The thing about people who ride bikes is…
…we are people. Human beings.
The life of a person on a bike depends on the humanity and compassion of motorists.
Here is a poignant 4:42 second video that I hope you will watch, and then share with others. (After the video is a post I wrote in 2010 on life, death and cycling.)
Here is my 2010 post:
JMM
Allison says
Excellent video and post. Having been hit twice it’s something I always think about, especially in these days of people talking and texting while they’re driving. Sometimes people in cars surprise me, they’ll run up to a stop sign on my right, and then BACK UP a little to signal that they’ve seen us. Pretty cool.
Ken Grauer, MD says
Powerful video. Powerful message. Should be mandatory viewing for all motorists.
pgyx says
Agree this should be made standard for driver’s ed classes.
pgyx says
Powerful video. However, I suspect road rage is a less frequent cause of motor vehicle-bicycle collisions than distracted driving and the simple fact that in many places, cyclists are a relatively rare sighting on the road. If cyclists aren’t among commonly expected “road hazards,” then drivers’ brains don’t get a lot of practice avoiding and looking out for them. This is by no means an excuse for hitting a cyclist, but a potential mechanism.
As a driver, I want to give cyclists every right of way and am terrified (especially given my line of work caring for folks with traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries) that I might not see them when I round a curve on a gorgeous winding backroad.
Cyclists can’t really safely stay on the (often absent) shoulder when racing down a winding road, so it’s possible for drivers to be totally surprised to find a cyclist in their lane just after a curve. This leads me to drive more cautiously on these roads.
In my field, some doctors feel that cycling on the road is too dangerous, even if it is completely within a cyclist’s rights. While rehabilitation tools can help an injured person to function in new ways, there are some fates worse than death.