Hi PW!

today’s reminder for me (about 20 minutes ago) was that, just because you’ve got the cross light, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still be on the lookout for *cars* who have just “beat the light”. Had a nice white “cross” light, (I’m downtown and normally stick to the sidewalks) and crossing the street, suddenly there was a car about three feet from me blowing its horn.

After about half a block, I noticed a couple riding behind me, so I slowed down and asked them whether I did in fact have the light. They said “yes” – also “boy, that was close!”.

Unusual, because I normally do hear cars coming.

I used to yell at my kids as they pulled out of the driveway on their bikes…”Remember you’re invisible!”

i was just driving my car on a road with two lanes in each directions and a bike lane going each way. there was a bicyclist riding in front of me in the car lane closest to the bike lane. there was nothing obstructing the bike lane. i yelled out that there’s a bike lane and after a while he moved over. irritating. it’s really stupid for bicyclists to irritate car drivers by holding them up. it doesn’t make the car driver WANT to be careful of the bicyclist.

I listen to audio books while bicycling. Have done so for thousands of miles, all on roads with cars, and live to tell about it. So I heartily disagree with your #2.

Other things not to do on a bike – read a newspaper or a book, (at least not while also drinking coffee or smoking a cigarette), fix the hair and/or makeup, turn completely around to yell at the kids, eat a meal out of a bag….

oh wait – those are things I’ve seen people *in cars* do.

PW saw a cyclist nearly go into orbit riding with the headset and a police car with lights no siren was right behind him and didn’t know it….. the police put on that attention siren and thought the guy was going to launch himself…..

French Roast …. in my French Press is ready….. anyone want a cuppa?

From a frequent commuter on the Minneapolis Greenway, a few MORE things NOT to do:

1) Wear biking gear. Unless you actually ARE training for the Tour de France, biking gear is unnecessary. Wearing biking gear for casual biking is similar to wearing a pilot’s uniform for a photo op on an aircraft carrier. Everyone knows you’re compensating, and the hard clicky shoes just make you walk funny.

2) Speed. If you ARE actually training for the Tour de France, find a track, ‘k? Rocketing down a public biking path at tournament speeds is exactly like driving a formula 1 racecar on an urban residential street. Kids with training wheels share the bike path, and yes, you CAN kill them.

3) Ride in chatty clusters. You’d think at this point I’d be turning my attention from the faux-racers, but no: nothing is more common than pairs of spandex-clad yuppies rocketing down the bike path side-by-side, chatting animatedly, and imperiling everyone who they pass. It’s lots of fun till somebody goes down in a tangle.

4) Pretend you’re too good for the bike path. So these suggestions have put you off the bike path, and now you’re riding on the 25 MPH parkway, NEXT TO the bike path. The same rules apply, particularly biking in chatty clusters and blowing stop signs. Again, find a track, or obey the traffic laws, one or the other.

5) Walk on the bike path. Okay, I’ll let up on the faux-racers and concentrate on pedestrians and joggers: stay off the bike paths! Cross them as if they were busy streets! Don’t let your kids wander onto them! Unless they are specifically marked as a shared path, keep off – if they are, please assume that the bikers are unaware of that fact, and proceed with caution. As the prior rules may indicate, spandex-clad faux-racers are frequently more involved with themselves than with their surroundings.

Bike paths are a shared public resource. They are not a sidewalk. They are not a Tour-de-France training track. Please treat the bike path and your neighbors on it with courtesy and consideration.

The public streets are a shared transportation conduit. When you’re biking on a street, observe the traffic rules. This is in your interest, because yellow and black spandex will NOT help you win a physics argument with a pickup truck. Do NOT weave in and out of traffic while racing downhill at 35 MPH, and if one of the drivers honks at you for doing so, do NOT respond by flipping him the bird – you are only playing a kind of lottery with other people’s anger-management abilities.

As the price of gas continues to rise, more and more of us will be commuting on bike paths and city streets. Pretending that one is a bike racer amidst a growing population of casual bicyclists is a recipe for disaster. Take a hint from our European friends, who bicycle casually, courteously, and without needing to dress up like Carlos Sastre.

Bike safe.

hey pw–my pet peeve/dangerous thing that cyclists do?

cyclists who won’t get the hell over to the right side of the f’in road, and i’m saying it nicely…and they do it on purpose.i can understand when going uphill, needing a little more space, but c’mon!!they’re gonna get killed one of these days in the middle of a head-on car accident from cars trying to pass them and they’ll be mushed, too. is insanely stupid.

there is a ‘bike lane’ for a reason. use it. drives me nuts.wonder how many accidents happen because of this, i know i’ve seen some really close calls many many many times….absolutely stupid behavior.even more stupid are the people trying to get around them and there isn’t room for two cars and a hoggy cyclist breaking the law./end rant.

well, off to best friend’s house, gonna be a hot one today, stay cool, pups.

