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Anatomy of a close call

There probably isn’t a driver that hasn’t experienced at least one close call while driving, assuming he or she has been driving for at least a year. I recently had one and I want to elaborate on how it took place, as I see violations of the root cause daily. The violation? Illegally riding a bicycle on the wrong side of the road, facing traffic, rather than riding on the right side of the road with traffic.

The location of the incident was on West Main St. Road (U.S. Route 11) in the town of Malone, along the stretch where the posted speed limit is 35 mph. I was exiting a local business on the south side of the highway, intending to turn right and head for downtown Malone. Because I was exiting with a right turn, I was carefully observing vehicles coming from my left, looking for a break in traffic so I could enter the road. Any traffic coming from my right would be on the far side of the road, or so I thought.

Just as I was starting to exit the business, along came a bicyclist from my right, riding on the wrong side of the road. I saw him just in time, and he continued merrily on his way. It turns out he was riding an e-bike, a bicycle with a battery assist. They are becoming quite popular.

Note the accompanying diagram. Bicyclist “A” is riding correctly, with traffic, and is of no concern to the driver of the car turning right, who is only concerned with traffic coming from his or her left.

However, bicyclist “B” is riding illegally, facing traffic rather than riding with it. Because the driver of the car is not expecting any traffic coming from the right, the potential for a collision with the cyclist is imminent.

There is another important reason for riding with traffic rather than against it, and that relates to closing speeds. For example, if you are riding your bike at 15 mph and a car is coming up behind you at 35 mph, the closing speed is 20 mph. In the same scenario, if you are riding illegally on the wrong side of the road, the closing speed is 50 mph. The bicycle rider stands a far better chance of surviving a crash or less severe injuries the lower the closing speed.

One last comment on my incident with the rider of the e-bike. As I mentioned, the speed limit where the close call occurred is 35 mph. By law, anyone riding an e-bike is not allowed on any street, road, or highway where the posted speed limit is greater than 30 mph.

I covered the laws for e-bikes in a previous Did You Know column, but that was about three years ago. Now, with the increase in popularity of e-bikes and the frequent violations I see, next week’s column will review the applicable laws again.

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