5 biggest safety issues facing BNA members

[martin_12]

1. Aggressive/careless drivers. The main dangers are passing too close, passing in a roundabout or other places where road narrows and opening car doors without looking.
2. Poor road surfaces: potholes, glass, debris, particularly in marked bike lanes.
3. Poor infrastructure and planning, particularly: bike lanes in car door zones & bike lanes that vanish at roundabouts and other places where road narrows, and highly inadequate public transport.
4. Mandatory helmet laws which reduce the number of cyclists & hence increase the danger from motor vehicle drivers.
5. Shock jocks, & Daily Telegraph and all who implicitly or explicitly incite motor vehicle drivers to be aggressive towards cyclists.

[gdt]

I've only got one safety concern, and that is being hit by a motor vehicle. My worries about potholes, animals, other cyclists and so on are all incredibly minor compared with the high odds and huge consequences of being hit by a car or truck.

I've come off my bike many, many times. Hit gravel coming around a corner. Whacked into sand on a bike path. Blown a tube going down a famously steep hill. Hit a rabbit. Hit a tree branch. Clipstacked into a canyon. But the day my life was at truly at risk was the day the bus driver didn't give me any room in the lane as I was riding to work.

If we could solve this one problem of motor vehicles hitting cyclists then cycling would be hundreds of times safer.

[notwal]

1) Motor vehicles driven by careless/inattentive drivers
2) Motor vehicles driven by drivers with a proprietary attitude to roads
3) Motor vehicles driven by aggressive/impatient drivers
4) Motor vehicles driven by texting drivers - truly criminal behaviour
5) Motor vehicles with driver side doors

It's motor vehicles - a privileged epidemic that kills about 1 in every 102 people.

[sumgy]

It's motor vehicles - a privileged epidemic that kills about 1 in every 102 people.

Motor vehicles dont kill people, dumb people (whether driving motor vehicles or not) kill people.

[notwal]

Motor vehicles dont kill people, dumb people (whether driving motor vehicles or not) kill people.

Everyone's dumb some of the time. There are no exceptions. Everyone who drives is sometimes a dumb person armed with a motor vehicle.

[KonaCommuter]

4) Motor vehicles driven by texting drivers - truly criminal behaviour

I believe that talking on the phone whilst driving is equivalent of having a blood alcohol content of 0.08 goodness knows what it is for texting. IMHO talking on the phone whilst driving should carry similar penalties as drink driving.




I know I’ve already said it before but it bares repeating. The biggest safety issue for me, commuting from a Brisbane Suburb to an industrial area, the biggest issue is bike lanes that vanish just when I need them the most. That and people parking in bike lanes.

[danny the boy]

1. Cars stopping to turn right from the right hand lane. This is the point where road rules go out the window and its every cyclist V's car driver who doesnt move their head for themselves.
2. SUV's being driven between Brighton and Black Rock with badges Including Merc, BMW, Audi or similar. Its like i dont exist.
3. Headwinds. BOM website is absolutely useless.
4. Fellow cyclists who abuse other cyclists for going around them. Seriously WT?!!
5. The amount of riders who ride solely on the hoods.

[ColinOldnCranky]

1. ignorant road users, including pedestrians and drivers (drivers includes motorists and cyclists).
2. poor road design.
3. too easy to get a license.
4. too easy to keep a license.
5. not enough enforcement of all the road rules. lets not have blitzes, lets just have all laws enforced evenly all the time.

Sorry Ox. I totally disagree. Constant and equal attention by the limited resources available simply means everything becomes part of the background and does not feature on our radars. It does little to improve behavior. And of course every issue is equally under resourced.

Blitzes on the other hand reallocate resources from other worthwhile areas but have a short duration and are highly visible and will change the behavior of a significant number of people.

Effective blitzes do however require advance warning. Just springing it on an unsuspecting public is more than likely gonna be perceived as a grab for money, and likely be correct.

