Savvy Cyclist

Daytime Lights: Magic Bullet Or Not?

February 7, 2018/13 Comments/by John Schubert

Two recent tragic bicyclist deaths in Florida resulted in a local newspaper column extolling the importance of daytime running lights. Without going into detail about these tragedies, I’ll say one thing: It’s doubtful that either death would have been prevented by daytime running lights.

That’s the thing about tragedies and safety equipment. Whatever safety equipment you’re enamored of — daytime running lights, protective padding, helmets — it will help some times, but not others. But when you’re upset because a friend died, that kind of thought-chopping doesn’t come to mind.

Of this you can be sure: Safety equipment is an area where “always” and “never” don’t exist, and where emotional baggage leads all of us to want to cling to a magic solution.

As an expert witness in bicycle crash reconstruction cases, I believe daytime running lights are usually superfluous. Yes, there are specific occasions where they do help. But they often are used as a makeshift solution for problems best solved by behavior change. If daytime running lights are offered as a do-it-all solution, they become grist for victim blaming when a cyclist was doing nothing wrong.

When To Light Up

Let’s start with the situations where daytime running lights do help. These would include fog, heavy rain, the sun low on the horizon, confusing lighting, and short sight distances on curvy roads.

Fog can reduce visibility to a very short distance. Where I live, in the hills of eastern Pennsylvania, the hilltops can be in the clouds and the valleys can be clear. Sometimes I may need daytime running lights — very bright ones at that — to be seen in the fog. But a half-mile later, I’m out of the fog, and visibility is good.

Some of the curviest country roads make a case for daytime running lights. Even so, if you measure the actual sight distance on a curvy country road, you’ll be surprised at how far it really is. There’s plenty of space to slow down from curvy-road driving speed to cyclist speed. But there’s no harm in giving the overtaking motorist a wake-up call.

Scott Slingerland, executive director of Bethlehem, PA’s Coalition for Appropriate Transportation, demonstrates the effectiveness of daytime running lights earlier this month in Easton, PA.

view from rear of man cycling with daytime running lights

Scott is easy to see coming and going. But is this because of his lights?

Lane Position

It’s your lane position that affects how soon you’re seen, often more than any light can. This is especially true on curvy roads. If you’re hugging the curb on a curve to the right, you come into view later than a rider using a lane control position.

Dappled mottled light, on a tree-shaded road, makes a case for daytime running lights. The brain takes longer to assemble the picture of a bicyclist in such lighting conditions.

Daytime running lights need to be bright enough to be conspicuous in daylight. If not, they’re no more effective than a rabbit’s foot. How often have you seen a bicycle light, in bad need of new batteries, blinking feebly — in broad daylight? I saw several on a recent trip to Philadelphia. A dim, poorly aimed daytime blinkie just sucks up the electricity to make the light even less effective at night when that rider absolutely needs it.

Brightness costs money. The least expensive bike lights (less than $10 for a front-and-rear set from a major discount retailer) are usually bright enough for nighttime use. But I wouldn’t bet on those lights being noticed on a sunny day. To be seen in daylight, you want a more powerful light. The taillights that have a strobe function (Portland Design Works Danger Zone and Planet Bike Superflash are two that come to mind) cost more than this. So do brighter headlights.

I recommend that you test daytime running lights in the situation when you might use them. Turn them on, take them outside, and see how they appear from 50 paces away. Do they jump out at you? Are you sure? Remember, you’re an alerted observer, and you are far more attentive to them than the people you want to see them. Those people are un-alerted observers.

When the Sun is Low: Your Shadow Points to the Danger

Does a daytime running light really solve the sun-low-on-the-horizon problem?

While the world probably looks clear to this cyclist, his shadow points toward drivers on a high-speed arterial road who have the sun in their eyes – and may not see him as he violates their right-of-way

As we teach in CyclingSavvy, the sun low on the horizon can be a serious problem. Your shadow points in the direction of people who can’t see you. And in the class, we tell people to take a different route or to wait a few minutes for the lighting conditions to change.

The need to verify your lights’ adequacy is most especially true when the sun is low and casting glare. In that situation, you’re asking your daytime running lights to overpower the entire sun! If you do a good observation experiment — with several observers, please — take good notes and tell us what you saw. We’ll publish it. Bonus points if you take a good photo.

Blinded By The Light

What if your light is too bright? At a minimum, you annoy people. You distract drivers from their ongoing job of absorbing visual information and then going on to the next bit of visual information.

It’s a fad — a bad fad, in our opinion — to make emergency vehicle lighting so bright and so discordant that it’s difficult to look away from it. But look away you must, in order to focus on the path you need to travel. The driver needs to watch where she’s going, and watching the light display interferes with that.

Some of today’s lights are strobes, rather than light-emitting diodes. Are they too bright? In some situations, yes. For daytime running lights in pea-soup fog, probably not.

Remember, in normal lighting conditions, a cyclist in a black shirt is easy to see from 200 yards away. And all of us have an obligation to be looking when we drive.

