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
March 15, 2014 at 12:13 pmExcellent 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
March 15, 2014 at 7:13 pmPowerful video. Powerful message. Should be mandatory viewing for all motorists.
pgyx says
March 16, 2014 at 10:31 amAgree this should be made standard for driver’s ed classes.
pgyx says
March 16, 2014 at 10:30 amPowerful 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.