Poll

Roughly how many incident-free miles had you cycled before you were last "in collision" with a motor vehicle?

Less than 1000 miles
1001-5000 miles
5001-10000 miles
10001-20000 miles
20001-30000 miles
30001-40000 miles
40001-50000 miles
More than that
It hasn't happened yet

Author Topic: The "have you been knocked off" poll  (Read 178305 times)

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #25 on: 24 April, 2010, 10:10:16 pm »
I find the question a little odd. I have a very rough idea of how many miles since, but not much idea of how many before (it was in the 1980s, sometime).
You gotta pick before or after...
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #26 on: 24 April, 2010, 11:03:55 pm »
I had to make a very hand waving estimate since it's quite a few years since I last had an incident with a motor vehicle.

Five or six years back, someone opened the passenger door of a car across me when I was filtering up a marked cycle path bit to the advanced stop line area.  I almost missed it, but I had the trailer on, and it just caught on the door.

Prior to that, it was probably a decade or more, when a car pulled out in front of me.  I wasn't cycling as much then, so I selected a value to reflect total mileage of around 30000.

Admittedly I have had a couple of more recent self inflicted injuries in London, where bollards and kerbs have jumped out in front of me, but obviously they don't count for this poll.
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

pdm

  • Sheffield hills? Nah... Just potholes.
Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #27 on: 24 April, 2010, 11:17:53 pm »
Mmmmh.
Started cycling "seriously" around 1974.
First driven off the road but not knocked off or down the same year.
Then incident free until 2001. Not a clue how many miles - probably around 20,000??. Car turned right into me while I was overtaking a stationary line of traffic. She became impatient and pulled out of line suddenly without looking to try and do a U turn in a very silly place. about 5:30pm. Not dark at all. Wearing yellow windproof with reflective beading. dry and partly cloudy. Front wheel pringled - little other damage.
Next incident last year (2009) was the bus busting bout. light rain. blue jacket with reflective panels. 6pm and not at all dark. Bus turned across my path and got itself thoroughly smashed up. Minor injuries to me only, replaced handlebars and stem on bike. Mileage since 2001 incident: about 40,000.

Rapples

Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #28 on: 25 April, 2010, 07:01:32 am »
A few near misses, all of which could have been nasty.

So thankfully no, although I seem to recal and incident when I was about 11 doing the same as Adam and cycled onto the bonnet of a shiny Jag.  :facepalm:

No girls invoved though :-[

Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #29 on: 25 April, 2010, 07:09:12 am »
5 miles ago, that is, three weeks ago, Glasgow centre city: cut off by a car, brushed along, slammed on breaks, flew over handle bars, made a handstand on road in front of a city bus, and slammed on the road. Nice. Normally I swear like a dock worker at cars; all I could say now was "you idiot! you idiot!" as I slapped the car. Apologised to the driver. Not sure why: definitely his fault. Just wanted to get to work, I guess. Have hardly cycled as f-ed up knee from the fall.

Before that, 1975, parked car, can't remember what happened but woke up in hospital with broken palate and skin off face. And 1977: had just picked up brand new 10-speed bike; cycling home, after 1 mile cut-off by car and jammed into parked cars. No injury but crying like a baby over my ruined 5-minute old bike.

CrinklyLion

  • The one with devious, cake-pushing ways....
Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #30 on: 25 April, 2010, 08:27:51 am »
Touch wood, it hasn't happened yet.  Although I don't track mileage, or do anything like the distances many on here do, I have cycled on and off for the best part of thirty years and have never driven, so cycling/walking/public transport have always been my main modes of transport.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #31 on: 25 April, 2010, 08:32:34 am »
This is interesting; it's certainly not a Boolean distribution.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Hummers

  • It is all about the taste.
Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #32 on: 25 April, 2010, 08:39:22 am »
Many, many times.

Sometimes on my own and sometimes in the presence of a 3rd person and/or persons unknown.

