Auto accidents are down; bicycle accidents are up!
Here is an idea for a way to mitigate the road horror of bicycle accidents and deaths.
I have ridden approximately 50,000 road miles on my road bicycle over the years. I have been close to serious injury or death, more times than I care to remember from autos. I have not been innocent of some of those close calls but I can tell you that auto drivers, of all ages, are the cause of most.
Some close calls have been:
• Motorists who fear going over the middle road yellow line, even when there is no oncoming traffic; but choose to hug the right white line where cyclists tread; without allowing 3 feet from the cyclist.
• Drivers who approach a cyclist from behind and decide to turn right just as a cyclist reaches a drive way or street intersection. Wow! What are these drivers thinking?
• Trucks so wide they barely can clear the center line and the bicycle line; especially dangerous are fire trucks that barely fit between the lines and have mirrors protruding even further.
• Drivers who seem oblivious to anything on the road and won’t care until it is too late.
• Then we have the cell phone weirdo’s that feel they must speak to someone holding the cell phone or worse, texting something “important” while attempting to “drive”.
Yes, inconsiderate, selfishness and arrogance are at the root of these avoidable accidents and deaths.
Keeping cyclists and cars at a distance from each other is important to mitigate accidents and deaths of cyclists. Recently the State of Florida passed a law that requires drivers to be at least 3 feet from a cyclist but the bike lane is just a tad more than 3 feet wide on many streets. So moving across the yellow center line would be necessary to accomplish that. It is a rare moment where motorists give a cyclist a wide berth. Laws abound about every topic you can imagine but people do not pay attention to the written word or law, even if they know one exists. They are preoccupied with self-interests.
So what is a possible solution to this dilemma? More Laws? No! Add more roads with bike lines/lanes? No, same problem, different road. More publicity of tragedies? Maybe!
How about thinking outside the box and employing road conditions that could eliminate most of the above close calls and at a fraction of the cost of other solutions?
What if the bike lane was doubled in width and cyclists used one lane going in both directions; but the bike lane on the opposite side of the road was eliminated, thereby allowing for a very wide bicycle lane, naturally giving cyclists some room to avoid being hit by the line " huggers" and wide trucks?
Crazy? Well it is not unprecedented; Gordon Drive in Naples has such a bike lane for part of that road. Sanibel Island has a friendly cyclist policy with sidewalks that have a line down the middle of the walkway/bike lane and sign that says “Keep to the Right”.
The benefit of a wide lane solution is that when no cyclists are coming from the other direction the one cyclist has the comfort and safety of a very wide berth from auto and truck traffic. The cyclist coming in the direction closest to the auto line has the advantage of seeing what the driver is about to do and can react to an errant driver. Afterward, the cyclist closest to the auto lane can move to the left giving them a wide berth.
The material cost of doing this would be for paint, used to move the center road line over and eliminate the bike line on the opposite side of the road. While this solution may not be applicable to every road, it would be a start to mitigating the road horror of bicycle accidents and deaths on most roads.
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Comments » 9
Write_Thinker writes:
Great topic, and finally an opportunity to talk to one of those bicyclists that we see out in heavy traffic on all our roadways. And, I just want to say, "ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY NUTS"
What would ever possess you to take your little bicycle out on the busiest roads traveled down here? Truly, it must be the adrenaline rush of wondering what second you become road mush out there. I mean truly, just what are you inviting to happen when you are pedaling out in 50 mile per hour traffic, oblivious to all the cars with drivers of all ages, all abilities, whether on medication or not, from states and countries far from our own? You are just an accident statistic waiting to happen.
I applaud your desire to ride a bike. We should create accommodations for that. But, never should a bicycle or a car or truck meet. The two just do not go together on roads where speeds top 35 miles per hour, in my opinion. The daredevil instinct of the bicycle crowd needs to be contained.
bananas8187 writes:
Take your bikes to any high school track and pedal your butts off, if it's actually excercise you crave.
If you're going to keep begging for special road rights, you're gonna be dissapointed.
Lance Armstrong waanabe's need to back off and behave.
swampbuggy writes:
Spandex is much harder to get off your grill than love bugs.
anicou writes:
I always have a panic attack when I have to deal with a cyclist on the road.
