Hit my first pedestrian today...

Stepped out from the kerb to a dedicated bike path without looking. Managed to knock off about 80% of my speed to just tap him. Didn't even knock him off balance, let alone down.

My feeling is that I should have just not bothered and in fact accelerated. The accusations and insults that followed didn't really acknowledge that he was at fault, and my attentiveness and quick reflexes saved him a couple days in the hospital.

Bastard.

Yeh, sounds like he was a 'b-turd'
I have had several close calls on my rides and I think part of the problem is we are so quiet and people don't expect us to be going as fast as we are. My style of riding has changed alot - I try to stay in "survival mode" we have to be extra careful to save our own ass 8)
- Mark

Agreed - should have hit him, you don't have a number plate on the bike...

What amazes me is that of those that do something stupid like that, and that hate on you for being a cyclist, if you point out that if you'd been driving a car at that moment they woudl be dead smears on the road, they just hate you even more.

amberwolf said:

What amazes me is that of those that do something stupid like that, and that hate on you for being a cyclist, if you point out that if you'd been driving a car at that moment they woudl be dead smears on the road, they just hate you even more.

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A couple minutes after I rode off, I was thinking exactly the same thing.

I usually ride a little slower on this particular stretch of bike path, since I know there are a lot of people there, but when someone steps in front of you that close, there's really nothing you can do.

One reason a bell is required by law in some countries. I don't like mandating anything even helmets for that matter, but a bell could save bicyclists and pedestrians some trouble. I always install loud air horns on my motorcycles and think it can actually be safer than wearing a helmet in some circumstances. One blast of my air horn and people think a semi-truck is coming! LOL. Glad you didn't hurt em though..... 8)

It is a requirement here - but with 4 metres notice, any time my hand is on the bell, it's not on the brake - so do I give him warning and hit him hard? Or do I just yell at him and hit him softer?

I have had so many close calls on the bike paths I have quit using them. My only thought is to have music playing on a little speaker, but neither this or a bell will help with what seems like the 50% who wear ear-buds. Safest travel seems to be vehicle speed and to heck with the law.

I am required to have a bike helmet on for work and have a bell not so much for safety but as a means to attract rides. I relish on my rides around on my own bike of the clock and especially the commute home, but I find myself reaching for the bell that's not there to get the errant pedestrians attention from time to time. Where it is really bad here is taking commonwealth ave. through boston university. It is a four lane 30mph road with two subway trolley tracks in the middle. it is also equipped with two very reasonable bike lanes going each way. In the middle of the day whenever there is a break in traffic hordes of little rich kids cross in droves regardless of whether or not they have a green light or walk signal. I have no problem with this as I run red lights and violate all kinds of traffic regulations, but when I do you can bet your ass I'm looking out for things that can kill/maim/injure me. These kids, not so much. The city has even gone so far as to put a huge "look left for bicycles" on the street in big yellow letters on every single corner on the BU strip. Nine times out of ten when I'm bustin down comm ave I'm late for work and moving at or slightly less than traffic speed, making good time. So I'm not wanting to give up my precious momentum for no good reason. Usually I yell out something like "NO BRAKES!!!" and barrel through parting them like the red sea. But every so often I see just one crossing, usually with headphones on and texting, moving at a fairly predictable pace completely unaware that I am approaching. I'm pretty good with the train A and train B bit when it comes to the streets so I time it so that I whiz by within inches of their faces at high speed, looking right at them saying "hey watchit" at a normal volume. I think that little bit does more to get them to look both ways than street lettering. But maybe not ass much as good parenting or "common sense" would do.

wineboyrider said:

One reason a bell is required by law in some countries. I don't like mandating anything even helmets for that matter, but a bell could save bicyclists and pedestrians some trouble. I always install loud air horns on my motorcycles and think it can actually be safer than wearing a helmet in some circumstances.

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I have both a bell and a pair of car horns on CrazyBike2.

I've used a bell to little effect with most pedestrians of the type that step right off the sidewalk into the street. Back when I was pedal-only, I saw one such event coming, and slowed to just fast enough to not tip over, rang the bell repeatedly, and she didn't pay any attention (no earbuds so probably not distracted by phone or music), and stepped off the curb right into the bike lane, then continued right out into the traffic lane, where the first car managed to swerve around her blasting his horn, and the second managed to slam on brakes fast enough to stop without hitting her. She just stood there staring at him like "where the F did you come from?", then continued across like nothing had happened.

