Advocacy & Safety - The Only Solution ... Get Out There?

Perhaps the answer is just learn the rules, get on the road and hope for the best.

I headed out in my car yesterday to preview one of the local recommended bike routes. It is a top selection from the local bike club as a safer bike route. I honestly don't know how you guys do it. It looked terrifying to me.

I am biking about 75 miles a week now but only in a secluded suburban community where the top speed posted is 35 mph and the top speed driven is around 45 mph. It is full of kids so everyone is generally careful. Needless to say, I am getting bored and would love to venture out.

I am really writing to get any recommendations. I know many or many of you have made the jump to sharing the road. Thoughts?

I prefer to ride on roads where the cars are going 55+. They zip right past you. I hate it when a car is running along just barely faster than I am going and it takes them a long time to get past.

It's all about perception. Those of us who've been riding for years often forget that newbies see a level of risk which is different from ours.

Altho' there are a fair few horrifying incidents reported on this and other forums, you have to remember that there are several million bike journeys a day in the US without any incident, or with only minor pieces of poor driving/riding by other road users.

If the route is a top "safe" selection by the local bike club, then you can be pretty sure that it is safe as long as you know how to ride on faster roads. Can I suggest that you see if a club member(s) can take you on the route? You might also check to see if they do any "easy" group rides which use that and other roads, so that you can get used to (a) the road/traffic and (b) become comfortable riding with others if you are not yet so.

You might also consider reading up on safe riding - there are several books which can give you some pretty good guidance, including Effective Cycling by John Forester (very thoro' and very long and detailed). If you check the Vehicular Cycling (VC) thread, others are also listed by forumers. Be warned, tho', there is plenty of controversy on this forum and others about the details of VC and much mutual slanging, but the overall principles are much the same, regardless of which book you read.

It is safer than it appears, but you will need higher levels of alertness and you will need to develop your ability to read drivers' intentions, even in the absence of signals, proper road postioning, lack of awareness of the dangers posed by using a cellphone while driving, occasional expressions of ignorance/bigotry by drivers and so on.

After a while, you adrenal gland will stop going into overdrive as you begin to learn the pleasures of road riding, even on roads which currently (in prospect) scare the heck out of you.

Welcome to the sanest and most delightful form transport known to man (sorry, persons of whatever gender and oreintation).

It's pretty dang safe. Can hear and see very well. Defensive driving works fine. Being very tough helps, and relatively unflapable. And learning to communicate with hands. If you get pissed easily, sit on the couch and die young or get help now! BUT things do happen and you need to be prepared.

First, have to know how to handle a bike safely. Not just the minimum. Really have to know how to handle one. Emergency tricks. Quick stops. Get someone to help you practice if you can't. And individuals have limits. For example, my wife (fine rider) usually says "see you at the bottom" when we're in the mountains. I will simply ride faster than she will. I'll keep up with the motorcycles on the curves lots of the time.

Second, the road is REALLY BIG. I mean huge for a bicycle. A car will crowd it, but not as much as you'd think, even if the driver is being a dick. And with emergency handling, it's extremely rare to have an actual impact.

Third, you have to be able to fix common bike problems. Really. I've fixed many problems for folks on the road, even when I've been driving, and have taken a couple of folks home with silly problems I couldn't fix. Don't be stranded. Knowing this stuff instills confidence.

Fourth, you have to have a centered, peaceful mindset. Lingering in anger or fear will make you very stupid very quickly. Let other people have road rage or whatever. Keep in your happy place. A bad ride cycling, when the rain is cold and filth flies up, and the passing cars spray you, and you missed the turn, and you're hungry and you left your wallet at home and the cell battery is dead is still better than being parked on the 5 in stopped traffic on a weekday commute. Need to be tuned in, project a confident, I belong here image.

Fifth, you need to be aware of the problems and dangers that happen with an eye to avoiding them. Learn about accidents and incidents, keep alert, and you won't have them happen to you. I just know when some jerk is going to run a stop sign. I don't stop, I just get ready. If I can, I get them to stop and tell them not how mad I am, but about how many tickets I've seen written lately. That makes an impact that sticks, not telling someone they're an idiot. They already know they're an idiot after not seeing a cyclist dressed up like a neon sign on the Vegas strip!

Now. How often do bad things actually happen? Not often at all! After 40 years on the road, I've only been intentionally run at with an aim to hitting me or being within inches only 4 times. Happens much more often in driving a car! I've only been hit intentionally once, and that was really a weird thing. I can't imagine getting out of a car to yell at two college cyclists that they can't ride 2 abreast on the Blue Ridge Parkway at 10 am on a Tuesday morning! Fat guy with red face vs. 2 pumped college cyclists with pumps. Hmmm. Brain not engaged. But something like that may happen. If you're not the person who can talk calmly and laugh about it, then become that person! Defuse, not escalate.

