Countless other people had remembrances about Forester. Here are some comments which John Schubert received. (Where the comments came from closed social media groups, he witholds the names.)
Karl Rudnick
-League Cycling Instructor
I stand with my hand over heart in our Smart Cycling classes as we recite “Cyclists fare best when they act as, and are treated as, drivers of vehicles.” Without John, we may not have been the first state in the union back in 1976 to add the narrow lane exception to our “ride far to the right” law; that exception has spread to almost every state and we finally have sharrows and BMUFL to educate all to this little known (but widely applicable on ~95% of the roads) exception.
Phillip Young
A longtime San Diego cyclist and activist. RIP.
Absolutely, John is right!
Cyclists should be a natural part of the street and highway traffic flow. Bike paths are a way for politicians to get us off the road and out of their sight.
Bike paths are inherently not the same quality or efficiently routed as the roads due to the lack of maintenance, design, and political will (money).
David Takemoto-Weerts
– Bicycle coordinator, UC Davis, now retired
John made several visits to Davis over the years. His last time here was at the International Bicycle Safety Conf. held on campus in 2017. I was able to show him his Viking touring bike on display at the Bicycleng Hall of Fame, and he was very pleased with how it was presented.
I see that his last message on the CABOforum was on March 27. Glad to know he was fighting right up until the end. We owe him a lot.
Serge Issakov
– San Diego cyclist and activist
Like many here and countless others around the world, I was liberated from edge riding by default by John’s writing, making our cycling far more effective. RIP.
Harry Lichtbach
A tragic loss. His comments and observations will be missed.
He has earned his rest!
He spoke at an Almaden Cycling Touring Club meeting many years ago. I brought my teemage son to hear him. My son brought our Effective Cycling with him and John
signed it. My son, now a father, still has the book.
Robyn McCutcheon
It’s been 30 years since I first discovered John Forester’s “Effective Cycling” and learned the lessons that have seen me apply EC principles around the globe. Whether in Moscow, Tashkent, Bucharest, Astana, or Washington, DC, those principles have always guided me and have always worked. (My one experience riding in Copenhagen was a different story.) I am grateful to him for his gift to me and to all of us in this community.
Andrew Grell
-New York City
I never met John in person, but I will always thank him for making me an effective cyclist. Right now, today in New York City, thanks to the Plague, almost everything that comes into somebody’s house got there by bicycle. Citibike has 60,000 bicycles in NYC now.
My clearest memory is a long-running debate on Chainguard [an e-mail list] in which John finally agreed that a bicycle Priority Reservation, like a bus or HOV lane for urban streets with bumper-to-bumper traffic is not such a bad idea.
John S. Allen
– LCI, CyclingSavvy Instructor, author, advocate
Forester has brought abuse upon himself with his abrasive, confrontational style. But let’s not anybody forget that Forester was a game changer. His book Effective Cycling, first published in the 1970s, pioneered with its advice on crash avoidance maneuvering, lane positioning, preparing for turns, nighttime equipment needs — supporting this advice with a review of research literature.
Stacy Kline
Our hearts are broken. John has done more than can be stated to protect the rights of all bicyclists. May this dear, amazing man, rest in peace. ♥️
John E
I’ll think of him now whenever I see the sign, Bikes May Use Full Lane. Though for him, of course that went without saying.
RIP, Mr. Forester, and thank you.
Robert Seidler
– filmmaker
I always enjoyed John and actually stayed at his house with him for 6 weeks in 1991. I was the person that got him on a mountain bike and actually riding on the beach. He was charming, cordial and most often correct.
He was also wickedly funny. Best quote about John.
“He should be locked in a closet and notes passed under the closet door, in just a few minutes profound and correct answers would be slid back out…safely”
“Cyclists fare best when they act as and are treated as drivers of vehicles”
That’s John and 100% true.
Ron Gurth
He was my intro to “being traffic”, thru his seminal work, EC. It was cool to me that he was still active on the FB pages we all frequent. I felt a personal connection. I’m sure many did.
Bill Hoffman
– League Cycling Instructor, former Board member, League of American Bicyclists
So sorry to read this. I knew John for almost 45 years. We were guests in each other’s homes on more than one occasion. The last time I saw him was about 15 months ago. I stayed at his house when I went to San Diego for a jazz festival. When we were both on the (then) LAW board in the late 70s, I was often the only director who supported his positions. After I took the original 30-hour EC course, he gave me the road test while I was visiting him in Palo Alto.
Bruce Burgess
– Former League Board member, Worked for Bikecentennial, Bicycle Federation
A life well spent. Ride on John!
Edward J. Wagner
Oklahoma cycling expert
“You can’t get there from here. There aren’t any bike lanes.” That’s the kind of dependency that results from a facilities heavy approach rather than educating and empowering cyclists.
Wayne Pein
North Carolina Researcher
”As a lifelong bicyclist, I didn’t realize my eyes were wide shut with respect to bicycling matters until I first read Effective Cycling, fourth edition, in 1988 at age thirty. John Forester’s seminal, expansive, and tireless work in educating bicyclists and protecting the rights of bicyclists as drivers of vehicles has been incalculably valuable to me and countless thousands of others who pedal for fun and utility.”
