A recent thread by Digital Quirk told about an account of recent run in with a bicyclist while driving his car. On that thread I posted about how a recent speaker we had at our monthly meeting of the Tacoma Wheelmen (http://www.twbc.org/) Bicycle club had spoken specifically about problems such as what happened in the other thread.

The speaker was David Smith an instructor for the League of American Bicyclists. The system he came up with is called "Looking Sharp! A Visual Language for Cyclists." At his web site http://www.bicycledriver.com/ he describes a basic system of visual clues to help car drivers anticipate what bicyclists are going to do, there by making encounters predictable and hopefully safer.

Much of his multi media he uses for his presentation are availible at his web site. He spent many hours video taping Seattle area riders in different situations such as 4 way stops, lane changes and such. He also then taped the same thing while he was riding using the "Look Sharp!" method. The video of a rider approaching a location such as a 4 way stop was shown and then paused. At that point a group discussion on what we thought the rider was going to do based on what we had seen. With the 12 to 15 of us at the meeting there was never a case where all of us agreed on what the riders’ next move was going to be. After he would show the same intersection while he was riding. The differences in most cases were that he was more predictable to cages thereby making him safer.

I found most of what he said and showed made sense and noticed that I already had been doing some of his system already in my daily commute. A couple of weeks later I was running Sag for one of our clubs centuries and the club president and another member talking about the presentation. The discussion was positive for the most part with a hesitation about that some of his riding they felt was too aggressive. I had never ridden with either of them so I do not know what they would consider aggressive. I have ridden for over 20 years with a large gap of about 6 years after being plowed over by a right hook and then followed up less than a week later by a near rear ending that missed by less than 6 inches. So I don't consider my self very aggressive, but some of the videos did seem to push the envelope for my riding. But to be clear, Seattle is very much more bicycle friendly than that of Tacoma and a whole different world than that of the Suburb of Tacoma I live in, Lakewood.

I do think if the rider that DQ came on to at that intersection one day was riding more like David Smith's system there would have never been the thread since there wouldn't have been a question in DQ or another drivers mind what the rider was going to do.

Take a while and go through Dave's web site and watch the videos and tell us what you think.

Ron
Lakewood, WA
Daily Commuter

The "too aggressive" reaction is typical for many the first time they understand what a VC advocate like David Smith is promoting. But there are too many of us who adopt this approach, and never regret it, to discount it so quickly. Of course, it feels "too aggressive" to someone who is not accustomed to riding with so much assertion in traffic. But you get used to it... ;)

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You might want to try again. It was working for me directly after I got the notification of your post.

Ron

Looking Sharp, Lewis.... Feeling Sharp, Reggie...;)

The "too aggressive" reaction is typical for many the first time they understand what a VC advocate like David Smith is promoting. But there are too many of us who adopt this approach, and never regret it, to discount it so quickly. Of course, it feels "too aggressive" to someone who is not accustomed to riding with so much assertion in traffic. But you get used to it... ;)

I think the video of topic was (I think since I can't pull up the videos at work) "Left turns, lets make it difficult" Where David is riding on a shoulder/bike lane and trying to get into the turn lane to make a left turn. On the first attempt, he trys to move over and makes a very quick retreat. The second attempt is sucessful and he makes the turn.

Assertion in traffic isn't only confidence on part of the riders ability but also the riders confidence in the traffic around them. There again, where the video is shot, is MUCH more accustom to bicyclists than the area of my club. And to me that makes a huge difference. But remember that was the one thing they were commenting negative on. On whole it was a more positive response and the fact that it making them think enough to talk about makes it even more postive.

Ron

Believe me, no one my commute is accustomed to cyclists making the left turns across three lanes of 50+ mph traffic that I make, merging one lane at a time.

I find that the single biggest factor in determining how well your assertion is accepted is not what motorists arrive with at the road, but what you present them with. As long as you are visible, predictable, clear about what you want to do, and what you want them to do, they're going to comply (except for a rare exceptions every few months).

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got some pages to load, but some pictures are broken. html code relies too much on none standard code so some browsers can't read data

Sorry Silver,

I know SPD, SRAM and CODA but nuthin' bout html. You might want to let the web site owner know though.

As long as you are visible, predictable, clear about what you want to do, and what you want them to do, they're going to comply (except for a rare exceptions every few months).

Let me play Devils Advocate here, to echo the main talk about what they were talking about. You bet on them to comply, if they don't you will not win a fight with a 2,500 car. Even if your in the right.

Ron