[LINK] "Who Causes Cyclists’ Deaths?"
Sep. 4th, 2009 04:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldI'd like to thank ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mindstalk for pointing out to me (and doing a good job of reminding me about) this link to a Freakonomics blog posting analyzing the causes of cyclist mortality in Toronto.
When it comes to sharing the road with cars, many people seem to assume that such accidents are usually the cyclist’s fault — a result of reckless or aggressive riding. But an analysis of police reports on 2,752 bike-car accidents in Toronto found that clumsy or inattentive driving by motorists was the cause of 90 percent of these crashes. Among the leading causes: running a stop sign or traffic light, turning into a cyclist’s path, or opening a door on a biker.
This may be a plausible explanation for cyclists' casualties, but it doesn't touch on other factors, like the attentiveness of cyclists to the rules of the road. If the majority of cyclists I see just don't pay attention to road rules, or even basic politeness, how can that not contribute to accidents?
I like this note, taken from a comment at the blog.
We need to have an epochal shift in culture of both driving and cycling. Drivers need to realize that cyclists were on the roads first, that they are vehicles, and that two seconds of waiting behind cyclists until it is safe to pass are better than the consequences of ending the cyclist’s life. Of course, we need penalties for ending cyclists’ lives that actually ARE worse than waiting two seconds. We need to enforce the rules about passing safely, and about not assaulting the drivers of other vehicles (hitting your incredibly loud aftermarket horn as you pass me counts). We need to train cyclists on how to survive on the roads that are here in the first place, even before the attitude shift, because if bicycles don’t become commonplace they will never be looked for by cars.
mindstalk for pointing out to me (and doing a good job of reminding me about) this link to a Freakonomics blog posting analyzing the causes of cyclist mortality in Toronto.When it comes to sharing the road with cars, many people seem to assume that such accidents are usually the cyclist’s fault — a result of reckless or aggressive riding. But an analysis of police reports on 2,752 bike-car accidents in Toronto found that clumsy or inattentive driving by motorists was the cause of 90 percent of these crashes. Among the leading causes: running a stop sign or traffic light, turning into a cyclist’s path, or opening a door on a biker.
This may be a plausible explanation for cyclists' casualties, but it doesn't touch on other factors, like the attentiveness of cyclists to the rules of the road. If the majority of cyclists I see just don't pay attention to road rules, or even basic politeness, how can that not contribute to accidents?
I like this note, taken from a comment at the blog.
We need to have an epochal shift in culture of both driving and cycling. Drivers need to realize that cyclists were on the roads first, that they are vehicles, and that two seconds of waiting behind cyclists until it is safe to pass are better than the consequences of ending the cyclist’s life. Of course, we need penalties for ending cyclists’ lives that actually ARE worse than waiting two seconds. We need to enforce the rules about passing safely, and about not assaulting the drivers of other vehicles (hitting your incredibly loud aftermarket horn as you pass me counts). We need to train cyclists on how to survive on the roads that are here in the first place, even before the attitude shift, because if bicycles don’t become commonplace they will never be looked for by cars.
