I know many of us have been in accidents while riding in the city - whether commuting to work or touring through a city. But how many have actually been hit by a car while out on the open road - either touring or out for a day ride in the country?

I ask this because people don't seem to think much about riding their bike around town, but when we say we tour, they freak out. It seems to me that it is much safer on the open road than it is in town, but I might be wrong there...

You might also ask this in the "Death and Destruction" forum (Advocacy and Safety) and see what kind of stats they might have.

But I get the same reaction when I tell people that I ride on the highways, and I think there are two factors that scare people: 1) the speed of the vehicles going by, and 2) the remoteness.

Personally, I dislike riding in a town or city because there's so much going on. I dislike driving in cities for the same reason. I much prefer riding in the country. I was interested to discover that my heart rate even reflected that preference. I wore my HRM on a few rides in Winnipeg ... while I was cycling within city limits, my HR was up around 135 ... when I got out into the country it dropped to 125, and I felt much more relaxed.

it really seems that you are far more likely to get hit in or near a city. Maybe when people are hit on the open road nobody ever finds the bodies.

Not so, I got hit outside Navosota Texa's - Southern Tour 2007 - Plain daylight plenty of shoulder and I was wearing yellow. Lady on cell phone retired that day daughter in hospital having a baby very distracted. Don't think City driving 3 killed Banff that year and 3 in a charity ride I think in N Carolina! You have to be carefully anywhere.

While I certainly understand we have to be careful everywhere, it just seems to me that it's much more dangerous in the city than out on the open road. I wish I had some kind of stats or something - but I doubt there are any.

Geez. There were a couple of days, on the open road (but, no shoulder) that I thought that I was for sure, going to be hit. Very, very stressful. The popular National Parks, Yellowstone leaps to mind, where the roads are travelled by lots of large RV's (sorry to bring them up again), were bad. I was grazed once, but not actually "hit." I don't know. City, country-side, ya just gotta be on the look-out. I was literally blown off the road once by a tractor-trailer—and I have no doubt that it was intentional—there being no other traffic in sight. I figure, you're always roll 'in the dice. People being people.

I hate to say this, but I'd imagine the people who have been hit by a car going fast on the open road probably aren't around to answer this question. I think people definitely get hit less out on highways than in cities, but the consequences are more drastic.

My guess, anyway.

From a personal anecdote perspective, no I haven't been hit on the open road. I did have a minor crash in a congested traffic situation with a large number of cars flocking to a local air show.

You'll get differences in the data due to how and what gets reported (and reliable data about how much is ridden to determine exposure), but if you look at studies similar to this Federal Highway Safety Administration Study: https://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/pedbike/...e/ctanbike.htm you'll find agreement with weasel's statement above.

For example, if you browse through the crash types listed:
-- "motorist overtaking, failed to detect", is a small percentage (1.3%) of the crashes they counted, but when these crashes happened, 54% had serious injuries or fatalities. They are correlated with higher speeds, more poor lighting than other crashes. Also proportionally more in rural areas.

-- In contrast, there are quite a few different scenarios involving intersections or turning, so if you arbitrarily pick "drive out at stop sign", you'll see higher percentages of crashes (9.3%) but much less with serious injuries or fatalities (10%). In similar fashion, a turning scenario, "bicyclist left turn in front of traffic" with 4.3% of crashes and 28% serious injuries or fatalities.

I agree with a comment related to Nancy's original premise in her question that people have a poor assessment of risks of bicycling out on the open road - and of the relative risks there vs. touring through a city with many more intersections and interactions. That isn't to say that those risks out in the countryside are completely zero, but I would think they are proportionally lower.

When touring I'll also try to lower my perceived risks. I'm normally a morning person anyways but one of the bigger things I like to do is get out on the road earlier and stop mid-afternoon if I can. It is sometimes colder, but this usually gives me plenty of time to find a place to stay - or alternative if my original place wasn't ok - while there was still daylight.

Just yesterday this guy in a van, comes over the White line and i was off the road it was a huge lane and he was trying to run me over! I come close to having to go in the grass..

Why the hate ? I mean i was like a car lenth away from this fool, way past the white line!

You can't take your gard down even one sec..

