Accidents and near misses...

[Kylie L]

Did a 60km Training ride with Bill today including coffee stop. 
Got an ear full from an old guy letting us know we don't belong on the roads and we don't  pay road taxes ,  though we have 3 cars at home . 3 green slips , rego and insurance. I let him know we always try to ride in the breakdown lane and car drivers scare us more then we scare them. 
Then Bill nearly gets hit by massive 4wd coming out of car park when he protests as he nearly gets run over she makes another swerve at him for good measure then screams
and swears at him as she tells him the road is for cars only. 
Another 2 roundabouts another 2 cars drive into our path , even though we are already on the roundabout. 
Finally make it home alive . Another fun training day on the coast . 
Though I am sure all these people would have put their hand up for the public holiday for Cadel Evens. 

[Stu Eddy]

Hey guys,
These stories are always difficult to hear. We have all had our fair share of heart starters but it shouldn't turn us away from an exciting sport that has so much to offer.
Fortunately I can't recall any local stories where a rider has been actually wilfully physically assaulted with a motor vehicle (DUI's aside).
Drivers are happy to try to intimidate a cyclist but it takes a criminal to attack someone.

Enjoy the riding, remember that cleats make good dents when used in self defense and bicycles can hop kerbs and dissapear much quicker than a car can.

Vive le Cycling

[Murphs]

remember that cleats make good dents when used in self defense and bicycles can hop kerbs and dissapear much quicker than a car can.

Fact.

[wayne1966]

My scariest near miss was about 15 years ago. I was on the way home from work (Brookvale to Homebush) on the roadie. I was absolutely flying down Mona Vale Road on the hill from St Ives towards the Pacific Highway when this woman turns across my path. I had to brake as hard as I could without losing control. If the woman panicks and stops in front of me I'm dead. Fortunately I was able to slow enough that she got out of the way just in time. She then gave me a mouthful even though it was clearly her fault. I don't know what she said, I just saw lips moving and the usual facial expression.

My worst accident was on the same commute. I was riding up Forest Way at Belrose. A p plater was at a T intersection waiting for a break in the traffic from the opposite direction. He didn't look my way at all. When I was directly in front of him he drove straight into me. The bike ended up a crumpled mess and I went to hospital in the back of an ambulance with a degloving injury to my shin from a clipless pedal. That required a skin graft from which I still bear the scar, and 3 months off the bike.

[Mitch]

I have been avoiding posting about this stuff because I hate to be negative and generally see little point in being so, however.........

I have recently returned to the coast.  Honestly it is the worse place in Australia to ride, and I spent half a year travelling Australia under 2 years ago so have some idea about this. I don't know what it is with the psyche up here.  Oddly, when I have ridden around places like Adelaide I was more of a danger as I was so used to riding absolutely defensively and had trouble predicting the action of drivers who were obliging to the needs of cyclists.

I have done 5 rides up here.  5 rides, not one without completely illogical abuse from drivers.  The roads are absolutely disgusting as well, I almost disappear down holes driving on them let alone a bike.  There are barely any breakdown lanes either, and when there are people still decide to stop and have a 'swing'.  The idea of cycling paths is a bit of a joke as well since I regularly inline skate on these and it is dangerous doing that at around 20km/h, let alone the speeds we generally sit on the flat on a bike.

So, I can't believe this but I have actually elected to leave my road bike up the mountains where I stay 2 nights a week for work.

The media isn't helping as it always goes with what the public wants to hear.  The fact an RTA study was done about a year ago which showed in 9/10 cases a car is at fault seems to have made less than a ripple.

Not sure what the solution is really.

[Vic75h]

Yeah unfortunately the media is our worst enemy and do nothing to help. I agree with Mitch the roads on the coast are rubbish and our councils have a lot to answer for. I went to Glenelg in Adelaide a couple of months ago and my greatest regret was that I didnt take my bike with me. Absolute heaven with groups of riders heading out across the whole day and I didnt see any issues with drivers. I went to a bikeshop and apparently the mountains behind Glenelg have a dual carriage way that is no longer used by cars due to another road being built and the cyclist pretty much have it to themselves. I am all for trying to PR cyclist better and always thank drivers who give way to me at T junctions, round abouts etc. I think if you want to ride in Australia then SA and VIC have the best roads.

[wannie]

It amazes me when I read all these stories of near misses and abuse - either I don't have the same experiences or I don't associate it with "us vs them" interactions.

