When Riding the Sidewalk

Bikes do not belong on sidewalks. A group of bmxers popping off and on the sidewalk and dashing back and forth across the street is unneverving to me as a driver. Some folks seem to think riding the sidewalks will make them safer. After all it is unusual for cars to cross the sidewalks, right? Not the case. I will sometimes ride the sidewalks where there’s really no option. The Blue Bridge, Memorial Bridge, Southway. We sometimes ride Memorial Bridge North to South on the roadway butr almost never the reverse. Bur none of these examples have the inherent problems that riding sidewalks inresidential areas has.–Corrie

Top 5 Rules for Riding on the Sidewalk | Commute by Bike

The subject of riding bikes on the sidewalks continues to be a hotly debated topic. Despite your stance on the subject, the fact remains that it’s going to happen, so I want to share the top five rules that must be followed when choosing the sidewalk over the road.

Fear is, by far, the biggest motivator for choosing the sidewalk over roads.

Read the Tips

San Francisco considers Idaho Bike Laws

Do you always stop and put a foot down at every stop sign. I confess. I do not. Saturday morning, the car behind me turned out to be a friendly officer. It’s nice to know vehicular cycling is being promoted. Still driving and cycling are not the same. Idaho law recognizes this and San Francisco may join Idaho in permitting the rolling bicycle stop.-Corrie

Via Carectomy, a San Francisco CBS affiliate reports that the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission is considering whether to revise the rules of the road to better accommodate cyclists. The changes would make it legal for cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs, and stoplights as stop signs.

Read the rest of this story.

Rules of the road

Linda and I will be taking the League of American Cyclists LCI Seminar in October. They teach Forrester’s Vehicular Cycling and that’s what we’ll offer in club classes like Jen’s. Still Fiedler makes a point about still paying attention to the situation. For example, I’m inlined not to put my foot down at stop signs if I can roll up and see that it is clear in all directions. Fiedler discusses what he does at an intersection with lots of traffic.

Do you filter to the front of the line?

When you’re coming to a stop sign or stop light, and there is a line of cars ahead of you, what do you do? Do you get in line with the cars and wait your turn, or do you filter to the front of the line?

Cyclists’ opinion vary on this, of course. Those who follow the doctrine of vehicular cycling gurus like John Forrester will tell you that a bicyclist should behave like a motor vehicle; in other words, wait your turn and no cutting in line.

Safety Tips for Commuting

Q: What’s the best way to stay safe while biking to work?

A: Here’s an abbreviated version of some tips from Indiana State Health Commissioner Judy Monroe. The tips were distributed recently by the Indiana State Department of Health:

Read the Tips

Sidewalks or Street?

The sidewalk may seem safer but it is not. This blogger has reviewed the research. The bottom line is cyclists in traffic are safer when they behave like cars. Be both visible and predictable. One issue is the courteous driver who blocks traffic to allow you to cross the street. Be careful since the car behind him may not extend the same courtesy in a  multilane situation. If you wouldn’t perform the maneuver as a driver, don’t do it as a cylcist.

Risks of Sidewalk versus Road Bicycling

Published June 11, 2008 Bicycling

I promised a long time ago to post on the findings of studies on the risks of sidewalk versus on-road bicycling. From a 1994 paper by Wachtel and Lewiston studying bicycle-motor vehicle collisions in Palo Alto:

Bike Race kills 1 in Mexico

I tend to ignore these stories anymore. Jim and Doug both sent me this story this afternoon. When you read as many blogs as I’ve been doing, you encounter stories of cyclists injured or killed pretty frequently. Keep these events in perspective. Most car/bike collisions are avoidable and often feature a cyclist doing something unexpected like riding the wrong way.

It is tempting to be fatalistic about these events. When your number is up . . . I don’t like fatalism, however. These are chances you take which can be minimized by educating yourself as a cyclists and by advocating more cycling awareness in the general community. Point ‘em at our Bike Month page for tips.

1 dead as car plows into Mexican bike race

	A car collides with cyclists participating in a race in Mexico’s northern border city of Matamoros on Sunday. View related photos
Jose Fidelino Vera Hernandez / AP

Americas video

MORE VIDEO

Car collides with cyclists June 3: A bike race in Mexico ends in tragedy when a car plows through the crowd, killing one rider and injuring ten others. MSNBC’s Tamron Hall reports.

updated 3:11 a.m. PT, Tues., June. 3, 2008

MONTERREY, Mexico - A car plowed into a bike race along a highway near the U.S.-Mexico border, killing one and injuring 10 others.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24943229/

Helmets Again.

Kids should wear helmets but adults needn’t? Well that’s seems to be the idea behind some adult thinking. Others are willing to go the other direction. Shouldn’t everyone wear a helmet?

Vancouver Helmet Ordinance

Posted by: Michelle
Feb 22 2008, 11:24 am

Last month, the Vancouver City Council considered a proposed mandatory helmet law for children riding bicycles. On Monday night, the Council will hear testimony on an expanded version of the same law, which would require not just children but people of all ages riding bicycles, skateboards, scooters, in-line skates or roller skates to wear helmets.

Bike Helmet Hysteria?

I read a realy cogent argument against wearing helmets somewhere. The guy was an accomplishd cyclists with a great web page, but he didn’t wear a helmet. Sadly he was killed not long after I read the article. No word whether wearing a helmet would have saved him.

This guy has take on the task of chasing down the facts regarding the safety benefits of wearing a helmet. You’re probably not going to like the results. He’s got a series of posts including to links to an examination of the study citing helmets prevent 85% of head injuries and finds it has no merit. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t wear a helmet. It just means that the number we all quote is bogus.–Corrie

It all started innocently enough. Through this blog and the other one I’ve become more acquainted with bike culture in other countries than I ever have been before. Bike helmets don’t interest me really. They’re not a big part of life in cities and countries with high levels of bike usage around the world.

Read the series of posts

Got a Helmet?

A few hold outs will tell you the helmet is unneccesary. It only takes one fall in thousands of miles, though so I’m wearing mine.–Corrie

Good helmet does not need to cost an arm and a leg

STANDARDS: The less expensive ones are just as safe as more pricey ones.

By MELISSA DeVAUGHN
mdevaughn@adn.com

Published: April 26th, 2008 11:06 PM
Last Modified: April 26th, 2008 11:38 PM

On the store shelf sit three helmets. One is $40. Another is $80. The third is $145. They look identical — same brand, same box, same color and shape. Only a small tag above the price differentiates them by name.

So why the price difference?

Read more

Be Predictable; Be Visible

Your safety on a bicycle is directly related to how predictable you are but that only counts if the driver knows you are there. –Corrie

Little Things Get You Noticed

A couple months ago my daughter drove past me as I was pedaling home in the dark. When I walked into the house she told me that she had seen me, so I took the opportunity to do a little research.

Me: “Could you see me fairly well?”
Miss T: “Yeah.”

Me: “How far away did you notice me?”
Miss T: “Pretty far.” – which turned out to be around 500 feet.

The next question was the one I was leading up to. At the time I had on a jacket with reflective stripes and reflective ankle straps and was running a rear blinky.

“What did you notice first?” Her answer took me by surprise. “Your ankle straps.” Seriously, these things were a stocking stuffer that my wife got me a couple Christmases ago so I’d stop using the small bungee cords I swiped from her. I liked the Velcro straps but never really thought about them as being particularly attention grabbing.