I invite you to respond appropriately to those issues. I blame the vehicles that disregard my safety, and I blame GTPD for not acting to protect my safety.ĭo bikes sometimes fail to signal or roll a stop sign? Sure. They have seen cars turn left across my path (and narrowly miss me as I respond) as I climb the Ferst hill and pass Fowler and Techwood. They've seen me bail onto the sidewalk as a car swerves into the bike lane in tech square. Scooters and pedestrians violating traffic laws.ĭue to the significant presence of GTPD on campus, they see these dangers all the time. Cars not yielding when it's not their turn. Cars turning right across the bike lane without looking. No bike lane and being edged by passing cars toward the sidewalk/gutter. Lack of appropriate marking that the bike lane ends or is closed. Buses, too, swerve into and block the bike lane (not just at bus stops). In my experience biking in and around the GT campus, most of the problems arise from cars entering or blocking the bike lane. Instead of addressing issues as is their responsibility, they blame bikers. This is gtpd's response to the lack of safety for bikers (as well as feeling unsafe as a biker, which is also important). The oncoming car obviously had the right of way, and signaling doesn't let you turn across someone else's lane. For starters, the biker (actor) in this video would have been hit if he signaled. The video ties the dangers of biking to not signaling. This message is willfully misleading and incredibly inappropriate. I apologise if this comes off as rude - I have tons of respect for you and I know y'all do great work. Tech has a robust Urban Planning program, I'd implore you to consult with them on ways to actually improve road safety at GT. GTPD, you should be focusing on driver education and enforcement, not putting resources into blaming cyclists for crashes. The massive deadly bull in the china shop that is America is the motor vehicle. There have been two peds killed in the past 5-6 years in NYC to my knowledge.Īll of this means that cyclists are NOT a real problem on our streets. I've never seen the actual stats as to how many people or killed or injured by cyclists, but it's small. not a car, truck, bus, or motorcycle).Īssuming all of those 540 peds were killed by cyclists, that is a tiny, tiny percentage of people killed by cyclists. Obviously, an unplanned stop is different, but that usually doesn't involve signaling, so you have both breaks available in that scenario.Did you know that about 37,000 people were killed in ~6,300,000 motor vehicle crashes in 2016, only about 800 were cyclists? And of those 37,000, only ~540 were pedestrians who were killed by an "unknown/other" type of vehicle (i.e. If yours doesn't, look into adjusting them. I wear a blinking light on my forearms at night so my signaling is visible then, too.Īs for brakes when signaling a turn, a bicycle should come to a planned stop at an intersection equally well with either front or rear brakes applied alone. I make a lot of right-turns on the way to work and a lot of lefts on the way home, and only one intersection with a traffic light. hahaThe vast majority of my riding is urban and I have the same rules for turning: left arm is for left turn, right arm is for right turn. Riding in our urban areas is something I try to avoid at all costs, but when I find myself there I try to ride predictably (in that I am part of traffic and behave accordingly) and sometimes resort to the air horn. (Much like flying where the priorities are: aviate, navigate and communicate - in that order) No sane person will indicate a stopping procedure instead of avoiding an accident - lolįortunately the vast majority of my riding is rural and the whole issue is minimal. I also adhere to a primary rule that my 1st priority is to ride, so if for whatever reason it is not safe, unwise, or otherwise impractical I do the riding and skip the signalling. If I stop somewhere other than a clearly-understood place (IE: red light, stop sign, etc) I'm off to the side of the road and no longer part of the traffic. Two things I refuse to do because there is a ZERO percent chance of anyone understanding them: signalling a stop with the left upper arm out straight and the left lower arm aimed at the ground & a right turn signaled with the left arm: my right arm indicates a right turn & stopping should be self-evident. I try to use signals as much as possible.
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