Recent convert hit by car
 

a couple of weeks back i posted my joy at converting someone to a bike commuter. i learned today that this person was hit by a car on the way home from work Friday. he is ok, just some serious leg damage.
i asked how it happened and was told it happened close to work while riding on a section of sidewalk where someone was pulling out not looking at the sidewalk but at the road. going forward he is going to stay off the sidewalk and instead ride thru a number of subdivisions to get here even it is a little longer mileage wise
the driver was ticketed and what's weird is that 2 hours prior to his accident there was another biker hit by a car at the exact same spot.

i just looked at his leg and almost threw up- it's swollen up like a pumpkin and its purple from the knee down.
no broken bones-

Well, that's the hard way to learn that sidewalks are usually more dangerous that roads.

Sad news. Glad he wasn't hurt too bad and hope he makes a quick recovery!

As for sidewalks, yeah... I figured it wasn't the safest place to ride even before I found this site and then I read all the posts here and vowed to ride sidewalks as little as humanly possible. (I seem to remember a close call or two with cars backing out of driveways when I was riding in my neighborhood growing up that probably gave me a practial understanding of the dangers.)

I've come to notice that since I began commuting and riding regularly, I conciously stay on the lookout for sidewalk riders, but mostly b/c I read so many stories here. I'm trying to be more careful when behind the wheel, but it's obvious from this story that not everyone is (oh, and BTW, the sky is blue).

i almost hit a sidewalk rider just two days ago. traffic was hectic and i was trying to pull out so i had all of my attention on the road (as it should be). i start to pull out when all of a sudden a kid on a mountain bike shoots in front of me on the sidewalk. my tires squealed i had to stop so hard.

sidewalk. is that really so difficult?

New cyclists get lots of tips on equipment, training, etc. but rarely on cycling in/with traffic. In addition to all the help they ask for provide this as well:
http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/usa/index.htm

Sidewalks are only trouble - unless I'm crossing a busy, high-speed bridge with no shoulder (high pucker factor location).

Car drivers rarely register a sidewalk rider until it's too late. Their eyes are focused on the road.

Newbies: Ride on the road - and WITH traffic.

Sidewalks are way more scary than traffic lanes and they are bumpy too.

Yep. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the OP mentioned it to him, and he just refused to listen, and not only decided to stay on a nice "safe" sidewalk, but also chose to ignore strategies to mitigate sidewalk riding dangers (i.e., treating all driveways with extreme caution).

Hope the leg heals okay. It's great that the recent covert is not giving up and is instead changing his strategy to a safer one. Let's hope this will be the worst crash he'll ever have.

what do you mean by " the driver was ticketed and what's weird is that 2 hours prior to his accident there was another biker hit by a car at the exact same spot."?

So his wife pulled out and hit someone and then dad pulls out and hit someone 2 hours later? i dont get it

Oooh, purple! Lovely! :D

I'm gonna sound like a total pervert here, but if this does not lead to any kind of permanent damage, I find this kind of stuff actually cool. Battle scars! I know people on here enjoy posting photography of their own gory glory on here, so at least I'm not totally alone.

What makes you think it was a private driveway? Probably a commercial parking lot with tons of traffic entering and leaving.

This is one reason why I don't actively try to "convert" people to bike commuting. I would feel terrible if I talked someone into biking to work, and then they got run over. When I started commuting, I was already a serious cyclist riding 6,000-7,000 miles a year. I was used to riding on the roads and had a helmet, a good supply of bright jerseys, tail light, etc. Although nearly everyone knows how to ride a bike, many people haven't really acquired the equipment and skills to ride in traffic. I'm not saying it can't be done by newbies, I'm just saying it is less safe unless you are willing to invest some money and learn.

Lady here at work always tells me daily:

"I know "The rule" says to ride with traffic and on the street, but I FEEL safer riding against traffic on the sidewalk...and I never EVER go over 5-10MPH because I fell down once."

I'll show her this, probably won't change her mind, but maybe when she's recovering from being ran over down the road - I can at least say:


"I TOLD YOU SO........."

