Less than a month and a half ago, I wrote about cycling safety following the incident where five cyclists were hit by a van in Ottawa. The death of Darcy Allen Sheppard has brought up the topic of bicycle safety back to headlines in the worst of ways.
I won’t judge what happened until more is known, but wanted to respond to the general issue of cycling safety. The two things I wish people knew are that drivers cause over 90% of bicycle accidents and cyclists need to do more than follow the law in order to protect themselves.
Drivers who complain about cyclists running reds or otherwise not following the law have valid complaints, and I get annoyed as well when I see this behaviour. I also get annoyed at drivers who street race, tailgate, sit in blind spots, run stop signs and don’t signal turns. Whether it’s education or enforcement, more needs to be done to prevent irresponsible behaviour by anyone using the roads. Let’s not, however, mistake this for a situation where everyone is equally at fault.
A physician at St. Michael’s hospital did an analysis of Toronto police collision reports and found “that cyclists are the cause of less than 10 per cent of bike-car accidents” and “that collisions have far more to do with aggressive driving than aggressive cycling.”
Once we understand who causes most accidents, drivers can change their behaviour and cyclists can protect themselves. Wearing a helmet and following the law are important, but not enough. Cyclists need to know where to be, where to look and when they should stop even though they have the right of way. I’ve had to learn these lessons by observation and a few close calls, but you don’t have to. Bicyclesafe.com is a webpage that explains the situations in which cars most commonly hit cyclists and how cyclists can avoid them. It’s comprehensive and good advice. Whether you’re a cyclist or a driver, take a read, and then focus on changing the way that you act behind the wheel or the handlebars. Darcy Allen Sheppard is dead, but none of us would want to be in Michael Bryant’s shoes either.
