As a letter carrier, I've had a few near misses with speeding bikes on sidewalks-once a guy flew down a hill, narrowly missing me and clipping the teenager ahead of me! Thankfully the kid was more mad than hurt.

But yeah, you can absolutely get hit, and hurt, by a cyclist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pedestestrians are struck by cyclists. Usually the injuries are not serious enough to be reported. On rare occasions it proves to be fatal. A tragedy not to be dismissed out hand.

https://medium.com/vision-zero-cities-journal/the-myth-of-the-demon-biker-64cb24939cd6

I’ve never heard of any such thing. Sounds made up.

I knew a woman who was killed by a bicyclist at Farragut Square 3-4 years ago. He knocked her over and she hit her head. Three days later she died of a massive hemorrhage.

I’m totally pro-bike. But bicyclists have to be careful just like other vehicles.

Anonymous wrote:Pedestestrians are struck by cyclists. Usually the injuries are not serious enough to be reported. On rare occasions it proves to be fatal. A tragedy not to be dismissed out hand.

https://medium.com/vision-zero-cities-journal/the-myth-of-the-demon-biker-64cb24939cd6

I’ve never heard of any such thing. Sounds made up.

Pedestestrians are struck by cyclists. Usually the injuries are not serious enough to be reported. On rare occasions it proves to be fatal. A tragedy not to be dismissed out hand.

https://medium.com/vision-zero-cities-journal/the-myth-of-the-demon-biker-64cb24939cd6

No one has ever been “mowed down” by a bike. E-bike or otherwise. The entire article is trash.

Obnoxious article. I love my e-cargo bike. In a hilly area, it is definitely the difference between biking and driving for me. Using the throttle to get across busy streets from a dead stop is a literal lifesaver and the assist means I’m not totally wrecked mess after a ride. But I can (and do) turn off the assist when I’m somewhere flatter.

As for being mowed down by an ebike, I cannot imagine why that would be any more likely than being mowed down by any bike or scooter – electric or otherwise.

Bleh.

Ugh.

I’m so utterly disappointed in this trash article from the Atlantic.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/08/ebike-electric-bikes-climate-change-exercise/671305/

“Currently, e-bikes are trapped in the weird smear between pathetic, loser bicycles and pitiable, low-end motorbikes. Especially in America, where bike infrastructure is far less developed than in the small, flat nations of Northern Europe that cycling advocates like to exalt as a model, e-bikes have become kind of a nuisance. Walking the streets of New York City, it now feels just as likely that you might get mowed down by an e-bike as a taxicab. “

Jeez.

It’s such a mischaracterization and I’m surprised at the uneducated stance that was allowed to be published. I’ve been enjoying my e-cargo-bike for 3 years as my primary mode of transportation. I love my bike, and love carrying my kids and all my errand loads in it. It’s all-weather, except the most hottest and humid and most rainy of days.

It’s a perfect solution for when you have children and live in a hilly area. The electric assist is a game changer in a country where the infrastructure is not there yet. And it is only in America where cycling is only seen as a recreation sport and not a mode of transportation.

I have never in all my years living in my area even heard of someone getting mowed over by a bike, but I have heard about many serious and fatal injuries where a car mowed down a pedestrian in our local area. Way too many.