New York cyclist dies - Woody Allen blamed for the lack of cycle lane

I've often speculated that it may be because the vast majority of HGV drivers are men who are more likely to overlook female cyclists as in the subconscious they don't ring alarm bells as a potential threat/challenge/adversary whereas a male does, so they're more likely to register the presence of a male than a female.

Interesting point. 

I wondered if it was because men are more likely to have worked in heavy industry and have been around lorries at work. Given that London seems to be the place this happens most I'm probably wrong as I'm guessing the majority of cyclists in London rush hour traffic would be students, office workers and shop workers.

Definitely London doesn't have so many brexthick drivers. Less gammon = less ignorance on the road. 

Seems a bit tenuous.

It's arguably to do with discipline. There is a suggestion that women obey the rules more and therefore put themselves in vunerable positions - I.e. waiting at the lights alongside a vehicle that in which the driver has restricted vision. Whereas a male cyclist will go through the stop light - and thus away from potential risk. Its a theory. 

I'm not sure many of the HGV-driving killers of cyclists notice that there even is a cyclist until it's too late, never mind which sex they are. 

Brauchsel wrote:

I'm not sure many of the HGV-driving killers of cyclists notice that there even is a cyclist until it's too late, never mind which sex they are. 

That's entirely possible, but then if they don't notice any cyclists we are still left with the question of why it is so often women who are their victims.

I think brumsadump is getting there, and it might have something to do with "obeying the law", I reckon that a societal myth has built up that it's the lawbreaking male cyclists that get themselves killed and it's their own fault (as we all know, absolute nonsense), you know, going through red lights and foolishly going up the inside of turning HGVs.

And I think that these women are riding completely within the law so expect to be respected and to be safe.  So they don't ride up the inside of HGVs, but of course they are overtaken by them, the drivers deliberately putting the cyclist in their huge blind spots, the driver instantly forgetting about the cyclist and running them over.

It's a little bit sexist but it's my take on it, and it might go some way  to explains why women are more likely to be the victims of huge lorries and trucks, given their proportion within cyclists.

So they don't ride up the inside of HGVs, but of course they are overtaken by them, the drivers deliberately putting the cyclist in their huge blind spots, the driver instantly forgetting about the cyclist and running them over

This is how you end up on 'the inside' of large vehicles, seeing the notices on the back 'warning' cyclists, and knowing that the sniggering b*****d Lancashire police just eject any reports from cyclists straight into the bin with no response and no thought of any action. I certainly won't be sympathetic about the highly unlikely event of any Lancashire police officer being hit while out cycling- or, to put it another way, I'll be exactly as sympathetic as the police are to cyclists

I read Streetsblog and the Gothamist from time to time, and a lot of times you get a story where a cyclist or a pedestrian has been killed by a HGV and it turns out that the truck should not even have been on that street. A lot of streets in New York are apparently flagged as ones that HGVs and buses aren't allowed on.  And yet that never becomes part of the prosecution (when they even bother with prosecution: the NYPD has form for releasing extremely victim-blaming statements and attempting to close the file before they've done any investigation. CSI:NY it is not...

The US has a very poor record for road safety. Around 4x as many people are killed/head of population in road crashes in the US than in the UK. New York actually has one of the best safety records for road safety in the US. Drink driving and speeding are real problems in the US and actually got worse during the lockdown period when there were fewer vehicles on the road, so pedestrian and cyclist fatalities actually increased.

There are lots of reasons for this poor safety, but poor driver training, a lack of regular safety checks on vehicles in many states and poor enforcement of laws on speeding and drink/drug driving are all big factors.

Florida and North and South Carolina are amongst the worst states for road deaths. As I recall, North Carolina has a population of around 10.5 million, compared with 65 or so million for the UK. But in 2020 I think over 1,700 people died in road crashes in NC, compared with over 1,500 FOR THE WHOLE OF THE UK. Those statistics are pretty horrific.