I’m inter-modal today. Since my wife had an errand that required the use of our Honda, my daughter and I caught a ride to campus this morning (.75 miles). From there I’m on foot around campus, and I use BearLine to go downtown. We’ll walk home.
The temperature was in the high teens this morning. I’m perfectly willing to ride my bicycle when it’s that cold. But if circumstance work out, as they did today, I’m happy not to make my daughter ride in such cold weather.
As I have been reporting throughout the fall, even in the worst weather I am seeing plenty of cyclists in the morning. Allow me to engage in a bit of stereotyping here based on my assessment of appearance: Most of the cyclists I see now appear to be students, professors, and the working poor. I’m very uncomfortable adding that last one. But there it is. I’m planning to look more carefully into the topic of cycling and the working poor after the first of the year. Until then, you might like to take a look at the demographic profile of Springfield.
OK, so you may be wondering about my headline. It has little to do with what I’ve written so far in this post. I simply want to make an observation about some of the cyclists (from the three groups) I’m seeing on these cold mornings: A bunch of them are not wearing hats and gloves.
Again, the temperature was in the teens this morning.
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I live in Columbia and ride through the University of Missouri campus every morning on my way to work downtown. I’m amazed at the number of people riding without hats and gloves!
When the weather is really bad I often walk to work. I’ve had students just burst out laughing while approaching me because I am dress in coveralls, coat, gloves and a full bacalava. The funny thing is that even though they think I am just hilarious they are often hunched over, arms crossed in obvious pain while wearing a cute north face fleece or something similar.
I’ve learned to ignore their laughter and take comfort in the fact that its 10 degree’s outside but a comfortable 75 degrees inside my winter gear!
Posted 04 Dec 2008 at 12:25 pm ¶Robert… Exactly. Same thing happens to me on rainy days when I wear my bright yellow rain gear. A few students, always the ones caught unprepared (i.e. wet), find my appearance very amusing. It must be an age thing
Posted 04 Dec 2008 at 1:16 pm ¶Ahhhh…. You’ve touched on something that’s been apparent to me for a while now… and perhaps might be Springfield’s ugly little secret. You’re right about the working poor…I think there are three classes of commuters in Springfield. 1) Those of us who ride a bike to work by choice. 2) Students who may be biking a few doors to a few blocks (and are those without gloves and hats) 3) Those folks who ride a bike out of necessity.
I see the latter category quite often riding around town on a beater bike from Wally World that doesn’t fit them very well. If they’re out after dark (or before daylight), they don’t usually have any kind of light, and never wear a helmet. They wear whatever gloves and stocking hats they might (or might not) have.
One day when I was in a retrospective mood, I tried to ask myself whether they would consider themselves to be a cyclist the way I coonsider myself to be one and decided they would not. I decided that a lot of the folks I see riding are just people trying to get by. That makes them no less worthy of safe passage, proper safety education, and adequate facilities to support their journey, but in the end, I suspect they are probably more interested in their destination than the journey itself.
Posted 04 Dec 2008 at 1:27 pm ¶Tracy… Yep. This is an issue I plan to cover in some depth after the first of the year. I see a great opportunity here both to help people who need it and to leverage our demographic profile (a lot hourly-wage workers making below the national average) into more support for cycling community wide.
And welcome back from your vacation. I trust a fun time was had by all
Posted 04 Dec 2008 at 1:32 pm ¶The only folks I’ve seen on my 10-15 degree mornings this week are those I suspect to be in your third category. This morning I was nice and toasty, thinking to myself how much better my ski gloves worked this morning than my normal gloves. Just as I rounded a curve, here comes a guy with only a hooded sweatshirt and no gloves. It was 14 degrees out for goodness sakes, my hands would be so painful I wouldn’t be able to grip the bars. Wondered if he even has warm clothes or maybe he didn’t have far to go. Bike or no bike, today is a hat and glove day for most people.
Posted 04 Dec 2008 at 1:39 pm ¶I look forward to your coverage of this next year. The category of utility cyclists who ride out of necessity is a worthy topic. They make up the majority of crash victims because they are the least knowledgeable about safe cycling.
Imagine how much easier and safer their transportation would be if they had properly-inflated tires, working gears, lights, a bike that fit, the saddle-height adjusted so they weren’t destroying their knees… and a minimal understanding how to ride so that their commute wasn’t a war zone of constant conflict and close calls.
I’d be interested in an exchange of ideas about how to reach them with educational messages. What’s the delivery system? What’s the message they’d be receptive to?
Posted 04 Dec 2008 at 4:34 pm ¶Keri… Good questions. I have no good answers. But I’m thinking this is an issue we need to address in Springfield. Yes, I’m also interested in an exchange of ideas about how to reach them. Step one for me will be a little ol’ fashioned shoe-leather reporting.
Posted 04 Dec 2008 at 7:17 pm ¶