how many accidents

asanderson said:

about a month after getting my first recumbent i was hit by a car on my commute and fractured my pelvis. i've been commuting for about 2 and a half years. this guy just didn't see me and i think he would have hit me on an upright. my question is: are there more accidents on recumbents or was i just unlucky and shouldn't worry about it.

thanks in advance,

adam

I have 25-30,000 miles of cycling under my 59 year old saddle, the last 7-8,000 on recumbent trikes. I always ride in a bright, construction worker colored, neon lime green jersey. I think I am much safer on my recumbents than I was on my wedgies. I may be a bit lower, but I am also a bit wider, and a bit stranger looking. That's my take on it, anyway.

asanderson said:

are there more accidents on recumbents or was i just unlucky and shouldn't worry about it.

Hi Adam,
I have always been noticed on my LWB recumbent (noticed, whistled at, hooted at, cheered), and the only accident I have had on it was my own stupid fault - got distracted, lost control and came off rather too fast. Spent four months on crutches.
There will of course be far fewer recumbent accidents than standard bike accidents, simply because there are far fewer recumbents on the roads. Bear in mind though, that many people who have recumbents travel many miles on them (some don't have a car) and are also rarely children (the group most likely to have an accident, at least in the UK). All things considered, recumbent riders are probably on average more experienced, older, wealthier, go further and travel faster than the average upright (or upwrong) rider. Don't know whether that helps.

I was living it up at the local bar, and later almost squashed a recumbo flat taking a right turn.

I would say yes, they are more dangerous.

Just kidding.

Actually they are just as safe, but it all depends on the moment of visual contact.

If the vehicle establishes a visual as it is passing you, you are fine. They will not soon forget the image of a recumbent cyclist, and take your flightpath into consideration.

A right turn by a vehicle is the potential snag. Changing your speed after they pass to execute a right turn (vehicle, not you) can have you flying headfirst into a newspaper machine (true story).

Bumper to bumper city traffic? More dangerous on a recumbent, I would say. Course correction, and altitude of your screaming mug will make a difference.

I would have to say they are safer.
mostly because it (the bike) gets peoples attention

Recumbents produce a very unique profile that doesn't fit any of the mental conscious or unconscious profiles or cookie-cutter shapes that people have. I have had far fewer problems on recumbents, and they've all been low recumbents in 6 years than I had in a single year on a DF. It also depends on the attitude of drivers where you live and/or ride. They're pretty reasonable and polite around here - I count myself lucky.

If a clown is going to run over someone, I really don't think it matters what you're riding. They're either paying attention or they're not. Size is often completely irrelevent. People run into trucks, cars, buses, building, trains, planets . . . doesn't matter.

I'm not a recumbo rider, but I did have a close call with a recumbo, in the parking lot of my LBS of all places. I drive a full size pickup truck and I was parked between two SUVs. This LBS sells a model of recumbent trike that sits really low. A lady was taking a test ride and was riding right along the parked cars and trucks. I had started my truck and put it into gear when I noticed a little orange flag in front of me. Had I not seen the flag for some reason, there would have been a flat bent and rider. Had it been fall, when the trees are all shades of orange, yellow, and red......

25hz said:

If a clown is going to run over someone, I really don't think it matters what you're riding.

/thread

I am enjoying here all post really nice post thanks for all and god bless you

Thanks

I have always felt safer on my recumbents, and on the trike especially in traffic. In parking lots etc the trike is a bit more of a nervous experience - being seen (or heard) is KEY to riding any bike safely no matter what type.

I get huge space given to me on the trike - mostly because (IMHO) people see the trike and HAVE to pull wide to go around you because the trike disappears from their field of view over the right side of the hood. People naturally go around wider to keep you in view for as long as possible.

If you are on a road bike, a car can pass within inches of you because the driver can gauge the distance of the upright bike from the side of the car far more easily.

My .02

I have about 50,000 miles on a traditional bike and I've been hit 3 times and another time an RV came so close as to clip my mirror. Can't count how many other close-calls I've had. I do, however, take some satisfaction in knowing that all 3 hits were not my fault and I saw them coming. I believe the hardest hits are the ones you never see coming.

I've ridden recumbents for 14 years, 9 of those on lowracers; and the only car/bike accident I've had was 14 years ago. My then-new recumbent was taken out by a left cross when someone in a motorhome waved the left-turner through in front of him. Police call it a 'good samaritan' accident, and visibility wasn't an issue - the motorhome operator wasn't checking his mirror for the next lane over; he was just telling the left-turner that he'd wait. The left-turner, of course, took the wave to mean the coast was clear. She wouldn't have seen me until it was too late, even if I was driving a big rig.

To put that against my record on uprights, in the 4 years preceeding recumbents, I was hit once by someone gunning his car out of a parallel parking space, right-hooked three times, and rear-ended once as I stood in the crosswalk waiting for a red light to change.

As 25hz wrote " Recumbents produce a very unique profile that doesn't fit any of the mental conscious or unconscious profiles....that people have."