If I analyse my experiences, there are many times when cars don't act exactly as I am expecting - but the same thing happens when I am driving my car. I guess my point is that not all interactions are necessarily because we are on a bike - often people just unintentionally stuff up. A case in point was when I did get hit by a car last year - I jumped up full of fire, but the driver was SO apologetic and wanting to make amends that the situation was totally defused. The guy gave me (and my busted bike) a ride to work and was very pleasant.

Verbal abuse is obviously not in the same category - but again, road rage is a known phenomena that is not exclusive to "car vs bike" interactions.

My opinion (for what it's worth) is that we have to accept that we DO choose to ride on the road and therefore voluntarily put ourselves in the mix with cars, trucks, buses, etc. The onus is on us to ride defensively and look after number one. The way we ride does influence other road users - running red lights, flipping the bird to drivers and yelling abuse create a negative perception of cyclists as a whole and will just come back to bite us (or other cyclists).

[Hodgee]

Well written Wannie.  I too don't seem to get the amount of abuse that people write here, especially Chelsea.  Yes I do get the odd person here and there, but you should definitely always expect the unexpected and if you ride with that in mind you will see your problems decrease dramatically.

[Ciaran]

I have been trying to come up with a reply, but Wannie pretty much summed it up.  I have not been abused that much up here either.  I've copped the odd expletive, the odd water bottle, but nothing has made me fear for my safety. 

If anything the abuse just makes me laugh, they don't understand how happy cyclists are, doing what we do, and how unhappy they must be to take time out of their day to abuse others in order to make them feel better about their miserable existences. 

I guess when you hinge your happiness on whether NSW wins the origin, you are always doomed to be a bit jaded with life.

[Vic75h]

Great reply number 53. I have always been a massive league supporter however since staying up till 2pm for the last three weeks I have realised that League players are by no means athletes and what a great sport I am involved in with cycling.

I have had a few scary instances however which I can say was definately not instigated by myself. My worst was probably going down wilfred barret drive in the cycling lane doing about 55km per hour and having a P plater with a group of guys in the back come up behind me and yell at me when they were right on me and I nearly came off which was pretty scary. They could have potentially widowed my wife and left a 6 and 3 year old without a dad. I agree we choose to ride on the road and we need to ride defensively but I think 99% of riders are law abiding and there needs to be some serious penalties delivered to both cyclist and drivers who break the law. I agree that people generally want to just scare us and not cause serious harm but sometimes things go wrong and they have to live with that as well as the cyclist family.

[PeZulu]

This is one of those topics that seems to do the rounds with differing opinions based on personal experiences.

I still stand by comments made by me some time ago about cycling on the Coast:

http://www.impactcycling.com.au/index.php/topic,1785.msg19327.html#msg19327

[cookie]

I'll echo the last few posts. Never had any major issues.. a few weeks ago some young blokes tried to get me with a NERF gun.. I saw the pellets bouncing off the retaining wall next to me, that was a first!

Over the last few years I commute nearly daily on the coast, most drivers are cool and do the right thing however there is a group where it seems to be a a BOGAN right of passage and something we must be aware of and react accordingly. There are times to ride defensively and times for aggression and standing your ground..
its good to vent and share these experiences

cheers!

[daddio64]

One point I would like to make here, when I rode alone I accepted the abuse and the very occasional near miss as part of the gig, but now that Kylie rides with me I take things much more seriously.
She is riding because I encouraged her to do it and if something happened to her because someone swerved to have a go at us it would be more than I could bare.
I agree it doesn't happen often but take your wife along with you and I will guarantee it will make you take these incidents with less of a smile.

[Chelsea]

Ok my two cents !!! some peoples on bicycle don't do the right thing like late this arvo. I was walking thru gosford on the foot path and some idiot on a bike just about knocked me over while he was riding on a foot path. Then when I thought he couldn't get any more dumb he rode off down the middle of the main road into on coming traffic (wrong side of the road). This guy must have a death wish it was nealy dark he had no lights and no helmet riding towards cars what a idiot.
It's idiots like this giving us real cyclist a bad name

[WHITE]

Ok my two cents !!! some peoples on bicycle don't do the right thing like late this arvo. I was walking thru gosford on the foot path and some idiot on a bike just about knocked me over while he was riding on a foot path. Then when I thought he couldn't get any more dumb he rode off down the middle of the main road into on coming traffic (wrong side of the road). This guy must have a death wish it was nealy dark he had no lights and no helmet riding towards cars what a idiot.
It's idiots like this giving us real cyclist a bad name

Middle of Gosford acting crazy.............. he was wired.........Pleassssse!