The number one location for off-road bicycle crashes is at sidewalks. Source: Federal Highway Administration.

We are not supposed to use them, except in "ped mode" (walking the bike)....

If she's riding 5-10 mph then the sidewalk is a safe place to ride. She should have plenty of time to approach all driveways carefully and negotiate them without getting hit.

For most of us sidewalks are deadly because we are commuting and we need to go relatively fast to get to work. At 15 to 25 mph a sidewalk is deadly because of all the blind driveways and streets that cross it. If I really need to ride a bit of sidewalk I slow way down to do it.

Riding on the sidewalk is illegal in my city. If that accident happened here the cyclist would be getting the ticket not the driver. It would be silly for me to try and commute to work riding on the sidewalk. There are way too many pedestrians.

the offending driver was pulling out of a driveway that led to a parking lot for a preschool. this is the driver that hit my coworker. 2 hours before my coworker was hit another sidewalk bicyclist was riding past the exact same driveway, a totally different driver was leaving the preschool and hit the sidewalk bicyclist

when my coworker saw me riding to work last year she started asking me questions- i went over my experience, the equipment and of course told her to plan her route using google to avoid riding on the sidewalk. i can't say that i actively tried to convert her- i merely gave her some encouragement and the benefit of my experience.

Yeah, that was my big discovery as a commuter -- sidewalks really are way more dangerous than roads. People (generally) try to avoid you; what they have to do is see you first.

The only time I ride on the sidewalk is when I'm pulling my daughter in the trailer. The streets around my house are just too narrow for me to risk having a car mis-judge the distance between their fender and the trailer when they pass. And, usually when I'm pulling her the top speed stays pretty low because the sidewalk is so freakin' bumpy, and there's usually a good amount of pedestrian traffic. I'm always worried about driveways though -- in fact the only time I've dumped the trailer onto it's side was trying to avoid a car rolling through a driveway. (My daughter, securely strapped in, looked at me with her eyes and mouth wide open -- I think she couldn't decide if she should laugh or cry. In the end she laughed).

My roommate got 0wned riding her bike on a sidewalk, guy pulled out of a driveway in front of her, she rides a pedal-assist bike so she was going fast. Her back was messed up for awhile. I only ever use the sidewalk if the road is completely hostile to me and my bike, like road construction, that sort of thing. If I have to take the sidewalk, I keep my speed down and listen and watch for any driveway idiots that aren't paying attention.

As a pedestrian, I've nearly been run over countless times by morons that are only looking at the oncoming traffic and not for pedestrians etc right in front of their car. Always make eye contact with the driver.

I know the "rule" about riding on the street and adhere to it as much as practicable. However, isn't this situational more than hard and fast? For instance, if you're taking it easy and the sidewalk is wide (more akin to a bike path) with relatively few driveways, then wouldn't "sidewalk" riding make more sense? Possibly. On the other hand if the sidewalk is narrow with lots of driveways and high hedges, etc. wouldn't the street make more sense? Most likely. I am of the opinion that being able to read the situation is the most important - more important than the "rule."

Anecdotally - it seems to me that more people get injured riding on sidewalks than do road riders. However, it also seems that more road riders get killed than sidewalk riders; i.e. sidewalk = more total injuries, road = fewer injuries, but more fatalities. I have nothing to back that up and am willing to be completely wrong, I'm just looking for others OPINIONS as to whether thats true.

I don't ride that fast to begin with (I can only pedal with my left leg, so that limits my speed) and I ride in the street the majority of the time. I Will ride on sidewalks in certain areas where the city has crammed three lanes in a space for two, and not left any room for a bike path, however, I always ride slow, and look for pedestrians, and people coming out of driveways. My top speed is about 11mph which I can't sustain for any length of time, so I don't usually fear driveways. If I see a car approaching, I have my hands on the brake levers just in case he/she does not see me.

Clearly, one should always ride on the road, even when the sidewalk is safer, because riding on the road is safer.

If the road is so bad that I have to get on the sidewalk, I get off and walk.