Saturday Bike Blogging: Sidewalk Cycling and Other Suicide Lotteries

Well, there you go … just when I was saying how most motorists in this area seem to be reasonably well behaved, at least by the low level that the bar that is set for motorists, I was shouted at.

But it was the exception that “proves” (that is, tests) the rule. On reflection, it was not really misbehavior as a motorist, but merely ignorance on the part of a fellow citizen. And in any case, it wasn’t really my town, so before I reflect on it, at least I could say, “boy, these here folk in this here town shor are ignoramuses”.

But did get me back to thinking about sidewalk cycling and other cycling behavior where we are expected to buy a ticket in the suicide lottery in order to stay out of the way of motorists.

The problem with sidewalk cycling is, of course, twofold.

First, as in the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign discussion of avoiding a “right hook” … that is to say, being passed on the left by a car that then turns right, in front of a cyclist:

4. Don’t ride on the sidewalk. When you come off the sidewalk to cross the street you’re invisible to motorists. Motorists are looking for pedestrians on the sidewalk, not faster moving bicyclists.

Second, as found in the Cross study on accidents involving cyclists, prepared for the State of California when it was pushing cycleways, and then suppressed when it arrived at the “wrong” conclusions, after the 65% of accidents involving intersections, the next most serious source of accidents at 14% is cycling the wrong way … and sidewalk riding will invariably involve some riding the wrong way, where the motorist is normally not even looking in that direction.

Get On the Sidewalk, You Idiot!

Still … when I was cycling through the little State-Route-intersection, Interstate-Exit hamlet, that had the Post Office that I could reach after work, when the lady yelled out of the passenger side of the gas hog SUV, “Get on the sidewalk, you idiot!” … how could I convey the information to that passenger that I was not on the sidewalk because I do not want to get caught by some other gas hog SUV darting out from behind some bush hiding some driveway?

In Grenadian patois, it vex me … I was mos’, mos’ vex.

Now, it did not last for long, because when I am on that route home, on the State Routes, I shoulder ride almost the whole way home … outside of that little hamlet, that is, where there is a rideable shoulder … with traffic going zoom, zoom, zoom past my left ear as all the mechanized dinosaurs drive on blindly toward $10/gallon gas (and yes, you are hearing the echo of my being mos’ mos’ vex as I was riding out of that little hamlet) … and so halfway home I set off down the side road to the town park, where the hike and bike trail starts, and then short cut down the country road that crosses the hike and bike trail …

… and its such a nice ride that the lady riding shotgun in the SUV was forgotten.

That is, until much later, when I realized … well, as the suppressed Cross study says:

Accidents in which the motorist collided with the rear of the bicyclist occur relatively infrequently. The five sub-types shown in Figure 10 constitute only 4.1 percent of the total accident sample. This is surprising since these types of accidents appear most hazardous to the bicyclist. …

It is extremely interesting to find that the type of accidents that are most often referred to in the bicycle-safety education literature as “most hazardous” are, in fact, among the most infrequently occurring accidents revealed by this analysis. We hypothesize that the reason these types of accidents occur infrequently is that the hazard is so apparent to both the motorist and bicyclist that they exercise much more caution than under ordinary circumstances.

… and reference to the schematic diagram shows that less than 2% involve riding in the right hand half of a lane without curbside parking:

… and while the lady rising shotgun was likely, at least in part, giving voice to annoyance of the driver of the gas hog SUV at having to pay attention to passing me … he passed me correctly.

That’s what came to mind … I would never have picked that particular gas hog SUV out as I was cycling along, except for the yell out the window.

But waddya say? In the approximately 0.5 second you have to formulate a witty reply, what do you say? Was I vexed because I really had no opportunity to reply?

I’m thinking of getting a T-Shirt that says “Riding for Energy Independence” in Red White and Blue.

Yeah, sure, “$9.99⁹ R U Ready?” might give more satisfaction, but I’m not sure it would actually rub the drivers of gas hog SUV’s the right way.