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Category Archives: bicycle safety

Great Expectations

Every time I head into traffic on my bicycle have both high and low expectations. I have high expectations for how I’ll generally be treated by my fellow road users — especially those driving cars. People hereabouts are very polite. That politeness translates into a high degree of tolerance for road users who are not driving [...]

Posted 12 August 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology ‡ Comments (3) ° Tagged: , , ,

Crazy Season Has Arrived

The crazy season has begun. Always mark these four weeks on your calendar: The two weeks before classes begin at MSU and the two weeks after classes begin. You’ll also note that all other schools will begin classes at some point during these four weeks. Just crazy. The streets of Springfield are already filling with [...]

Posted 10 August 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology ‡ Comments (4) ° Tagged: , ,

Chicken and Salmon

I played chicken with a road salmon today coming out of downtown in the rain. There are more bicyclists on the roads these days in Springfield. We need to do a new round of official traffic counts to confirm this. But with more than six years experience riding as basic transportation in this town, I [...]

Posted 05 August 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology ‡ Comments (7) ° Tagged: ,

Boy Hurt in Crash

The details from the News-Leader are sketchy: A 7-year-old boy on a bicycle collided with a van at the intersection of Kansas Expressway and Hovey St. The child suffered a broken leg. I found this interesting: Phillips said the boy, who was riding a bike, and the van met at the corner of Hovey Street [...]

Posted 21 July 2010 † Andy Cline § news § policy ‡ Comments (10) ° Tagged: , , ,

Update on St. Charles Co. Bike Ban

Here’s a report from FOX2 in St. Louis. Question: If these roads are so dangerous, why are the speed limits 55 mph? Perhaps what needs to happen is to slow drivers rather than to ban bicyclists. The council tabled the bill in order to consider expanding the ban. More coverage from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch AP [...]

Posted 13 July 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § news § policy ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: , , , ,

Lanes/Tracks Study: My Reaction

I’ve read the Bicycle Tracks and Lanes Study (actually an older study, so this isn’t news) and spent some time thinking about it today. I’m not at all sure I have much to add. This doesn’t mean that I agree with all the findings. It simply means that the findings appear to me to be [...]

Posted 07 July 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology ‡ Comments (8) ° Tagged: , , ,

Bicycle Lane Safety Study

Thanks to Dan Gutierrez for posting this to Facebook: Bicycle Tracks and Lanes: A Before-After Study. I’m a bit old-fashioned; anything that I want to study carefully I prefer to read in print. So I’m taking my printed copy of this study and heading straight to the Mudhouse for java and reading. I’ll post a [...]

Posted 07 July 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: , , ,

Cycling Savvy

My friend Keri Caffrey, of Commute Orlando, has been working on a new bicycling education program for many weeks. The results of her hard work may now be found at Cycling Savvy. If you want to learn to ride a bicycle in traffic with ease and confidence, this is a great place to start. I [...]

Posted 29 June 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology ‡ Comments Off ° Tagged: , , , , ,

Mutual Respect

Jessica McFall’s op-ed in today’s News-Leader calls for mutual respect between car drivers and bicycle riders. Hard to disagree with that. But I have a far different experience on Springfield’s roads than she describes: Recently while riding my bicycle home from work, someone threw a handful of loose change at me from their window, hitting [...]

Posted 25 June 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology § news ‡ Comments (13) ° Tagged: , ,

Avoiding the Left Cross

Take a look at this nifty animation from Keri Caffrey of Commute Orlando. Click on the imagine and click then on each of the arrows for the full-size experience (because what you see here is just a static image). Notice how important lane positioning is. I infer from the number of bicyclists ( a bunch) [...]

Posted 15 June 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: , ,

Lane Position — Textbook Example

Coming home from the Farmer’s Market today I was riding north on Fremont between Sunset and Sunshine. Another bicyclist was a bout 50 yards ahead of me, so I was able to watch the effects of lane positioning for about a mile. Fremont is a 3-lane secondary artery along this stretch. The driving lanes are [...]

Posted 05 June 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology ‡ Comments (7) ° Tagged: , ,

What Gets You Hurt/Killed

Take a good look at this graphic posted by Keri Caffrey at Commute Orlando: In today’s Springfield News-Leader, a reader makes this comment: I know that laws and customs will probably never change regarding bicyclists and traffic flow, but I would prefer that cyclists ride against traffic flow. At least then, when I pop over [...]

Posted 12 May 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § news ‡ Comments (6) ° Tagged: , , ,

Alert: Student Pepper-Sprayed

A student of mine was pepper-sprayed yesterday evening while riding his bicycle on East Trafficway near Hammons Field. He was heading east away from the intersection of Hammons Pkwy. and riding in the bicycle lane. An older, blue pick-up truck slowed down and pulled side-by-side within two or three feet. The passenger stuck his arm [...]

Posted 03 May 2010 † Andy Cline § news ‡ Comments (18) ° Tagged: , ,

Helmet Ethics

Somehow, a few people hereabouts missed the two posts I wrote in November about my new attitude toward bicycle helmets. Betting My Brains My Helmet-Wearing Criteria Two things: I am not engaging in a helmet “boycott,” nor am I suggesting that anyone adopt my criteria for his own. I had a phone conversation yesterday with [...]

Posted 28 April 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology ‡ Comments (5) ° Tagged: , , , ,

Looks Like Fun!

Keri Caffrey, of Commute Orlando, just published this photo on Facebook. Her cutline indicates that drivers were giving them a full lane of passing width until they arrived at this bicycle lane. Then look what happened. By the way, that looks like 3 feet of clearence to me. Two things are going wrong here: Florida [...]

Posted 16 April 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology ‡ Comments (11) ° Tagged: , , , , , , ,