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Have you ever ridden a bicycle in traffic? It doesn't sound like it.

On city streets, non-Olympian cyclists probably have a TOP speed of maybe 12-15 mph, but more reasonably something like 5-10. Cars, motorcycles and mopeds are all going to be travelling much faster--more like 15-20, minimum--and they reach that speed within a few seconds of starting out from a dead stop.

We're not talking drag racing here, we're talking getting back up to 15 mph or so, which cars, mopeds, motorcycles and just about anything with a motor can do effortlessly -- motors are matched to the weight of the vehicle. No matter how you slice it, bicyclists are underpowered relatively to just about anything else on the road. And to a rider, energy is not just energy, but also physical effort and exertion. Minimizing it is important in terms of making bicycles a practical mode of transport. In a bicycle, the energy lost making a stop is equivalent to pedaling 100m or so.

Add to that the additional things a bicyclist must do to remount, get feet in position, regain balance, and get the bike in motion. It's much more than some trivial issue of "inconvenience". These things take time, effort, and attention. A bicyclist starting from dead stop along with a pack of motor vehicles is going to find themselves outpaced within seconds, and being passed and/or jockeying for position at the very moments when they do not have the time, attention or energy available to spare to the danger. Statistically, this is the most dangerous time for a cyclist.

Finally, the idea that someone on a bike has significantly more visibility than someone on a motorcycle is ridiculous, and even a car. What exactly is it about a car that makes you think drivers have poor visibility? Have you ever been in a car before?

Yes, I have. Compare the two sometime.

Accounting for bumper, hood, windshield, distance from steering wheel to driver, etc., a car driver's eyes are at least a couple of meters behind the front edge of the vehicle. A bicyclist's are typically only a few inches behind the front of the wheel, and they can lean forward. This means a bicyclist can see much further down side streets than a car in the same position (relative to the front of the vehicles).

A bicyclist is also typically seated much higher. While riding, my sightline easily clears the roof of most passenger cars. This provides a better vantage point, and makes it easy to see over lines of parked cars.

A bicyclist is also unenclosed, able to make better use of other senses, and typically more alert.

Finally, a bicycle approaches an intersection more slowly, leaving much more time to survey the scene. If there are no pedestrians crossing, a cyclist can even creep forward past the crosswalk, putting the front wheel almost into the crossing traffic lane. With their already higher and more forward eye position, this provides a nearly perfect view of any cross traffic.

If anything, motorcycles and automobiles have much better visibility. Do you have mirrors on your bike? Do most people? In a car, you can see in a 360 degree radius while hardly moving your head. Not so without mirrors.

If you are using your mirrors for peering down side streets, you're doing it wrong.

At the end of the day, trying to compare every facet of the dynamics of different vehicles is completely irrelevant. Every different type of vehicle has different capabilities in terms of visibility and acceleration. This is definitely true within vehicle types as well - some cars have much better visibility than others. Some helmets worn by motorcycle or bicycle riders may restrict peripheral visibility. Some cars are slow, some are fast.

And, shockingly enough, every driver has different capabilities. People wearing glasses have worse peripheral vision than people wearing contacts or with uncorrected vision. Should different laws therefore apply?

Discretion should certainly apply to people with particularly impaired vision. Or to vehicles with particular visibility or locomotion problems. But the possibility that you can have Mr. Magoo the triathlete riding a recumbent bicycle, or a hyper-acute superhero driving a broken-down Impala loaded with sand bags and stuck in first gear is kind of irrelevant as far as general laws are concerned.

The fact that there are gradations within a class of vehicle or between operators doesn't mean we can't make common sense distinctions. 'Typical' bicycles and cars operated by people of 'average' capacity have vastly different basic capabilities and limitations, a vast enough difference that we should have no problem making a distinction.

by jack lecou on Jan 25, 2010 2:49 pm • link • report