neil

Glad you're doing alright. Would your family (and you) think it was a sign from on high if you'd sustained similar injuries while driving a car? Depending on which studies you believe, cycling is either slightly safer, or slightly more dangerous (but more than offset by longer life due to better health) than driving, but pretty much everyone who's actually looked into it agrees that they're in the same range. Cyclists are less protected in a crash than drivers, but they're also more nimble, and far better at avoiding crashes, so it tends to balance itself out.

Any time in roadways presents risks, and all you can do is bike defensively and keep a watch out for complete idiots. It's not the bikeways that are dangerous, it's the interface between bikeways and roads.

I hope you go back to biking. I had a bad crash when I was 15 (no direct contact with a car, but I did a header over the handlebars when I stopped suddenly to avoid a left-turning car), and it took me a couple of years before I was comfortable riding again. It takes time, but it's worth it.

Pain

Pretty rare that a bike path crossing a major road has the right of way. Every MUT I have been on has a yield or stop sign or nothing at all which basically means good luck your on your own crossing that road.

narr33

I was hit several years ago and have a steel in my leg as a result. I now run bright lights front and rear daytime and nighttime and most importantly take the lane. I also thought I would never commute again but have been back on the road for almost three years with no problems. It took me a some time though but now I think I am more safe riding a bike than driving a car. When you are ready to ride again take it slow. Start at the local bike path, if you have one, and work your way up. Do all the PT you can and best of luck on your recovery.

rubic

You have a wonderful thought process and I concur.

Igo

Everybody is fumbling for a cheeseburger in their passenger seat. Everybody is fighting with their kids. Everybody is looking for a different radio station. Everybody is drunk. Everybody has the right away in the intersection. Everybody is texting or talking on the phone. Everybody is putting on makeup. Everybody is late for work. Everybody is reading a newspaper. Everybody runs the red light. 40 years on a motorcycle.

Get well buddy, and I wish you the very best.

rubic

You know, Igo, you just about have it right. The only thing I can add to this is all of the drivers in the example that you have illustrated truly believe that they are the only drivers on the road that know what they are doing while all the rest don't. This is the dangerous "driver's" mind set. Sound familiar?....

Igo

I thought I said that too. Sorry I missed it.

prathmann

Except when it has a traffic light showing a green light/WALK signal. Which seems to have been the case in the OP since it indicated that the driver on the crossing street ran a red light.

As others have said, there is no completely safe means of transportation. But the figures I've seen on fatalities and major injury indicate that bicycling is pretty much in line with the risks of either driving or walking. I.e. by some measures it's a little riskier, but by others it's a little safer. Best wishes to the OP on his recovery and whatever means of transportation he chooses in the future.

spare_wheel

too late.

i can track stand while seated for a good hour or so. i can bunny hop with the best of them. both of commuters have disc brakes and i am very skilled at emergency stops/skids. in fact, i am a pretentious cat-6 a-hole who is pathetically proud of his bike skills. despite this i have been hit twice by clueless idiotic cagers. in both cases i am absolutely certain that there is nothing i could have done to avoid being hit. the idea that some sort of godlike fredly hypervigilance can save you from anothers folly is complete bull crap.

Artkansas 

Yes, you can never assume that anywhere is safe. I remember riding on a bike path thinking that amid all this traffic there had to be an accident. Later on, I was following a father and son, when the boy suddenly swerved into the father beside him and I had to hit the brakes quickly.

But you also have to realize that the events that you endured may be be infrequent. It's been 33 years since I got run over by a Mustang.

boggy

You are 100% correct. I could have avoided this accident, if only I was treating this traffic light as a stop sign. Obviously this was a valuable lesson, and I will no longer enter intersection without making sure to check the crossing road. You have to understand my behavior as well, my commute takes over an hour, and I was racing through those green lights without taking extra care to check the road every day, many times, for over a year. Stupid and careless, I know, I learned my lesson.

boggy

The bike path that I was on is build along the bus line. So every intersection, and I mean EVERY intersection, has a traffic light. As you can imagine there's a TON of traffic lights. They did not want to take chances with stop signs and buses full of people. This, of course, gives you a false sense of safety. By the way the car send me flying into the bus way. I ended up right where the bus usually goes, it was my lucky day.

jeffpoulin

You might want to pick a route that has fewer lights, even if it's longer. My commute is 21 miles each way with 4 lights. It's not the most direct route. My most direct route is about 17 miles each way with over 20 lights. Both routes take me about the same amount of time, but the longer route is more scenic, more relaxing, and safer.

