I don't know how much more visible I can be on my bike! When I'm doing anything other than my short commute, I'm decked out in high-visibility clothing, have daytime-visible bright flashing lights on my bike, and am decked out with a bunch of retroreflectors. Despite this, I have to swerve to avoid a door that was opened into the bike lane on at least a quarter or half of my 15 minute rides. I have to slam the brakes to avoid a car that's decided to abruptly turn or switch lanes about every four 15 minute rides. This is roughly the same rate as when I go for shorter 4 minute rides to/from work without any special clothes/lights on. In fact, the only reason I wear the high-visibility stuff is for when I get out into the more rural areas after sunset.
I doubt you could get more people to switch to commuting by bike if you required them to take those extreme measures, and it certainly doesn't seem to help me in the city much.
[edit] A simple thing a motorist can do to improve the safety of cyclists is to open a door using the "Dutch reach"[1]. It pretty much necessitates looking to the left before/as you open your door, and makes the check easier too!
As someone who has come close to merging into a cyclist a few times - I'm sorry. I grew up in an area without bike lanes, and then moved to SF, so it wasn't a habit to check bike lanes before turning across them (mental process goes - I'm in the rightmost lane, I just need to look out for pedestrians and I can turn). On the upside - I got rid of my vehicle, so I'm no longer a terror to cyclists.
Comments
I don't know how much more visible I can be on my bike! When I'm doing anything other than my short commute, I'm decked out in high-visibility clothing, have daytime-visible bright flashing lights on my bike, and am decked out with a bunch of retroreflectors. Despite this, I have to swerve to avoid a door that was opened into the bike lane on at least a quarter or half of my 15 minute rides. I have to slam the brakes to avoid a car that's decided to abruptly turn or switch lanes about every four 15 minute rides. This is roughly the same rate as when I go for shorter 4 minute rides to/from work without any special clothes/lights on. In fact, the only reason I wear the high-visibility stuff is for when I get out into the more rural areas after sunset.
I doubt you could get more people to switch to commuting by bike if you required them to take those extreme measures, and it certainly doesn't seem to help me in the city much.
[edit] A simple thing a motorist can do to improve the safety of cyclists is to open a door using the "Dutch reach"[1]. It pretty much necessitates looking to the left before/as you open your door, and makes the check easier too!
[1] https://www.dutchreach.org/
As someone who has come close to merging into a cyclist a few times - I'm sorry. I grew up in an area without bike lanes, and then moved to SF, so it wasn't a habit to check bike lanes before turning across them (mental process goes - I'm in the rightmost lane, I just need to look out for pedestrians and I can turn). On the upside - I got rid of my vehicle, so I'm no longer a terror to cyclists.