Advocacy & Safety - Bike Safety Videos...please comment

I watched this video and didn't get it. What was wrong with this how these bikers turned left??
Esp the 1st 2 cyclists
http://bicycledriver.com (then click Left Turn Typical Cyclists)

EDITED: Corrected URL

After watcing several of these, I can't tell how long the cyclist is actually signalling but it seems like alot of cutting in and out of lanes.

I don't signal very long, I put my hand back on the bar ASAP, so I have a control option

Not that impressed with the site. He doesn't signal long enough, yes I know it comprimises control but it's still necessary. He almost cuts off a car in "Left Turn: Let's make it difficult".

And to top it off, the layout of the site is painful to navigate.

And to top it off, the layout of the site is painful to navigate.
Agreed

Try to signal going into a roundabout. For right turns, you have to stick your hand out as you go around to the right. Heaps fun!

We have one downtown. I don't signal for that plus I've taken the lane by that point

some of the videos show the cars braking suddenly to let the guy in. What would be helpful is...

* # of feet to signal before taking the lane, or going into the turn. Right now, I signal for 5-10 seconds before actually going into the turn...still signaling while going into the turn (if possible)

* # of feet back the car behind me is before taking the lane... or # of carlengths . So like if the posted speed is 30, and you look back there and know the guy is doing 35...how much room do you give?

http://homepage.mac.com/bicycle_driver/Personal34.html

In this page, he is supposedly showing the culmination of all kinds of bike experience and navigating extreme traffic. In reality, he veers out in front of a car that has to move halfway in to the next lane to avoid him and then proceeds to wobble across the rest of the lanes as he signals every lane change, and attempts to look back every half lane.

His point seems to be that switching more than one lane at a time is not safe. I disagree. If you look back and see a block long traffic opening, it would seem more dangerous to continue checking and moving your hands on and off the bars and repeatedly signalling than just switching to your destination lane as soon as possible.

I watched this video and didn't get it. What was wrong with this how these bikers turned left??

I think he is objecting to the cyclist merging through the left lane as part of turning (i.e. he is turning left from the right lane). Instead a cyclist should merge into the left lane, and then in a separate act turn left.

Personally I think this guy is nuts. His videos of the "correct" way to do things show reckless behaviour. He doesn't signal long enough, dodges around cars, and doesn't maintain safe vehicle distances. I don't know where he is, but I was taught to always keep "2 car lengths between vehicles" and/or "at least 2 seconds travel time at your current speed between vehicles". The camera angle gives a fore-shortened perspective which may be decreasing the apparent distances, but even accounting for that I think this guy is begging to be road kill.

I think its a safe bet that if he drove a car that way here he would get pulled over by the cops.

Looking at the Negotiating Faster Traffic (Hi Resolution) ...
The guy says you shouldn't share the lane...this is contrary to what I've learned. Also...I always let the bigger dog pass if possible.

So is the trend now for the cyclist to own lane rather than "sharing the road"?

Gosh I really hope people don't watch those videos and think, that's how I should do things!!

The videos where he has himself doing the "correct" thing is usually not only no different from the supposed "wrong" thing, but either more dangerous or just as dangerous.

That left turn video, why bother signalling if you've already started to merge into the lane? His method of merging with each lane instead of going across all of them at once is technically correct but he swerves into each of them.

He takes 0.5s to signal and puts his hand back on the bars. If you're going to do that and started to merge into the lane, there really is no point.

Yeesh.

I'm not trying to pick at someone's efforts to educate the masses on the VC jazz. Just want to get a better handle on technique. Because traffic is behind me, it's difficult for me to see when I'm putting self and others in danger.

operator,
Yes...that's the impression I got too...but maybe the video is on fast-forward.

Check out the guy making the left turn at the end, he comes within 0.5 seconds of getting creamed by oncoming traffic. Hell I bike recklessly and I wouldn't even make that turn till the white car passed.http://homepage.mac.com/bicycle_driver/Personal61.html

I just bought a bike and started commuting recently, and used his site as well as Forrester's "Effective Cycling" book. I thought his site was really good. The only gripe I have is when changing lanes it seems to involve a lot of steps (see step 3 below)
1. Look behind for traffic in your lane
2. Swerve across to the outer side of the lane
3. Look back for traffic in the next lane, indicate, look back again, then swerve across to the inner side of the next lane

I notice that I tend to merge the actions in step 3 especially if I can see that I have make my move quickly.

Check out the guy making the left turn at the end, he comes within 0.5 seconds of getting creamed by oncoming traffic. Hell I bike recklessly and I wouldn't even make that turn till the white car passed.http://homepage.mac.com/bicycle_driver/Personal61.html

:eek: In looking at the guy's cadence, I realize these videos are real-time. Yeah many of cyclists seem to swerve suddenly in front of cars. I'll bet the biker doesn't think he's catching the car off guard.

I don't know... For a guy who's supposedly demonstrating his experience, he sure rides his bike like a schmuck.

:eek: In looking at the guy's cadence, I realize these videos are real-time. Yeah many of cyclists seem to swerve suddenly in front of cars. I'll bet the biker doesn't think he's catching the car off guard.

He's pedaling a little too fast. For safety, in traffic, if I'm comfortable at say 100rpm, I try to pedal at around 80 or so. You never want to be in your optimum aerobic cadence. You want to be slightly below that in traffic so if you need to, you can immediately mash on it and use the torque to accelerate if you find yourself in a dangerous situation, say you notice a car coming up behind you too quickly or you need to accelerate to change lanes.

He is way in the wrong gear in the few videos I checked out. If he had to accelerate, he couldn't, unless he can rev those legs like a sportscar.

He is way in the wrong gear in the few videos I checked out. If he had to accelerate, he couldn't, unless he can rev those legs like a sportscar.

It's LANCE!

Oh right... That's what it is... The guy is interval training for the Tour...

Why didn't I think of that before? :)