Bicycle Safety – The Problems With Sidewalk Riding and Against the Flow of Traffic

Feb 2nd, 2009 | By coolbiking | Category: Cycling Tips

By Mark Horowitz

Contrary to popular belief, you increase your chances of getting hit by car when riding your bike on the sidewalk. I know you may find it hard to believe but its true.

While riding in the street is more intimidating, it places you in a position that makes you more visible to the motorist. Usually people will ride on the sidewalk because they want to stay away from cars or they ride against traffic in the street because they are afraid of being hit from behind: they “want to see the cars coming at me”. Crashes on sidewalks comprise close to fifty percent of all crash types. They are more common because every driveway forms an intersection and, if you went to driving school you may remember, that most crashes happen at intersections. In traffic engineering jargon where two vehicles cross paths is referred to as a conflict point and traffic engineers work very hard at reducing or eliminating conflict points.

Essentially every driveway that crosses the sidewalk forms a conflict point. Couple this with motorists not stopping at the sidewalk before entering the street and looking at traffic in the street not for bicyclists on the sidewalk and you have recipe for a crash. By cycling in the street you completely avoid these conflict points. The motorist stops before entering the street and is looking where you will be before they cross your path. While these crashes are usually not fatal, they can easily result in an incapacitating injury especially if you are not wearing a helmet. In my expert witness practice, the majority of sidewalk related crashes I’ve been involved with the rider was not wearing a helmet and usually result in brain injury

Riding against the flow of traffic creates a variety of problems for both the motorist and the bicyclist. The most common reason people ride against the flow in the street is they want to see what is coming towards them. This is what mirrors are for. The chance of getting hit from behind is less than ten percent and these crashes are usually at night and the bicyclist does not have lights on the bike. Daytime crashes of this type are usually on a rural road. Compare this ten percent chance of getting hit from behind to the thirty percent chance of crashing with car when you ride against traffic.

When you ride against the flow you are out of the motorist’s sight and therefore out of mind. Unless a motorists is going to make a left turn, they generally do not look to the right for traffic. Their main concern is traffic that may hit them. If they look to the right, it is across the street for cars that will effect their left turn. They do not look for traffic coming from the opposite direction on the same side of the street. When you ride against the flow the motorist has no options on when they pass an on-coming bicyclist. They may or may not be able to move over and give the bicyclist room. Lastly, the wrong-way bicyclist competes for space with bicyclist going with the flow. Unless a driveway is near, someone gets forced into traffic. When this happens to me I position myself so the wrong-way bicyclist is the one to make the evasive maneuver and possibly move head on into traffic: after all they are the ones that can see on-coming traffic. In general keep in mind that the greatest chance of being hit is not by cars that are on a parallel path with you but the ones that cross your path.

NHTSA Bicycle Safety Tips For Adults

–About–

By Mark Horowitz - Mark Horowitz, is a nationally recognized bicycle safety professional with over 40 years of cycling experience and more than twenty years teaching bicycling to both children and adults. He is regional trainer for the Florida Traffic Safety Education Program and a League of American Bicyclist certified instructor. He wrote and produced the award winning drivers education video Everyone Has Story: Road Sharing Tips for Motorists and Bicyclists. For a home study course on bicycling go to http://www.learntobicycle.com.

Source: Cool Biking Zone – Your source for great cycling, sports and fitness articles!

Liked this article? Read another similar article.

Cool Biking Zone Recommends

Leave Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.