All biking accidents that I've heard of involve cars.
In the city, the most dangerous things are driving next to parked cars (people open doors without looking) and crowded intersections (cars turn without looking).
On the country side, the most dangerous thing are cars passing cyclists without sufficient distance. Drivers are really bad at estimating the distance of their side mirror to cyclists.
Anyway, that's anectotal evidence from the handful of serious accidents that people I know had. Personally I've been lucky so far.
>In the city, the most dangerous things are driving next to parked cars (people open doors without looking) and crowded intersections (cars turn without looking).
fucking hell, I remember I was cycling to the gym in London.. CS2 on whitechapel road going west from Bow to Queen Mary university (uni gym) and as I'm cycling, in the cycle lane, with my lights on.. some lads open the rear door of their Mercedes just in time for me to crash into the edge of it.
traffic was stalled so it's not like just he was stopped.. that hurt.. please look when you open your doors drivers.
I used to work with someone in London who was on a motorcycle just as a cabbie opened his door right into the road right in front of him. According to witnesses (he has no recollection of this himself), he flew over the door, went head first into the road, stood up and started yelling abuse at the cabbie, and then promptly fell unconscious and collapsed. He got away without any serious injury thankfully.
Cycles are scary enough for me here - I don't know how anyone dare ride motorcycles in London.
I agree that doors of parked cars in cities may be a frequent and painful source of cycling accidents. They are not, however, the most dangerous.
The most dangerous source of accidents for cyclists in cities is from passing turning HGVs (trucks) on the inside. The majority of cycling fatalities in London are caused this way every year.
Fortunately these accidents are avoidable through education of both cyclists and drivers, which is more important than wearing a helmet.
In the city, the most dangerous things are driving next to parked cars (people open doors without looking) and crowded intersections (cars turn without looking).
On the country side, the most dangerous thing are cars passing cyclists without sufficient distance. Drivers are really bad at estimating the distance of their side mirror to cyclists.
Anyway, that's anectotal evidence from the handful of serious accidents that people I know had. Personally I've been lucky so far.