drivers were responsible for 87% of accidents or near-misses with cyclists

dublogic

<RANT ON>What gets me in this country is the attitude from a sizeable miniority of motorists that cyclists are seen as a nusiance and that they almost deserve what they get (injured by a car) because they were cycling in the first place - anyway the following study results do not surprise me - cyclists who break lights/footpath/wrong way are wrong but the "fnuck em" they are only a cyclist is just mind blowing <RANT OFF />


A recent Australian study analysing cycle cam footage showed that drivers were responsible for 87% of accidents or near-misses with cyclists, mainly due to lack of driver awareness.

[URL="Source:%20http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/feb/22/youtube-justice-road-rage-victims"]Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/feb/22/youtube-justice-road-rage-victims[/URL]

Surveyor11

We are one of the most car dependent countries on the planet, so the car is seen as king. The amount of times I hear people cribbing about 'road tax', the price of petrol, tolls, blah blah. When presented with the alternatives i.e use public transport or cycle where possible, you're seen sometimes seen as a freak. I suppoose this sums up how the car can make national headlines:

http://http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0220/1224312052756.html

Would 'Minister decides to take the bike to work becuase it was a lovely day and fancied a cycle' make national headlines?

coolbeans

This is not going to end well.

dublogic

coolbeans wrote: »

This is not going to end well.

how do you mean?

coolbeans

Even though I would broadly agree with what you are saying the dominant status of the car as numero uno on the road coupled with motorists' perception of cyclists as generally lawless "road tax" dodgers means that this will most likely turn into a cyclist versus motorist **** flinging contest.

Beasty

We had a thread on a similar "survey" a while ago (possibly the same survey). What needs to be recognised is that cyclists who are happy to wear these cameras for the purpose of such a survey are not going to be a typical cross secton of cyclists, and any incidents they are involved in are probably going to be more biased towards the cyclist being the "innocent party".

As coolbeans says, these threads often descend into cyclists versus motorists ones which usually achieves absolutely nothing

Lusk Doyle

I'm always fighting with my driver-self when I'm my cyclist-self. Never the other way around though. Strange that...:rolleyes:

Chips Lovell

I'm sure cyclists in Australia will be interested to read about this.

dublogic

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

I'm sure cyclists in Australia will be interested to read about this.

are you being sarcastic? Do you not think it should have been posted?

Lumen

dublogic wrote: »

are you being sarcastic? Do you not think it should have been posted?

I doubt it. There is at least one regular Cycling Forum poster living down there and has reported poor conditions for cycling.

The study is interesting, but as others have stated the sampling may be skewed.

The main point is that if cyclists don't compensate for their relative lack of visibility/poor driver observation (delete as appropriate) through technique, they'll get squished or at least be constantly taking evasive action. This is either an obvious consequence of being small and slow, or evidence that the drivers are stupid, inconsiderate and homicidal, depending on your perspective.

Joe10000

We all are on our best behaviour when we have a camera on us.

Jawgap

dublogic wrote: »

are you being sarcastic? Do you not think it should have been posted?

i think I might have posted this study already in a different discussion along with a similar study done in London that looked at RLJ'ing and found it wasn't nearly as bad (in London) as popular belief would suggest.

How relevant it is to Ireland? I don't know - I do know in my own case the number of near misses attirbutable to drivers is closer to 97% - the residual is down to my own stupidity and occasional thoughtlessness:)

Yi Harr

Meanwhile in a parallel universe a driver/motorist, actually concerned for the safety of cyclists, enquires as to how he may actually reduce the risk of injury to cyclists while driving.