Comments on: You’ve Got It All Backwards! http://www.bikeleague.org/blog/youve-got-it-all-backwards/ Blog for bikeleague Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:17:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Ron Rizzardi http://www.bikeleague.org/blog/youve-got-it-all-backwards/#comment-9544 Ron Rizzardi Tue, 18 Dec 2007 01:34:07 +0000 http://www.bikeleague.org/blog/?p=24#comment-9544 While driving, I shudder at some of the not to bright things I see other cyclist doing that from a motorist's perspective really puts these folks in danger. The biggest thing I see are cyclists just not being lit up enough at night. Not one strip of reflective fabric on them. A single red blinky light does not count. It simply does not allow a motorist to acquire you soon enough. The sooner you can get the motorist behind you to see you the much better off you are. The second thing I see are cyclists not commanding their lane. I saw it from behind one night while driving. Four lanes with a center turn lane. Two cars ahead of me traveling side by side one in each lane. Then the car in the right lane suddenly slows enough that I see the front end tip down. Expecting they saw an obstruction in the road I look carefully and slow. Looking I see a single red light about the size of pin head. A cyclist, barely visible even though I know he's there now. And - riding the gutter as close as is possible. Bouncing along in the cracked pavement. Zero options and a stunned driver of a 2000# car following. Suddenly faced with the need to pass. They had a choice. Go to the left lane and pass or do a squeeze play on the cyclist. And the later of the two is what they did. If the mirror was 3 inches from the cyclist's elbow it was only an inch. It was so harrowing that I was expecting to witness a fellow cyclist getting hit by a car. He didn't. 1) Be visible. Had he been visible the car could have merged left sooner. 2) Take the lane. Here, passing traffic had a whole second lane to pass on. But for this to be effective you have to be seen. See step one above. While driving, I shudder at some of the not to bright things I see other cyclist doing that from a motorist’s perspective really puts these folks in danger.

The biggest thing I see are cyclists just not being lit up enough at night. Not one strip of reflective fabric on them. A single red blinky light does not count. It simply does not allow a motorist to acquire you soon enough. The sooner you can get the motorist behind you to see you the much better off you are.

The second thing I see are cyclists not commanding their lane. I saw it from behind one night while driving. Four lanes with a center turn lane. Two cars ahead of me traveling side by side one in each lane. Then the car in the right lane suddenly slows enough that I see the front end tip down. Expecting they saw an obstruction in the road I look carefully and slow. Looking I see a single red light about the size of pin head. A cyclist, barely visible even though I know he’s there now. And - riding the gutter as close as is possible. Bouncing along in the cracked pavement. Zero options and a stunned driver of a 2000# car following. Suddenly faced with the need to pass. They had a choice. Go to the left lane and pass or do a squeeze play on the cyclist. And the later of the two is what they did. If the mirror was 3 inches from the cyclist’s elbow it was only an inch. It was so harrowing that I was expecting to witness a fellow cyclist getting hit by a car.

He didn’t.

1) Be visible. Had he been visible the car could have merged left sooner.

2) Take the lane. Here, passing traffic had a whole second lane to pass on. But for this to be effective you have to be seen. See step one above.

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