As perhaps one of the most prolific electric bike reviewers on the internet, I spend a lot of time riding city streets and have occasionally wondered if this is the way I’ll go out one day. Yesterday, I nearly had the answer to that question as a police cruiser almost smeared me across three lanes of traffic.
It happened to occur while I was in the middle of filming a review of a Velotric Breeze 1 electric bike. With the rare opportunity of catching a moment like that on camera, it turned into a chance for me to take a second look at what I did right as well as what I might have done wrong to wind up in that situation.
And why keep that kind of analysis to myself? Come along with me while I Monday morning quarterback myself.
An uncomfortably close perspective on bike safety
As cyclists, we’re probably the most vulnerable road users out there. Out of necessity, that liability gives us a unique perspective – one that is even more well-rounded if you happen to also drive a car from time to time.
In fact, an hour before I got an uncomfortably close view of a police cruiser’s grille, I was driving my family’s borrowed minivan, and only an hour afterward, I was going 0 to 60 in three seconds on my LiveWire electric motorcycle, so I’d consider myself a fairly holistic road user.
When I’m riding my electric bicycles in the bike lane, especially the unprotected bike lanes that are merely a strip of paint laid down on the shoulder of a busy road, I’m constantly scanning for threats. As you can see in the video below, that gave me around 1-2 seconds of warning as I saw a police cruiser accelerating hard as he prepared to blow past a stop sign to cross three empty lanes of a major road. The only problem was that there was a fourth lane there – a bicycle lane – and it was very occupied, by me.
See what I mean in the video below.
What happened?
Basically, the police cruiser appeared to be in quite a rush. The officer didn’t have the lights or siren on, so I’m not sure if it was official, but the car was booking it. I first heard the engine winding up before even seeing the car, and it was obvious he wasn’t preparing to stop, despite the stop sign at the end of the crossroad.
As soon as I heard the engine and turned my head to clock the car’s trajectory, I was on the brakes. The Velotric Breeze 1 electric bike I was riding has what I can now confirm are excellent hydraulic brakes and I immediately started slowing down. A fraction of a second later, the cop appeared to see me panic braking and started his own panic braking, sliding his cruiser across the stop line and halfway through the pedestrian crosswalk lines.
Once I saw his brake dive and could see he was going to be able to stop in time, I let off my own brakes to continue down the bike lane and not dangerously slide to a stop myself. I had a few choice words but figured I’d be better advised not to confront the cop lest I get hit with some sort of “attempted to damage government property with his formerly intact femur” charge.
I understand that the video above might not look as intense as it felt, but let me assure you that seeing 5,000 pounds of police car skidding towards you on a bicycle will have you leaving your own skidmark of sorts.
What went right… and wrong?
It’s important to remember that this kind of thing happens to countless cyclists every single day. As a bike reviewer, I was merely lucky to have a 360º camera recording during it and the privilege of having a platform to share it on. So why not take the opportunity to make the most of this and learn something useful from the situation?
First of all, let’s look at what went wrong. While this is mostly the fault of the cop, I’m not off the hook here, either.
The main issue here is that the cop was driving recklessly on a side road and intending to blow a stop sign before cutting across three lanes of traffic onto a major road, all while obviously not watching very closely for traffic. Now if he had been responding to a call, that would have been one thing. Police officers aren’t beholden to certain traffic laws and are allowed to disregard things like speed limits and stop signs when responding to an emergency call. However, that’s exactly why they have sirens and lights, to alert other road users. In this case, the cop either wasn’t responding to a call or didn’t turn on his lights or sirens. The fact that he still didn’t turn on his lights or siren even after nearly pancaking me means he probably wasn’t responding to a call, and was just gunning it down a side street because he could.
