While I agree that ninja-cycling is very reckless, I don't agree that the main danger to cyclists comes from a visibility problem. If a driver exercises due care, nearby cyclists can easily anticipate their movement, regardless of whether that driver can see them. If a driver is being careless, even a Christmas tree on a bike will be in danger.
I feel safest while navigating dense, flowing traffic because cars have few maneuvering options and any maneuvers they do make, they make slowly and carefully, giving me ample time to plan ahead. There isn't much difference in risk levels when filtering vs. when riding like a car. While filtering I'm slightly harder to see and have fewer exit strategies, but I'm not in as much danger in case of a sudden stop.
Actually, one of the most dangerous situations, which I've learned to recognize after a couple close calls, are a long queue of waiting cars next to a long stretch of empty lane, since cars often bolt out very quickly when the driver loses their patience.
I think cyclists are in most danger from two separate phenomena: a) many drivers are not attentive enough and/or mistakenly believe that their awareness is complete, leading them to perform dangerous actions under the sometimes incorrect assumption that they're safe to perform at that time. The causes for this are many (tiredness, stress, Dunning-Kruger, DUI, personality disorders, etc.). And b) drivers sometimes dangerously bend the law for convenience's sake; the most common examples I see of this are failure to indicate and improper turns (in one particular instance I saw a car turn right across all four lanes of the road).
Some of these are intrinsic aspects of the human condition, and the only way to really solve them is by taking the human element out.
I see no reason why automatic cars would
increase the risk for non-motor road users; if anything I think it'll substantially
decrease it by having more predictable drivers. Yes, there are reckless cyclists; I'm saying that automatic cars pose no greater danger to them than human drivers.
EDIT: I forgot these two:
And what laws would compromise your safety? |
Most notably, traffic lights, which force me to share space with cars when I'm at maximum instability. I love those "red lights are yield signals for cyclists" laws, and really wish they'd implement that here.
Although it doesn't quite fit my earlier statement, laws that force cyclists to the absolute edge of the road are complete BS, since they ignore that some cyclists
can actually move as fast as motor traffic under certain conditions, and they leave the cyclists that follow it no exit strategies in case they need to avoid some hazard.
If you're in danger of being run over then it's reasonable to expect that you'd get out of the way. |
Why? Are cars a force of nature, rather than machines controlled by sentient beings?