Cars Cause Most Bike-Car Crashes
- Posted by: Andrew Price
- on August 21, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Dr. Chris Cavacuiti, a Toronto physician who cycles competitively, started doing some research into how most bike-versus-car collisions happen while recovering from a nasty bike-versus-car collision. His findings:
While there is a public perception that cyclists are usually the cause of accidents between cars and bikes, an analysis of Toronto police collision reports shows otherwise: The most common type of crash in this study involved a motorist entering an intersection and either failing to stop properly or proceeding before it was safe to do so. The second most common crash type involved a motorist overtaking unsafely. The third involved a motorist opening a door onto an oncoming cyclist. The study concluded that cyclists are the cause of less than 10 percent of bike-car accidents in this study.
I can find that pretty easy to believe, actually. In most cities—and certainly in Los Angeles—cars rule the road. So drivers are attuned to check against potential car-car accidents but don’t think as much about potential car-bike accidents. When you park your car on the street you might check your side-view mirror for cars before you open your door, but you’d be less likely to check your rear-view mirror for cyclists coming up behind you. Also, you just generally feel more exposed and focused on a bike than in a car, so you’re more careful.
What’s way more perplexing to me is this animosity between “cyclists” and “drivers” as if we don’t all do a little of both.
Via TreeHugger. The pic up there is a Ghost Bike.
DISCUSSION: 3 Comments
I don’t think I’d hate bikers blocking my way in traffic as much if there were more/better bike lanes they could safely pedal in.
I don’t think I’d hate bikers blocking my way in traffic as much if
there were more/better bike lanes they could safely pedal in.in many cities (such as my hometown of san francisco) bicyclists are allowed the use of the full lane and are equally entitled to be on the road as a car. i think the sentiment above, and the sense of entitlement drivers carry with them on the roads, lead to the majority of car-bicyclist accidents.
I don’t get Michelle No’s comment at all. Is it just written improperly, or does this person actually dislike being blocked by bikes more when they have no other option than the road than they do when blocked by bikers who have an alternative? And Troy V seems to have assumed that Michelle No feels entitled to the road, which isn’t clear from her (?) post at all. Finally, Andrew Price asserts that everyone both rides bikes and drives cars, which is clearly incorrect–if more people rode bikes (ever), there would be less anti-bike animosity from motorists. All of this gets to one of the “five E’s” promoted by groups such as the Complete Streets Coalition (www.completestreets.org)–Education. Educating both bicyclists and Drivers requires communication, and if we don’t say what we mean to say, or if we leap to unfounded conclusions as to other’s motivations or possible actions, we miss an opportunity to educate. So let’s act like we’re on bikes: slow down a little, look around and take in our surroundings (ie, proof read our posts to ensure that they make sense), have some fun, and we won’t go speeding by opportunities to educate.