Cyclists errors that cause collisions--and how to avoid them

Ken Kifer's Bike Pages has a nice summary of the most common bicyclist errors--and how to avoid them.

The top errors:

1. They do not follow the traffic laws for vehicles when operating a bicycle. Instead,
a) they may use the traffic laws for pedestrians and thus ride on the sidewalks or the wrong way on the streets,
b) they may follow the traffic code for vehicles part of the time but not all of the time,
c) they may adopt a policy of hiding from motor vehicles rather than riding in the traffic lanes,
d) they may be guerilla cyclists deliberately breaking the law,
e) or they just might not think about how they are behaving.
2. They don't have lights mounted on their bikes when riding at night.
3. They ride along in the gutter or weave in and out between cars.
4. They don't pay attention to nearby vehicles.
5. They haven't learned how to control their bicycles effectively.
6. They panic when motor vehicles approach.
7. They don't keep the bike in sound mechanical condition.
8. They ride when too tired (or even drunk) to do so safely.

He explains:

Most collisions between bicycles and motor vehicles don't happen just by chance; instead, they are bought about by a misunderstanding of how traffic works. . . . On this page, I will 1) explain which cycling behaviors are unsafe, 2) provide diagrams to show various situations in which the cyclist endangers himself or herself, 3) explain what is happening in the diagram and why the behavior is unsafe, and 4) provide a safer alternative.

Read more and see the diagrams here.