Just Say No--To Being a Bike Ninja

I really don't know what they are thinking. I'm talking about the cyclists that go out in low light and night conditions with no active or passive (read reflectors or reflective clothing) lighting. In Portland a bus driver has spoken up in a local paper about the improvements he has seen in the past year with cyclists lighting up for visibility.

Motorists are conditioned to look for large fast moving objects. To compete for limited attention span cyclists need to stand out and when light conditions diminish lights are the best way to get attention.

When twilight has passed in the evening then reflectors and reflective clothing become very effective as they perform a sort of "light judo" using the power of the motorized vehicle headlights to reflect back to the source. But don't be fooled into thinking reflectors alone will make you visible, they only work when a light source is aimed directly at them, a condition that might not occur until too late when rounding curves or approaching intersections.

On Yer Bike

Honor the Stop

The biggest problem I have seen in Greensboro, and I have commented on it before in other forums, is the apparent inability of any local road user to honor stop signs and red lights.

Some cyclists make the excuse that by blowing stops and reds they stay clear of motor traffic. This is generally not true. In the case of red lights they just make the motorists pass them again and again which compounds the irritation factor. In the case of stop signs it is merely a flaunting of the traffic code, pure and simple. Motorists waste more energy on complete stops than cyclists when everything is taken into account.

Motorists, on the other hand, have some truly dangerous habits in this part of the country. I can't recall when I last saw a motorist stop at a stop sign unless they were in imminent danger of a collision and sometimes not even then. Then there are the right on red crew--How many people around here stop before evaluating whether it is safe to proceed as dictated by the vehicle code? If I were to sit at any corner where right-on-red is allowed (and a few where it's not) I'll bet the numbers would be similar to the rolling stop numbers.

What would help would be if the local LEOs cared about "road crime". Prior to this latest economic downturn they would use the excuse that they didn't have the resources to pursue these issues. It seems now they have stepped up excessive speed patrols now that the local coffers are empty but what happens when the economy recovers?

As a good conservative (therefore no longer Republican) I say we need to take the matter into our own hands and start policing ourselves. Whether motorized or in an HPV, stop at reds and stop signs. Honor the Stop.

Share the Trail

From WashCycle we have this link to the Arlington, VA Courtesy Campaign.  Some common sense rules of thumb for cyclists and pedestrians to interact on shared trails.

http://www.thewashcycle.com/2009/05/arlington-courtesy-campaign.html

Viral Videos

I'm sure many of you have seen the viral video where erstaz police are handing out helmets and hugs to unsuspecting cyclists.  This was put out by a Danish motorist group trying to highlight FUD about cyclists on the road.  The people at Copenhagenize the Planet have a counter video now.  Mind you the people at CtP have great disdain for helmets so take this video with a grain of salt.

Welcome to Bike Month!

The Piedmont Triad Council of Governments has a whole laundry list of activities for this month starting today with Shop By Bike in the GSO Downtown area tonight.  I will be working at the GSO Downtown Refueling station on May 15, Bike to Work Day.

On yer bike!

In Deed!

A site devoted to making helmets sexy.  

Birth of Yet Another Blog

Stealing a turn from the fantastic DC Metro blog WashCycle I have finally decided to start a blog of my own.  I don't know how often it will publish but I will endeavor to keep it current.  My focus will be bicycling in general, bicycle touring, bicycle commuting, bicyclist advocacy, bicycling in GSO, NC and "green" technology as I see fit to link to it.  

I should note I said bicyclist advocacy and not bicycling advocacy.  There is a difference.  Bicyclist advocacy works at making the operating environment better for bicyclists.  Bicycling advocacy works towards getting butts on bikes.  At times these groups work at crossed purposes although they often aren't obvious to the noobs to the fields.  One of the more problematic planks of bicycling advocacy is the focus on paint and path.  New cyclists often make very grave errors in thinking the bike lanes and separate paths are somehow safer than operating in the road using the existing rules of the road.  Bike lanes offer no protection from overtaking vehicles (that white lane will not stop a drifting motorist) and often direct the cyclist to the wrong point to negotiate intersections (up against the curb is a perfect setup for a right-hook and takes the cyclist out of the field of vision of oncoming traffic thereby increasing the chance of a left-cross not to mention the issue of making a left turn).  Separate paths have problems of there own if they actually go somewhere.  At some point they intersect with the road network and these points have a high level of crashes because cyclists and motorists aren't sure how to deal with the interfaces.

Everything in the prior paragraph can be dealt with properly with education and enforcment of the existing vehicle code.  The education piece needs to happen at multiple levels.  Cyclists need to know their place in the scheme of things (best summarized as: Same Roads, Same Rights, Same Responsiblities).  Motorists need to know about the cyclists rights and respect them.  Law enforcement needs a better understanding of the vehicle code--there are far too many stories out there about police who take the law into their own hands and try to bully lawful cycists off the road because the officer didn't know the actual vehicle code but though bicycles were toys that had no business on the road.  Finally the judiciary needs to be brought up to speed.  Too many judges don't know the code until it is spelled out for them.  The vehicle code is designed to promote safety, motorist convenience is always second fiddle.