Originally Posted by
jppe
I have told folks that don’t feel comfortable to be out riding on the road with vehicles to not ride. It’s tough enough of an activity that if your not comfortable and completely enjoying doing it, maybe it’s not for them.
My situation is not so much about what I’m comfortable with right now. It’s more about keeping my wife supportive of my riding. She’s never said anything negative about my riding, extended time away, costs etc. Heck, she even sagged for me riding across the US, volunteered at tours so I could get into the event and ride, and even rode a week with me across NC on a tandem. She’s very aware of the risks and rewards. When her sensitivities get out of balance I’m just trying to pull them back into balance.
Plus even if there weren’t her concerns, these features or Apps I’ve added should be great tools for her and I in the future. Thinking ahead of riding Natchez Trace in April where she will be sagging for me again, she can now track my location (and me hers) which will greatly help us as we plan stops along the route. It can give her more freedom to do side trips off the Parkway to explore and not worry about if I’ve already passed by.
Your response makes much sense. I assume that the GPS function of smartphones and a suitable app that allows your wife to keep track of your real time location would meet both you and your wife's needs.
The "incident detection" function, given its unreliability and tendency to give false alarms (as described in several other posts on this thread), seems more likely to cause problems for both the bicyclist and those who either receive the false alarms, or are depending on being the first to be notified of a serious problem from a system that may or may not ever be reliable enough to be counted on in the unlikely event it is ever needed.
I have a question for you or anybody who is familiar with the operation of various incident reporting systems: Do they automatically send unfiltered "incident" notifications to 911 or other local emergency services whenever the system detects an anomoly that it interpets as an "incident"? If so, how do those agencies feel about responding to multiple false alarms?