Houston Accident Attorney Steve Lee has been providing real legal help for injury victims all over the Houston area. This means that he specifically helps those who have been injured in car accidents or truck accidents due to no fault of their own. If you or a loved one has been hurt due to the actions of another driver, contact Steve Lee for a free legal consultation today.

Bicycles and Cars Do Not Mix

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Houston Accident Attorney Steve Lee has been providing real legal help for injury victims all over the Houston area. This means that he specifically helps those who have been injured in car accidents or truck accidents due to no fault of their own. If you or a loved one has been hurt due to the actions of another driver, contact Steve Lee for a free legal consultation today.

When people think about Texas in general or Houston in particular, they don’t really think about bicycles. This is rather strange when you consider that Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven times, was born in Plano and wears his Texas roots with pride.

With Texas being as big as it is, and specifically with Houston being as big as it is, people don’t imagine that there are thousands of bicyclists on our roads every day, but there certainly are. Even though gas prices are lower now, there is certainly a possibility of them going up again. And with high gas prices and expensive commutes, more and more people find it financially practical to use bikes to get to work, or to the grocery store, or to school.

The problem with riding a bicycle as your primary form of transportation, or even riding one at all, is that people on bicycles are completely unprotected when it comes to accidents. While drivers and passengers in cars can count on crumple zones, seatbelts, airbags and countless other protective devices, a bicyclist can only count on a helmet and the caution of other drivers.

Here are a few mistakes that bicyclists make on a regular basis that routinely make bicycling much more dangerous than it has to be.

Running Stoplights and Signs: A good rule of thumb is that what is good for a car driver is certainly good for a bicyclist. Running a stop sign or a red light is a good way to get yourself hit no matter what sort of vehicle you happen to be in or on.

Riding Against Traffic: This is, to put it bluntly, insane. And that goes double if you happen to be on a bike. A bicyclist has no business pedaling towards oncoming traffic under any circumstances.

Riding With No Reflectors or Lights: Cars and motorcycles have the benefit of headlights and tail lights built right in. Bicycles do not. If you don’t have reflectors on your bike or on your body and you are out riding at night, the average car driver will not be able to see you until well after it is too late.

Making Sudden Left Turns: Making a turn to the left from the right side of the road is a daunting enough task even if you are driving in a car. Making this turn on a bike requires real patience and very safe bicycling habits. Don’t ever just cut across the lanes of traffic without signaling or looking.

Riding Close to the Curb: This is never a good idea. Nothing can cause you to fly face down on the pavement faster than banging your tire against the side of the curb. Either stay in the center of your lane or stay as far away from the curb as you possibly can.

Riding on the Sidewalk: This is especially dangerous when you are in an area where the sidewalks are interspersed with driveways. A car backing out on to the street is a fairly common cause of bicyclists getting injured.

No Hand Signals: Since you don’t have blinkers, hand signals are pretty much all you have. Not letting people behind you know that you are going to turn is extremely dangerous.

Not Wearing a Helmet: Even though being hit by a car when you are on a bike is almost a guarantee of an injury, biking while not wearing a helmet is almost a guarantee of serious brain damage or worse. Broken bones can heal, and so can cuts and scrapes, but damage to the brain is often times irreparable. If you are on a bike, wear a helmet with no exceptions.

If you have done everything right and followed all the rules, yet still got hit by a car while you were safely and responsibly riding your bike in the Houston area, contact attorney Steve Lee for a free legal consultation today.

©2009 Steven M. Lee, PC, All Rights Reserved, Reproduced with Permission
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