Ride with or against traffic flow? Which is safer and why?

[Master-Yoda]

I have seen this happen, person coming down that same hill head on into idiot on wrong side of road, idiot gets knocked off into road and hit by a car. You do the math.

Indeed, imagine the odds..

[Nuss]

Indeed, imagine the odds..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjI8AxZnrx8

 

Why does the man pause before the lightning hits?

[Pure Savage]

Indeed, imagine the odds..

 

 

Would never have happened if he had stayed at home, or the person was not, cycling on wrong side of road.

 

 

 

 

[Orbit]

Didn't we discuss this the other day? You have nothing to stand on in court if you are hit cycling the wrong way... Surely this trumps anything else?

[Master-Yoda]

Would never have happened if he had stayed at home, or the person was not, cycling on wrong side of road.

Of course it could have happened, ever heard of houses being hit by lighting? Maybe it's because the house was built on the wrong side of the road...

You gotta love sarcasm!

[S Ribic]

I know it's no fun really and a bit of a hassle but why not just stay off the road and use pavements? Then you just have pedestrians to keep an eye out for rather than vehicle's.

[Master-Yoda]

I know it's no fun really and a bit of a hassle but why not just stay off the road and use pavements? Then you just have pedestrians to keep an eye out for rather than vehicle's.

If only we had that option.., we mostly ride through sugar cane farms and sometimes need to get onto a road to either head back to the lbs (where we all start our ride from) or simply to cross the road to hit another trail. The only option is to be on the road..

[HaydenWilson]

If only we had that option.., we mostly ride through sugar cane farms and sometimes need to get onto a road to either head back to the lbs (where we all start our ride from) or simply to cross the road to hit another trail. The only option is to be on the road..

 

Ah! solution is easy then!

 

build more trails! then you will never need to be on the road except to maybe cross it.

[dirtrider]

Didn't we discuss this the other day? You have nothing to stand on in court if you are hit cycling the wrong way... Surely this trumps anything else?

 

Just remind me again please . So what have you got to stand on in our courts to start off with ? Therefor I always cycle on the wrong side of the road ,but mostly on the pavemunt .

[Skylark]

 

Convenient, no. It's called adding information so that others may better understand my perspective, certainly not "convenient". Reply #36 of the following link which I posted a few weeks ago clears shows that we have mountain bikes and not road bikes; https://community.bikehub.co.za/topic/132266-rant-thule-salesman/page__st__32

 

BTW, I've been making a living off the net for over 15 years now and have in the past moderated more than a handful of public forums. Don't be naive and assume just because someone is newly registered and only has a few posts that he/she is a complete newbie because you'd be wrong. Rofl.., what assumptions people make these days..

 

Huh?? Were you the mod on an OCD forum? Be honest with us!?

[Joe Low]

Anything that increases unpredictability on the roads is going to cause more accidents imo.

 

Cyclists going against traffic fits into this category.

 

More than that, if i had to constantly look at the danger facing me, rather than risk being hit anonymously from behind, I'd cycle even less on the roads than i do now,.

[ruib]

There was a head on with bicycles here in Potch a few year ago, both cylists(commuters) dead.One on the left and the other on the right sides of the road.

[Falco]

Hitting a oncoming cyclist at 60Km/h is gonna be sore as hell but I'll take that any day over being hit by a car from behind even if it's doing less than 60Km/h

 

The mind boggles at this statement. It is made more out of bravado, than common sense.

 

Descending at 60km/h, and hitting another cyclist head on, is not likely to be "sore as hell", as you put it.

 

It is highly likely to result in a fatality.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Convenient, no. It's called adding information so that others may better understand my perspective, certainly not "convenient". Reply #36 of the following link which I posted a few weeks ago clears shows that we have mountain bikes and not road bikes; http://www.thehubsa....an/page__st__32

 

BTW, I've been making a living off the net for over 15 years now and have in the past moderated more than a handful of public forums. Don't be naive and assume just because someone is newly registered and only has a few posts that he/she is a complete newbie because you'd be wrong. Rofl.., what assumptions people make these days..

 

Dude, it was VERY convenient of you to post it where you did. In future, post it in your OP as background info, a little context, if you will. Nobody here knows you, and by extension, nobody here would have remembered your post from "a few weeks back" on a different thread. To use that as a reference point and to infer that all people responding to this thread should by definition KNOW this piece of information, is, frankly, amazingly naive not to mention stupid.

 

Further - you are asking people who ride bicycles themselves, and left out a crucial piece of information in your attempt to elicit a response from said group. The information concerned is pivotal in determining not only where you cycle "against traffic" (ie: on the pavement / hard shoulder - OFF the road) but also why you are doing it.

 

Even further - you are attempting to justify your illegal actions by asking others opinions on whether it is "safe" or not.

 

The short answer is, no - it is not safe. Just as it is not safe to ride a scooter or moto against traffic, whilst on the road. Further to that, it is illegal, as we (cyclists) are classified as vehicles. Vehicles are required to follow the law of the road in its entirety. That includes the allowance to ride in the yellow lane on a single carriageway road when there are faster vehicles passing you by.

 

It is also unsafe for various other reasons, as highlighted previously by other posters. These include:

 

- inability to pass other law abiding cyclists / pedestrians except by forcing them / you further into te face of oncoming traffic

- rendering yourself invisible to drivers who are turning into side-roads, or entering main / side roads from a stop street / yield sign (they do not expect you to be there therefore do not look for you)

- effect of a moving car in times of collission (additive effect given that the 2 vehicles have an inherently different mass)

- IT IS ILLEGAL.

 

Now, please - stop your trolling and carry on your crusade in your own time, please. Despite professing that you "moderated" numerous forums in your time, you cease to realise that it is you, yourself, that is causign trouble by attempting to justify a transgression of the law of the road. Thereby further endangering us, as cyclists, and further damaging our reputation with fellow road users.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

But then again it's Friday Fight club, and I'm in for a moering session...

[Butterbean]

Ok ok...

 

So, hypothetically, is it safer to stab someone or shoot them?

 

Its illegal, I know, but that's not the point of the argument... It's just that I have a really annoying neighbor and don't want to risk am injury when I have to keep them quiet.

 

I ride a road bike. But you should know that when I posted a picture of it 5 months ago on a short lived thread...