Not sure the numbers on the poll can stretch enough to accommodate my score.  :smug:




Oh, hold on.





Sorry, I completely misread the title of this thread.

 :-[

H

Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #33 on: 25 April, 2010, 09:10:00 am »
Reading the thread and from experience, events like this are vividly imprinted in people's memory. Twas a Saturday afternoon on the Cowley Road. A white van pulled in whilst overtaking me, sideswiping me onto the front wing of a parked car. I think the car was blue.

But miles? and before??

Sorry...

Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #34 on: 25 April, 2010, 09:26:08 am »
I had an idiot on a club run run into the back of me but have never had an incident with a motor vehicle. All 7 offs since December were ice or clipless moments and my gore in New Zealand was bike failure.
But then- I don't ride in cities very often, so there's less cars who might hit me!

Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #35 on: 25 April, 2010, 09:34:51 am »
Never been knocked off.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

tonycollinet

  • No Longer a western province of Númenor
Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #36 on: 25 April, 2010, 09:40:06 am »
I put myself in the "not yet" category - but I'd forgotten about the time when I was around 12, and cycled hard into the back of a parked car (newish bike, head down cycling hard). It was a comedy style "land on the roof, and slide down the back of the car" event.

Cost me £20 for a new frame.

Biggsy

  • A bodge too far
  • Twit @iceblinker
    • My stuff on eBay
Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #37 on: 25 April, 2010, 09:53:40 am »
Does "incident-free" mean without collision with a motor vehicle?

If so, I can thankfully forget about the incidents that only involved me, my bike and the road.
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rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #38 on: 25 April, 2010, 09:58:16 am »
Yes, since those are (in theory) avoidable.  You could argue that riding into a parked car is also avoidable, but it gets messy if we include fault in it, since some collisions with motor vehicles are 50/50.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #39 on: 25 April, 2010, 09:59:41 am »
Maybe I should withdaw my 20,000-30,000 'vote'.

On the two ot the three occasions I have been in collision with a motor vehicle, I have not come off. My injuries have been as good as non-existent, like a fingernail bruise the size of a full stop in 10pt Verdana.

Damage to bikes has mostly been minimal, though I did crump a 531 frame when I rode into someone's bumper in the drizzle.

Biggsy

  • A bodge too far
  • Twit @iceblinker
    • My stuff on eBay
Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #40 on: 25 April, 2010, 10:17:26 am »
20,000 miles before the last one for me.  I've had four collisions with motor vehicles altogether.  Two were trvial with no injuries; two with significant injuries.
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Speshact

  • Charlie
Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #41 on: 25 April, 2010, 10:19:34 am »
Um, a bus gently knocked me off, as we both set off to enter Old Street roundabout, about 10 years ago. The driver hadn't noticed me when he arrived at the roundabout and I got a graze. No idea on mileage since.

Officially,
"Casualty rates.
Measured per kilometre of exposure, overall cycling is one of the riskiest forms of travel (see table). However, the risks to the individual are still very low. The average distance cycled in a year is around 60 km – on this basis there would be one fatality in around half a million years."

Casualties per billion passenger kilometres (2006 data):
pedal cycle
Killed 31, Seriously injured 527  All 3,494

Source: Pedal cyclist casualties in road accidents: 2007
Road Accident Statistics Factsheet No. 4 – November 2008
DfT

Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #42 on: 25 April, 2010, 10:34:55 am »
Knocked off when I was 16 or so: club run, bunch overtaken by moton who forgot he was towing a caravan, about 10 of us ended up in a nasty tangle in the road. No idea how many miles I had done prior to that but I'll guess at less 5001 - 10000. No motorists involved in my mishaps since then.

Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #43 on: 25 April, 2010, 11:05:06 am »
I find the question a little odd. I have a very rough idea of how many miles since, but not much idea of how many before (it was in the 1980s, sometime).
You gotta pick before or after...

Okay, something over 50k miles since. It was a minicab that turned right across my path late one night in Acton. I can't think of any others.

Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #44 on: 25 April, 2010, 11:26:58 am »
I am a "more than that".  I was knock off in 1971 and then not until 2005.  Minor injuries, although enough to need hospital treatment in each case.

A high mileage member of the 300,000 plus club once told me he reckons on a trip to hospital about every 100,000 miles.  That sort of comment, and the figures collected here really knock into touch the non-cycling public's perception that cycling is horribly dangerous.

Now where's my piece of wood to knock on for continued luck.

simonp

Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #45 on: 25 April, 2010, 11:34:04 am »
1993, Glasgow, then 2007, Cambridge.

1993 was me riding into the back of a car as I was trying to change lane and the lights changed while I was looking over my shoulder, they stopped, I didn't

No damage done to anything.

2007 was car pulling out in front of me from a side road to the right as I started to turn into the road.  Lots of damage to the car (dent, scrapes), none to me or bike though I replaced the carbon forks as a precaution.


ian

Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #46 on: 25 April, 2010, 12:28:12 pm »
Don't track miles either, but two serious offs (if you don't count the ones that just involved myself, gravity, and a poor understanding of the laws of momentum and inertia).

Hit from behind by a speeding Toyota back in 1996. Driver in a hurry to catch the start of a football game on TV, took a hill brow corner at excessive speed. Unfortunately I was coasting down the other side of the hill and he must have been going too fast to correct (50-60 mph in a 35 zone) so continued to swing wide around the bend. Fortunately, a thorough appraisal of certain websites has educated me that speed doesn't kill. It can ensure someone spends a long time in hospital though.

End of last year, in London, driver pulled out from parking space without looking. Obscured by a large van parked behind him, I couldn't see anything, and I guess that since he couldn't see anything either, he just decided to put his faith in probability and went. Into me. Nothing I could have done, even with the considerable powers of hindsight. I was almost past as he pulled out, flipping me onto the bonnet and then unceremoniously onto the road. No serious damage to me, bike, or him - though I did have a sore hand and shoulder for a few months afterwards. The Met in their wisdom didn't even judge that as 'careless'. I have alluded elsewhere to the kinds of activity that may meet the Met's criterion for carelessness. Still, as I lay on the road I did notice the driver finally switch his indicators on, so that's alright then. He did at least stick around and was one of the few drivers in south London with both a licence and insurance. Mind you, he was driving a courtesy car because he had trashed his actual car.

Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #47 on: 25 April, 2010, 12:43:47 pm »
Over 150,000 miles or so, in order...

0) (As a student, before I'd started logging miles) Stuffed my RH brake lever through the nearside brakelight/indicator cluster on a bus. Bus at stop, me waiting, bus set off, then stopped again about 30m further on. I failed to stop, not having expected the bus to stop again and braking being compromised by not wanting my hand to be what hit the bus.
1) Overtaking car pulled back in before completing the pass, brushed end of handlebar. Didn't fall off, driver stopped to apologise, I was doing about 35mph.
2) Car turning right across the front of me. Indicating, stopped, decided to go, realised I was going faster than she'd thought, stopped again. Bent frame and forks, I did a roll across the bonnet.
3) Car doored. Pringled wheel, bent forks again. The man coming the other way with the extra wide trailer (who was why I was in the door zone) kindly gave me a lift back home.
4) Oncoming car on the wrong side of the road hit my right hand & brake lever with the wing mirror.
5) car in front stopped whilst I was checking behind. Nearly managed to stop but not quite. I stepped off, more or less, but the bike somersaulted and landed on the Brooks, bending one rail. Slow moving scissor movement in a small gyratory.
6) Irate taxi driver overtook the club run, then immediately stopped broadside across the road. I hit his front passenger door, pringling my front wheel. Police got involved, but as far as I know nothing happened.
7) car pulled out into same gyratory as 5, I hit his offside as a shallow angle. I'd seen him coming and adjusted my cornering line so it wouldn't hurt if he failed to give way.
8) car turned left across cycle lane without indicating. Gave his rear passenger door a bit of a clout as I followed him into the side road.
9) stationary car on right pulled across road into parking place on left just as I was about to pass. Pringled wheel, I rolled across the bonnet. Tore a muscle in my upper arm, so was off the bike for about 3 weeks. Driver had been discussing with passenger whether to stop at that pub or not.

