A Bluesky poster mentioned getting biking coverage from https://www.markel.com/us/personal-insurance/bicycle . It’s not for me in my current situation, but it’s probably something a lot of other people should look into. Maybe this post will point some people that way. I make no recommendations about that company versus competitors. But having coverage for a stolen or damaged bike, medical care, even roadside assistance while riding is swell.
This is a follow up to my previous post about how American drivers are underinsured and should all buy much more coverage or stop driving, https://politicsofcars.beehiiv.com/p/inadequate-car-insurance-is-killing-us
For me, the quote for annual coverage included $47 for the maximum $25,000 of Bicycle vehicle contact protection. This applies “If you are using your bicycle and are hit by a vehicle that does not have the proper insurance protection, this coverage can help pay for your injuries.” This is for non-drivers. Drivers with car insurance can add under/uninsured motorist coverage for injuries, even while walking or riding a bike.
Maybe $47 does not seem like much. However, I’ll add these caveats:
This only applies while riding a bike, not being hit by a car while walking etc. Presumably most non-drivers who bike also spend a fair amount of time walking.
This is supplemental to anything the driver pays, and theoretically the driver should cover all injuries they cause.
This is only for $25,000. A hospital stay can quickly exceed that.
This is only for injuries. Costs to crash victims can include loss of income, care work at home, etc.
Among costs that it doesn’t cover are deaths.
Of course not everyone bikes. But hypothetically if all of the very roughly twenty-five million adult non-drivers in America bought this, that alone would be well over a billion dollars in premiums. This would go up if it covered the caveats above: covering pedestrians, unlimited medical care, and non-medical costs. All of this risk that drivers impose but leave victims to pay is implicitly yet another subsidy for drivers. E.g., if DOTs charged drivers enough money to pay all victims for their injuries, then potential victims would not need to pay for this.
To emphasize, this is really only a fraction of the problem. If the family of each of the roughly ten thousand pedestrians or cyclists killed by drivers annually received a million dollars, that alone would be ten billion.
Get insurance.