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Commuting by bike - dangerous?

Anonymous Mon 24 Mar 2025 12:03:08 No.2037341 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>2037342 >>2037361 >>2037822

I live in quite a busy inner city area of Sydney (Surry Hills) and I’m thinking of riding to work in the inner west, which is 23 mins ish. It’s quite busy and there are lots of cars about.

I wanna cycle to work because the transport in this city has gone to shit lately, and it’s expensive. I realise I could save on average about $30-$40 a week and that’s just travelling a few inner city suburbs.

I’m pretty vigilant but what are the risks? My biggest fear is being hit by a car or suffering a nasty injury. I’m a pretty good bike rider and wouldn’t zoom around like an idiot.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 Mar 2025 12:55:46 No.2037342 Report

Quoted By:

>>2037341
Just go slow and maybe get some puncture resistant tires and you don't want to push yourself too hard that you can't ride at a normal pace the next day, systemic fatigue builds up

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 Mar 2025 12:56:43 No.2037343 Report

Quoted By:

optimize the route. Go through low traffic neighborhoods, bike trails, and foot paths. By far the best way to do it.
I used to ride on sidewalks since no one walks here, and it is safer then the road in some cases.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 Mar 2025 13:26:18 No.2037346 Report

Quoted By: >>2037349 >>2037350

A lot of cyclists don't want to hear this because they are morons but if you are courteous to drivers you are much less likely to get hit

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 Mar 2025 14:12:41 No.2037347 Report

Quoted By:

be wary of all cagers you encounter

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 Mar 2025 14:26:37 No.2037349 Report

Quoted By: >>2037353 >>2037381 >>2037404 >>2037405

>>2037346
how does a bicyclist express courtesy to drivers?

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 Mar 2025 14:46:17 No.2037350 Report

Quoted By: >>2037351

>>2037346
wtf does that mean? Do they put down the phone or not slam 5 beers before hopping in the car if I ride across driveway thresholds waiting to be clipped by someone rather than in the travel lane? The fact of the matter is for anyone who's done vehicular cycling for even a single day realizes that behaving more like a car is the most effective way to increase safety margin.

Cars are stupidly big and you are not visible behind them if you try to squeeze through gaps or shove yourself into the gutter. A person isn't expected to be there. Look how drivers treat sidewalk crossings with bad visibility - they blow right through them almost as a rule. Riding deep into the shoulder may work if there are no adjacent roads or streets on that segment. In car oriented urban environments this is just a terrible idea.

Take your lane as much as possible whenever possible. I ride with a mirror integrated into my sunglasses and will give additional room if safe to do so when I'm aware a car is closing and will likely want to pass.

I always used to ride as much in the gutter as possible early into my cycling. Being hit by vehicle made me reconsider that default. No significant injury besides a sprained wrist but with a larger vehicle I wouldn't have flipped over the hood/front bumper of that may have been different. There were two lanes in each direction and the road rarely gets busy, including the time of the incident. Traveling downhill I was carrying considerable speed (30mph before last minute braking) and could have easily taken the right lane but out of misguided respect for drivers fee-fees I did not. As cars passed this almost certainly reduced my visibility for the driver who was turning across traffic from the opposing travel lanes.

Lights (high power daytime flashers) and a bright colored helmet are helpful but not a magical bullet, just improve the odds in a bad situation.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 Mar 2025 14:50:03 No.2037351 Report

Quoted By:

Bike on the sidewalk
Look before crossing roads
Don't ride at night

>>2037350
*have headphones on*
*blast through stop signs and lights without even turning their heads*

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 Mar 2025 15:50:51 No.2037353 Report

Quoted By:

>>2037349
I express courtesy by giving them the finger when they almost hit me

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 Mar 2025 18:21:08 No.2037361 Report

Quoted By:

>>2037341
meh, I've hurt myself worse from skateboarding. but yeah I've been hit. I've also been commuting possibly longer than anyone else on this board, including being a messenger for a couple years.
just keep track of all the cars around you and figure out the lines they're going to take. give them the right of way if it's theirs. if you can't figure one out -- their path is ambiguous -- slow down and let them do whatever until it's obvious. then: go wherever the cars aren't occupying. this may mean going fast instead of slow. it's better to stay at least somewhat fast for safer merging. if you have the right of way, take it unless this contradicts the rule of knowing the paths of the cars around you.
make eye contact when possible. pretend cars are actually trying to kill you and mostly just let them do whatever they're trying to do and the instant they're not angled in a way that will intersect with you, lay down the speed and just fall in behind them. like chess, figure out the opponents possible moves, then make your best move.
my favorite move is waving the car to take their right-of-way, or even momentarily give up your own ROW, instead of both of us coming to a stop and staring at each other wondering who's going to go. it wastes tons of time and you lose your forward momentum. coasting and braking a little, waving the oncoming car to take their turn or go through the stop sign first is great because they quickly get away from you and then you mash the crank twice and you're going as fast as you were anyway.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 24 Mar 2025 22:45:44 No.2037381 Report

Quoted By:

>>2037349
Giving them right of way moving over to let them pass

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Mar 2025 11:14:07 No.2037404 Report

Quoted By:

>>2037349
what he means is "stay off the road or I'll run you down"

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Mar 2025 11:30:32 No.2037405 Report

Quoted By:

>>2037349
"stay in the bike lane" (that conveniently doesn't go anywhere convenient)

john forester was right

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 31 Mar 2025 17:50:21 No.2037822 Report

Quoted By: >>2037823

>>2037341
Your bike is classified as a "vehicle" so you're not allowed to use the footpath (unless there's a sign). You should to occupy "a whole lane" since you're a vehicle. Don't ride too close to the left where a car door could open and hit you.

Wearing bright reflective clothing and/or helmet helps at night. The helmet is MANDATORY (fucking obvious) and it needs to have that 5 tick Aus standard logo. You MUST have a bell or a horn. At night MUST have white light in front AND a red one at your boot. They can be constant or flashing. You MUST also have a red reflector as well.

You can use bus lanes and transit lanes, except for bus only lanes. You need to put your arm out to your side at the direction you need to turn. Trucks fucking suck air polution wise, since the national fleet is fairly old.

Oh and vote for whatever election candidate will make your lack of bike infrastructure better. The federal level is funding not any rule changes or approvals.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 31 Mar 2025 18:02:55 No.2037823 Report

Quoted By:

>>2037822
Oh yeah. There was a study where the researchers found that if you're by dressing similar to a police officer, passing drivers gave the cyclist more distance and drove a bit slower.

You obviously can't impersonate one but wearing similar clothes might work .Navy blue pants and a navy blue or sky blue top, sunglasses and some of them have a small black backpack on the back. Fluro yellow on the top and silver strips as well.

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