(and jayt–am 3 miles from the indiana border, waved to you when i took my dog for a spin, sign on hamilton-scipio road said –indianapolis-that way….is the road that goes to brookville lake and then on to indy..left you a note in the last thread saying glad about your son.)

I think you are very lucky to not have had a problem. It’s the same reason that authorities frown on using the headphones while driving a car. In fact, I know at least at some points and places doing so was illegal and considered reckless driving.

And PW, you miss another hand signal. To signal a stop is to hold your left arm in reverse of the signal for a right turn, i.e., left arm bent at the elbow with forearm down.

just saw this–here’s your coke..

bbl

Hi PW, great topic.

Of course, everyone wears a helmet right? I’ve got a seam in my skull to prove that they’re useful. By the time you wish you had one on, it is too late.

Don’t pass a car on the right when the car is stopped at a stop sign with its right turn signal on.

Don’t ride four abreast down the hiway.

Exactly. We live on a bike path in the Sacramento area. Our house is positioned in a way so that if an accident occurs people knock on our door. I can’t tell how many have showed up needing help and having no helmet. We always give the helmet lecture.

I was not so lucky! Crossing an intersection WITH the light, I was hit broadside by a pickup truck. When I woke up spread-eagled in the crosswalk, the first thing I saw was the driver sauntering towards me saying “I knew I should have gotten those brakes fixed!”

I was VERY lucky that I wasn’t killed!

Due to my concussion and shoulder injury, I cannot now change health plans, because the insurers treat my (now fully healed) shoulder as a “pre-existing condition.” Good thing I never told them about that paper cut I got in sixth grade….

just saw this–here’s your coke..

i wonder what the coke is for?

Don’t ride your bike in the in the same town that Robert Novak is driving in.

Don’t ride your bike in the in the same town that Robert Novak is driving in.

because, instead of being in jail for hit-and-run/assault with a deadly weapon, he is still free to drive around and hurt you.

Actually he is in the hospital with a brain tumor

Not luck, skill. I’ve been listening to books for 2 decades, and riding bicycles on roads for 6 decades. So I have acquired the skills to do both at the same time. I am able to be alert to road noises (and books are less noisy than music) and follow the book at the same time.

thank you.

my mistake

What really gives me the creeps is the baby carriers that are pulled behind a grown up’s bike. I cannot stand to see someone biking on a trafficked road with a small child being pulled benind, right down at wheel level. And biking with traffic means you can’t see what cars are coming up behind you, passing within a foot or two of your child! I don’t think so.

The interesting thing is the following diagnosis of a brain tumor….. part of the evaluation for neurological issues is to ask the patient to draw a clock…… many times there are issues with increased intracranial pressure will have vision changes or “blank” spots…… where they can see the peripheral but not the center or one half of your vision view is missing but our magical human brains fills in the details and patients do not know they are not seeing the whole field.

NOT excusing Novak…..but it sure explains why when he says he didn’t see someone splayed across his windshield ….. he might not have …..
BUT I also want to know is blood alcohol level …. ya think they took that?

I know I’m dating myself with this true story, but I was riding along one fine summer day in Nowheresville, MA, no hands, no traffic, nice smooth little road. What could possibly go wrong?!
So I hauled out my photos I just got back from the store and leafed thru to see how they came out.

-um- shhhhhhh. No one else saw, I think, but I ran right into the back end of a parked car. (no harm to anything other than my blase attytood & oversize ego…)

Teh that thing. Don’t do that.

Something for drivers:

DO NOT CROSS A DOUBLE LINE TO PASS A CYCLIST IF YOU ARE AT THE CREST OF A HILL AND CANNOT SEE THE ONCOMING TRAFFIC!

That happened to us one time. My honey was driving in that blind-space and, showing amazing good sense and reflexes, pulled just far enough off the very narrow road shoulder to avoid the errant idiot and cyclist. This was on a 55mph narrow, hilly country road with mebbe 12″ of shoulder room on each side. I.E., NO where to go. Both cars skidded and fish-tailed. Cyclist maintained his balance and enough composure to continue unscathed, but even the next, tailgaiting car behind the dumbell who crossed the no-passing-line almost got hit.