Jean Doiron
He probably saved my life more times than I can count. Rest In Peace John. I ‘m a convert from 1999…
Jay Townley
– 1970s Schwinn vice president, bicycle industry consultant
I knew John Forester, debated him, argued with him, got verbally roughed up by him, and greatly respected him. His Effective Cycling course will be taught for many years to come and will be his lasting legacy to the American bicycling community. I am sure he is taking the lane from the big guy upstairs.
Ray Keener
– Bicycle industry consultant
I picked up my copy of Effective Cycling off Forester’s porch in Sunnyvale CA. I was pretty much a disciple at the time, so we got along fine. EC principles and behaviors are more widespread than ever. And that’s a good thing, as long as we apply them judiciously rather than defiantly.
Allan Howard
– the first certified Police Cycling Instructor, http://ipmba.org/blog/comments/from-eci-to-pci-a-tribute-to-john-forester
John wasn’t an advocate, he was an activist. Activists often come in contact with law enforcement and they aren’t always touchy-feely situations. John was passionate about cycling and his cause; consequently, he’d had some experiences with LEOs that leaned him a little more toward the “question authority” side. When I was introduced to him I could tell I needed to overcome his perception of LEOs if I wanted to essentially plagiarize his life’s work.
I had two things going for me that night; one, I was a life-long cyclist and current bicycle racer, and John was/had been both. The second “in” was that you never needed to ask what I was thinking, it just came out (mostly to my own detriment) and John was afflicted with same problem. After dinner, John queried me on hypothetical situations involving cycling activists and LEOs that I later learned were based on his actual experiences; I suppose as some sort of test. He laid out several scenarios and wanted to know how I would handle them, each one being more confrontational than the last. The last situation we discussed involved a cyclist pushing things to the point of arrest and not being willing to submit to it. I was at a crossroads. As we sat there with him staring at me, I knew my answer would make or break my hope to use his material. Should I lie and say I’d have empathy for someone who was passionate about their cause, or tell the real truth? I wish I could tell you I debated for what seemed like an eternity, but I didn’t. I looked him square in the eye and told him anyone who had pushed a situation to the point of arrest and then physically resisted it would “get a rap on the beak and be put in handcuffs”. He smiled, said he thought I was an honest man, and granted permission for IPMBA to use any of his material for our training course, free of charge.
The core group of founding IPMBA board members would go on to create the Police Cyclist/Instructor Courses from Effective Cycling and that put IPMBA on the map. Our training continues to be our primary focus and has saved who knows how many public safety lives. Over the course of IPMBA’s development, I continued to see John at L.A.W. meetings/rallies and he was very interested in seeing us succeed. Eventually, it became time for IPMBA to become its own entity and we did so successfully, primarily because of the Police Cyclist Course. Many people in our organization don’t know what the L.A.W. and John Forester did for us, but without them, we wouldn’t exist.
Jim Baross
– League cycling Instructor and seminar leader; CyclingSavvy Instructor; League Board member
I invited him to show up at the LCI seminars I run for the League. People were thrilled to get his autograph.
He was an early outspoken advocate for the rights of people to use bicycles on public roads.
Sad passing of an important protector for our right to travel by bicycle.
Patricia Kovacs
– Ohio cycling advocate, CyclingSavvy instructor
I don’t think I can read one more “obituary” of John Forester. This one[a derogatory one] even baits us to stick up for him. I regret not sticking up for him against Furth in Davis, CA in 2017. I’m Sorry John Forester and you will always be one of my heroes.
[from a private social-media group]
Forester articulated how the rules of movement for vehicles apply to bicycles as well as motor vehicles, and why it is to a bicyclist’s advantage to operate within that system rather than outside of it. This is based on principles such as visibility (sightlines) and predictability.
[from a private social-media group]
My biggest gripe with infrastructure advocacy is that part of the sales pitch is often the disempowering message that cycling for transportation requires bicycle infrastructure to be safe.
[from a private social-media group]
You and others like you aren’t opposing John Forester, you’re opposing a straw man caricature of him. If you go to the League of American Bicyclists education page, you are going to see the very techniques and concerns that you’re mocking here, and you’re going to see them being safely modeled not by Olympic athletes on carbon-fiber race bikes, but moms and kids on bikes with sparkly tassels on the handlebars. Lane control, the danger of the right hook when using bike lanes etc. You will get the same in any LAB safe riding course. Sit down and actually read Effective Cycling cover to cover, and you’ll find a lot to like,
[from a private social-media group]
If we were all taught how streets worked when we are kids, that’s the way that everyone would expect them to work, not the way with random habits and attitudes adults see streets working now.
[from a private social media group]
Don’t know the man but do know the product of his work is safer cycling for me – also much quicker.
[from a private social media group]
John’s information helped establish many of my personal beliefs and methods of cycling. The novel, at the time, idea of riding like a car was both very eye-opening and mind expanding. I can’t really even begin to state how dramatic his influence has been on riding life.
Thanks John!
[from a private social media group]
I disagreed with him a lot when it came to cycling safety. OTOH, I never doubted his genuine passion and effort towards it. Rest in peace, Mr Forester.
[from a private social media group]
Although I didn’t know where it came from, I’m sure I was influenced by him also via others.