0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 commuting
1, 4, 6, 9 countryside recreational riding

Actually came off properly: 2, 3, 9
Parted company with bike, but almost a step off: 4, 5, 6
Remained on bike: 0, 1, 7, 8
I voted 10-20000
If only counting proper offs rather than "incidents", 3 -> 9 would probably be something of the order of 110,000

Clandy

Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #48 on: 25 April, 2010, 02:58:32 pm »
2009 Smidsy took me down on an empty road in broad daylight. See here.

2010, major rider error!
Instead of riding around Shoebury Garrison along the seawall and through Gunners Park, I changed my route and went along Campfield Road and Ness Road to reach the seafront.
The Gunners Park route brings you onto the very beginning of the Southend seafront cycle path and takes you beside Ness Road round to the seafront where you cross the slipway road opposite the Shorehouse and continue on the cycle path. This time I was traveling along Ness Road, in the road, the idea being to cross the slipway road and join the cycle path there. i got to the slipway road, probably doing about 25 mph, cut across the road, saw the ramp, flew up it, and it was the wrong ramp! It was the footpath ramp, not the cycle path ramp (which was further to the left of where I was).

In front of me was a small-ish pine tree, to the left a great big telecommunications box (very solid, very immovable), 90 degrees to the right the footpath with pedestrians on it…

I remember thinking, 'If I hit the ends of the branches I'll be able to just brush through…' What happened was I hit the branches at 20 odd mph, the Moulton stopped dead and whipped around to the left, and I slammed down sideways onto my right side into the earth the other side of the tree.

Injuries mostly amounted to bruised ego at the sounds of laughter from the Shorehouse…


So to sum up, in over 40 years cycling on British roads, knocked down once.

jane

  • Mad pie-hating female
Re: The "have you been knocked off" poll
« Reply #49 on: 25 April, 2010, 05:04:15 pm »
I have no idea how many miles I have ridden in my cycling life (never consistently used a computy thingy) but think that last year I did about 7,000+ (conservative estimate)  miles totting up, roughly, my commuting, weekend rides and touring in the summer and other holidays.  So, I'll use that as an average over the last 35 years. I have done many more than that yearly when young and unencumbered and working as a messenger and seeming to spend my life on the bike, touring Europe and beyond in my twenties  and then subsequently far less mileage when a mother of under five. In 35 years I have
1.Been doored once, (30 years ago, concussion, nasty bruising)
2.Been hit side on by a car coming out of a sideroad (soon after, broken collarbone)
3.Hit a car when flying through a jammed junction without checking both lanes of traffic on my right. (27 years ago nasty facial road rash scar took years to fade completely, and cracked ribs).  Interestingly enough, that junction now light controlled.

So 3 offs really, over 35 years and  more than 213,000 miles, (possibly considerably more- in my years of maximum mileage, I never kept count, just rode). I am not counting accidents on the bike pre 16 years old by the way.
    Thats it- my rate of offs seems to have declined as my age has increased.  I think this is no coincidence.  I was a reckless risktaker when young and single and underwent quite a personality makeover on having children.  
 
Oh, I nearly forgot, possibly because it didn't involve anyone else.  About eight years or so ago- one wet day in Wales, came off on a cattle grid- split knee open.  And two more minor slip ups on towpaths involving other cyclists.  One rather humorous event which Jurek may recall as another occasion when his copious supply of zip ties proved indispensable.  
I am now concerned that I have tempted fate by reviewing my off statistics and will ride out tomorrow straight into some vehicle or pedestrian somewhere.