How Not To Get Hit By Cars Part 5 - Travis Hickman

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Having covered the Right Cross, the Door Prize, the Red Light of Death, the Right Hook, the Left Cross and the Read End, we wrap up this week with the Crosswalk Slam and the Wrong Way Wallop. Here’s what happens in the Crosswalk Slam. You're riding on the sidewalk, you cross the street at a crosswalk and a car makes a right turn right into you. Cars don’t expect bikes in the crosswalk. • Don't ride on the sidewalk. Crossing between sidewalks can be a dangerous maneuver as you risk getting slammed by turning cars and by cars pulling out of parking lots or driveways. If you do ride on a sidewalk, do it slowly and carefully, especially when crossing a street. • Get a headlight. If you're riding at night, it's required by law anyway. • Slow down enough that you're able to completely stop if necessary. Finally, we have the Wrong Way Wallop where you are riding against traffic. We see this dangerous behavior many times a day every day in our area. A car makes a right turn from a side street, driveway, or parking lot right into you. The driver didn't see you because he was looking for traffic only on his left, not on his right. He had no reason to expect that someone would be coming from the wrong direction. Even worse, you could be hit by a car on the same road coming at you from straight ahead. If you're going 15mph, then a car passing you from behind doing 35 approaches you at a speed of only 20 mph (35-15). But if you're on the wrong side of the road, then the car approaches you at 50 mph (35+15), 250% faster! Since it’s approaching you faster, both you and the driver have much less time to react and a collision will be ten times worse. You can avoid this collision in a very simple way-NEVER RIDE AGAINST TRAFFIC. In wrapping up this series, a few safety practices are common to all of the accident avoidance strategies we have written about. • Avoid busy streets. One of the biggest mistakes cyclists make is taking the same routes used when driving. It's better to take the streets with fewer and slower cars. Cyclists have a right to the road, but that's a small consolation when you're injured or dead. If you learn your routes well, you'll find that you can travel through neighborhoods to get to most places, only crossing the busiest streets rather than traveling on them. • Light up. Why do most night-time cyclists ride without lights? Bike shops have rear red blinkies for $15 or less. Headlights are just as important and cheap. • It's often safer to take the whole lane, or at least ride a little bit to the left, rather than hug the right curb. Cars at intersections ahead of you can see you better if you're squarely in the road rather than on the extreme edge where you're easily overlooked. Taking the lane prevents cars from passing you too closely on narrow roadways. Riding a bit to the left prevents you from being a victim of the Door Prize. It's not always better to take the lane or to hug the curb; it depends on the roadway you're on. • Ride as if you’re invisible. Ride such that a motorist won't hit you even if he or she doesn't see you. You're not trying to be invisible, just trying to make it irrelevant whether a car sees you or not. If you ride such that a car has to see you to take action to avoid hitting you, then the car will definitely hit you if they don't see you. But if you stay out of its way, then you won't get hit even if he or she doesn't notice that you are there. Cycling in the resort area should be an enjoyable activity. Too many times, however, it is the source of an emergency call. Our roads are heavily used and many visitors are unfamiliar with them. Also, many cyclists, especially foreign students, are not familiar with safe cycling practices. Following the simple, common sense tips we have written about over the last few weeks can greatly reduce the chances of a tragedy. Thanks again to bicyclesafe.com for the material presented in these articles. Firefighter Travis Hickman is a Millville native and joined the BBVFC in 2003. He graduated from IRHS and is an inside sales associate at 84 Lumber. His grandfather, Jack, is past chief engineer and life member, his father, Chad, is past fire chief and life members and his older brother, Tyler, is a BBVFC LT.