Commuting - I thought y'all would enjoy this.

Someone posted this (http://crazybikerchick.blogspot.com/2006/09/things-non-cyclist-might-not.html) on my local club board. It made me very happy.

Odd. Someone posted the same thing on RBR

Good sh*t.

Wow, thanks for sharing that.

That post is frickin' awesome! It totally agrees with my own image of bike commuting, and presents it in a very readable way. :)

It totally agrees with my own image of bike commuting, and presents it in a very readable way. :)

Mine too. The section about taking the lane totally nails it.

"I ride in the middle of the lane if the lane is too narrow to share safely. This is actually a courtesy to you, because you don't have to guess how wide your vehicle is versus how much space is available, and decide if you have to change lanes or not. If the lane next to you is wide open, it really isn't necessary to blast your horn or yell things out your window. Maybe you think there's room for me to be riding in the gutter, but I really have a better view of the pavement there than you do. There's debris there that will flatten my tires, and potholes that can break my bones. If I need to swerve to avoid some garbage someone threw out their car window, I need room to maneouver. Its not going to make either of our days if we collide."

now how do we get it into the hands of the people who need to read it?

now how do we get it into the hands of the people who need to read it?
Maybe the author could get it published as a newspaper editorial, perhaps in a shortened form?

Better yet, get this into the state drivers ed manual somehow. Just the paragraph marqueemoon quoted in itself would be a huge step. People have to sign/acknowledge they've understood this when renewing their drivers' license signing their kids up for local soccer groups, buying a car etc!

Repost, but a good one. Where was it, in A&S, maybe? Good stuff, really! :)

OK, I gotta be an OT gasbag for a moment here, but I wanted to comment on this: "If it is safe, and I see you signalling right in my rearview mirror, I will move over and let you go by."

I rarely do this because when my panniers are loaded, my bike is friggen heavy -- like 40-50 pounds. I may look small and maneuverable, but I'm really not. I can't move laterally. So I rarely move over for cars turning right. I do try to stop on the lefthand side of the right lane so they can get by me, but when the lane's not wide enough, I'm afraid they're just outta luck. It drives me crazy to get honked at or nudged when there's absolutely nothing I can do about my positioning.

It's a good post, though, even if it's long. Every paragraph is cogent and well written.

awesome...I will surely try to get it quoted down here I hope in the local paper. We actually got an "honorable mention" to becoming a bike friendly town last week. May actually reach the goal of becomming the first bike friendly town in South Carolina by 2008.