You'll probably pop off the road to avoid some kind of BS eventually. No biggie, just calm down and go on. Very very rare.

People will open car doors, speed by a little close, try to right hook you, try to left hook, race around and then stop, roar up to stop signs on the left side of the road when you take the lane. It's just life on the Serengeti. No biggie. Have to laugh it off. If the window is down, don't yell, just smile and say something like "Isn't that a little dangerous?" I'll sometimes get up to "You really should look up the rules of the road before you start expounding them." And if there's an escape route "I believe there are programs for anger management - want me to email a list to you?"

Gotta have that humor. And it isn't any more dangerous than walking, and probably safer than driving a little car. I've seen more pain and experienced more nonsense in cars than anything else. Usually getting hit in circumstances where had I been on a bicycle I could have just popped over a bit and been cleared easily.

If you'll drive a car in town or on an Interstate, then cycling shouldn't be nearly as scary. If you really understand what's what with cars. I'd tell you about driving a wrecker, but you'd just stay on the couch and never go anywhere again. You know what happens when . . . . well, you don't want to know!

Whatever you do, don't get hit or be a dick. You'll make things difficult for me either way!


Oddly, some of the most dangerous roads are quite safe. Nobody can really drive fast on this one, and it's a breeze to carefully cycle. Up hill on the white line, downhill taking the lane: tailofthedragon.com

Roads that often look not so great to cycle on from the view of a motor vehicle are comfortable to cycle on.

Can you head out with that club you mention on a weekend on those roads as a stepping stone to solo?

Al

The roads that have faster traffic are usually better paved and have lanes wide enough for a car and bike. Its intersections and exits at commercial centres that require extra vigilance. Take yourself to a large empty parking lot and teach yourself emergency counter steering, it is the most effective means to avoid getting hurt when you are right hooked.

Ah yes, I type up something at work and then have an "incident" on the way home. Lady on cell phone coasts through a stop sign without looking, then reluctantly stops so I can turn left. I did a track stand by her driver's window, very close, and yelled as politely and loudly as I could "STOP SIGN" and rode on. Folks do tend to forget they're supposed to stop and look! Usually it's "I would have stopped if I'd seen you" and I reply "You would have seen me if you'd stopped." Which is indeed how it's supposed to work! But don't count on it.

Thank you all for your thoughts and recommendations. I am going to check out the Forester book at the library. I am also going to find a way to get out on the road to bicycle even if it takes a little time. Thanks again.

One thing that I have learned in other arenas of civil/natural rights is that a right not exercised is a right lost.

It was a little daunting to venture out on major roadways at first, being among the mess that is Houston traffic, but after a fair amount of reading up on traffic laws and cycling etiquette, I just took the plunge. It was far easier than I expected, and asserting my position as a rightful vehicle on the roadways made a huge difference in how I was treated by motorists.

Remember, if you are afraid to exercise your rights, you still don't have 'em.

Yes, there is much one can do to improve one's odds of surviving on the road. Be courteous and defensive, but be assertive, instead of cowering against the curb. Forester's book is good, but I think Franklin's Cyclecraft is even better, because it focus so specifically on safe cycling. I do choose my routes to try to avoid challenging/"interesting"/etc. intersections, notably high-speed free merges, diverges, and unions. For recreational cycling, I choose my time of day to minimize difficult traffic situations.

Just remember, as frightening as cycling seems, 1-2 cyclists die every day in America vs 100-130 motorists every day.

Learn to ride safely. I have some tips posted here: http://freebiketips.com/ (And anyone who knows content I should add, or who wants to be a contributor, let me know).

No matter how safe you feel in your car it is an illusion, and no matter how scary it is to ride in traffic, as long as you ride safely, you are probably twice as likely to make it home alive on a bike than in a car. (The statistics are very slippery, and hard to nail down) .

... you are probably twice as likely to make it home alive on a bike than in a car. (The statistics are very slippery, and hard to nail down) .

if the statistics are so "slippery and hard to nail down" why make a claim like that? If we are interested in disseminating reliable, responsible information to new cyclists let's be accurate and avoid hyperbole. IMO it makes other, more worthwhile information less trustworthy.


