Since I started commuting regularly, and seriously--as in riding on the street, wearing a helmet, following the rules, looking like I know what I' m doing--I have been "instructed" to use the sidewalk twice by passing cars, that is, someone in a passing car has shouted "sidewalk" at me. Other than that, nothing.

Thirty years ago, someone threw some water at me, and some old guy turned into a parking lot and clipped my rear wheel.

Good point above about close calls while driving. Twice I just about have gotten my kids killed by a boneheaded maneuver on my part in a car. Where I live in Minneapolis, my route TO work is in the morning when traffic is lighter, and my route FROM work is longer along the side streets, so I personally feel safer on a bike than in a car.

I used to ride out in heavy traffic in rush hour on a four-lane street until I found my quieter, longer, back way home. Even then, I never had any incident that I would consider any sort of problem.

I have been commuting by bike from my home to a train station in sub-rural New Jersey for six or seven years, and two years ago started using a folding bike so I could ride in NYC as well. In that time I have had my wife drive me to the station maybe ten times on account of inclement weather, and I've stayed home on account of weather on another ten occasions; otherwise I have used only the bicycle and the train for getting to work. My commute is now about 16 miles of bicycling every day, plus another 90 or so on the train.
In that time...
--I have been in one accident which drew blood, when I rammed a taxi door as it opened. Scared the **** out of some unfortunate tourist, to whom I apologized profusely, but she was mostly concerned about the blood coming from my cut knuckle. My fault, obviously.
--I have been in one accident that required hospitalization, but it doesn't count, because I wasn't on my bike at the time. My train derailed and about six people went to the emergency room. I was not among them.
--I have had three close calls in which I almost hit taxis who swerved in front of me and then slowed down. Would have been my fault; it's what taxis do, you have to expect that.
--I had a very close call in which I was almost hit by a car running a red light. That was scary. I have had two similar close calls in which I was almost hit by cars making legal left turns (tho without turn signals).
--I have yelled at about five people on account of various transgressions; on three occasions I was sufficiently polite about it that they actually apologized with some sincerity.
--pedestrians have yelled at me on two occasions, probably with some justification.
--I came within inches of running over a squirrel once. It was running from a mockingbird, which I may also have hit --it seemed to fly right through my spokes-- probably an optical illusion.
--I have been hit by one goose, and had narrow misses with that or other geese on two occasions; and once I was almost run over by a deer. The goose, by the way, attacked me without provocation, warning, or any realistic idea of what it was going to do to me; and it never apologized. Luckily it kept its head out of the spokes. My policy now is to yell at geese as early and as loud as possible, but it doesn't seem to help.

That's all the bad news I can remember; the rest is just sunshine, tailwinds, and the occasional glorious moment like the view from the bicycle lane on the Brooklyn Bridge. No thrown objects have hit me, and I haven't noticed any that missed me. In my experience 99% of drivers are courteous and cautious. NYC drivers are more polite to bicyclists than NJ drivers. NYC bicyclists are horrible, they have no courtesy and no caution. Given the number of miles, I'd say the train is marginally safer than the bicycle, but that may just be anecdotal evidence.

Rudi

"After all 43,000 motorist die each year and only 700 cyclists."

Let's assume this figure is accurate. At least half of the "cyclists" are children. That would mean 350 cyclist deaths are adults. Serious cyclists spend far more time and distance riding than than children, so presumably we have far more exposure to the dangers of biking.

Following the rules of the road, taking a lane, using lights to be visible at night all reduce your chance of collision. There is no doubt that if these factors were taken into account in the death statistics, and removed from the total, that 350 would be greatly reduced.

I am not worried for my safety when I am cycling. I have logged 4000 mi so far this year in the greater Dallas area- in spandex shorts!

Don't be too hard on your wife- It's her job to worry!
Tailwinds! ChipSeal

I've been commuting for almost 2 years. Had some jacka$$ kids throw a firecracker at me once last year and almost got doored once by a vehicle in the middle of a 3 lane road. Oh, and some lady cut across me turning right a couple months ago but I was ready for her and was able to avoid hitting her.

I have yet to go down on a ride...knock wood. I'm riding at least 3 times a week now and last week I rode in 4 days straight (20 miles round trip).

Every day for 15 months without incident. My feeling is that if you're respectful of the cars and stay where you belong in traffic, you'll be fine -- rather like driving. At this point, I bike MUCH more than I drive and driving feels far more dangerous. I worry about my wife when she has to drive to do field work, but not so much when she rides her bike.