Daytime running lights make you more visible, certainly. But if you were already visible, does making you more visible help? I don’t think so. You need to be relevant as well as visible. The nature of driving is that the driver discards most visual information. When he sees a bicyclist on the shoulder, his brain thinks, “That cyclist is out of my way, and he’s not a factor.” A blinking light is unlikely to change that thought process.

Any search engine will find you dozens of articles in which daytime running lights are praised as if they are mother’s milk. In those articles, people who don’t use daytime running lights are badmouthed. This is stunningly irresponsible, because it aids and abets victim blaming where it matters most — in court.

Imagine yourself, the victim of a motorist-at-fault car/bike collision. You were plainly visible. But the defense counsel brings out a stack of articles telling you what a jerk you were for not using daytime running lights. He asks you to read them aloud on the witness stand. Your emotions go south and your blood pressure skyrockets. After the first dozen articles, he calls for a break, and out in the hall, offers you $100 to settle the case then and there.

So. . . use daytime running lights mindfully. And promote them cautiously.

The Cyclist’s Dilemma

January 31, 2018/3 Comments/by Bruce Lierman

When I begin bicycle training discussions, I often ask students what word they associate with cycling.

Most commonly, that word is Freedom.

Think back to your childhood. Your bicycle was quite likely the first technology you encountered that significantly expanded your independence. Once you had confidence in your operation and navigation skills, you were free! You could undertake longer excursions, and choose your own path.

You probably also chose how you rode. Absent significant instruction — or even if you had instruction, absent direct supervision — you made your own decisions about how you interacted with other vehicles or roadway users.

Many adult cyclists hold onto beliefs they derived from their early cycling experiences. These include:

You can ride a bike if you can balance and steer it
Getting from Point A to Point B is a question of navigating a lawless terrain where pragmatism is the first principle
The way to be successful on a bike is to capitalize on its form and design — its narrow profile and maneuverability — and to exploit the limitations of cars
Bicyclists don’t have to obey laws designed for motorists

Given our early preconceptions, who would see any need for further education in bicycle operation and traffic rules? Who would judge it worthwhile to learn how to adapt their cycling to principles based on traffic rules? As cyclists, must we give up our freedom and act like drivers? Are we really less privileged than pedestrians?

men riding bikes on sidewalk and on road

Who’s actually safer on his bike? Where is it easier to ride?

Childhood misconceptions imperil us as cyclists. These misconceptions impede a disciplined approach to easier and safer cycling.

There’s much to learn about how you as a cyclist can reduce the prospect of a crash, and even be able to predict where conflicts and stress are likely to occur, and how avoid them.

On top of this are the incredible benefits of savvy cycling: Understanding how to exploit subtle principles and traffic patterns adds tremendous value to your cycling. The fascinating thing about traffic patterns is that exploiting them not only makes cycling safer. It makes cycling more enjoyable and less stressful. Solving a few hard spots in your daily commute can make all the difference in your attitude when you arrive at your destination.

small savvy cycling session allow instructors to focus on students

CyclingSavvy offers small sessions that allow instructors to focus on each person’s needs.

The beliefs we accept as beginning cyclists or infer from the behavior we see in other cyclists can lead us into a stressful, hostile, and dangerous world. CyclingSavvy instructors know that there is another direction, and most anyone can take it if we can just get them to spend that 9 hours with us; to educate oneself about the most common types of traffic conflicts, and learn how to avoid the situations that lead to these conflicts.

So the dilemma for cyclists is whether to accept the constraints of traffic and learn how to use them, or to ignore them and make it up as they go.

The paradox is that while it appears cyclists give up independence by accepting and responding to the principles of traffic, they actually gain freedom of travel. Knowledge of traffic patterns and the skill to analyze any roadway situation will increase, not decrease, the places you can go by bike. Seemingly insurmountable obstacles to travel can be diagnosed, broken down, and overcome.

Come learn how.

Navigating Snowy Streets

January 24, 2018/4 Comments/by John Brooking

When I began commuting to work by bike 15 years ago in Maine, I didn’t intend to ride through the winter. It wasn’t until about mid-February of that year that I realized: Hey! I’m still riding! Maybe I really will go all winter. And I did!

Not that it’s always easy. There’s a lot to get used to. Dressing for the weather takes practice, and a lot of experimentation.

One bad experience early on found me not well prepared for single-digit temperatures. My commute is five miles one way. About a mile down the road, both the bike cables and my body started to freeze. I turned around. By the time I got back home, I stumbled shivering through the door and onto the couch, where my wonderful wife brought blankets and served me hot tea until I got warm again. Then I drove the car to work. Oh well.

My colleague Josh Stevens in Michigan wrote a great column last November which covers the basics of winter commuting very well, especially clothing, lights, and tires, so I need not re-invent those wheels here. You may also be interested in an article I wrote here a few years ago about Staying Safe in the Snow, in response to concerns I heard from my co-workers during a particularly snowy month.

