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Commuting by Bike — Worth the Risk?
A local cyclist talks about how she stays safe on the road, in the wake of several serious accidents.
Somerville resident Amanda King, 32, bikes 16 miles roundtrip to work in Waltham, on average three times a week during the summer. While she knows the risks of riding the roads, taking safety precautions and not being complacent is how she says she stays safe.
“When I first started biking, I thought, how can I possibly bike on the road — I’m going to get killed,” she said. “Now, I’m not as worried about it, but that doesn’t mean I’m not very wise to the dangers.”
When it comes to safety, King rides her bike wearing a helmet and fluorescent-colored vest. She mounts blinking lights on her helmet and the front and back of her bike. She “signals like a lunatic” to drivers, never runs red lights and stays as far to the right as possible, she said.
“I wear the most ridiculous outfit,” King said. “You couldn’t find more flashing lights.”
Fatal wrecks
Whether cyclists take such precautions or not, accidents between cars and bikes can — and do — still occur. In Weston last Monday, a biker was hit when a driver pulling onto a main road did not yield. The woman landed on the hood of the car and broke her wrist.
Two serious accidents —one fatal — have also happened in recent days. In Wellesley, Alexander Motsenigos, 41, was struck by a car and killed Aug. 24 while biking along Weston Road. And a 12-year-old Foxborough boy was seriously injured on Aug. 27 while biking when a landscaping truck hit him.
Boston had a fatal wreck on Huntington Avenue in June when an MBTA bus apparently collided with biker Kelsey Rennebohm. Cyclists know the stretch as one of the city's most dangerous — but it's also one of the most convenient ways to traverse Boston.
A Close Call
King, who has worked at Bentley University in Waltham since 2009 and is director of sustainability and a special adviser to the president, said she’s had just one close call while biking her route to work. That was along the Minuteman Bikeway and Rte. 60 and Trapelo Road in Belmont.
One pitch-black November night, a car pulled out of side street in Belmont, and King said she had to brake hard to avoid colliding with the car.
“I always look to see if I can see drivers’ faces,” King said. “I looked him in the face, but he went anyways. A car going the other way honked and he stopped.”
King says she had been trying to keep on commuting by bike into the fall, but had pushed it too far. She now stops biking when the days go dark during her evening commute.
When King heard about the fatality in Wellesley, she said she thought it looked as though the driver who hit Motsenigos wasn’t paying attention. Police have interviewed the driver, but no charges have been filed. The incident remains under investigation.
“It’s sad,” King said.
But King will continue her commute by bike into the waning days of summer. For her, biking to work provides both physical and environmental rewards, through exercise and a reduction in carbon emissions from her car. Safety, however, is always at the forefront, she said.
“So far so good — I’ve been fine,” she said. “I’m not concerned about it, but I’m not complacent. I don’t take risks.”
Bikers: does hearing about serious accidents change your riding habits? What do you do to stay safe? Tell us in the comments.
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David M.
9:50 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Thank you for providing the useful story with many good ideas. As a bike commuter for many years myself, I can agree with most all of what King is suggesting. And her last point about respecting the dark is very important. I have lived and biked in New York City, and now I live in JP and bike around the Boston area and Cambridge. New York is a very good city to bike in for the reason that the "the city that never sleeps" as an abundance of street lights, such that biking after dark is not that much different than during the day. In Boston, many of the prime bike paths are not lit, and also they are along highways (Memorial Drive, eg) which are lit mainly by headlights -- the worst lighting for bikers as its blinding and often in the wrong place for seeing the road. And, as noted, the transition from the under lit suburbs to the busy city provides a host of challenges. Finally, clearly the most dangerous time of the year is November and December when we go into Standard Time and get sunsets at 4:20 in the afternoon, so if you need to commute after getting out around 5 you have to contend with dark streets with tired and aggressive drivers. But with small and smart adjustments, biking during the late fall can be just as safe: festoon yourself with lights and try to bike home LATER when the road calm down a bit.
Good luck and safe riding.