Rick@OCRR

My commute doesn't include any bike-paths, bike lanes or MUP's, but this thread makes me think about all the times I take for granted that a motorist is going to stop for a red light.

I trust my life to the "fact" that motorists will stop for a red light, which (as noted above) isn't a fact at all.

Thanks for the heads-up and sorry to hear you were hurt so badly learning this lesson. Heal quickly!

Rick / OCRR

Commodus

Stuff happens man. You can't live your whole life not doing what you wanna do. Look at it this way, statistically* your chances of getting in ANOTHER bad accident has to be way less!

*it's best if you don't analyze that theory too rigorously.

Leisesturm

Sorry, but you only make my point all the more clearly. And read again where I say it is possible that there was nothing the o.p. could do to avoid the accident. But, maybe there was. Definitely there was in some of the many accidents recounted in this forum and in A&S. Now get to work on those emergency stops, they are clearly not up to par if you've been hit twice.

H

dhiltonp

I've been involved in 3 bike-car accidents, 2 as the bike, 1 as the car. Thankfully, in all cases injuries were minor (but enough to not bike for 1-3 weeks), with minimal bike damage (mostly bent wheels).

Look up statistics like how many accidents occur when biking on different types of roads/paths and calculate how safe your path is.

On my commute, I have

• .5 miles of neighborhood road
• 2.5 miles of MUP
• 2.5 miles of major no bike-lane road
• 7.5 miles of bike-lane road (parallel to some fairly major streets, with stop signs or lights every 4 blocks).

13 miles total

Using statistics from a 1996 study, here is how dangerous each part of my ride is:

• 29.5 =.5*59 (neighborhood road)
• 220 = 2.5*88 (MUP)
• 102.5 = 2.5*41 (major no bike-lane road)
• 195 = 7.5*26 (bike-lane road)

547 total
The numbers I've calculated aren't in useable units, but they do tell me the relative danger of each segment of my commute, and I can do some calculations with them:

547 / 13 = 42 accidents per million km on my route.

I do this for about 5000 km per year, so (42 /1000000) * 5000 = .21 accidents every year.
Statistically, I can expect an accident once every 5 years on my commute. Of course, I'll do what I can to avoid accidents in general.

Here's a value from a 1976 study on bike paths that you may find useful (converted to accidents per 1M km, like the previous link) : 177 (https://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~piaw/accident.txt)

Edit: Here's a summary of more recent bike safety research.

dhiltonp

Here's an interesting link on the number of injuries per transportation type per year. Unfortunately, it doesn't specify accidents per mile (only injuries and fatalities), so we can't do a direct comparison to the calculations I performed above.
https://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811392.pdf

I can calculate car fatalities and injuries per 1M km, though: 1.2.

You are statistically less likely to be injured in a car assuming the same distance traveled. It will of course cost a lot more money, too.

From the 2nd link in my previous post:
The odds of you having an accident now are likely lower than they were before your accident (a little paranoia goes a long way). Read up, be safe, and have fun.

no1mad 

^^^^I think you'd have a blast in A&S...

Drew Eckhardt 

It's pretty common for the bike path to have the right-of-way.

Usually bike paths are built paralleling major roads so intersections with major roads are where the two meet each other with a one set of traffic lights for car and bicycle traffic.

Cars are usually allowed to turn right on red from the perpendicular street, but must yield to all traffic before doing so.

syciprider

Good to know you're OK and good to see that you gleaned a lesson here. Out there where the rubber meets the road it's all about the tonnage.

mrleft2000

Man it's like you guys never learned to cross the street or something. And then you use statistics made up from others who also never learned to cross the street to defend that intersections are dangerous.

1) Treat all intersections like you were crossing them as a pedestrian. Slow down at intersections until there are signs that it is safe to cross, commuting isn't a race. Wait for the lead cars at cross streets to come to a stop or at least show signs of slowing to a stop.

2) Make eye contact with drivers looking to turn from cross streets. It's just common sense.

3) Use traffic in your direction to keep cross street turners at bay as you cross.

I'm sure there are many more subtle techniques I use over the years. I feel with modern day child rearing, we forget to teach our children how to cross the streets. And when we never learned how to cross the streets, it just propagates with our own children.