Old 08-23-06 | 12:42 PM
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sbhikes
Dominatrikes
 
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 4,920
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From: Still in Santa Barbara

Bikes: Catrike Pocket, Lightning Thunderbold recumbent, Trek 3000 MTB.

Cyclists I observed today and the lesson learned

Today I drove. I saw different bicyclists than I normally see. Here's what I noticed:

1. A cyclist riding over a bridge in the bike lane
2. A cyclist waiting for a light in the center of the traffic lane
3. A cyclist riding on the left edge of the road on a one-way street (this is legal)
4. A cyclist riding down the center of a left turn lane

The first three all had greenish-yellow high-visibility jackets on. I know that I saw many other cyclists but these three I specifically saw because of those jackets. I only noticed their lane position because that's the fixation on this forum. I think the jackets did way more for their visibility than lane position. Why? Because out of all the cyclists I saw, they were the ones I really noticed and didn't forget about.

The fourth cyclist didn't have any high visibility gear on.

Lesson learned? They were riding VC-style just fine despite the plethora of bicycle facilities in town, despite their apparent range of ages, races and genders, despite the type of bike or clothing they wore, despite the parts of town they were in, and despite the presence or absence of bike lanes on the roads they were using. Having plentiful roadway bike facilities does NOT preclude cyclists riding vehicularly.

Also, riding vehicularly or otherwise doesn't guarantee being noticed. High-visibility gear does a much better job of that!
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