Bicyclists’ Vulnerability Skews Motorists’ Thinking
On a sunny summer morning about a month ago, I was riding my bicycle to work, experiencing the thrill of coasting down Rockwood Boulevard, when a car pulled out from the left and cut in front of me.
The car wasn’t going very fast and I was in the bike lane, so everything would have been OK if it had continued down Rockwood Boulevard. But the driver turned right into a driveway - not a remarkable thing for her to do - and it was right in my path.
On my right there were the curb and sidewalk, in front of me her car and on the left traffic coming in the other direction. There was no way I could avoid hitting her.
There were only those couple of milliseconds where you know you’re going to have a terrible accident and there’s nothing you can do about it.
I thought, “This is it, this is curtains.”
But I did have time to brake and turn a little so I glanced off the side of the car, which startled the driver. She stopped abruptly, which was fortunate, because I landed in the driveway, right in front of her car.
It was a terrifying and painful experience, although I somehow managed to escape serious injury. It was also an instructive experience, in that I learned firsthand what I had occasionally heard others say: People who drive automobiles are often unaware of the bicycles that share the roads with them.
It’s not that all automobile drivers bear any seriously ill will toward bicyclists. I’m sure that the driver who turned right without signaling and cut me off as I was coasting downhill had no intention of harming me.
After the collision, shaking with anger and fear, I told her as I picked myself and my bicycle up off the road, “I can’t believe you didn’t see me!”
She replied vaguely that she hadn’t realized I was so near. She seemed genuinely apologetic and very concerned about my well-being - after the collision she had caused.
I have a theory about why automobile drivers don’t pay attention to bicyclists. Bicycles are not threatening to automobiles. I could have been seriously hurt, but the car I ran into was unscratched.
It is a fact that people who ride bicycles are more vulnerable than people who drive cars. I really don’t like wearing a helmet when I ride my bike, but I sure am glad I had one on that sunny summer morning.
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