Advocacy & Safety - Which San Francisco cyclist is putting themself in greater danger?

One is an SF resident messenger/posenger, rides a brakeless fixed gear down Market Street.

The other also rides down Market Street. But they are a tourist on a rented hybrid. They have one hand on the bars, and the other holding a cell phone which they are using to photograph or video the skyline above.

It depends on which one first encounters the tourist in the rented hybrid car with one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding a cell phone which is being used to photograph, video, text or talk to someone.

in the larger scheme of things, its people that DON'T cycle while in San Francisco that will put them in greater danger, all things considered.

sedentary san franciscans are much more 'at risk' than active cyclists in San Francisco. same with tourists on a walking and biking trip versus a motorcoach tour of the bay area.

What's wrong with taking pictures while travelling down market street? Street rides like a bike highway. sheesh.

Who knows? It depends on the rider and situational details.

Is there a point here or just some fun?

If you had seen the tourist going down Market you would have been shocked.

Maybe this sounds like a silly question, but why on earth would you ride a fixed gear bike in San Francisco? To me that just seems like you're either trying to kill yourself or kill your knees.

fakengers can be pretty hazardous, and a total joke, in traffic.

If a tourist felt comfortable enough to snap some photogs while riding down Market street, he's safer than a fakenger on a brakeless fixie IMO. There's only a couple of wierd intersections to be on ones toes, the rest of Market Street rides like a cakewalk from the Castro all the way to the Pier -except during rush hour - no time worse to be on a bike than 5:45 PM in downtown San Francisco.

Okay folks, a cell phone has been shown to be as dangerous in the hands of a driver as a freshly-drained Margarita glass (to coin a phrase); why would it be LESS so in the hands of a bike rider in a strange city?

I wanna meet this tourist that rides down Market Street on a rented hybrid while filming the skyline... Until then, the messenger. He actually exists.

talking on a cellphone and taking pictures with a handheld media device are completely different levels of distraction to the human mind.

I'm not certain that I'd want to be around either, but since the messenger does it for a living and has probably survived many close calls, they probably have scared the crap out of many others. Just me, but I've seen cyclists on flat land that I often wonder how they are still alive or haven't injured a pedestrian by running them over. I usually ride my atb in South Beach and my friend who lives there has a cruiser, he rides on the sidewalks of Lincoln Road Mall (outdoor shopping on an ultrawide sidewalk) like a maniac. I ride slower and always allow pedestrians right of way in that situation.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Lincoln+Road+Mall,+Miami+Beach,+FL&hl=en&ll=25.790426,-80.136293&spn=0.001043,0.002064&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=59.206892,135.263672&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=25.790552,-80.136505&panoid=DF5L-2zeK5407UAe2Wsoyw&cbp=12,76.06,,0,-1.05

BTW, that isn't peak weekend pedestrian traffic from google maps.

The tourist was probably not going full bore down a hill without brakes, so I'm picking the tourist.

Come on, man, what's your point? Both types of riding are equally stupid.

Maybe this sounds like a silly question, but why on earth would you ride a fixed gear bike in San Francisco? To me that just seems like you're either trying to kill yourself or kill your knees.

I wondered that, too, but a friend who lives in SF and bikes there quite frequently told me that a very sizable percentage of the bikes she sees there every day are fixed gear. Apparently you can avoid many of the biggest hills if you choose your routes carefully and are willing to take one that's less direct.

Still, I agree that fixed gear bike doesn't seem like the best tool for a mountainous city. It's probably doable, but why?

fixed gear is a fashion accessory in San Francisco. don't let the locals fool you- you can't avoid the hills, but you can choose less steep, roundabout ways to get places.

It's funny too - i rarely have seen out of control tourists on rental bikes, but i see out of control fakengers all the time, riding in every city of any size in america, totally clueless and out of control on their cobbled together craigslist "dangerous at any speed" fixies


.......like the guys that can't stop and wind up halfway into the lanes of cross traffic. ALL THE TIME.

I rank less than 5 percent of the actual brakeless fixed gear riders as skilled, about 30 percent are passable but with a modicum of handling skills, and the other 60 percent as rolling trainwrecks. AND, Many fakengers you see in cities are riding freewheel equipped bikes with hand brakes.

fixed gear is a fashion accessory in San Francisco. don't let the locals fool you- you can't avoid the hills, but you can choose less steep, roundabout ways to get places.

It's funny too - i rarely have seen out of control tourists on rental bikes, but i see out of control fakengers all the time, riding in every city of any size in america, totally clueless and out of control on their cobbled together craigslist "dangerous at any speed" fixies


.......like the guys that can't stop and wind up halfway into the lanes of cross traffic. ALL THE TIME.

I rank less than 5 percent of the actual brakeless fixed gear riders as skilled, about 30 percent are passable but with a modicum of handling skills, and the other 60 percent as rolling trainwrecks. AND, Many fakengers you see in cities are riding freewheel equipped bikes with hand brakes.

I'm not sure that all of the idiots who can't stop and wind up halfway into the lanes of cross traffic are on fixed gear bikes. I went on a "casual" charity ride this spring that attracted a lot of the urban hipster crowd for some reason. And some of them were having trouble stopping their bikes effectively at stop signs even with a freewheel...I saw a lot of scary behavior just like that, and it was an eye opener for me because I don't usually bike with that crowd. I don't know if it's that actually stopping at stop signs was a new thing for them (since the ride organizers were very clear about everyone needing to do that), or if their brakes were poorly maintained and ineffective, or what. But I saw a few people on that ride that were skidding out into every intersection they arrived at. Bizarre.

A typisch fakenger riding technique, regardless of their drivetrains, yes.