***visual awareness of cyclists***

[James Vaughan]

Hello Biking World,

I am a high school student who is working on an engineering project to fix the problem of visual awareness and safety of bikers. I compiled a list of questions that are related to the issue in order to give me a statistical analysis of how to solve my problem. The link to the survey is below. Thank You.

https://docs.google.com/a/k12.frisc...bM_7xqgN3GqEhOvl-KfhijXVekcSTh1goGGw/viewform

Sincerely,

James

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Done...and holy carp do you go to a huge school district!

 

[CyclingJunkies]

Your questionaaire opens with the following bold statement: "Bicycle/motor vehicle accidents are occurring more and more in urbanized locations from the lack of visibility between both cyclists and drivers."

Is this an assumption on your part or have you researched it and can provide evidence to back it up?

Also, why are you focusing on making the cyclist more visible as opposed to looking at how to make drivers more observant?

Your question - "At what times do you feel unsafe ..." doesn't have a None option; so I can't answer as I don't feel unsafe when cycling. I occasionally encounter unsafe driving from people who should be paying more attention (or who deliberately try to intimidate me because I'm on a bicycle), but I don't feel unsafe because of my mode of transport.

I appreciate you've got to pick something for your project, and have completed the questionnaire to assist, but it bugs me that lots of engineering students try to solve the 'cyclist problem' rather than looking at what they can do to make the roads safer for cyclists (which isn't the same thing!).

 

[dabac]

Some of the questions comes across as a bit off.
With the lights and reflectors I already use, it's not my visibility as such that has me worried.
Against a reasonably calm background I'll stand out like a sore thumb.
But on a busy inner city street, picking out and identifying one set of lights against a continuously shifting backdrop of other lights isn't that easy.
I'm more worried about car drivers not realizing what I am rather than not being seen as such.
And of course the ones claiming territory and generally behaving like homicidal morons.
And that part about how much I'm willing to pay - well, what do I get for my money?
Good lights - both to see and be seen with - I'll happily pay some for those.
Another cut of Hi-Viz vest, tape or reflectors, then you'd have to convince me that there is a significant gain in them first.

 

[Volnix]

Also, why are you focusing on making the cyclist more visible as opposed to looking at how to make drivers more observant?

It's always the freaky cyclists fault.. always!

 

[kennyM]

I ride paved secondary roads often, wearing a light weight reflective vest or windbreaker and using a blinking red taillight. Close calls happen and while I think rider visibility is important it's also important that drivers give a ****! about our presence on the road.

 

[jhuskey]

Disabling cell phones in vehicles will reduce accidents by 30 percent. Maybe more.