Brian Ratliff

The Oregon Bicyclist Manual has been around in Oregon for a couple years now. What do you all think of it? I believe it gives good advice along the lines of most experienced cyclist's opinions. It treats destination lane positioning and basic traffic cycling principles in a concise but kind of abreviated fashion.

The thing that prompted me to bring this up is the kind of vaguish way it deals with how to handle a bike in bike lanes. I think this is somewhat out of PR concerns; the bike lanes are there, so go and use them. It doesn't give much specific guidance regarding the new rules about when it is legal to leave the bike lane and so forth. Specifically, it doesn't stress enough, in my opinion, that it is important, nay, doublely an tripply important to guard against right hooks in a bike lane by moving toward the left side of the lane.

Of what it does present, I am pleasently surprised to see such issues such as vehicular left turns and other vehicular cycling principles incorporated into an official document. There is even a section on taking the lane and curb hugging (bad). In the curb hugging section, it does have words that indirectly warn against right hooks, but it is not very specific. And it is inclusive of many different types of cyclists, particularly in the left turn section where it gives three different techniques for completing a left turn.

So, without getting into a war over this, is this a good document for a cyclist who is not an enthusiast like ourselves? Is it sufficient to show to a person just starting out cycling for transportation? What more would you include? What would you exclude?

donnamb 

I have a copy saved to my e-books folder. It's pretty good, especially for a beginner. Like you, I wish they went into when it is legal to leave a bike lane. Had I not attended the Bicycle Legal Clinic the second month I began bike commuting, I'm not sure when I would have figured out the exceptions. I guess I understand why they don't get into ways of safely riding in bike lanes - it would most likely cause conflict with local law enforcement interpretation...

I also like how they detail the 3 ways to make a left turn. Honestly, there are people who will just never make a left like a car, and that's that. There have been some times in bumper-to-bumper downtown traffic where it's just been a lot easier to use one of the 2 alternate ways of turning left, and there are certain streets with light rail and streetcar tracks downtown where those other turn methods can be a great relief - especially in the driving rain. Last week I also discovered their finer points riding around Portland with my mother.

I've often thought that ODOT could improve it by using parts of John Allen's Bicycling Street Smarts. That came with my Breezer (comes with all Breezers ), and really packs a lot of useful information onto 46 pages.

Brian Ratliff

The Breezer came with material on how to ride in traffic?! All bikes probably should. Does any of the advocacy groups hand the pamphlet out at outreach events?

donnamb 

I've never seen it being given out, Brian. Allen's book does cost money, though I doubt very much. There is a free PDF version that I linked to above. The City of Portland puts out a fairly decent "beginning cyclist" manual. I got one at some lecture recently, and gave it to a girlfriend who's going to be buying a bike soon. It looks pretty good.

hotbike

I started a thread titled "Is Slower Safer?" last week.

When I was younger I drove my bicycle fast. Maybe I was somewhat militant about it.
Maybe there should be a word or two in the manual about the speed of bicycles?
Maybe motorists don't know that bicycles can exceed the posted speed limit, but we could admit it.

There is a strange paradox concerning driving a bicycle at the speed limit. This is when the motorist behind the bicycle "blows a gasket" (in the figurative sense).

There should be greater public awareness that some bicycles are fast, and can do the speed limit, even if it hurts the motorist's ego.

Once that message goes out, It wouldn't be so necessary for bicyclists to "prove" that their bike can do the speed limit. Or at least, I don't want anyone to risk their life trying to proove that your bike can do 30MPH, or with double the effort, 35MPH.

The motorist is on an ego trip. Don't rattle his cage. He can be very dangerous.

I know, it can be very frustrating when you're a youthful male and you're trying to be the fastest bicycle rider in the World, and some jerk cut's you off. Just when you were three seconds ahead of your personal best time trial ET...