I find these "I got buzzed today!", "I got honked at", "I'm worried I'm going to die", etc. threads so amusing! As someone else said (sorry I don't remember who), stuff doesn't happen everyday. I've been riding to and from work or school constantly since 1977. I have records that show that I've ridden at least once in every month for 228 straight months. I've been buzzed, shouted at, threatened and hit by a pedestrian (once) and a car (once and I still can't feel anything in that knee and it happened in 1981). You learn to deal with it.

Yell back, curse their progeny, call the cops, don't flip them off, track them down and flatten their tires, or whatever else you need to remain sane but don't obsess on it. Enjoy the ride and don't let the a$$holes get you down

Can you poll all your friends and ask how many have been touched by a serious car accident? I think you'll find big numbers. We fear the unfamiliar.

2,500kms commuting; no accidents, no close calls, nothing thrown at me, maybe 10 honkings or yelling.

IIRC, 900 miles per year is the tipping point; that is to say that experience counts. The more experience you get, the better you'll be at recognizing risky situations.

I can partly satisfy your request. I've had one significant incident in 1500 days and 15,000 miles of commuting, and it was partly my fault. I was following a car too closely through an intersection on a drizzly day, and to my surprise the car slowed as we were clearing the intersection and then turned right, into a gas station on the far side of the intersection. My brakes were wet and badly adjusted, so I had poor braking power, and I had to dive onto the sidewalk as he cut me off.

Other than that I've had very little to worry about. Now I always check my equipment, give cars lots of clearance, anticipate their unsignalled turns, and ride safely.

This much debated article by Prof Ullrich suggests that cycling improves longevity: the major increase in health more than compensates for any risk of injury.

Cooker brings up something that I think all of us neglected to mention - TAKE CARE OF YOUR EQUIPMENT! It takes just a minute to do a PM check before going off to ride...and can save you from having a bad day.

I just rode from San Francisco to Los Angeles without a single close call
The most impressive part was no flats.

In 5 years of riding almost every day with traffic, 10 mile round trip, I've had 0 collisions, a handful of close calls, and a handful of solo falls, mostly on ice. The close calls were all within the first year, as I recall. Hopefully that means I've gotten to be a better bicycle driver since then, and you will too.

As I've become more vigilant, I've also begun noticing times that it could have been a close call but wasn't because I was able to see the situation developing and respond, by slowing down and/or calling out to the driver. The next step beyond just doing everything right yourself is to begin watching for others to do something stupid and see it coming soon enough to react.

I have a little game that I sometimes play that I call "right-hook baseball". I generally take the full lane when stopped at signalized intersections. If I'm going straight in a lane that can also accommodate right turners, this keeps me from getting to the right of someone who is potentially turning right. So when the light changes and I go, I count the number of cars immediately in front of or behind me who turn right, and count that as a potential right-hook successfully avoided. A "single" (one car) is not uncommon, a "double" is a nice feeling, and a "triple" is the highlight of the commute!

I’ve been riding 6 years and I am doing about 6,000-10,000 miles a year by bike and I had only one spill (pavement was poor quality) after trying to avoid a car that cut me off and that just resulted in a tear in my pants. Most “close calls” that I get are more of an aggravation then anything life threatening.

Not one problem on my commutes.

One thing to take note of. A commute is a regular, predictable thing. The car commuters will get to know you and expect to see you. They will know how to react and how you drive you bike. I think because of that, commuting is safer than weekend joy rides (all else being equal).

Best thing I did was buy a big yellow jacket, there's no excuse for not seeing me.

+1 Looks Wilma-ish but so...

No collisions with cars after years of riding, a few close calls, (Knock wood) yes I have fallen more than once 'cause I'm a klutz, people are nicer to me than I'd expect. They were much meaner to me when I drove the car...

They don't yell too much but I get the Hoots and Whistles from men sometimes.

No one has ever thrown anything at me.

I've almost crashed with other cyclists, too who come up from behind or alongside with no bell or warning...

I've never really had any kind of altercation. The few accidents I had were not related to vehicles at all.

I have been riding 90-150 miles a week for close to two years now. I have never had a run in with an automobile. I have had a close call or three but the were largely due to me riding a *little* recklessly, which I have a tendency to do from time to time. If I were Mr. Safety, I think all of those close calls could have been avoided entirely. I have never had anything thrown at me, but I once threw my bike at a car.

