Editorial: I Got Hit By a Car and All I Got Was a Renewed Sense of Purpose

So yeah, I got hit by a car last night. It wasn’t serious, I wasn’t hurt, and I don’t think there was any serious damage to my bike (30 lbs. of British steel, they don’t build ‘em like they used to). I was crossing a quiet residential intersection two blocks from my house, on the way out to meet a friend.  I was fully lighted, the intersection was well lighted, and I had the right of way.

The driver who hit me had not even reached his stop line when I entered the intersection. I was ¾ of the way across the driver’s line of sight when I realized that he was not fully stopping. I yelled and pushed hard to get out from in front of him, but he clipped my rear wheel. The bike went down, but I was able to step off and stay on my feet.

As I stumbled to keep from falling, the driver crept through the intersection, looking back directly at me. Once he realized I was still standing (not broken or bleeding on the pavement), he accelerated and left the scene. Fully aware of the futility of doing so, I shouted at the disappearing car: “What the f*ck? That’s a hit and run!” as loud as I could. It all happened in about five seconds. I didn’t even get a plate number or a useable description of the car.

I shouldered my disabled bike and walked the two blocks back to my house. My heart was pounding; I felt shaky. This was the first time I’ve ever been hit by anything. I walked in the door and told my wife, “I just got hit by a car.” Maybe that was a little dramatic, but it was true.

Later, I tried to figure out what I might have done differently. I might have evaluated the intangibles of the drivers’ demeanor better as he approached the stop sign. I might have yielded the right of way. I might have tried harder to make sure of eye contact before I assumed the driver would see me. I might have done all of those things, but I was within my rights to cross when I did, and it was the driver’s inattention that caused him to hit the lighted, legal vehicle in front of him.

A lot of debate occurs within the bicycling community about safety, and most of it centers on what bicyclists can do to be safe. I’m a huge advocate of not taking chances on a bicycle, especially when riding in an urban environment. I’m about the most conservative, safety-conscious bicyclist I can imagine. And yet, it took just one inattentive driver to knock me down and then drive away as though nothing happened. Five seconds was all it took. Everything I could do to be safe disappeared in five seconds.

Until our society begins to yield some of the privileges it affords to automobile travel, those of us who travel by bicycle will continue to be among the most vulnerable road users. We can do everything right, and we can still get hit by a car. We need infrastructure that is designed for multiple road users traveling by different means. We need as much as we can get, and we need it as soon as possible. We need better public education and outreach. We need to create awareness that there are other vehicles on the road, other people to watch for, than simply those in cars.

I’m not just pumping through an adrenaline-fueled rant. I’m not angry and I’m not scared. I’m writing this well after getting hit, and I felt this way long before. I’m writing this because in the five seconds it took for that car to hit me and drive off, I also realized that I’m more determined than ever to change the way our auto-centric city and our auto-obsessed culture view the rights of other road users. I have no doubt that the driver who hit me thought, “oh, it was just a guy on a bike, and he’s still standing, so I’m off the hook.” I’d like to see a world in which more people will consider the human factor as they move through their world by whatever means they choose. It’s not about bicycles, automobiles, or pedestrians, it’s about quality of life, humanity, and creating the kind of society we want to be a part of.