Being on a bicycle often makes you a slow moving target which is even more apparent and potentially deadly in New York City traffic.Now that cycling in NYC has become more "popular", with bike lanes popping up more and more, I am seeing a disturbing number of careless, clueless and dangerous cyclists taking to the streets.
These dangerous cyclists ride illegally. These dangerous cyclists ride erratically and unpredictably. They ride on the sidewalk. They ride against traffic. They ride without brakes. They ride at night without any lights. They ride at night without any reflectors. They blow through red lights and stop signs. They plow into pedestrians in the crosswalk. They hug the parked car line -- high probability of getting doored. They race through the streets without a care in the world putting their lives and the lives of others around them in jeopardy.
In most cases, I think education is the answer. In others, some stiff fines and potential jail-time is due. But in the case of education, I have dug up a great website listing common collision scenarios and how to avoid getting hit. It's a great website that can aid even the most seasoned of cyclists among us.
Note that you can do everything exactly right and by the book yet still get hit but having this knowledge under your belt can seriously lower your odds of a run-in.
Bicycle Safety: How Not to Get Hit by Cars
The bad cyclist in NYC are giving me road rage. Salmoning in bike lanes is high on my list. Another is cyclist who go into intersections and play frogger dodging moving cars just to save them selves 30 secs of waiting while they piss off every driver on the road.
ReplyDeleteSound just like Eugene, Oregon.
ReplyDeleteThat link is EXCELLENT advice! I notice that not riding on the sidewalk and not riding against traffic are mentioned pretty often. I've been riding about 5000 miles a year on NYC streets for the last 10+ years accident free. And yes, I do go through red lights after giving right of way to any cars and pedestrians in the intersection first. Simple advice: don't do anything while riding a bike that you wouldn't do when driving a car - red lights being the one exception.
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