No matter how steep the hill and slow the cyclist, if it’s a blind area with no view of oncoming traffic, please be patient. The consequences were almost deadly in this incident, only because two people were hurrying along and not paying attention. Everyone survived with no accident or injury, ONLY because two others were alert and thankfully able to take evasive action without going off the road entirely.

I took my ten speed off a quarter pipe once. I launched into a perfect arch and landed on the front tire. taco’d the front tire and had some nice road rash from it. people who ride ten speeds shouldn’t hang out with skaters.

I’m sorry for Novak’s illness. No one deserves that.

But his aggressive, bullying behavior not only as a pundit, but as a driver… No. No excuses. He shouldn’t even have been on the road.

hope ya got a video.

glad you survived. Woot!

But even that doesn’t beat my running into the parked car. heh. Beat ya hands down, -erm, holding pictures.

would have been a good one for failblog. your would have too :)

I agree 100%…. Novak probably was having symptoms and past behavior added to it….. Responsible people know when they should not be on the road….

Drivers changing lanes also, no matter how carefully they look, are in danger of seeing only the bike, and totally missing the fact that a little one is in tow. I agree. Terrifying possibilities.

You wouldn’t be tempted to wear headphones if you had one of these bikes.

biking fail

When my bike was my only transportation in Greece…. the child carrier was right behind my seat….. I knew where he was and we could talk, the problem with that with a toddler right behind me would be his movements or “what’s that Mom” would throw my rear wheel into another direction…… interesting moments where I would have to steady the bike due to kid movement….

They are pretty good on bicycle paths also many I have seen have flags on masts. Additionally if there is a second bicycle with the carrier in between it is somewhat safer.

Terminally stupid

Way back in 1967, when my large white 1959 Chevrolet (the one that had the seagull’s wings look in the back) gave up the ghost, I took up riding bicycles. It was cheap transportation, good exercise and you could see interesting things on the way and stop to enjoy them. My bicycling travel mode went on for almost twenty years, until newly enriched, and with an urge to see more of California, I bought a car. I do admit that I did not always bother stopping at stop signs while bicycling on the S. F. Peninsula. I even got stopped by the cops and was given a ticket ($20), which was the same fine exacted on car drivers who drove through stop signs…

In the East Bay of the San Francisco region, rude bicyclists love to ride right through both stop signs and red traffic lights. They seem to feel that they are entitled to ignore the traffic rules; in that respect, they act like members of the Bush crime family: the rules for ordinary folks don’t apply to us. A bicyclist using a hand signal is a rare treat indeed.

hubris – to the extreme.

i dunno, this one is a contender

Wow – those people play rough.

Number six:

Do not attempt to jump a curb at an angle when going 25 miles an hour. It is amazing how far you can fly through the air before landing on the concrete with a sickening thud but breaking your femur in four places is not fun.

I love this post. In my area there are numerous groupies..complete with all the gear, fanny packs, etc. in a herd configuration. And yesterday the guy at the intersection did not REALLY want to run the red light, so he rode into the middle of the very busy street where he made circles until he could cross the rest of the lanes. Idiot? Well, yes. And they all seem to think they own the road…the bike lanes are just not enough.

Ouch!

Ouch does not begin to describe it.

Biking is dangerous even to people who are good at it. I know a woman who last year hit a pothole, went head over heals and broke her back. She was an experienced in-shape bicyclist. About a month ago, another experienced bicylist was cycling down one of our main thoroughfares when the drive of a parked car opened the door and she hit it. The shock of the collision sent her into the other lane, where she was killedm by an on-coming car.

I used to bike. No more.

I bet!

Man, this guy is nuts!

Not as stupid as the one who does that in traffic

Please walk your bike on city sidewalks, especially narrow ones with children and older, less agile pedestrians — when there is a dedicated bike lane one street over!

my Number Six: Trying to take pictures.

Whether you’re riding, or just sitting on the seat, leaning against a rail, or propped with one leg off the pedals and onto the ground, you shake too much to get a clear focus.

Howie’s here for Blue Am with a terrific candidate from Florida, Annette Taddeo. Come say hello!

