There were 841 accidents between cars and bikes in Maryland in 2012, according to the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, a 5 percent increase over the 799 bike-car accidents in 2008.
Harford County resident Pam Moore never worried about sharing the road with cars until she was struck by one while riding her bike in August. She lost consciousness and suffered a collapsed lung, broken ribs, abrasions and a concussion from the accident, she said.
“There was nothing I could do different,” Moore said. “I was following the laws. I was where I was supposed to be.”
In 2012, five people in Maryland died from bike-car crashes and 689 people were injured.
Many motorists do not view bicycles as vehicles that have an equal right to use the road, said Neil Buchness, president of Chesapeake Spokes, a bicycle group in Harford County.
“We’re actually people. We aren’t just something to contend with in the road or go around,” he said. “Give us a little more respect out on the road.”
Buchness said the state needs to ensure motorists know the law.
“I think the biggest thing that will help us is education. Getting it out there. The more people that realize that we are cyclists and we do have a right to the road,” the better, Buchness said.
According to the law, drivers must leave three feet between their car and bicyclists when passing them on the road.
“I think a lot of motorists feel that bicyclists are trespassing on the public roadways and that leads to resentment,” said Michael Jackson, director of bicycle and pedestrian access for the Maryland Department of Transportation.
Still, responsibility on the roadways doesn’t just lay with drivers, said Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists.
“It starts with following the rules of the road,” Clarke said of bicyclists. “Behaving responsibly and predictably and making sure you’re visible. Making sure people know what you are going to do.
Pam Moore thinks Maryland needs to increase the passing distance between bikes and cars and do a better job enforcing existing laws.
“You’re going to have people that don’t like cyclists, people who don’t like runners, people who don’t like that because they don’t want to share the road,” Moore said. “I think you have to have stricter laws.”
Even if the law does change, Moore said doesn’t know if she’ll return to the hobby she once loved.
“I’m not sure if I will get back on a bike. I want to because I don’t want to let this accident define something I really, really enjoyed,” Moore said.
Ian Cooper says
Editor,
“There was nothing I could do different,” Moore said. “I was following the laws. I was where I was supposed to be.”
Yeah, right. I can almost guarantee she was not. I’ll bet she was riding far right when she was supposed to be riding in the center of the lane. Riding far right is hardly ever the correct lane position and it gets many cyclists killed or injured because when you’re hugging the curb, you are less visible and far more prone to passing and intersection collisions. The law says to ride “as far right as practicable and safe”, and that is hardly ever close to the curb. In fact the law allows a number of caveats so that cyclists can move farther out into the roadway, the most important of which is the one which allows full lane use if the lane is too narrow to share. With the 3ft passing law in place, virtually no Maryland lane is wide enough to share – if the lane is less than 14ft wide, cyclists have the right to use the full lane, and they should do so for safety’s sake.
Bob Johnson says
Editor,
As a Kent County bike rider, this information concerns me. I am currently recovering from a broken wrist received while riding from Pittsburgh to Washington DC on the rails to trails and canal paths set aside for bikes and hikers only. It has been a long process of recovery including three surgeries. I certainly don’t want to go through this again.
The article explains the “accidents” as the result of lack of respect for bike riders and makes some of the incidents sound even intentional. Is there information available regarding the cause of each accident? If so, it would be helpful to know what the statistical breakdown is. The reasons for biking accidents are important to their prevention. My accident, for example, was the result of insufficient attention on my part. Perhaps I missed it in the paper but I am still waiting to hear of the reason for the accident that led to the death of the cyclist on Broadneck road.