Atlanta Bicycle Accident Lawyer

bicycle accident lawyer

Atlanta Bicycle Accident Lawyer

Riding a bicycle is a fun and efficient way to get around Atlanta. The commute in our city is one of the most expensive in the United States, calculated by factors like vehicle costs, gas, and the amount of time spent in traffic. That’s why bike riding is a more cost-effective and economical way to work or get around the city.

The Atlanta Transportation Plan aims to increase the number of people using public transit and bicycles to commute from 17% to at least 35% in the coming years. Atlanta has the infrastructure to support increased cyclists on the road, but vehicles need to respect bikers and share the road. Unfortunately, collisions still happen. An Atlanta bicycle accident lawyer can help you recover when the collision wasn’t your fault and caused injuries and other damages to you and your bike.

At Bey & Associates, our experienced bicycle accident lawyer is here to represent you through your legal claim and ensure that you get the justice you deserve. We’ll thoroughly investigate the cause of your bicycle accident to determine who was at fault and who should be held accountable for your injuries. That way, we can recover financial compensation for the costs you incurred.

Safe Spots to Bike in Atlanta

Our city has bike lanes and other features to make riding a bike through the streets more accessible and safer. In 2018, Atlanta was named a bicycle-friendly community by The League of American Bicyclists, meaning we met the criteria for ridership, safety, education, enforcement, and other factors. This rating is good, and the city plans to improve cyclists’ safety in Atlanta even further.

To help make it easier to find the most accessible and safest biking routes in the city, the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition created a map. The map here codes the most accessible roads for biking in blue, medium-difficult roads in yellow, and the most challenging routes to bike in orange. Here are the qualifications for the streets with the lowest difficulty to bike:

  • Alternates to main roads.
  • Slow-speed traffic.
  • Low traffic volumes.
  • Wide lanes, bikeable shoulders, and visible bike lanes.
  • Few merge lanes, right turn lanes, commercial driveways, or on-street parking.

The streets with higher difficulty ratings are also based on the qualifications but have increasing speeds of traffic, higher traffic volumes, smaller shoulders, and more lanes that could become hazards for bikers. That’s why it’s essential to plan your route before biking to your destination—you can use resources like this map to choose the safest and least difficult roads to bike on so you are comfortable commuting.

When a car doesn’t follow the rules of the road and collides with you on your bike, you could use the help of a lawyer from our firm. We’ll support you through the legal process and help you get justice. Reach out to one of our bicycle accident lawyer and get the compensation that you deserve”

Atlanta Bike Accident Facts

Even though there are safe areas and bike lanes in the city, some cyclists still feel unsafe while biking around Atlanta. According to the Atlanta Transportation Plan (ATP) mentioned above, 65% of bicyclists feel unsafe sharing the road with traffic because of the speed of the vehicles. Just because cyclists have safer areas to ride doesn’t mean that the drivers of cars are paying attention to or respecting them.

The city has over 1,500 miles of roadways, and most fatal bicycle accidents happened on only six percent of those roads. Some parts of the city that are most dangerous for cyclists in Atlanta are the Westside, Downtown, Midtown, Decatur Street, and DeKalb Avenue, as they have the highest number of crash events between vehicles and bicyclists.

The ATP identifies these streets and areas as the most dangerous for cyclists, which are all part of the High Injury Network. According to the report, the High Injury Network contains the streets where most fatal and injury-causing accidents occur, as well as where there are higher concentrations of vulnerable street users, like pedestrians and bicyclists.

One of the main factors that includes an area in the High Injury Network is whether or not the area is served by public transportation. Without easy access to public transit, people are more likely to walk or bike, which increases their presence on the road. If the area doesn’t have access to public transit, it also isn’t expected to have infrastructure like bike lanes, which leads to more bike accidents.

Even though bike lanes and other infrastructure to increase the safety and accessibility for bicyclists exist in the city, bike accidents still happen. Let’s look at the causes of bicycle accidents that our Atlanta bicycle accident lawyer commonly see.

What Causes Bicycle Accidents?

Even if you take all the safety precautions before getting on your bike and choose the safest bike routes, you still might be the victim of a bicycle accident. According to the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Bicycle Safety Action Plan, nearly 6,000 bicycle accidents happened in our state between 2005 and 2015. These crashes caused almost 4,500 injuries and killed 63 people.

To prevent collisions between cars and bicycles, looking at what caused the accidents is essential. Here are some of the most common causes of bicycle accidents:

  • Driver Inattention: Distracted drivers can cause accidents between themselves and other vehicles and cause accidents with bicyclists. When drivers don’t pay attention and watch for bike riders, they could cut them off, collide with them, or open their door and cause a dooring accident. Intersections are perilous for bicyclists when drivers don’t pay attention because left and right turns can quickly become deadly collisions.
  • Speeding: When drivers are speeding, it decreases the time they have to react, which can lead to accidents. When bicyclists are involved, this can be especially fatal for them because being hit on a bike by a vehicle at a high speed causes serious injuries.
  • Tight Spaces: Tight roads without bike lanes limit the space between bikes and vehicles. While cars on tight roads should treat bicyclists as another vehicle, sometimes they try to pass the bike and end up clipping the bicycle or person riding it.
  • Road Conditions: Whether the road has potholes, is deteriorating, or the weather isn’t favorable, if road conditions make it harder to drive a car, they also make it harder to ride a bike. This can cause collisions between the two.
  • Traffic Signals: Sometimes traffic lights and other signs aren’t conducive to bicyclists, or they malfunction and cause a traffic miscommunication. This can lead to collisions between cars and bikes because while either are trying to follow the traffic signals, their paths still cross, and they collide.

In over half of the accidents reported above, the bicyclist was to whom fault was assigned. This shows that it’s essential for a cyclist to hire an Atlanta bicycle accident lawyer after a collision with a vehicle so they can ensure their rights are protected and the accident is thoroughly investigated.

When you’ve been in a bicycle accident and suffered injuries that weren’t your fault, one of our bicycle accident lawyers can help you recover what you deserve. Contact Bey & Associates so we can get started on your claim.

Common Bike Accident Injuries

While biking is a fun and active way to travel in the city year-round, it’s essential to consider the potential injuries that can happen when a car collides with you on your bike. Since your body is more exposed on a bicycle, you could suffer from more serious harm in a collision compared to the driver or passengers in a regular-sized vehicle.

Let’s take a look at the injuries that bicycle accident lawyer often see in their cases:

With the help of an Atlanta bicycle accident lawyer, you could receive compensation for the injuries and damages you suffered from your collision. Costs like medical bills, medication, and lost wages can all be recovered when you trust one of our bicycle accident lawyers to help you through your claim.

Call Today to Speak With Our Experienced Bicycle Accident Lawyer Today

At Bey & Associates, we understand that you want to be able to focus on physical and emotional healing after a crash on a bike. That’s where we come in. Our bicycle accident lawyer will handle the legal side so you can focus on recovery and returning to your normal life.

Reach out to our office today so we can get started on your claim. You deserve to be compensated for your losses.

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