What keeps you from using cycles for local grocery store runs, or short commutes?
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cycling - accident stats to justify the "fear"?
Some of us have those excel sheets that traffic police had shared back in 2010 with data on accidents. In there, for fatal, as well as non-fatal accidents, count for "cycles" was very low. single digits for entire year. I don't know what the current numbers are. Will request traffic police to release the data. They only have a boring summarized number stat on accidents on BCP website now.
But, what I was trying to get to was this. Is the fear of "a vehicle may hit me" justified by stats? Can't compare the single digit cycling injury stat with high pedestrian fatalities. That's because the "base" is very high. Lots of people walk on pavements and roads. In fact, one time or other during each day, we are all pedestrians. But, we don't don't really know how many people cycle, so it becomes hard to analyze the single digit cyclist injury stat recorded by bangalore traffic police.
The point remains - is this fear justified. I think (no data yet, that's the point of this comment) not. because in my limited experience with cycling thus far, looks like vehicles do leave some space for you if you are careful enough. it seems a lot safer than trying to cross Varthur road or Sarjapur road, and LOT LOT safer than trying to cross outer ring road.
PS: just becuase there are a lot of pedestrians around, the injury stat shouln't be that high. please see the pedestrian safety PIL for some action regarding this frustration.
Well, I must choose "Other" :)
Other being , e(lectric)-Bike. Tagging my (daughter's) eBike with a line :
"Bicycle is best, I am next ! "
unfounded fear perception..
I was in the group too where there was some fear in heading out with my cycle on to the street especially the arterials..however I figured out that fear is largely unfounded..
As Pranav mentions, drivers are usually aware of cyclists and do give space to ride around..this is true even with busses. But one thing we as bicycle riders need to be wary of is that we are still a minority out there and certain caution is needed on the streets..especially when we are at inetersections..
Otherwise I just love the freedom cycling gives us..the 'go anywhere' attitude it supports is simply astounding!
So far so good, but...
It is important to note what you all have pointed out. The base is low. When there is the rare cyclist on the main road at the edge of the street, vehicles do try to avoid conflict. Its when the base becomes bigger the edge of the road becomes too small & a lane will get occupied, the chances of conflict increase. The shared space will still work in residential areas but on the arterial roads where traffic speeds are higher we need to start having physical demarcation.
Parking & Pollution
My choice is not on the list. Lack of good parking hinder the most. No place to keep my cycle safe. Pollution is next on my list. Smoke and dust on Mysore road routinely makes me sick, even after wearing a surgical mask!
Safety has not really been that big an issue during my rides in the past 6 months or so - except a couple of encounters with crazy speeding car drivers whizzing past.
Problem with our roads
I have been having this opinion about cycling or safe-motorcycling (slow speed) being dangerous on bangalore roads.
I am not against promoting cycling in general, and hence always been in support for whoever are for cycling project push, and would like to give my energy also.
But my fear comes from riding cycle or motorcycle on the leftmost lanes. I am either cycling or riding less than 40 km/h, where should I ride? Leftmost lane, right? But where is the place there to ride.
All kinds of dust, dirt, garbage, sand are thrown there or collected there in long run. Rain even adds the problem of safety, by making that dust-dirt and sand slippery, and water-logging on the leftmost lane make it even more dangerous. And on all the roads, you will find some autos, cabs and private cars parked or pushcarts or hawkers standing on the leftmost lane. What do I do in those conditions? Where do I ride safely? If not leftmost lane, where?
And I would like to add one more concern here, now a days, I am seeing another pattern on bangalore roads, all the riders, specifically motorcycle riders who want to ride patiently and safely, are taking the rightmost lane and rightmost corner of the road to ride. They keep riding there on slowest of speeds, because they feel safe there. I have been observing this pattern from couple of years, and do understand their logic (conscious or unconscious) in doing this.
If you observer more problems on the leftmost lanes, you will a lot of digging keep happening there, and no govt agency cares to undo the damange done to the road. All the pipelining work on many of the very good roads have made the leftmost lanes non-ridable. Inner ring road from domlur bridge to Ejipura signal, lefmost lane has become totally unmotorable if you are on cycle or riding safe-and-slow motorcycle, because after every few meters you will find a pot-hole and unfixed holes (holes being done a few months back for some work on the roads).
8th main on the koramangala, from ooty choclates towards 1st block signal, most of the part of leftmost lane is unmotorable by cycle or 2-wheelers. These are just a few examples from my everyday's journey on bangalore roads. Now, how do I get courage to buy a few thousand Rs cycle and risk my life to ride on such beautiful roads.
Deepak
so, add two more options to the poll?
these two?
- No safe way to park my cycle?
- Too many things blocking my way on the curb side
Nice poll, bumping this up
Nice poll, bumping this up
pollution
well my main prblm is pollution caused by the auto rikshaws
its damn disturbing and its causing mild sickness for me .....