[mianos]

Some from notwal
1) Motor vehicles driven by careless/inattentive drivers
2) Motor vehicles driven by drivers with a proprietary attitude to roads, in paticular the fat stupid knowitall drivers who yell at me daily
3) Motor vehicles driven by aggressive/impatient drivers *ie. utes at 6-7am weekdays, when I ride.
4) Motor vehicles driven by phoning and worse, texting drivers
5) Potholes / bad road problems (not like little potholes but 10cm drops).

I agree, I don't really care as much for dedicated bike infrastructure. It would be nice but fix 1-5 first.

[Oxford]

1. ignorant road users, including pedestrians and drivers (drivers includes motorists and cyclists).
2. poor road design.
3. too easy to get a license.
4. too easy to keep a license.
5. not enough enforcement of all the road rules. lets not have blitzes, lets just have all laws enforced evenly all the time.

Sorry Ox. I totally disagree. Constant and equal attention by the limited resources available simply means everything becomes part of the background and does not feature on our radars. It does little to improve behavior. And of course every issue is equally under resourced.

Blitzes on the other hand reallocate resources from other worthwhile areas but have a short duration and are highly visible and will change the behavior of a significant number of people.

Effective blitzes do however require advance warning. Just springing it on an unsuspecting public is more than likely gonna be perceived as a grab for money, and likely be correct.

That's fine until they blitz to the exclusion of other offences. I've seen it happen unfortunately.

[newbikeorupgrade]

Cars classified as dangerous weapons...
No enforcement...
No protection...

[BrisBoy]

Road Trains
Tired Drivers
Drivers/trucks travelling in both directions
Wildlife
Bored rider (no corners or hills where I live)

Not the list it would have been a year ago but there you go.

[The 2nd Womble]

As per the previous quoted post, blitzes don't modify behaviour. They curb behaviour in the short termnfor a select few. Crime rates in Qld are down, Police numbers and resources are up. Take the uniform x 3 including their squad cars off 10pm-6am roadwork duty on the Ipswich M.way on a Monday night and use them more effectively.
Our laws do not work part time but their enforcement does? Thats not the policing we pay for.

[jules21]

4. Fellow cyclists who abuse other cyclists for going around them. Seriously WT?!!

i've had this. it's weird isn't it - i think some people just can't handle being overtaken.

5. The amount of riders who ride solely on the hoods.

this is probably our no. 1 issue

[jules21]

As per the previous quoted post, blitzes don't modify behaviour.

the idea is that they provide a high visibility reminder to road users that they will be checked. 24/7 enforcement is also good, but doesn't necessarily provide as strong a signal. you can't run blitz-like enforcement all the time.

[open roader]

1) adequate safety margin between vehicle and cyclist when passing at any given speed in any given location or situation.

2) same as above but when caused by from drivers of said vehicles paying more attention to mobile phones / CD changers/ children in the back seat / dog in the back seat - anything other than actually maintaning control of the vehicle

3) Building materials / farming merchandise / fire wood / stock effluent / truck loads of grain, wood shavings, gravel aggregate etc flying out of or off passing vehicles.

4) badly maintained road shoulders incl. chunks/ bites / drop offs, shattered crumbling bitumen and all that Mc Donalds litter.......

5) Authorities incl, local councils who are directed to put their efforts in totally different areas of law enforcement and road maintenance thus appearing to look away from above mentioned issues.

[Livetoride]

4. Fellow cyclists who abuse other cyclists for going around them. Seriously WT?!!
5. The amount of riders who ride solely on the hoods.

4. That's a strange one...
5. How is riding only on your hoods a safety issue or am I missing something..., me, I change my grip around as I ride.

[Christina Brinkmann]

I think that "open roader" encapsulated the issue well within five points. But here is my myopic viewpont:
1. Lack of awareness by non-cylists. ie car doors
2. Lack of cycling infrastructure - cycle paths coming to abrupt halt/ poor road shoulders.
3. Joggers who run on roads while ignoring perfectly good footpaths, but not good enough to support their egos
4. My own ability. - I am amazed this has not been mentioned before. Am I the only cyclist that thinks I am not perfect?
5. Sexy people walking/jogging/riding nearby.

