From: mlantin@csi.uottawa.ca (Maria Lantin)
Subject: Re: Interesting facts about bicycles in Ontario (from MoT)
Organization: University of Ottawa
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 15:00:09 GMT

In article <rlewis.712357827@muskwa.ucs.ualberta.ca> rlewis@muskwa.ucs.ualberta.ca (Robert Lewis) writes:

>Every study I have seen of the relative accident rates of roads and bike paths 
>show that the latter have a higher accident rate than the former.

Never seen any such study but I'll take you at your word. However I would still
like to see a study depicting the seriousness of the accidents.

>>I think if given the choice I would rather be hit by another cyclist than
>>a car....

[situation involving maniac truck driver deleted]

>saying) sees.  But that simply isn't a likely accident, rather the most common 
>accidents involve being hit at an intersection by a motorist that either didn't
>see you or who saw you but couldn't figure out what you were going to do next,
>this is exactly the situation which bike paths make worse.  The ideal thing is
>to avoid any accident.

Of course avoiding accidents is better but we can't always do that.  The
momentum behind cars still scares the hell out of me though.  I do agree that 
residential streets are much more comfortable and safer than bike paths.

>>Do you state this from experience?  Signaling turns and calling out before
>>passing is a start.
>
>Calling out before passing, in my experience, at best makes no difference 
>and at worst is more dangerous than getting by people (pedestrians or the 
>average bike path cyclist, read poor cyclist) before they know that you are 
>there.  If you call out to the average bike path cyclist they will look back, 
>and because they do not know how to do a proper shoulder check without swerving
>to the left, pull in front of you.  If you call out to a pedestrian they are as
>likely to move to the left as to the right.  When signalling left of bike paths
>I have had people look in the direction I was 'pointing'.  It should be clear 
>that I now avoid bike paths when ever possible (which is almost always, 
>thankful to the fact that Alberta has no law making use of bike paths mandatory
>where available, though most motorists don't agree).

Well to some extent I agree here but in my experience calling out "passing on
your left" has worked most of the time.  I always call out way ahead of time
to give people who don't know their right from left yet to react :-).  In
fact my accident happened because I always though that getting by people
before they knew what hit them was better.  I found out otherwise when 
someone tried avoiding a puddle just as I was passing.  If people were 
smart enough to realize that passing should always be done on the left then
maybe things would be much smoother.  There are a lot of if's and I doubt that
crowded bike paths will ever be non-stressful ( I am lucky that my ride to 
work every morning only involves relatively empty bike paths).

I agree with most of what you said.  I don't know what the solution to the
problem is (if there is one) except maybe more education about cycling and
less pedestrians on the bike path.

				Maria


Newsgroups: rec.bicycles