In my experience with the horn, which I use as little as possible (only if it will actually warn someone, and not after something has already happened as an FU kind of thing like most drivers seem to), pedestrians and other cyclists that hear a horn look around for a car and TOTALLY IGNORE me, except sometimes at night on CrazyBIke2 because it's lighting is car-like or MC-like. Car drivers do usually look and see me, because when they hear a horn they tend to look around at everything, I guess. Sometimes they just honk back with a long FU blast and do whatever it was they shouldn't be doing anyway (like right hook me, or right cross me from a driveway or a side street that doesn't have the right of way even though I'm out in the middle of the lane where they could see me coming (and not right up against the curb where they often can't or aren't looking for me)).

But that experience with the horn is probably less than a couple dozen times total, because usually it's too late to use the warning by the time the problem is about to happen. The times it has been most useful is when someone is about to change lanes into me, when I'm in a regular lane for whatever reason, and they don't see a car there so they just assume it's empty. Honking at them makes them actually look and they usually stop the maneuver.

Sunder said:

any time my hand is on the bell, it's not on the brake

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Is it not possible to move your bell closer, where your thumb could reach it? On CrazyBike2 I can't reach it without moving my hand, but I could add a bar-end up above the control cluster that would let me mount the bell (and horn button) close enough to easily reach without moving my hand at all.

amberwolf said:

Sunder said:

any time my hand is on the bell, it's not on the brake

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Is it not possible to move your bell closer, where your thumb could reach it? On CrazyBike2 I can't reach it without moving my hand, but I could add a bar-end up above the control cluster that would let me mount the bell (and horn button) close enough to easily reach without moving my hand at all.

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A button I might be able to place on my left hand, but because my throttle is quite wide (Battery indicator and master power switch are left of the grip and immovable) I can't reach anything using my right hand.

gestalt said:

...good parenting...

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Oxymoron Alert! :lol:

...stopped using bells myself when I realized my "high speed interactions" with pedestrians and cyclists were situations I had created myself. If you rely on trusting humans to "do the right thing" you are only fooling yourself

L0cK

When i was a kid i learned how to shriek in a way that sounds exactly like a car that has locked up all four tires.

Loud. Better than any bell or horn.

Pedestrian or driver, they think they're about to die.

And the confused look of relief/anger just afterward is alway precious.

Any so-called dedicated bike path is best regarded as a mixed use path.
A squealing front brake pads usually gets pedestrians' response quicker than does a bell.

Motorcycle defensive riding teaches that you must assume these things will happen. People and animals can seem to appear out of nowhere. Cars with no signal will turn across the lane into your path - if you do not ride with a plan for "the worst that can happen" you will eventually pay a serious price.

Sometimes, that means simply slowing down enough to react in a controlled manner. Assume the worst, hope for the best!

But yes, I wanna clock these idiots more than you'll ever know...

We need a stencil of a crumpled pedestrian so we can paint one on our bikes each time we score!

How many before you are an ace? Was it 5? I'm at 1 :wink:

Bus sitting in a line of traffic suddenly opens his doors and lets off a woman. She's looking back and talking to the driver as she exits. Meanwhile I'm screeching to a stop and hit her just hard enough to cause her to fall over. As I'm picking myself up I ask if she's OK and she says yes.

Bus was nowhere near a designated stop. The drivers can get into a lot of trouble here doing what he did but I didn't report him.

Gary

Longtime member, just don't post much.

Anyway, when I lived in Denver, my fault, going too fast on the sidewalk next to Colfax ave 1 block from home. Two guys walked out of a bar in front of me. It was either hit them or the parked car. I chose the car. Of course it was their car. Put a little dent in the molding of the door for the window and insisted on calling the cops. Long story short I got a CARELESS DRIVING on a bicycle ticket. Could have been worse. Going to court was hillarious!

Ykick said:

Motorcycle defensive riding teaches that you must assume these things will happen. People and animals can seem to appear out of nowhere.

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Yes. See here:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=506064#p506064
halfway down the post for my most recent experience with this.

Just curious, how fast do you think you were going before you started slowing down? I was going 27 mph when I hit the guy I tagged. He was wearing all black, and I was riding with a low battery in my headlight. I tried to swerve and just caught his shoulder, and I went over the bars at 27 mph. Guy coulldn't understand that wearing all black walking in the dark was dumb, I could have been a car, etc.

