Bicycle safety on KMBC news

A recent KMBC did a good job of summarizing a couple of important bicycle safety points:

Truck blind spot

Tonight bicycle advocates are asking everyone to be more careful.

[Bicyclist James Joerke said that] Friday morning a driver passed him, then put on the brakes and turned right in front of him.

"So then I had to quickly brake to avoid hitting the car," Joerke said.

According to the Missouri Bicycle Federation, one of the most common car-bike collisions is when a driver turns right in front of a bicyclist, because many drivers can't estimate a cyclist's speed.

"A bicycle in city traffic is moving at almost the speed of the motorist. Especially if the motorist is slowing down to make a turn--now the bicycle is going faster than the motorist," said Brent Hugh with Missouri Bicycle Federation.

Hugh said another danger for bicyclists are big rigs that swerve in order to turn. Bikers who end up in the truck's blind spot can be killed.

Twice this summer, two bicyclists in the metro area have died in crashes with big trucks, Chapman reported. . . .

Joerke said he's seeing more bicyclists on the road, probably as a result of high gas prices. He said some of the cyclists aren't used to riding in traffic, which can be dangerous.

See MoBikeFed's summary of safely bicycling with heavy trucks here. Two experienced bicyclists have been killed by heavy trucks this summer in the Kansas City area--so it is definitely an issue to be aware of.

New bicyclists can educate themselves about safe bicycling practices by reading the material on MoBikeFed's safety and skills page and taking one of the BikeLeague's BikeEd classes offered in Missouri.