More when the road is dark and the cyclist has not lights.
My good friend in New York got killed when riding his bicycle in upstate NY.
Many bicycle fanatics has no clue how many risks they take if they do not follow the rules of the road.
sustainable writes:
Why do bicyclists ride on the road when there is a cement bike path 15 feet from the road ?
MiguelSangria writes:
Good column, but your changes do not fit in with the roads of the County. The problem is enforcement. Deputies and police do not enforce the traffic laws. The driver only needs to observe the bicycle as another vehicle on the road, (per STATE STATUTE!)
The change of the lanes do not benefit the cyclist and force them to cross against traffic to make turn. As a cyclist, you also know the wind tunnel produced by traffic. Fighting the traffic on a windy day can become counterproductive to cyclists that use the bicycle as their main form of transportation. Some bicycles just don't have enough gears to fight 30mph winds.
And a lot of roads have medians that would have to be changed.
Complaints to the sheriff and the state police about drivers and riders may get more enforcement. Insistance, such as the complaint to the Naples police that resulted in a bicycle group being ticketed for running through stop signs. Enforcement not working? Increase the fines and have mandatory court appearances.
The laws and rules are there. The enforcement is not.
keekee writes:
To review your points in the order you have written...
*There is no yellow line forgiveness in Naples Traffic. This is becoming one of the busiest seasons I have seen in a few years, bumper to bumper all lanes most all day and especially rush hours.
*What do you expect a driver to do when the car is traveling from 10 to 30 or 40 miles per hours, he needs to turn right, he sees the bicycle however if he hesitates or stops in the middle of 41 or whatever road he is traveling, he risks causing a road and car accident from behind (that’s what the driver is thinking!). Impossible situation.
*This one confuses me. Do you want trucks (fire trucks) or other trucks to stop using the roads as to accommodate cyclists? Again refer to point one.
*Oblivious drivers are not oblivious only to cyclists, if they are oblivious, they are a danger to themselves and everyone else. Which gives me the opportunity to insert, “It’s not always all about you.”
*Cell phones and driving, again are a danger to EVERYONE. Car drivers are weary of this also. By the way, I’ve seen cyclists on their cell phones and ignoring road rules also when traveling.
As with Whiteman, I applaud your yearning to cycle and at the same time practice a healthy lifestyle, however, these are not lonely country roads. This is Naples and during this time of year it is dangerous to be on the road in a car, on a bike or as a pedestrian.
You may not depend on everyone else to protect you from a very dangerous sport in Naples Florida. This is a cyclist's responsibility to understand the dangers and act accordingly just as motorists are required to do.
SCHLLC (Inactive) writes:
I commuted to work and school on a bike for three years. I didn't own a car and I rode a couple of hundred miles a week for training to race as well as commute. I was lucky and I was only involved in two accidents in three years. While the "law" would say only one of those accidents was my fault. The reality is that a bicycle rider is ALWAYS AT FAULT!
That statement is going to enrage all of the riders reading this, but understand something that I came to realize.
If you are in an accident between a car and a bicycle, and you are on the bicycle, you lose. Period.
It is incumbent upon the rider to protect themselves, because the right away is a principle that is irrelevant when you are underneath a car.
Here are some tips that I learned that aren't always convenient but saved me from many, many more accidents.
If there is a sidewalk, use it. No matter how big the bike lane.
If you are approaching an intersection, if you cannot literally make eye contact, AND acknowledgement by ALL the drivers at the intersection, do not proceed. EVER.
Never, never, never take the right away for granted because I would rather be in the wrong and alive than in the right and being drug under a car.
I am hyper vigilant about looking for bikes and motorcycles because I have owned and ridden both, and even I at times don’t see them the first one or two times I look. Riders can gripe, complain and scream all they want, but they better realize that force=mass x velocity(2). A bike rider at 200lbs meeting a 4000lb automobile will not end well for the guy on the bike. Remember this, be vigilant and ride as if your life depended on it!
Shovel writes:
How about bikers staying inside the bike lanes? I recently had two experiences with bikers on or almost on the line separating the bikes from the cars. One case was two bikers riding almost side by side talking to each other and the other where the biker was either texting or e-mailing and weaving inside the bike lane.
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