The second issue is poor road design. Not only was the cop at a disadvantage due to the relatively tall shrubs and retail signs on the side street that could limit a driver’s view of oncoming traffic on the main road, but the bicycle lane I was using was the worst kind: just a strip of paint on the shoulder. There’s no protective border, no green paint as a reminder to drivers, and no clear visual separation at intersections where conflicts are most likely to occur. The cop should still be looking for road users, including cyclists, but the road design didn’t make that any easier.
The last issue, which is on me, is that I was wearing dark colors and not highly visible. Black shirt, dark pants, black helmet – nothing that jumps out and says “look at me.” Now, I’m not a fan of the argument that cyclists should wear high-vis clothing because it smacks of the same kind of victim-blaming thought process brought to you by the folks who use “sure, he shouldn’t have assaulted her behind that bar, but did you see what she was wearing?”. So I could have been more visible, and shoutout to Velotric for offering lots of bright bike colors, but I shouldn’t have to wear a bright yellow vest in order for drivers to not kill me.
Ok, now let’s look at what went right. First of all, I know that I always have to be aware of my surroundings when I’m on a bike. When I ride, I don’t wear headphones and I don’t talk on the phone. My eyes are always scanning and I’m always listening for threats. In this case, I was talking to the camera while filming a review, but you can see I’m still looking around during it and I immediately heard the cop car’s engine accelerating hard as he prepared to swing out onto the road. That meant I could get on the brakes before he even knew I was there. Fortunately, I didn’t have to test the following theory since he saw me at the last minute and also slammed on his brakes, but I believe I could have stopped just short of the side street with my full-on emergency braking. Again, props to Velotric for using good hydraulic brakes on the Breeze 1 e-bike. So that part went well – always be aware of your surroundings and never needlessly mute one of your important senses like sight or hearing.
Next, I was riding at appropriate speeds for the conditions. That bike can do 28 mph (45 km/h) easily, and I enjoy going that fast on long straightaways and in areas where conditions allow. But as you can see from the video, there’s a cross street or retail parking lot entrance just about every few seconds and there are simply too many chances for something like this to happen. I was doing closer to 15-20 mph in this area due to the high number of intersections, which meant that I had more time to react when I detected the threat. At full Class 3 speeds of 28 mph, there’s no way I would have been able to brake in time and I would have been completely reliant on the cop not running that stop sign. Don’t get me wrong, I love going fast and I do it often. But I also slow down when conditions suggest it, and today, that paid off.
And lastly, as I mentioned above, the bike I was riding is an eye-catching bright blue color. In fact, only a few minutes earlier, another cyclist stopped me to tell me how much he loved the color. I truly think that when the cop did finally see me, he probably saw the bright blue bike before he actually saw me. I’ve long advocated for brightly colored e-bikes, partly because of my disdain for suggesting that cyclists should be forced to wear bright-colored clothing for their own protection. Personally, I like fun and bright-colored e-bikes, but I also accept that they help make us more visible regardless of the outfit we choose to wear that day. I’ll also point out that I was also wearing a decent bicycle helmet with a properly adjusted chin strap. It’s been a while since I’ve actually put helmet to pavement, but in the couple of times I’ve crashed over the last decade or so, I’ve been glad it was there.
The moral of the story, if there is one, is that hypervigilance is important for cyclists, and even more important for drivers. If you operate a vehicle that exposes you to the risks of the road, you have to watch out for yourself. And if you operate a vehicle that exposes everyone else to the risk of your vehicle, then the responsibility sits even heavier upon you.
Even ignoring the fact that, in this case, it was the very people we expect to keep our roads safe that ultimately caused the greatest danger, all car drivers simply must do a better job watching for all road users, and that includes the most vulnerable, such as cyclists and motorcyclists.
And as vulnerable road users ourselves, those of us who opt for two wheels must remember that among the few people who actually read my previous sentence, almost none will heed it, and that means we are the only ones we can count on to truly protect ourselves.
Perhaps one day more cities will have better ways to physically separate cyclists from cars through the use of improved road infrastructure and protected cycling lanes. Until then, we’ll have to rely on our eyes, our ears, and our helmets.
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