A TreeHugger post confirms the importance of Side Visibility for cyclists, stating that 60% of accidents between bikes are cars are due to broadside impact alone (and broadside is only one of several accident types that can be considered “Side Visibility” types). This is consistent with what we’ve been saying about Side Visibility all along. Every rider has to make their own decision about safety — whether to wear a helmet and what type of lighting to use. But this evidence definitely supports the Side Visibility.
In fact, what they call a “broadside is far more common. They are defined as ” any crash when a bicyclist hits or is hit by a car on a perpendicular road.” Yokota at Cyclelicious clarifies it as “That’s when a motorist goes straight through an intersection even when there’s a bike right in front of him” 60.5% of the accidents were caused that way, compared to only 13% by the right hook.
I enjoyed seeing their black and white drawings of intersections, similar to the ones I made in SketchUp 4 years ago to show the Side Visibility benefit of the Down Low Glow :
Check out an excerpt from a recent Down Low Glow testimonial on the topic of Side Visibility:
I have had many situations where a car has come to an intersection where they had a stop sign and I did not, at least half a block ahead of me, with no other traffic on the road to prevent the car from pulling out, and they waited for me to pass. This situation has happened many times since installing the Down Low Glow.