Tag Archives: collision

Toronto incident used to slam shared-lane markings

A podcast and Web page slam shared-lane markings as an inferior type of bicycle infrastructure. In it, an animated GIF shows a bicycle courier being forced off the street by a taxi driver. Hey, about that animated GIF: the cyclist … Continue reading

Posted in Bicycling | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

The “Dutch Reach”

I have sent the following message to Dr. Michael Charney, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, promoter of the “Dutch Reach”. The “Dutch Reach” is motorists’ opening the driver’s side door with the opposite hand, so they must look back for bicyclists riding … Continue reading

Posted in Bicycling, Bike lanes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

Anne Harris revealed

Here’s a photo of Anne Harris, lead author of the BICE study whose conclusions Paul Schimek has demolished. Schimek’s PowerPoint presentation with speaker notes are in the linked document — you just have open it in appropriate software. You can … Continue reading

Posted in Bicycling | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Duck Boat crashes

We had a duck boat run into a motor scooter from behind on Saturday, April 30, 2016 in Boston, killing one of the riders. It appears that the poor forward visibility from the duck boat was a factor. (Boston Globe … Continue reading

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Helmet disparagement and ethics

To quote the late, great Dutch traffic engineer Hans Monderman, “Never treat anyone in the public sphere like an idiot. If you treat him like an idiot, he will act like an idiot.” Providing helmets is difficult when bicycles are … Continue reading

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Another crosswalk confusion, and a fatality

In response to my post about confused yielding requirements where shared-use paths cross streets, Ryan Reasons has published comments on a recent fatal truck-bicycle crash in the Seattle, Washington area. The photo below is from the KOMO TV/radio station news … Continue reading

Posted in Bicycle facilities, Bicycling, Sidepaths | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Some thoughts about self-driving cars

Google’s report on its self-driving cars: http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/us/selfdrivingcar/files/reports/report-0515.pdf — no longer available. Here is an updated version. Most than half of the collisions reported in this document are slow-speed rear-enders of the Google cars. That’s unusual. It might be that the … Continue reading

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Volvo promotes a reflective paint which fades in 10 days!

The last word in safe bicycling, NOT! I mean, this could be a premature April Fool’s joke! [September 2025 edit: Reviewing some of my old posts to update video links, I find that this video this has been marked ‘private’ … Continue reading

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When slow is too fast

The basic speed limit, not to go too fast under the existing conditions, is often lower than the posted speed limit. When facilities like the bike lane in the video are built in which 10 mph, or even 5 mph, … Continue reading

Posted in Bicycling, Bike lanes | Tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments

Lessons of Taiwan crash

The video embedded below of a car-bicycle collision in Taipei, Taiwan has been making the rounds on the Internet. When you have started the video playing,you can click on “Youtube”, and then on the little gear wheel at the lower … Continue reading

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