This is what I tell my wife to make her feel better: There's a slim chance I'll be hurt or killed on my bike but the risk is probably only moderately higher than travel by car. There's a pretty damn good chance I'd die of a heart attack if I drove to work.

Also, if more people rode to work it be less dangerous for cyclists, and health problems due to bad air quality would be greatly reduced. We would see less asthma, cancer, birth defects and other respiratory diseases. I more healthy for my efforts, but I'm also doing something to make the world more healthy.

What a great topic. I understand your wife's concern. I commute about 5,000 miles per year and am often in heavy traffic. Although I admit that many of the topics posted about here are discouraging, they have actually served to make me a much, much safer rider. As a result of these forums I have learned some very critical safety lessons without having to make the mistakes myself.

For instance, I have learned that when a gap exists in a line of cars I am passing, it only exists for one reason; to let cars through. So I slow down wether or not I see a car ready to move through the gap (left cross or right cross). I have learned that it is possible to ride thousands and thousands of miles in traffic without incident if you pay attention to basic traffic behavior (objective hazards notwithstanding). Additionally, I have learned that I will never be on the right hand side of a car through an intersection regardless of wether or not that car has signalled intention to turn right.

I have learned a new way to think about traffic and its flow. For instance, I have come to understand where a driver is likely to look for hazards before entering a roadway or lane and what hazards he is looking for. To this end, I have come to understand that a driver will NEVER check for a wrong way cyclist whether on the road or the sidewalk. I have learned how to negotiate very tricky areas in traffic such as a long and high speed right hand entrance lane to a freeway that you have to cross to go straight.

I have learned how to assert myself as a traffic vehicle and to more gain respect and cooperation by doing so. I have learned how to respond to frustrated drivers in a manner that is most likely to result in a postive result and least likely to result in aggression.

I can't tell you how many times I have been able to recognize a potentially hazardous situation because I had read about it on the forums and was ready for it. Some of these lessons would have taken much longer to learn and would have been gained at a much greater level of peril to myself without these forums.

Rest assured, most of us travel safely day in and day out but when we do make a mistake, we post it here so that others don't have to learn the hard way.

After many thousands of commuting miles, I am convinced that with the exception of ojective hazards (the extrememly rare case of being mowed down from behind by a text messaging teenager, for instance), bike commuting is a very safe and fun way to get around. I am also convinced that, for the most part, your safety as a bike commuter is in your own hands. There is much you can do to ensure that you won't be at the wrong place at the wrong time and going the wrong rate of speed. These forums are a wonderful asset for commuters.

Had no real issues yet. One or two people have flipped me off, but the worst incident was being run off the MUP just a week ago. Wasn't even a road. A little girl was stopped on her bike, I slowed way down to pass her and just as I was getting near her she started moving again, with minimal control of the bike. Yeah the only way to avoid her was to ride off the trail. I feel so ashamed, run off a trail by a little girl.

Haha, this is so true. I'm a guy and I have girls flirt with me about as often as I get angry shouts from cars. And for every flirtatious girl and angry motorist I get three smart ass "go Lance" type comments.

Excellent post, Sawtooth.

Why, thank you!

I've never been touched by, or touched, a vehicle. I've never had a close call that I thought was scary. Last time I got honked at was over a year ago.
Worst thing that usually happens to me is that drivers are too courteous.
Last week I was travelling down the main road in town, a guy on a side street to the left wanted to go across. He saw me and slowly started creeping out, watching me the whole time, waiting for me to go past. What he didn't see was the line of cars coming from the other direction (towards me) that all had to stop and wait for him to wait for me to finish crossing. He got lots of horns.
EDIT: I did have a fall last week. A corner I've been over 1000 times and I know there's loose gravel on it, but I hit it just wrong last Wednesday. When your front wheel loses traction on a corner, your face will be in the pavement before you can release the handlebars. SlipBang. 12 stitches on my face, about a half dozen spots of road rash down my left side.

There were no cars anywhere near, I was just stupid. I got up, self-assessed that there was nothing seriously broken except my helmet (which saved me from even more stitches), started spitting out gravel and blood, went home, showered up, put on some old clothes that I didn't mind getting bloody, grabbed something to read in the waiting room, and drove to the ER to get some stitches.

Great post and the right attitude. +1000.