My wife and I were hit twice, once in 1983, and again in 1984. We were touring on our tandem. The first time was on the last day of our South Carolina tour. The second time was on the first (and last) day of our Long Island to New England tour. Both times, cars came onto the shoulder and side-swiped us. Both times, we were OK, but the sideward slide of our heavily loaded tandem pretzeled our rear wheel.

I'm still around! But it wasn't a car that hit me, it was a truck! ;-p

I'd imagine the number of folks hit on the open road, while on tour would be pretty low.

In the US most folks who cycle, cycle in more congested areas (commuting, recreation), in or near cities.

The percentage of folks who tour, of all cyclists is pretty low. With the caveate that we tourists are on the roadway all day, yet we are usually "easier" for drivers to see (as a gross generalization). With panniers or trailers, even without flouresence or reflectivity we are a larger object than a standard roadie.

I'll also submit that we tourists recognize bad roads, or unsafe cycling conditions, because we are on the roads for so long every day. I know I do (I think...).

Most folks who tour also don't cycle at night, again a gross generalization, but most of us are finding a place to sleep while it's still light out.

If I remember my statistics correctly, a rather high percentage of cyclist get hit at night.

This could also be an artifact of the constant acceleration in a city- ie braking and speeding up around obstacles cagers etc. In the country the speed is more constant- less accelerating-> less force per stroke-> less overall power necessary

Thanks for your thoughts everyone! I guess what it comes down to is that it doesn´t really matter if it´s more common on the open road or not. We still need to be careful...

I was hit on day 3 of my cross country tour last summer. Twas a hit and run. I was able to continue the tour after some R&R. I was lucky, in several ways.

1) I'm not dead and my injuries were relatively minor.
2) I got hit close to home which made recovery much easier.
3) My bike survived unscathed although my left rear pannier has a big tire mark on it. Ortliebs stay on even when hit by cars!
4) I was able to get back on the bike within 5 days although it was painful.

I ended up restarting the tour after 3 weeks. My journal if you want to read about it. An interesting thing about the journal is that someone who lived on the road where I was hit contacted me through my guestbook. They were curious about the large police presence on their road and found my journal when they googled the date and road name!

Hi Nancy,

twice...
1. I was robbed in middle of nowwhere. The next major city (15.000 inhabitants) was 7 km away.
2. A car crashed into my bike parked on sidewalk. (On the road the bike would have survived this crash...)

It really depends on the country. I normally take the road - instead of the bike paths - in cities. On my way to work I have to use a bike path. Once per week I have to make an emergency breakdown.

Thomas

i worked on a small farm last year, and what kept me from riding to/from the farm to town was the fact that every time we were driving back and forth, we saw plenty of folks tailgating the next car at 60mph, drifting back and forth over the outer white line on a regular basis.

if i was riding, theyd never see me and i'd almost never see them coming.

As the state highway curved left a side road joined at an angle. An old car driven by a legally blind 84 year old woman pulled out facing me head on while I was going 25 mph. With no place to go to avoid the car I tried to bunny hop onto the hood but did not quite make it getting hit mainly at the knees.

Here I was sprawled with bike bleeding across the windshield of this car that kept driving with me yelling for the driver to stop. The driver reached toward the dash and turned on the windshield washers and wipers to remove that big bug! The driver finally stopped.

I lost my ACL and all cartilage from one knee. Too long ago for any fixes for the ACL.

hit and pushed off the road several times in India (end of 2007) by a trucks bus, jeep and normal car. Luckily enough the roads are very bad, so they don't drive that fast, but still...
IT AIN'T FUNNY !!!

Grew up in the "country" with lots of windy, twisty roads. I now live in the city. City riding is a LOT easier for me. Traffic is slower and cars expect you to be there--that is, they expect anything, so you fit right in that world view. On the roads where I grew up, there were too many blind curves and I was in fear for my life. But here's the specifics that contribute to that: windy roads with bind curves, and woods all around on many of the roads. So, lack of visibility is I guess what I am saying.

It wasn't a car and it wasn't me, but about 10 years ago my dad was out during his daily ride, I'd say about 30 miles from our house when a car full of teenagers pulled up behind him and whacked him in the back with a baseball bat. This was before everyone had cell phones and me and my mom started getting worried when he hadn't came home for dinner. Never caught the kids, he didn't see what they looked like. Thank God an passing stranger stopped and took him to the hospital.

I'll still never understand why people do stuff like this. He wasn't bothering them.