WHATS WITH EVERYONE GETTING HIT?
Thread started by
ruinedbyidiots at 01.29.08 - 8:24 pm
i got hit on saturday afternoon. everything was very minor.
today jordan (some of you know him, some of you dont) got hit pretty much in the same place i did going about 30. he tweaked his shoulder bad, but will be fine.
plus i keep reading stories of people getting hurt on lafixed and its making me not want to ride my bike as much.
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Lately there's been a shitload of people getting hit. I don't know what it is.
kyber01.29.08 - 8:36 pm
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Most of us who were hit live outside SMPD hex jurisdiction.
kyber01.29.08 - 9:08 pm
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Shouldn't totally surprise us, cycling is among the top most dangerous sports:
From an newspiece:
Many moms might worry about their kids getting hurt playing football, but a new study shows that playing basketball and riding bicycles sent more Americans to the emergency room in 2005.
More than half a million people suffered basketball-related injuries last year, compared to 485,000 hurt on bikes and 418,000 injured playing football.
Trampolines bounced 108,000 U.S. residents into the hospital. And believe it or not, some 47,000 people managed to get hurt playing golf.
"Athletes, youngsters and weekend warriors alike can wind up in hospital emergency rooms for injuries related to these sports," said Pietro Tonino, director of the division of sports medicine at Loyola University Health System. "So before people run to the basketball court, they need to take steps to reduce their injury risk."
Tonino used data from the U.S. Consumer Produce Safety Commission on injuries treated in emergency rooms.
The Top 15:
Basketball: 512,213
Bicycling: 485,669
Football: 418,260
Soccer: 174,686
Baseball: 155,898
Skateboards: 112,544
Trampolines: 108,029
Softball: 106,884
Swimming/Diving: 82,354
Horseback riding: 73,576
Weightlifting: 65,716
Volleyball: 52,091
Golf: 47,360
Roller skating: 35,003
Wrestling: 33,734
I find it funny to see Golf on this list. I mean, how many women on cell phones hit golfers?
stevo401.29.08 - 9:18 pm
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Maybe so, but I think being hit by a car is a bit different.
kyber01.29.08 - 9:19 pm
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yeah, it's totally different, we're out there playing in traffic and shit .
skano01.29.08 - 9:40 pm
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"alright kids, have fun dodging cars on Wilshire, and remember to put on a clean pair of underwear. THANKS!!"
e-rock01.29.08 - 9:42 pm
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And bring an extra pair just in case you actually survive.
You're gonna need em for the close calls.
kyber01.29.08 - 9:51 pm
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Thank God I took down that trampoline! I'd hate to have a bad pun escort me into the hospital.
NEWB31001.30.08 - 12:49 am
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jordan got a separated shoulder and a prescription for loretab.
ruinedbyidiots01.30.08 - 10:19 am
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Actually the most dangerous thing you could do is walk across the street. Pedestrian injuries and deaths outnumber bicyclists 3 to 1. In a ten year period from 1994 to 2004 ( about the same amount of time as the Vietnam war) 60,000 pedestrians were killed.
So the bicycle may have risks, but with the lights, reflectors and defensive moves....it is still safer than walking.
skd01.30.08 - 10:40 am
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But i don't think that they are talking about pedestrian walking. The list was related to sport.
stevo401.30.08 - 11:05 am
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I would like to know the age group of the participants of these various activities.
Is commuting a sport? lol
kyber01.30.08 - 11:11 am
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I say we go out and
we start hitting cars. We can show these drivers that cyclists won't take this lying down!
SPOOK01.30.08 - 12:50 pm
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PEOPLE DIE, GET OVER IT, JEEZE!!!
e-rock01.30.08 - 12:52 pm
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Having already been hit by a car this year, I figured I'd go out and hit a pedestrian today. Nah, not on purpose, really.
I was coming down Silverlake just north of Spaceland at about 25 mph when a guy decides to do his impersonation of a squirrel crossing the road right in the middle of the block, gets halfway across, spins around and heads back in my direction without looking. Meanwhile I'm hitting the brakes and yelling as my shoulder hits his head and knocks his glasses flying.
Once again, coulda been worse - be careful out there, everyone.
mr rollers01.30.08 - 1:47 pm
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Sorry to hear that Rollers. Man, I ride that stretch almost every day and I'm usually flying down at 25-30 yelling and hitting the bell. Hopefully no numbskulls get in my way.
cabhauler01.30.08 - 3:26 pm
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SPOOK:
"I say we go out and we start hitting cars. We can show these drivers that cyclists won't take this lying down!"
