A short list: 1. Me traveling along Cherry east-bound at MSU. Girl pulls out of sorority parking lot on bicycle, also heading east. Me traveling in a commanding lane position 5 feet from curb roughly right-center in the lane. She riding along the face of the gutter. Car approaches from behind and passes me by [...]
Step one, DO NOT WATCH THESE VIDEOS by the AAA and the LAB!!! Oooops. You watched them, didn’t you? And after I told you not to. So, is it clear why theses are bad videos? Here’s a hint: lane positioning. It simply cannot be that these videos are a mistake and that Andy Clarke, president [...]
Mighk Wilson, of CyclingSavvy and author of Bicycling Is Better, posted this on Facebook this morning: An idea for discussing lane control with non-cyclists (and perhaps even cyclists): I’ve tried this a couple times and it certainly gets people thinking. I either show them an image or video of a lane-controlling cyclist on a high-speed [...]
In the classroom portion of CyclingSavvy we present a nifty interactive pie chart demonstrating that a bicyclist who knows how traffic works and follows the rules can mitigate 96 percent of the most common types of crashes. That leaves a 4-percent slice of the pie called “other.” I had a close encounter with “other” this [...]
Warning: This post may piss you off. Good. Can you spot the problem(s)? I’m torn. On the one hand, I am a supporter of everyone enjoying bicycling in all of its many forms. Get out there and have fun! But… This video represents more than simply the predictable results of running a stop sign. This [...]
I noticed something the other day, i.e. thought about something I do as potential blog-fodder I tend to prefer to cross primary arteries at major intersections when traffic is busy. When traffic is not-so-busy, I tend to choose non-major intersections. I say “tend” to indicate that if one were to bet on my actions at [...]
One of the reasons you should be reading Commute Orlando is because it’s like an on-going traffic class. This week Keri Caffrey demonstrates why a leftward position at intersections is the safest way to proceed straight across. General rule of vantage: “The best vantage in your lane will generally be gotten from where a car [...]
Raise your hand if you own a computer. Keep your hand up if your computer has ever glitched while in use, i.e. lost its internet signal or crashed or done some other annoying thing that basically ended its functionality if even for a few seconds. Ahhhh … all of you Now imagine a computer driving [...]
Disclaimer: Nothing I have written in this post should be interpreted as walking back the idea that bicyclists should follow the rules of the road. This seems to me to be a fact: Unpredictable behavior by bicyclists seems to be what the average motorist expects, i.e. bicyclist behavior is predictable in its unpredictableness. Predictable behavior, [...]
Keri Caffrey, of Commute Orlando and CyclingSavvy, has updated her excellent video Bicycling in Traffic is a Dance You Must Lead. Something to note: You are NOT watching “hardened” cyclists or “road warriors” or “adrenaline junkies” who brave the dangers of traffic. Bicycling in traffic is safe (compared to a lot of other dangerous things [...]
On my ride downtown this morning, two expectations: 1. At the 4-way stop at Cherry and Hammons, a driver arrived well ahead of me. But he waited at the sign, and waited, and waited. I signaled my turn and came to a proper foot-down stop. Then he goes. He expected me to run the stop [...]
So the Chinese are now driving more than ever. And the results are predictable. China will eventually regret its growing love of the automobile. From the story on the traffic jam: “Insufficient traffic capacity on the National Expressway 110 caused by maintenance construction since August 19 is the major cause of the congestion,” a publicity officer with [...]
Starting Monday morning the streets of Springfield are going to be a lot more crowded around our universities and public schools. Wouldn’t it be nice if people who choose to drive cars marked this as the beginning of a new attitude about the streets? College student? New to Springfield? This is a great place to [...]