Simple logic would dictate that an automobile driven with strict adherence to speed limits, traffic signals and signs and applicable laws on the same road that a cyclist rode following the same parameters with regards safe usage would be at least as safe, if not safer, than a cyclist. The fact that the driver was seatbelted, airbagged and surrounded by 3000 pounds of steel and glass and rolling on four tires with an average tread width of 6-8" as opposed to two wheels with a tread width of about an inch and nothing surrounding their human body but perhaps some spandex and a plastic/styrofoam helmet should be enough to convince even those who would love to believe we are twice as likely to make it home alive on a bike than in a car to think again.

I've yet to see a car stopped in it's tracks by a 1/2" stick that jammed in it's wheel or the driver catapulted headfirst over the steering wheel after hitting a 2" deep pothole. If someone swings their car door open as a car passes by close enough to hit it it's goodbye door if a cyclist hit the door at that same speed and force- it's goodbye cyclist.

The paradox is that being hyper-sensitive to how vulnerable we are will only make nervous cyclists. It's like telling someone that walking across a 25' beam 6" wide is easy. Yeah, it's easy when it's on the ground but raise it 100' in the air and walk over it and you've got to forget how vulnerable you really are or you will fall.

Believing you're just as safe on a bike (or safer) than in a car is a survival mechanism that may actually make you safer because you'll operate with confidence, which is why A&S is filled with threads about how it's just as safe to ride without a helmet, or to ride with earphones, or by taking the lane as opposed to riding in a bike lane. And statistics will be maneuvered all over the place to support their claims. Ironically, they may be right in a way- a confident helmetless, earphoned, take the lane cyclist may be much safer than a nervous, bug-eyed, open eared, bike lane using, reflector vest wearing safety nanny. How you ride is dictated by how you think. If you ride around thinking you're going to get hit you very well may fulfill that thought.

In the grand scheme of things bicycling is a relatively safe activity and is safely done by millions of people world-wide on a daily basis with no special training.

If you do want some good tips take a look at Robert Hurst's "The Art of Urban Biking". The concept of riding as an "art" rather than following a bunch of rules will keep your mind flexible enough to cope with most any situation. J. Forester's book is so loaded with heady fundamentalist-like crap I personally found it less than useful.

following the same parameters with regards safe usage would be at least as safe, if not safer, than a cyclist.

I've yet to see a car stopped in it's tracks by a 1/2" stick that jammed in it's wheel or the driver catapulted headfirst over the steering wheel after hitting a 2" deep pothole.

The same parameters do no apply to bikes and cars. I have yet to see a bike that drove into a bridge abutment at 70 mph. Speed kills, and bikes dont go as fast as cars. I have seen statistics that show the chance of being killed in a car is about 3 times higher for the time driven. Since car average speeds are around 3 times that of bikes, the chance of being killed would be about the same for distance travelled

The same parameters do no apply to bikes and cars. I have yet to see a bike that drove into a bridge abutment at 70 mph. Speed kills, and bikes dont go as fast as cars. I have seen statistics that show the chance of being killed in a car is about 3 times higher for the time driven. Since car average speeds are around 3 times that of bikes, the chance of being killed would be about the same for distance travelled

the parameters I was referring to had to do with the same safe sane operation of the respective vehicle.


an automobile driven with strict adherence to speed limits

I wouldn't argue with you that excessive speed in an automobile does in fact kill and that the potential damage to the driver and other persons on the road is far greater in an automobile.

Please refer me to those statistics you mention if you wish but I am sure there are other statistics which would refute those.

Were I to walk out my front door right now, get on my bike and ride I would rapidly descend a curvy mountain road, it's wet from a ton of recent rain, there are frost heaves, potholes, a manic dog that sometimes breaks his leash and the potential of anyone of a number of wild animals could cross my path, not to mention the occasional loony in a pick up truck, as I rolled down at close to 40 miles per hour. The degree of focused attention and bike handling skills necessary to do the first one mile stretch from my front door to the next intersection in comparison to what it takes me to drive my car at the same speed is exponential. A slight error on the bike on that stretch of road could be catastrophic.

Convincing myself that I'm 3 times safer on my bike than in my car defies logic. I'd love it if you were right given the number of hours I spend on a bike as opposed to behind the wheel of a car but it simply ain't so. Excessive speed in and on any vehicle increases risk. Some might say I should go slow down the hill and sometimes I descend hills at a more moderate speed on my bike but I accept a certain level of risk in exchange for the joy and thrill of a good bike ride. Commuting in downtown traffic has similar inherent risks. The degree to which each rider is willing to accept those risks should be up to them provided those risks do not put others at unacceptable risk.

The bottom line is the risks exist. If bouncing statistics around serves to make the risk more justifiable in your mind and if that's what you need in order to confidently ride your bike then so be it. As for me, I'll ride but I'm a bit more of a realist when it comes to the big picture.