

A list of people killed while riding a bicycle in San Francisco - traughber
https://medium.com/cycling-stories/1456bbd017d9
With some facts and notes I&#x27;ve collected. Please comment or email me if you have something to add.
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caseyf7
Thank you for bringing attention to this. So many young people move here and
don't realize SF is one of the most dangerous cities for bikers and
pedestrians. I see way too many people riding without helmets. Protected bike
lanes would help and I would love to see them convert a few streets into
bicycle/pedestrian only.

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traughber
I've added some results from studies on bike lanes and paths (see bottom of
the post). Please pass along any feedback you have.

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PhantomGremlin
Building protected bike lanes is probably a smart thing to do.

However, it doesn't solve the problem of arrogant bike riders who believe that
the rules of the road don't apply to them. There's an idiot in my neighborhood
who insists on blowing thru the local stop sign at about 20 MPH. Much worse,
he's taught his young daughter to blow thru the stop sign right behind him.

So what's the percentage of bike riders who get into accidents mainly because
of their own stupidity? Is it 1%, is it 10%, is it 90%? I think it's a fairly
big number, at least 20%.

I'm not trying to troll here. I'm trying to make the point that _quite a few_
bike riders are dangerous. How do we protect bike riders but also protect the
rest of us against that stupid minority?

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ceras
As a bike commuter, I agree many bikers are not careful enough. But I also
know that all close accidents I've ever had were due to drivers simply not
paying attention to me (or not caring about my presence). Cars turning left
into me when I have right of way; cars making right turns into me without
seeing me; cars that drift into the bike lane when they shouldn't (ie, not to
make a right turn); cars turning right onto my road that drive into the bike
lane before stopping to look left; and many more.

It's easy to see the mistakes bikers make while in cars, but I think they pale
in comparison to the mistakes drivers make, which are far more dangerous.

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PhantomGremlin
There's only one way to get drivers to pay attention. But you won't like it:

You _must_ get this message across in Drivers Ed class. That's really the only
chance you have to influence the majority of drivers.

Unfortunately for bike riders, you then need to wait 50 years for all the
inattentive drivers who didn't learn good habits in Drivers Ed to retire and
move to Arizona or Florida.

Other than that, I can't see how you get drivers to pay attention. It just
won't happen. Stuff like protected bike lanes is simpler.

But even nicer would be streets without any motor vehicles. Imagine Manhattan
with the full length of Broadway reserved exclusively for bikes, pedestrians,
pedicabs, etc.

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traughber
Based on what I saw from researching this piece, many of the drivers in the
accidents are professional truck drivers, who typically have a lot more
experience and more stringent driver's education requirements. It seems that
in a lot of these collisions they simply don't see the cyclist (note that many
are during right turns, when a cyclist would fit in the blind spot of a
truck). This happens to me constantly, both on my bike and driving a car (not
being able to easily see a person on bike approaching from the back right part
of my car). I think protected bike lanes would help mitigate that risk in that
situation, as an example. And yes, it'd be nice if we didn't require so many
streets and vehicles in our dense cities. Vehicles require a lot of space and
it'd be a great public benefit if we could use that space for people and
figure out a different, efficient way of move people and goods around a city.

