Please be careful with this.person in Bear Branch

NightSG: Bikers have every right to be on the road; I never argued otherwise and think it is fantastic to bike where you want to go.  But if I have the option while biking of a greenbelt to a school, or Tree Lane / KW Drive, I take the greenbelt.  I've seen firsthand what a car does to a biking child though, so that is where I am coming from.  4951

NightSG:  You just signed on here 2 hours ago.... and you are already trying to start fights... WHY??? 4951

NightSG: Bike Helmets DO save lives and injury.... A few facts belowthey have also saved lives during a tornado!!!)Statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway SafetyFatality Facts: Bicycles - 2014Posted February 2016Each year about 2 percent of motor vehicle crash deaths are bicyclists. In a majority of bicyclist deaths, the most serious injuries are to the head, highlighting the importance of wearing a bicycle helmet. 1 Helmet use has been estimated to reduce the odds of head injury by 50 percent, and the odds of head, face, or neck injury by 33 percent. 4951

buffaloglenn: I've seen firsthand what an express bus does to a Cadillac and all four of its occupants.  If it hadn't been for the buckled seatbelts, EMS would have had to start inventorying parts to figure out how many people had been inside.  So if we're down to gross tonnage, better stay off all the roads, regardless of your choice of vehicle. 4951

Traveler500: Look at the wording: "estimated" is a fancy word for "guessed."  Plus they really call BS on their own guesses by trying to claim that a bicycle helmet would have any effect on face injuries, or any positive effect on neck injuries, when it does nothing to protect the face or neck, and provides additional leverage to wrench the neck.Styrofoam hats are a handy place to put an extra light, mirror or camera.  They do come in handy off road for tree branches, but so few of them are even capable of being fitted properly that except for the rare case of going straight over the bars, they're pretty much useless in a wreck. 4951

NightSG:  Estimate is used because not ALL bike accidents are reported.  They can't state as FACT when they can't be sure of ALL.  But 50% def increases your odds!  I do agree they must be fitted properly!!  I can't believe you don't think bike helmets are important?!?! They are designed to help save lives and injury . 4951

You mean the way people just cruise right through green lights at speed assuming the cross traffic will yield only because it's required to by law?  The way people blast down the highway without looking to see if anyone entering from a driveway is going to fail to stop, just because there's a law that says they should?  I've lost a family member, a girlfriend and two close friends to just those situations, but I don't blame them for not stopping to check cross traffic when they had clear right of way, one on a 75mph US highway where it would be impossible to exceed 30mph if one slowed sufficiently to check every driveway entering the highway.. 4951

NightSG:  When Entering OR Exiting a highway you are required to YIELD by law!!!(at least in Texas!!)    4951

[quote-tag-mismatch]Estimate is used because not ALL bike accidents are reported.  They can't state as FACT when they can't be sure of ALL.[quote-end-tag-mismatch]You think all car accidents are reported?  Yet I only see "estimated" in those numbers when they're guessing how many are caused by texting, shaving, and other untracked causes.[quote-end-tag-mismatch]But 50% def increases your odds![quote-end-tag-mismatch]It might, if it wasn't a made up number.  To even get close to that number, they treat every accident in which a rider was wearing a helmet as if it would have been a serious head injury without the helmet.  I've had four incidents resulting in what Texas would consider "serious bodily injury" in the last ten years, and was wearing a helmet in three of those.  My head never hit anything in any of the four; I still have that helmet and the only scuff on it is from dropping it on a rock at a trailhead.On the other side of that, every news story about a cyclist being crushed under the wheels of a truck will mention quite prominently if that cyclist wasn't wearing a helmet, as if it could have prevented fatal injuries to the rest of the body.[quote-tag-mismatch]They are designed to help save lives and injury .[quote-end-tag-mismatch]They are designed to make people feel like they're doing something about a perceived risk.  Actually doing something to prevent cyclists from getting hit in the first place, like proper driver education and enforcement of the light and reflector requirements for bicycles at night would be too much effort and expense, so the feel-good measure that passes the expense to the cyclist is the one that gets picked. 4951

Traveler500: Not a universal rule; consider the access roads of a freeway, where traffic entering the roadway from a ramp often has right of way over traffic already in the access road.  There are similar cases on other roadways, but that's the most common one that most drivers have seen. (And ignored, most likely.)In this case, she would be entering from a crosswalk, where traffic in the crosswalk has right of way over the street traffic. 4951

NightSG:  As you can see by the photo posted above by teatime: our greenbelts are clearly marked: STOP Yes,Cars must yield,,, but they  must be given the CHANCE to yield... our streets do not mark where a greenbelt is coming up...  but not a bad idea. Many streets out here warn you when a stop sign is coming up... because of all the foliage they can be hard to see until the last second. 4951

Traveler500: At least some of them have the large yellow pedestrian crossing diamond signs, though especially near a school the white "YIELD TO CROSSWALK" signs wouldn't be a bad idea.However, if you ever want to get nervous behind the wheel, start reading up on what constitutes an unmarked crosswalk in Texas; it's not specifically defined in the Transportation Code, but reverting to common definitions, it's at any highway (using the state's definition here; any public way, including bikeways, city streets, and some alleys is a highway) intersection.  So that city street that crosses the 75mph US highway with a two-way stop has an unmarked crosswalk that is legally the same as if it had zebra crossing stripes and signs.IOW, more drivers need to get it through their heads that they're operating a guided missile and act accordingly rather than treating it like a video game where their score depends on getting to the destination without a single "wasted" second. 4951

NightSG: If the trailer is pushed over, the children's head will hit the pavement. If the mother is hit, her head will hit the pavement. Just ask the parents of the young man who fell while skateboarding. Why risk it???? 4951