Cycling UK Forum

RickH wrote:The most recent incident was in the early 90s when a large dog ran out into my path when I was cycling home in the dark & caused me to come off. Would that be an "other road user" incident?

It would be, but that school commute collision is higher on the list. I contemplated my own school run crash but it debatably wasn't a collision (heading into "it's complicated" territory there) and I've a later one (about 10 years ago I think) that is higher on the list.

Cycling in an experienced group. Cyclist to my right turns sharp left with out any warning at junction. He brought 5 of us down. I was first hit. I passed out with concussion 2 hours later, woke up in hospital.

Why does the survey not have a "hit by cyclist" choice ?
Bit unfair i think.

Is the total mileage covered relevent to any statistical exercise like this? I have only been knocked off by a car once in 66 years / 350,000+ miles, which includes 43 years of commuting

The survey lumps cyclists in with other road users because it is not the main question, it did not seem one of the most interesting aspects to me and Polls here are limited to ten options at most which is not enough to add one for each type of road user.

Total mileage is maybe relevant to whether any rider has suffered a collision but not really to the claim I was looking into, which was a "have you ever..." type.

In the forty plus years since I learned to ride I have come off the bike on a number of occasions for various reasons. Losing control while braking or going round a corner, not looking where I was going and piling into the back of a parked car (in mitigation the girl on the pavement was very pretty), left hooked a couple of times, loss of control after being cut up by a motorist, and pushed by pedestrians - this was when I was cycling home from school and was done by the school bullies causing a broken wrist. I have also had some incidents of being abused for being a cyclist daring to use the road, with threats of violence and death. numerous close passes some of which had to be deliberate punishment passes. I have dished out a fair amount of verbal abuse under provocation on occasion but have also managed to stay calm at other times and sometimes had the opportunity to speak to the driver politely explaining the situation - with mixed reactions. I imagine this all sounds pretty typical to most people on here.

No collisions for me but my cycling has been sporadic and still is, so I haven't covered that many miles, so I'm probably skewing the results, it looks like it's only a matter of time if I keep riding. My brother's been riding for about 4 years I think and has been knocked off once and damaged his bike once bunny hopping onto the pavement after being forced off the road by a car, he carried on down the road as was too angry to go and speak to the driver.

Almost twenty years ago now I had an elderly car driver coming towards me but, failing to see me, he then turned right across me causing me to put a huge dent into his nearside rear passenger door but also sending me over the roof of his car with my brand new 'Jeff Bruce' 653 road bike still firmly stuck to my feet. With no balance my head hit the road first (explains a lot) splitting the polystyrene inner part of my cycle helmet into two. When the birds stopped tweeting an elderly man appeared into view and, figuring it wasn't St. Peter, I gave him a burst of choice Anglo-Saxon before being told, "Whoa, that's not the driver"

Nothing broken - except my lovely new bike

The more I read, the more I feel I must be leading some sort of charmed life!

In 30+ years, I remember coming off the bike three times, all of my own fault: one riding into the back of a car as we pulled away from traffic lights (I hadn't realised before then that I accelerate faster than some cars, at least at first) where I did at least stay on my feet; one when I was swerving left-right to clean mud from the tyres (oh vanity), left the roadway to the left and then fell back onto it (landed on my side); and one on ice on a corner at the end of last year (landed on my side). There's another time when I rode into a ditch, but I'd class that as learning to ride because it was my first try at using downtube shifters.

I've also been crashed into by other bikes various times but I don't remember any of them knocking me off. I've had various near-misses with motor vehicles, including being clipped by a car wing mirror, leaning on the side of a white van that pulled out while I was using a mini-roundabout and deliberately riding up the verge to avoid a bad overtaker oncoming, but I don't think I've yet been knocked off by one.

I've ridden quite a lot. Not great distances often (it's only the last few years that I've done 30-100 mile day trips) but most days to school and then university and work and now every day for my health. My riding has probably been a little atypical with a lot of the urban bits on cycleways around Milton Keynes, Norwich and King's Lynn - and I often ride cycleways unless they're utter rubbish - but I also spent a few years near Weston-super-Mare (which doesn't have many cycleways and even fewer decent ones) and I've ridden in various cities, most often Cambridge and London... I'm no speed demon, but I think I hold a steady 30kph in typical good conditions (rare in the cities). There are always claims that cycleways are more dangerous how we build them in this country because of the increased number and lower priority of junctions, so surely I should have crashed more than most? Could it be partly that I'm a better judge of cycleway dangers than many because I've been riding them since I was young and some of MK's are pretty awful?

Anyway, I'm now not so sure about dismissing the claim that most cyclists have been knocked down by cars. The results were looking pretty tight this morning

I voted "knocked off - motorist's fault"

"Offed" by motons 3 times. Come off not my fault twice. Come off was my fault once.

When I was 6 a total <correct word not allowed on a family-friendly forum> of a motorist thought it would be a great idea to reverse into the kiddy out cycling with his Mum.

When I was 7, while extricating myself from the upside-down-in-the-ditch position I decided that riding along the cycle path with my eyes shut was not a very good idea

At 15 I was left-hooked by a Letchworth taxi.

At 17 a patch of loose gravel removed all grip from my front tyre (From this incident I learned that by standing on a bent rim and shifting your weight about you can straighten it enough to get you home. Once home Dad took the bendy wheel into the shed and un-bendied it for me, so it couldn't have been that bad)

About 5 years ago I had a very gentle low-speed "off" on a patch of black ice.

55 weeks ago I was T-boned on an otherwise empty roundabout on a clear sunny morning by another <appropriate-word-not-allowed> of a moton.

No serious damage has been done to me and, more importantly, to any of the bikes I was riding at the time. Not a bad record for over 40 years and at least 350,000 miles of regular cycling.

Maybe all this high mileage and no accidents is not luck ...... Maybe cycling is simply not dangerous.
51 years cycling and only 1 knock off, by a fellow cyclist, as previously detailed.
I think there may be small group who like to believe it's dangerous.... makes them look more macho perhaps ...

axel_knutt wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-selection_bias
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-serving_bias

I think I understand the self selection bias here and used a hopefully easy poll rather than asking for loads of narrative in order to minimise it. The population in the claim ("forum participants") also helps.

Self-serving bias: are you saying people will blame motorists disproportionately?

That would be the reverse of what I expected based on local comments, where riders have blamed themselves even for collisions that seem blatantly not their fault. However, maybe a certain level of belief in one's own views is needed to participate in forums for longer.

The second time in eight years of having an 'off' due to someone else's incompetence was last week.

A student on a bicycle riding with earphones along a segregated cycle path. He wasn't paying attention until he heard my shouting, and then he turned into me instead of turning away. Idiot.

mjr wrote:Please pick the first-listed option which applies to any of your incidents. That's what I was trying to express in the first paragraph. Sorry it wasn't clear. I've edited the question because that appears before the explanation.

That's going to lead to a rather slanted set of results. What conclusions if any do you expect to draw from your survey?

Had various near misses which I've either taken measures to prevent a collision or I've determined the possibility of a collision before it has become one and taken action.

The only real collision is with a pedestrian on a shared path who suddenly walked into my path. I was only doing probably 8-10mph but enough for me to come off and the pedestrian to no-doubt suffer from bruising for a while.