Cyclists and flower sellers

So between Nortons and Glenelg this morning I had six close calls with people doing stupid moves to buy flowers on the side of the road. I watched one land cruiser put one guy onto the footpath ( he stayed up right). There was an ambulance at one on ANZAC hwy with a bunch of cyclists milling about. I dont ride on the flats on the weekend so is this normal or was it the gods pushing my buttons because I was on a borrowed Team Quantum? I dont have six close calls in a year let alone one morning.

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Permalink Reply by Mick Adams on May 13, 2012 at 18:40

Same out Gawler way, have no issue if near a carpark or bay but when on side of road with no clearway always going to cause accidents.

Permalink Reply by Darren Bosanko on May 13, 2012 at 20:46
Pretty normal!
Permalink Reply by heather on May 13, 2012 at 21:17

Dstone, lucky that you usually do not have six close calls in a year.

That would be an interesting question to put to local councils and the LGA. Could be restrictions on selling when no shop building, without even considering cyclist safety. You were reminded six times today that people do not consider cyclist safety.

Permalink Reply by Don (Who's lost?) Nairn on May 13, 2012 at 22:26

It would be interesting how many of these sellers had council permission?

Road side stalls can be hazardous especially if drivers make a last moment decision to stop.

Permalink Reply by heather on May 14, 2012 at 1:01

Dstone, you could phone the LGA (Local Government Association) on 8224 2000 to enquire if councils make by-laws about roadside stalls, like if needing council permission for such stalls and locating stalls for safety of all road users.

Get back to me with the suburbs / cities and I will provide the email addresses to contact each council. You know the locations and can best describe the cycling hazards you saw.

Permalink Reply by rossmg on May 14, 2012 at 2:31

Under 6 close incidents per year? Depends on what you call close - in a day though - ouch!

I can't remember the last time with 6 ...  in a day ..

Permalink Reply by Dstone on May 14, 2012 at 18:57

Close call is something I would say involoves

  1. heavy braking - wheel lock ups,
  2. extreme swerving like tipping it right over and trying to make a right angle turn.
  3. Or just watching the car coming and no there nothing I can do to stop it.
  4. Any incident that makes me convert to a new religon or reaffirm previous conversions.

I also spend very minimal time on main roads - Winston Av and Duthy street would be the busiest ( in terms of flow) and  a bit of greenhill road between king will and hutt. After listening to my friends and reading forums and watching other riders I noticed the ones who had the most probs disobey the rules, ride like its a race or have 30+ kph av speed. I have never been a fan of pushing the law and riding like a tool bag and I have also dropped av speed from 30 to between 22 and 25. And for the last 4-5 years it has been happy sailing even when I used to loop through the CBD as well. Not the most rigourous scientific study and maybe it is all conicidence but it works for me and I really find my 25-30k round trip comute to Norwood really very cruisy.

Permalink Reply by heather on May 14, 2012 at 19:52

Stats indicate that serious cycling injuries are more likely to occur on arterial roads. Reasons might include more traffic and cyclists therefore more probability of collisions; bicycle lanes and therefore cyclists placed within close proximity of vehicles; and faster speed of vehicles.

In the metro area I cycle slowly: with all the stop-start I cannot get up to a high speed. Have still been hit thrice, twice in the CBD, with the drivers officially at fault.

There is a method for analysing near misses and road user at fault. Usually used for vehicles but applied during a MUARC study where cyclists wore helmet cams.This study found that in the bicycle-vehicle incidents, in the majority instances drivers were at fault. When an incident, the majority of drivers showed no reaction, as though unaware that they almost hit a cyclist, save for the vigilance and avoidance action of the cyclist.

Permalink Reply by Dstone on May 14, 2012 at 20:21

I love your post Heather they are always very informative. I assume that most cars are unaware so any near misses are through ignorance and lack of vision beyond other cars so that is why I slow down and it really seems to improve my response times and ability to see heart ache in advance.

NOW if I was to include near miss with pedestrians then I would say on average 2-3 per week more if I go through town (other then greenhill - hutt street cibo!). If I was to include mear miss with cyclists 1-2 per week.

Permalink Reply by heather on May 14, 2012 at 21:41

Thanks Dstone. Positive feedback justifies my time on cycling advocacy: conferences, research, submissions, AC post and 4 advocacy groups on AC. I attended Marilyn Johnson's presentation at an Australian Cycling Conference held in Adelaide. Before she got her PhD based on the helmet cam study. Some post under topic at http://www.adelaidecyclists.com/group/lookforcyclists/forum/topics/... I have been to the MUARC website but not published there yet.

In 1996 ACC put out its first draft Adelaide Bicycle Plan. Includes a sentence that when bicycle incidents, the majority are caused by the other road user. Road user includes pedestrians. Fortunately a pedestrian-bicycle incident TENDS to result in less serious injuries than a vehicle-bicycle incident.

You might like to join my AC group Look For Cyclists and read some of the topics. Will add more info when I find the time. Re the collated info from AC posts on collisions, near misses, assaults, etc. I included this in a Dec-2011 submission to the National Transport Commission.

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