Monday, July 21, 2008

My Soapbox: Bicycle Safety

So I think more and more people will be riding bikes as gas gets more expensive and the economy goes down the tubes. I've been thinking about this becuase in reading about triathlon training I kept finding people with lots of rage about how cars and bicycles interact on the road. Because this is boring enough that most of my readers might not read the end, and because most of my readers are car-drivers, not bikers, here's the car-driver-safety part:

If you're driving and come upon a bicycler, view them as a very slow car. Stay behind them until you could safely pass them if they were a car, and then pass them.
If you're on a non-passing-kind of city street, just stay behind them. In like a minute they'll be way in front of you or have turned off or something. Doing these things should add, at most, a minute to your drive.

The end! Follow those rules and you'll never hit a cyclist, or be particularly enraged by one.

As for how to bike safely: When I got my registration packet for the MS150 I rode in 2006, there was this weird book about bike-rider-safety- like the manual you read for your driver's test, except about bikes. But it gave me advice that changed how I rode and totally kept me safe. The main advice for bikers: claim your space on the road. Stay near the middle-right, where cars can see you and you don't have to worry about falling off pavement and being hit by opening doors, etc. Obey stop signs and do 2-stage left turns- ie, right turn onto the cross street and then go straight. Catch driver's eyes at intersections.

I didn't do a ton of biking but I did commute from Hazelwood to Oakland lots of days and I never felt in danger. Claiming my space on the road helped so much- when I lived in Shadyside and rode my bike I was always trying to stay out of people's way and that's so much more dangerous- people just don't see you! Drivers were surprisingly polite- on my way home, on 2nd ave. where it's 1 lane outbound, cars would even more over a little so I could go by them. (Sometimes...)

Here lots more people ride bikes as transportation, and drivers are much more aware of what's around them, so I think biking is actually safer.

I know that sometimes bikers can be inconsiderate and not obey the rules of the road. I want to explain why, a little. None of the reasons are great but even if you don't bike try to put yourselves in a biker's shoes.

One reason is that by not obeying all the laws you can go faster- sometimes faster than a car. Maybe it's not safe but you can see why a biker would run a stop sign if there's no one coming in the other direction. Another reason is, if it's really hot, they might be hot and angry and just want to get home or wherever they're going. Another is, if they're biking for exercise, it's really annoying to slow down for traffic or traffic signals. Think about it: if you're running, you can run really fast or really slow and it's equally safe. If you're biking, going faster is just more dangerous but going faster is what training on a bike is all about. (If you are like me and held up by a fast biker, you will just check out their bikes and be jealous of their leg muscles.) Finally, sometimes riders will ride in packs- either a tight line or 2-3 people abreast. The abreast thing is usually they just want to talk to their friends, unless there's a side wind. The line thing is drafting off the person in front of them- I've read that in a paceline like that the 2nd person uses 20% less energy to keep up speed and the 5th person uses 60% less energy! I can't do this- i mean I've never tried and it's for sure an acquired skill, and I never bothered to learn much about it because I thought you couldn't do it in triathlons (but I guess you can in Taiwan triathlons) but anyways I know it annoyed me when I'd be trying to get around a pack of 10 bikers but there's usually a reason they ride like that.

That's all. I know it's hypocritical for me to advocate against road rage but again, if you can still afford to drive a car you'll probably be up against more and more bikes. I think if we all think for a little how we will deal with bikes (treat them like a slow car) we will all be safer.

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