[ceras]

As a bike commuter, I agree many bikers are not careful enough. But I also know that all close accidents I've ever had were due to drivers simply not paying attention to me (or not caring about my presence). Cars turning left into me when I have right of way; cars making right turns into me without seeing me; cars that drift into the bike lane when they shouldn't (ie, not to make a right turn); cars turning right onto my road that drive into the bike lane before stopping to look left; and many more.

It's easy to see the mistakes bikers make while in cars, but I think they pale in comparison to the mistakes drivers make, which are far more dangerous.

[traughber]

People driving cars and people riding bikes are sometimes careless, take shortcuts, and break the rules. We do a lot to deter that behavior (citations, education, public awareness campaigns) but there is always going to be some degree of that no matter how hard we try to avoid it.

What we can do, however, is better design our streets so that this behavior from both people in cars, or bikes, or pedestrians doesn't end in serious injury or death as often as it does today.

[PhantomGremlin]

There's only one way to get drivers to pay attention. But you won't like it:

You must get this message across in Drivers Ed class. That's really the only chance you have to influence the majority of drivers.

Unfortunately for bike riders, you then need to wait 50 years for all the inattentive drivers who didn't learn good habits in Drivers Ed to retire and move to Arizona or Florida.

Other than that, I can't see how you get drivers to pay attention. It just won't happen. Stuff like protected bike lanes is simpler.

But even nicer would be streets without any motor vehicles. Imagine Manhattan with the full length of Broadway reserved exclusively for bikes, pedestrians, pedicabs, etc.

[traughber]

Based on what I saw from researching this piece, many of the drivers in the accidents are professional truck drivers, who typically have a lot more experience and more stringent driver's education requirements. It seems that in a lot of these collisions they simply don't see the cyclist (note that many are during right turns, when a cyclist would fit in the blind spot of a truck). This happens to me constantly, both on my bike and driving a car (not being able to easily see a person on bike approaching from the back right part of my car). I think protected bike lanes would help mitigate that risk in that situation, as an example. And yes, it'd be nice if we didn't require so many streets and vehicles in our dense cities. Vehicles require a lot of space and it'd be a great public benefit if we could use that space for people and figure out a different, efficient way of move people and goods around a city.

[Zigurd]

Some automatic braking systems recognize pedestrians, and probably recognize cyclists. More of this would be better: Maybe transponders on bikes that activate automatic braking when cars get too close. Sensors on bikes that use loud horns and strobes to warn drives that approach too close. Etc.

New York is an interesting case. While e-bikes are inexpensive and plentiful (and lo-tech, using lead-acid batteries) in China, they are expensive, over-engineered, and rare in the US, except in New York, where I see dozens of e-bikes, most of them inexpensive Chinese-style bikes, on the streets every time I'm in Manhattan. I think this is a sign of people who would not otherwise bike finding bikes are a practical way to get around.