Bingo. I can't speak for recumbent bikes, but I feel this is spot-on regarding recumbent trikes. I commute in a city among millions (literally) of cyclists, and with chronic traffic congestion. Having riden here for 4 years on both uprights and a tadpole, I can say without hesitation that I get noticed far more by motorists when riding the trike. Cars, buses & trucks that wouldn't hesitate to pull out in front of an upright will nearly always give me right of way. I don't think this is so much a conscious decision, as it's typically made in a split second, but rather a reaction to something foreign, something different that raises a red flag in their subconscious.

Other significant safety issues to bear in mind regarding recumbent trikes are:

1) trikes are inherently more stable. You can't fall over and you have to be doing something really wild to roll one. Even then, you are much closer to the ground than on an upright. Impact with the ground, all other things being equal, will be lower than on an upright.

2) Most fatal cycling injuries invole injury to the head/cervical spine, which are typically the first point of impact when one falls from, or is knocked off of an upright, or otherwise collides with another vehicle or object. Recumbent riders are in a feet-first posture; accordingly, the feet or knees are likely to be the first body part to make inpact in a collision. The more fragile head and cervical spine areas are the most distant body areas from the most likely point of impact in a collision.

In four years living here in Beijing, I've had 2 fairly significant bike accidents, one in which I was hit from behind by a car driving (illegally) in a bicycle lane, and the other when a bike I was overtaking suddenly and without signalling decided to swerve to his left (into me) pushing me into a curb. Both of these accidents happened while riding uprights.

It seems like they would be hard to see, especially the guys who ride with darker clothes and no reflective material. Also no higher things to see.

We have many 'bent riders in my area. They are universally harder than a regular bike to see from a car. The notion of "normal visual cues" or what ever is nonsense. If you ride a 'bent then maybe you are banking on that so keep you safe, but something that is 2 feet off the ground is harder to see than something that is 5 feet off the ground.

If you don't want to get hit on a bike make damned sure that you assume that no-one in a car ever sees you - ever, and do everything you can to make sure that they do see you. I don't see you a recumbent improves your chances in any way.

Yes, recumbents are definitely harder to see than tall bikes. That is why all of us 'bent riders have been killed once or twice. 😉 Being taller doesn't seem to make upright riders be seen any better. Car drivers hit them all the time. The only place I feel I have to be more careful than usual is in parking lots or crowded streets with bumper-to-bumper cars parked along the curb. In those situations, I can be hidden from someone who is pulling out from a side street or parking space. I'm not in those situations very often, though.

The biggest problem I have with not being seen is by upright cyclists. They complain that car drivers don't look out for anything except other cars, then they do the same thing to anything that's not an upright. On the other hand, cars seem to see me just fine. I like to say that they're always looking out for pot holes, and there I am! But for whatever the reason, they definitely give me more room than I ever got on my uprights.

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The claims in this thread are really worthless without supporting data, and by data, I don't mean stories about "I was hit" or "I've never been hit". Unfortunately, it will likely be tough to get that data. There's plenty of data on bicycle accident numbers, but I am unsure if any of that data breaks down further to give individual statistics for recumbents and for traditional bikes. It is certain that the percentage of all recumbents on the road compared to all bicycles is comparatively small, possibly by an order of magnitude or two.

There certainly is no data on riders of traditional bikes ignoring or endangering 'bent riders. I live in a bike orgasmatron of a city, Tucson, and bents, traditional bikes, and machines pedaled by paraplegics all get along just fine, as much as any large group of humans can get along.

Recumbents seem to represent roughly 5% of bicycles in the U.S.; about the same as tandems. You're right, there's no accident data that's broken down by bicycle type. To the record-keepers we're all bicycles. Data is great, when available; but this is a forum. And in forums we talk about stuff, give opinions, and relate stories. That's pretty much what's going on here. Telling us that our stories aren't data isn't exactly news; but in lieu of some accredited research, it's all we've got.

Speaking of tandems, I saw a guy riding with his kid in tow - literally. Like the thing below.

Now I'm all for togetherness and teaching kids good habits and such, but towing a 4 or 5-year old along in traffic? And, he jumped out of the bike lane to cross 3 lanes of traffic to make a left turn at the light. Nuts. That kid could have easily fallen off in several ways - going over a bump, getting distracted (I saw him standing on the pedals pulling out a wedgy while moving. It looked really dangerous to me. I'm in SoCal and although we have lots of cyclists, this is not a cycle-friendly place. Cars rarely give any room and go speeding by at 60 mph all the time. Cyclists are looked at more as a nuisance to the flow of traffic than anything else.

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Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by rxter [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Speaking of tandems, I saw a guy riding with his kid in tow - literally. Like the thing below.

Now I'm all for togetherness and teaching kids good habits and such, but towing a 4 or 5-year old along in traffic? And, he jumped out of the bike lane to cross 3 lanes of traffic to make a left turn at the light. Nuts. That kid could have easily fallen off in several ways - going over a bump, getting distracted (I saw him standing on the pedals pulling out a wedgy while moving. It looked really dangerous to me. I'm in SoCal and although we have lots of cyclists, this is not a cycle-friendly place. Cars rarely give any room and go speeding by at 60 mph all the time. Cyclists are looked at more as a nuisance to the flow of traffic than anything else.

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It sounds like the father was riding like a butt head. The setup in the image is perfectly ok, as is riding with such things--kids in trailers, and etc--in traffic. I see it frequently here in Tucson. People take their kids in cars and many, many more kids die in car accidents.