[notwal]

....
4. My own ability. - I am amazed this has not been mentioned before. Am I the only cyclist that thinks I am not perfect?
...

Not having had a good look at you I can't say, but if your avitar is any indication you probably are.

[elStado]

1. Car oriented road design (round-abouts + inattentive/aggressive drivers are a big one for me).
2. Poor motorist skills and awareness/consideration of other users.
3. Ninja pedestrians and cyclists (no lights and/or dark clothing - fixsters are the worst culprits for this).
4. Blind corners on cycle path underpasses.
5. Aggressive/inconsiderate cyclists, usually MAMILs (but not always). Especially those who ride double or triple file on a shared path, or come flying around a blind corner in the middle of a path.

So basically, for a cyclist in Australia, everything and everyone is a safety issue right now..

[danny the boy]

4. Fellow cyclists who abuse other cyclists for going around them. Seriously WT?!!
5. The amount of riders who ride solely on the hoods.

4. That's a strange one...
5. How is riding only on your hoods a safety issue or am I missing something..., me, I change my grip around as I ride.

Im only going off personal experience but i feel far more balanced and absorb any bumps in the road a lot better than compared to riding on hoods.

[Livetoride]

4. Fellow cyclists who abuse other cyclists for going around them. Seriously WT?!!
5. The amount of riders who ride solely on the hoods.

4. That's a strange one...
5. How is riding only on your hoods a safety issue or am I missing something..., me, I change my grip around as I ride.

Im only going off personal experience but i feel far more balanced and absorb any bumps in the road a lot better than compared to riding on hoods.

Fair call

[squeakywheel]

1. Aggressive, idiotic vehicle drivers. The ones that make the hair stand up on the back of my neck are vans/utes, P platers, taxis, buses and trucks.
2. Bike lanes that a badly planned and designed (as someone previously mentioned the ones that stop abruptly, or worse, in the middle of an intersection). There's one short stretch on Buckland st Waterloo where aa bike path borders 45 degree parking. Of course if theres a ute or a big car parked there the rear of the car extends over the bike path partially blocking it.
3.Lack of education, any kind of advertising drive or anything which reminds car drivers of their obligations, or informs them of the catastrophic consequences of an accident with a bicycle. I really dont think they know that death or serious injury is a highly likely outcome and think we'll fall off in a comical fashion and just have a couple of bruises and scrapes.
4.Lack of law enforcement. I've noticed that rule breaking is just getting worse and worse as time goes by because peopl are beginning to realise that nothing will happen to them if they run a red light, and unfortunately monkey see, monkey do.
5. Hazards on bike lanes, broken glass, debris, potholes, (Bourke road is a mess!) and pedestrians and runners using the path and a running track (college street again is pretty good for this).

Not to say cyclists are angels. In Newtown near where I live I see heaps of stupidity taking place that makes my blood boil!

4. Fellow cyclists who abuse other cyclists for going around them. Seriously WT?!!

Depends how it's done I suppose. I've had people fly past with millimetres to spare. Or 'undertake'. Or bust a gut to get the jump at lights and so wobble and swerve in front of me. Or ride at breakneck speed down wet separated cycleways (college and bourke st) which have concrete barriers either side so there's nowhere to go if anything happens.

[gururug]

1. Darting / inattentive line changing / road crossing pedestrians
2. Other cyclists
3. Road surfaces
4. Mechanical failure
5. Concentration / fatigue

[Kingaroy_Redant]

1. Inexperience of newbie cyclists
2. Poor infrastructure (eg.road surface, cycle paths with dead-ends, no alternative routes)
3. Busses and Utes.
4. Distractions
5. Joggers on the road/icecream licking pedestrians.