I did two things after that one, stopped riding to work quite so early, and ride slower if I have to ride in the dark. In daylight I feel that 20 mph is slow enough on a multi use path, but I slow to 10 mph or less if people are not looking at me. I don't care much about them, but I don't want more flights. So If they are not looking at me as I approach, I slow way down. I gave up predicting which way they'll jump when they hear you coming, as they stroll stupidly up the center of the path. Honking at them just makes it worse most of the time.

Fortunately, not so crowded that I'd have to ride 10 mph the whole 6 miles. Slowing down is a big price to pay for a pedaler, but no price at all for a motorized bike.

You see the problem is people never like to admit they are wrong!

Imagine they want some kind of noise to be generated in ev's ? What about making pedestrians take headphones out of their ears, so many people in la la land these days high on their music not paying attention to the goings on around them. Headphones, especially the in ear ones are far more dangerous than any E.V!

People should be responsible for themselves and look before they cross!

I think it's always best to try and cause as little damage as possible when faced with this type of situation, no sense in causing additional harm if it can be avoided...

I use the road 90 % of the time and with 1000 lumen Lumenators ( 2x ) fully lit in day or night.. NOBODY can claim they did not see me at night !! :lol:

I have not yet hit any peds, but i have run into parked cars in the past ( prior to being electric )

amberwolf said:

Ykick said:

Motorcycle defensive riding teaches that you must assume these things will happen. People and animals can seem to appear out of nowhere.

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Yes. See here:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=506064#p506064
halfway down the post for my most recent experience with this.

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Wow, that was a close one! eBikes must be especially vigilant since we're fairly quiet yet much faster than most pedal bikes.

It sucks to slow down but it sucks more to not be able to take evasive action.

I used to ride m/c frequently between Phoenix to White Mountains in the dark and as you probably know large Elk between Payson/Show Low are numerous and extremely dangerous to vehicles. I used good light of course but the only thing that really prevented me from having several collisions was to simply slow down to around 50mph and keep the eyes moving ready to react to even the slightest glint of glowing eyes or movement along the side of the road.

Unlike pedestrians they're just Elk so they didn't know any better...

Gordo said:

Safest travel seems to be vehicle speed and to heck with the law.

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Yup if only the morons writing the laws would actualy try an E-bike!

o00scorpion00o said:

Imagine they want some kind of noise to be generated in ev's ? What about making pedestrians take headphones out of their ears, so many people in la la land these days high on their music not paying attention to the goings on around them. Headphones, especially the in ear ones are far more dangerous than any E.V!

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Yeah, we even had a topic discussing that a while back, maybe a year ago? Might be less. Had to do with a proposed ruling about requiring noise on EVs.

Ykick said:

Wow, that was a close one! eBikes must be especially vigilant since we're fairly quiet yet much faster than most pedal bikes.

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Yes, it was very close, and is why I pay so much attention to what is going on around me (unlike lots of people on the road, be they car, truck, bike, MC, or pedestrian).

Since this was at night, and my bike is VERY well lit, with a car headlight in front and a very bright taillight in back that ALSO has a "license plate" light that brightly ligths up those big white boxes on the back of my bike, and the back of the seat and a good spot of the road around me, you'd think more people would see me. Cars do. Pedestrians....not so much. I honestly think that many of them are not paying any attention at all to the world around them, and havent' even thought about the fact that they are completely unprotected from all of the things passing them with enough energy to totally destroy their body in an impact. The ones herding children or pushing a baby stroller that act like that really piss me off, becuase they are risking ALL of those lives.

Many cars are about as quiet as my bike, actually, with the only thing making them louder is hard acceleration or loose gravel/etc on the road increasing tire noise. On good pavement, even I have trouble hearing them coming if I can't see them, and these are regular gas-engine cars--just modern designs that run quietly. The hybrids I've seen that were running on electric at the time are no different in sound level from any distance that matters. Some motorcycles are very quiet too, usually the newer-looking ones that look like racing bikes (as long as they are cruising and not accelerating, which makes them pretty noisy).

It's only the bigger trucks and older cars, and those with really wide tires, and most MCs and scooters, that make enough noise to be heard easily even when just cruising at a constant speed on most roads where non-motor-vehicle traffic will be there.

So yes, as was discussed in that other thread...we don't need more noise, we need less distractions and more people paying attention to the road or their surroundings instead of whatever lala land they are in.

dogman said:

Just curious, how fast do you think you were going before you started slowing down?

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I was off power and going quite slow at that point. Probably 10-15km/h? somewhere between a fast jog and a slow run.

but even 10km/h is 3.6m/s, so with only 4m notice, that's only a second. I managed to call out "look out!" to him once and was half way through calling out a sec time when we hit.