In this crash type, the motorist pulls out of a driveway or alleyway and fails to yield to a bicyclist riding along the roadway or sidewalk. The overwhelming majority of collisions occur in the first half of the roadway and two-thirds involve a bicyclist who is riding the wrong way against traffic (41 percent on the sidewalk and 26 percent on the roadway).
In crashes where motorists are pulling out of alleys or driveways, the biggest issue is the problem of wrong-way bicycle riders. Motorists are not detecting bicyclists who are riding the wrong way against traffic either on the sidewalk or on the roadway. However, motorists should be looking both ways to check for pedestrians - so it's not appropriate to blame the cyclist entirely!
In addition, the visibility of bicyclists either in the roadway or on the sidewalk may be obscured by buildings, parked cars, trees and shrubs, signal control boxes, sign posts and a host of other things that can be found on the sidewalk or edge of the roadway.
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