've done) did not bring any new ideas to the table for me. They basically agreed with everything I've said here, and were frankly amazed I bike commuted where I did, and full time at that.

Yes, if I want to ride in circles. No, if I want to commute to work, my gym, the grocery store etc. I plan to use my MTB in these areas for recreation, but until I move I don't think there is a way for me to commute safely via bike. Lease is up soon, I'll be shopping for a better location, maybe even a new home city.

I don't hate you, but you are wrong. I can continue bike commuting where I live, and I will suffer if I choose to do so. The stress these incidents put on me and my family is not worth the enjoyment and exercise I received. Just because someone got by in the 80's in some other part of the world does not mean a new generation of drivers in a different city on different roads behave the same way. I'm not putting my body on the line to get some exercise in and save some gas money. I'm not sacrificing my ability to walk or hold my daughter in hopes people will get used to bike commuters. I commuted on the same roads for years and saw no visible improvement in how I was treated.

You can do everything right and get hit by a car. You can do everything wrong and not get hit by a car. The goal is to do what you can to decrease the likelihood of getting hit. If you take the Cycling Savvy course, you will be astonished at the positions many/most cyclists put themselves in attempting to share the road. Check it out. But please don't feel bad when you realize the depth of your ignorance. No shame is warranted.