bicyce

Pretty much anyone can ride a bicycle. Yet riding well and safely takes practice to prepare for hidden challenges. Everything from barking dogs that chase you across town to crazy drivers cutting you off to sloppy landscapers leaving tree limbs on sidewalks can turn an easy pedal home into a crash course.

Wearing a helmet is important-often it's the law. But it's not enough. You need to ride on an obstacle course to improve cycling skills. An obstacle course teaches you to avoid the pitfalls that cause bike riders to lose control-which of course is when most accidents occur.

Bicycle tail lights aren't, by most, considered to be as important as headlights. Bicycle headlights are required to be seen from 100 feet away while a red reflector in the back is most commonly the minimum legal requirement. Considering that safety, and the law, dictates that we ride in the same direction as traffic, what drivers see when approaching a bicycle from behind can be the difference between life and death. With growing numbers of bicycle safety awareness programs and increased reports of accidents, some fatal, many cyclists have been choosing bright bicycle tail lights over reflectors, regardless of what the legal requirements are.

Officer Dan McQuillin of Chandler Arizona's bike unit, speaking to his local newspaper, The Arizona Republic, said "new riders often don't educate themselves before taking to the road, and that can lead to dangerous results". Even though state law only requires reflectors, he recommends red tail lights. Over the course of one month, in Columbia Missouri, where bicycle tail lights are required, the police department, instead of issuing tickets, gave away about 150 headlight and tail light sets to cyclists who were stopped for riding at night without them. With the help of a local business they were able to show the public just how important an issue bicycle safety is to them.

One incident of note was reported by The Amherst Bulletin in Amherst Massachusetts. Kristy King, a 28 year old woman was struck by a car while riding her bicycle at night. The police found King to be at fault for the accident because she did not have lights on her bike; the driver just could not see her. The police also noted that she was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. Rob Kusner, a local bicycle safety advocate said "it's important for cyclists to both see and be seen". Bicycle headlights are great for helping you see while riding at night but this statement reinforces the necessity for bicycle tail lights over reflectors.

An average of 689 bicyclists were killed each year in collisions with vehicles between 2000 and 2004, down from over 1,000 in 1975, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. But now this number is rising again, 716 bicyclists were killed in traffic accidents in 2008. I know that this increase isn't a direct reflection on a lack of bicycle tail lights but it certainly shows that even with all the bicycle safety information available we still need a big improvement in bicycle safety awareness.

A tiny proportion of accidents involving cyclists are caused by riders jumping red lights or stop signs, or failing to wear high-visibility clothing and use lights, a government-commissioned study has discovered.

The findings appear to contradict a spate of recent reports speculating that risky behaviour by riders, such as listening to music players while cycling, could be behind a near 20% rise in cyclist deaths and serious injuries in the second quarter of this year.

The study, carried out for the Department for Transport, found that in 2% of cases where cyclists were seriously injured in collisions with other road users police said that the rider disobeying a stop sign or traffic light was a likely contributing factor. Wearing dark clothing at night was seen as a potential cause in about 2.5% of cases, and failure to use lights was mentioned 2% of the time.

The figures were slightly higher when the cyclist was killed, but in such cases only the driver's account is available.

The data, which was analysed by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), showed that more than a quarter of all cycling deaths in 2005-07 happened when a vehicle ran into the rear of a bike. This rose to more than one-third in rural areas and to 40% in collisions that took place away from junctions.

The 64-page analysis found that police attributed responsibility for collisions more or less evenly between drivers and cyclists overall, but this was skewed by the fact that when child riders were involved their behaviour was named as a primary factor more than three-quarters of the time.

With adult cyclists, police found the driver solely responsible in about 60%-75% of all cases, and riders solely at fault 17%-25% of the time.

The cyclists' lobby group CTC said the report showed that the government needed to focus more on driver behaviour rather than on issues such as cyclists wearing helmets. The TRL published a separate DfT-commissioned report today in which it was estimated that the universal use of helmets could save between 10 and 15 lives a year, a conclusion disputed by the CTC.

"The main cause of crashes seems to be 'failed to look properly', whereas very few cyclists are injured or killed acting illegally, such as failing to use lights at night or disobeying traffic signals," said Chris Peck, from the lobby group.

"We believe this report strongly supports our view that the biggest problem for cyclists is bad driving. With that in mind we are greatly concerned that the government still seems fascinated with analysing and promoting cycle helmets, the value of which appears to be inconclusive. We believe that the government should now focus on tackling the causes of injury which appears to be mainly inconsiderate and dangerous driving. Reduced speed limits, stronger traffic law enforcement and cycle-friendly road design are the solutions."

TRL recommended that more research be carried out into the relatively high numbers of young casualties, finding that those aged 10 to 15 were most at risk of injury for each mile cycled. Riders aged 16 to 29 were more likely to suffer harm than any other adult group.

The data – which covered incidents on the highways – showed that 3% of all collisions leading to deaths or serious injuries took place on bike lanes, and almost 80% of casualties happened during daylight hours. Just over 15% of all such accidents involved the cyclist alone.

*guardian.co.uk

*enzinearticle.com