Already tried it, broke my shoulder, and wanted to lie down.
City Hobgoblin01.30.08 - 3:28 pm
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I try to look on the bright side of all of us being hit like hopefully that 19 yr old asian kid who hit me will now be very diligently watching for cyclists everytime he's behind the wheel. I also think that hopefully he tells all his friends about the incident and they watch for us too.
but then again it could be like fuck it who cares, maybe they think i will never ride on the road again cause it belongs to their ignorant asses.
jchungerford01.30.08 - 5:18 pm
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Drivers as well as cyclist can be super spacey and stupid.
I had one of my closest cars yesterday.I was off of Wilshire and 28th St. in Santa Monica. A speed racer in a brown Toyota decided to make a right turn without looking leftward and nearly smashed me into the cement as I was making a right turn.
It happens and it sucks ass.
Glad to hear you guys are o.k.,, as for Mike703v though; I wonder how he's doing ?
KataCyklsLA2NY01.30.08 - 6:41 pm
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blazing down lankershim this morning some woman in an suv dos a rolling stop at a right turn into my lane. I gave her a loud ass "YO!" and she saw me at the last minute and stopped but then of course she took it as an insult that I yelled at her to pay attention!
I just simply dont trust ANY motorist any pedestrian to see me under any circumstances. you have to be completely defensive when riding a bike sad but true. people will be looking right at you and still do something stupid.
Roadblock01.30.08 - 8:09 pm
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seriously, RB. every time i call a driver on their shit they get all defensive. it's more annoying than them almost hitting me. i've never gotten a fucking apology.
ephemerae01.30.08 - 9:58 pm
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Roadblock's nailed it on the head. ALWAYS ride like you are invisible since, to a significant majority of road users, you might as well be. I've been hit a couple of times in the last 3 months, though never actually knocked down. At least once, the driver broke down in tears after she moved right directly into me, before I even said anything other than to knock on her window, so I figure that at least she learned a valuable lesson.
I did narrowly survive a car turning left right across my path while flying downhill on melrose on Saturday. I had a triple LED night rider light blazing and the minivan still turned left right into my path, then pulled a deer in headlights thing and stopped with the intersection completely blocked. I had nowhere to go and no chance of stopping, but at the last minute, the driver gunned it and barely gave me enough room to get through behind them. It was a minivan, too, so absolutely no chance of flipping over the trunk or hood. I doubt I'd have survived the impact, to be honest, which was something of a wake up call about riding a bicycle fast downhill in an urban environment.
On a motorcycle, I probably could have stopped or at least slowed significantly, but road bike brakes just don't compare when traveling at speed. I was hard on the brakes and shouting my lungs out but not slowing nearly fast enough. I can't imagine how a brakeless rider would deal with a similar situation - going downhill significantly unweights the rear wheel, leaving even longer braking distances. Scary stuff.
ideasculptor01.30.08 - 10:45 pm
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I'm surprised how many riders I see that hang out in the door zone.
Roadblock01.30.08 - 11:16 pm
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yea man..i'm always out of the the door zone..and take my own lane...
see....if you expect every car, every person, every door, every right turn to be a crash. then i think you'll have a better chance of not getting hit. it'll make you proactive in making sure a car knows you're there and not get hit.
you expect SF to be a lot safer because the amount of bikes on the road..but drivers still make blind right turns or try to take a left in front of me.. it happens in every city...but seems like cyclists are more experienced on the road, and drivers are more educated in SF.
superfish01.30.08 - 11:27 pm
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sexy was right behind me in SF as some dude pulled a right across me and the bike lane. since I dont trust ANYBODY I was already anticipating this guy to be a moron and sure enough he was. So I yelled at his ass he jammed on the brakes and I road by yelling some more and as he was yelling at me he pulled right in front of sexy who was about 50 feet behind me and almost hit him!! what a dickhead! but yeah SF is cake to ride regardless compared to LA.
Roadblock01.31.08 - 12:31 am
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I actually got an apology once. I was speechless.
PC01.31.08 - 1:08 am
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Seems like a never-ending battle in the "War of Mobility".
So far, so good for me.
Though the only thing pissing me off right now is how Bear Valley Rd has three lanes in each direction.
Yet, some late-night drivers still want to push me over to the shoulder in the #3.
Got my taillights a-blazing, and my reflective patches a-shinin'.
So, these dickheads are either blind, or complete assplugs that need to fall into a mineshaft in the Funeral Mountains!!
bentstrider01.31.08 - 4:13 am
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I hit a fat booty last night!
skano01.31.08 - 9:43 am
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