I had that happen to me. And I never got back to beating that time (ten miles in 19 minutes and twenty one seconds). I joined the Navy instead. I should've joined the Marines, I didn't realize I was tough enough. I did participate in hand to hand combat practice with the Marines. Then they made me "Run the Gauntlet". Having passed that test, I went on "Boarding Parties" wherein I rappelled from a helicopter and searched ships for contraband, such as weapons. The funny thing was, my Navy uniform had a narrower belt than the Marine uniform, so it wouldn't hold the sheath for the combat knife. I had to rappell in and out of the helicopter, in rough seas, holding the knife in my teeth!

But I digress.
Except for the Tour de France, there is sparse coverage of cycling events.
Few people realize that to win the Tour de France, the bicyclist must average 33MPH, a hundred miles a day, for 23 days.

I wish television stations would give bicycle companies "EQUAL TIME" . Yes, just like a political campaign, bicycle stores should get some free advertising, equal to the number of car commercials.
As if bicycles versus cars was a political issue...
Bicycles are outselling cars. Pretty amazing considering the lack of advertising. But the car dealer sets aside $6000.00 from the sale of each car to pay for the (expletive deleted) car commercials.

donnamb 

So hotbike, I'm assuming you had a look at the Oregon Bicyclist's Manual that Brian Ratliff linked to. Can you distill your message into something that you think should go in the manual?

randya

Unless it's been revised recently, publication of the Oregon Bicyclist Manual predates recent changes to the sections of the statue regarding when it is permissible to leave the bike lane.

Brian Ratliff

Allen's book is actually pretty good; it is fairly complete and has some good advice, especially some tips about night riding and riding in the rain and in the presence of angry drivers.

I was actually asking if the Oregon Bicyclist Manual was given out at advocacy events here in Portland. Does the city pamphlet differ from the ODOT manual?

Brian Ratliff

Probably so. It is dated "2006", and the law passed sometime in the middle of 2006, didn't it?

randya

The Oregon legislature meets bienially. They are meeting now and the last time they met would have been 2005, with the new bike lane exceptions going into effect Jan 1, 2006.

https://www.bta4bikes.org/at_work/newlaws2006.php

Brian Ratliff

So then, it should have been included in the 2006 bicyclist manual. The treatment of bike lanes was one area where the manual took on a vague, kind of PC, hands off approach. Perhaps it is not clear, from ODOT's perspective, how the new law is to be enforced, so they refrain from taking any position at all about it.

randya

ODOT is hardly a pro-bike organization. Case in point - the failure to provide any meaningful bike access improvements on the Saint Johns Bridge during the recent bridge reconstruction project, despite state law which requires them to do so (Oregon Bicycle Bill). Second case in point - ODOT Share the Road posters urging motorists to Share the Road with motorcyclists, and completely ignoring bicyclists.

Helmet Head

The SD County Bike Coalition has sent out a copy of Bicycling Streetsmarts to members who sign up a certain level... But it's free on the web in pdf format. Just google for Bicycling Streetsmarts!

Brian Ratliff

I've read it, thanks. See above.

MrCjolsen

The Oregon manual pretty much describes the way I ride. Except for the stopping at stop signs. Yes, it is the law but if no one sees me ...

hotbike

I found one thing that should be revised in the OBM.
On page seven, there is a diagram showing "right" and "wrong". But if you look close at the car the "wrong" cyclist is swerving around, the car is on the wrong side of the road.
The "right" cyclist is going to risk a head-on collision with the red car.

Other than that, maybe the Oregon Bicyclist's Manual should say something about watching your speed.
Bicyclists are often mistakenly assumed to be going too slow. Not every bicycle ride is a bicycle race.
Sometimes there are road conditions that warrant downshifting, so as to be prepared to stop. The bicycle may have the right-of-way legally, but if the driver of the car doesn't see you, or he/she doesn't know the law, it's better to stop than to be in a collision with the car.

Wait a minute, the OBM does say something about speed, on page 14:

"Slow down at driveways and
street crossings if a car is
coming. If you go too fast, drivers
will not see you (they are looking
for pedestrians nearby, not a
fastmoving cyclist further away).
If you crash, you may be found at
fault if you were going too fast. "

I re-read the manual, and it does say that bicycles can go "too fast".

So I would just like to see the diagram on page seven corrected, since the red car is shown on the wrong side of the road.