Blue America upstairs with South Florida candidate Annette Taddeo

Good morning ET, race you up to BA :)

many years ago my very old frail aunt was hit by a bike in nyc and some kind soul carried her to st. vincent’s hospital nearby.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, so I’ll opt for laughter. We all need to share the road with bikers (a lot of whom will be “sharing” the roads in higher numbers thanks to soaring gas prices). What’s making me laugh, though, is that I was a bike commuter in DC in the late-Nixon(!) days. Regularly, I’d start off in the lower SW and head toward my office near Dupont Circle. Never was there a day without adventure…I got hit by cabs, buses (I mean, nothing critical, just the sort of day to day brush-offs one would expect), and then there were the drivers of cars. These were some mean-spirited fucks (and I’ll show my Maryland bias by identifying them typically as NOVA commuters). They’d chase you, shout at you when possible, run over you with glee, presumably, if the opportunity presented itself.

Yet now, still a casual biker, but in the deep south-east where one “fends for one’s self,” even I find myself getting mad at the bikers who won’t move to the right for their own safety.

My screed will end with the words “Arrogance gets one nowhere.” And whatever the fuck that means…I ain’t know.

Chatty clusters!
Grrrr! They will do that in heavy traffic. Not only dangerous, but brings out the road rage in me.

Thanks, Jayt!

Thanks, Albie!

I spent many years commuting on a bike from Boston to Cambridge. Some of the people posting here seem to have misconceptions about bike safety, both as bicyclists and as motorists. One rule of thumb is that a motorist will readily ignore a cyclist’s safety for their own convenience. As a cyclist you need to be aware of and to some extent modify your cycling accordingly.

Do not assume that a motorist sees you because you are there. Make eye contact with the driver of a vehicle. If you are riding a bike on a lane that does not have room for a bike and a car, ride in the middle of the lane. It is less dangerous than allowing the motorist to determine how much room YOU need as he tries to squeeze by. If there is a parking lane, driving next to the parked cars presents many dangers, one of which is mentioned above. People do not look for bikes before they open their car doors, and that can be fatal. Again, occupy the middle of the lane. You are also more visible to drivers at intersections if you are in the middle of the lane. It is more dangerous for a cyclist to move in and out of the traffic flow, e.g. move over into the empty parking spaces between parked cars, than to remain in the lane and force cars to pass safely. Studies have shown that the majority of accidents occur when cyclists are entering or leaving the flow of traffic. In most cities bikes are required to follow the same laws that motorists follow. They are not required to yield to motorists just because they are moving more slowly. There are very few accidents where the bicyclist is rear-ended by a car.

Wear a helmet at all times. Also, if you have a rear view mirror, use it. I’ve found that the type that attach to the helmet are best, and with a short turn of the head you can scan the entire background. In an urban environment use a loud police whistle and keep it in your mouth. One such whistle has saved my life many times. Loudly colored clothing, even the kind that is sold in bike stores and looks like racing gear, makes you more visible and that’s a good thing.

For you motorists, you need to lighten up. Roadways are made for people, not for cars. That bicycle rider has as much right to be on the road as you do, and he/she has the absolute right to ride in a way that enhances his/her safety rather than your convenience. I have seen stupid drivers race past a cyclist on the left so that they can immediately make a sharp right directly in front of the cyclist. For those motorists that believe in the “right of superior tonnage”, well… I weigh 260 lbs, have a second degree black belt in karate, and invite you to step out of your car and test the extent of your belief. To put it simply, the law does not give you special rights simply because you have the ability to kill someone with your vehicle.

For bicyclists, use common sense and courtesy. If you come to a stop-light it is better to hold your place in line, rather than blithely continue between cars to the front of the line, thereby forcing all of the cars that have already had to pass you to do so again. This really irritates people. You are required by law to yield to pedestrians. Remember, a certain number of pedestrians are killed by cyclists every year. You don’t want to be responsible for that. Neither do you motorists want to be responsible for killing, injuring or maiming someone. So share the road, slow down and take it easy.

so..lot’s of good advice….signalling, yes, and remember that to signal right, you can just stick out your right arm and point..I even point straight ahead to let cars know at some intersections…..pet peeve, cyclists who you carefully pass and then scrunch by at a stop light and get in front again..it’s been a long time since a bicycle can beat a car off the line…and as for clothes, lighten up a bit..colorful?..sure, why not and also helps cars see you if they are so inclined..and when is the last time you ENJOYED a 4 hour ride in normal underware and hiking shorts..ttfn

One other thing not to do on a bike: get so involved in your cycling computer speed/time/distance stats (or your heart rate monitor) that in trying to get your training overload, you ignor basic safety. It’s a bike, dammit. Your going to get fit. So what if you have to stop at a traffic light and your heartrate drops 6 bpm? Do you want to get hit by a car and have it drop to zero?

Whoops. Not used to wine at dinner. That’s “ignore” and “You’re”.

lol, i didn’t notice until you mentioned it. ;)