For this post, I want to share some miscellaneous thoughts about navigating in snowy weather. It was prompted by this scene I captured last December while biking to a holiday choral event, a day or so after a snowstorm:

Unplowed snow in the door zone

What’s going on here is that the parking lane has not been well plowed, possibly because of cars being parked there when the plow went by. Secondly, the travel lane, which was plowed, has since been even further cleaned up by many car tires traveling over it. If I had any inclination to ride close to the parked cars — which of course, being a savvy cyclist, I didn’t — the snow would have prevented me. In effect, the snow is creating a very effective door zone buffer!

Tire tracks on road show where cars drive past parked cars

Door zone avoidance guidance on a dry road.

This reminded me of the photo on the right, in which you can infer the door zone from observing where the car tire tracks don’t go. The snow works even better! Motorists don’t drive in the door zone. Why should we?

Snow changes infrastructure in significant ways. Sometimes, in good weather, even savvy cyclists will opt to use a paved shoulder, if it is sufficiently wide and clear, and the intersections are not frequent. But below is a recent photo of a shoulder I usually use on my daily route, next to a two-lane road that is fairly busy at rush hour. Can you see why I chose not to use it that day?

In good weather, this paved shoulder is fairly practicable. Not today.

Many people ask me in the winter if the roads aren’t too slippery. In town, it’s true that many of the neighborhood streets remain slippery a lot of the time, because they don’t have the frequent car traffic that this suburban road has. This road remains clear and dry much of the winter, even when the edge is still slippery.

Because much of my commute is on this type of road, I choose not to run studded tires the whole winter. If I did, that would help me to try to use even a shoulder like this. And when people ask me if it’s not slippery, I know they are usually asking from the assumption that I ride at the edge all the time, like most cyclists do. So yes, one solution would be to run studs the whole winter and keep riding on shoulders no matter what.

Without studs, I could often still ride slowly and carefully on an icy shoulder like this, or I could practice control and release in the travel lane. Usually I choose the latter, and it works remarkably well — especially because I’m fine with pulling off into a driveway once or twice per trip to let a pack of cars go by if they have built up behind me. Doing this is not legally required in Maine, but it’s a courtesy, and also makes me more relaxed to have the road to myself afterwards. I like to think of it as sharing the inconvenience: I cause some for them, I take on some for myself.

More Thoughts On Studs

I went through maybe a half dozen winters in the beginning never using studded tires. There were days I could have used them, and days I fell on black ice or into a snowbank. (The snowbank fall can actually be kind of fun!)

My solution in recent years is to put studded tires on a separate mountain bike and use that bike when I want them. But I’ve also found I’ve gotten better on slippery roads or even sheer ice without them. The secret is to go slower than usual, don’t change your speed or direction quickly, and don’t lean into your turns! Recently I was trying to get up a hill that had turned to ice with water on top due to a thaw, not using studs, and I managed to stay upright until I finally had to dismount because I had stopped making forward progress up the hill, even though I was still pedaling! My rear tire just kept going around and around not grabbing onto anything! I fell over only when I stepped off the bike. It was kind of fun, but it’s no way to get anywhere. :-)

I’m not necessarily recommending going without studs on slippery surfaces for your commute. It’s a personal choice, and highly dependent on where you ride. In town, where the roads take longer to clear after a storm, maybe you’ll need them most days anyway. There’s really nothing wrong with using them every day, needed or not. They are just more work, and I’m lazy!

As it happens, however, I was glad I had them just yesterday:

An icy private road yesterday morning — a good day for studs!

Gated entrance to the same road on the way home — found it was too soft and slushy even for studs, so I turned back and took the main road!

My bike tracks in my driveway, one set from the morning and one from the evening. This was about an inch of slushy ice. See where I fishtailed on the way in

Last pro tip on studs: If you can only afford one at first (they’re more expensive than normal tires), put it on the front wheel. It’s more important to keep control with the front wheel, because if it slides, you’ll almost certainly go down. If the back wheel loses traction, you may fishtail, but you’ll still maintain forward momentum and probably be okay.

Winter Lane Position

Best to stick with the car tire tracks here.

Where do you think would be the best lane position here? If you guessed the tire tracks — you’re right! Often those are the best place to be. But not always. Sometimes the main travel part of the road is all slippery brown slush, and a bit over to the edge in smoother snow is better. In some cases, it’s a matter of slowing down and constantly re-evaluating the best position. This is another good argument for lane control, to give yourself room to move around to find the best place. If you are trapped at the side, you have much less flexibility to avoid the even-more-frequent slippery spots there.

Speaking of trapped, when you are doing control and release, and decide it’s okay to release, be extra careful monitoring the passing traffic. Those “follow the leader” motorists in the 3rd or 4th car back can decide they can pass too, at the same time that your marginally clean shoulder may be getting less and less usable.

Another side hazard is that snow can hide the edge of the pavement. If there’s no curb, like on the rural roads I’m showing here, you can slide right off the edge! When a road is “crowned,” sloping slightly down towards the edge for drainage, you can literally be pushed down the “slippery slope!”

Be careful of that pile of snow between the two tire tracks! It can be extremely hazardous. Whether you choose to ride in the left or the right tire track, be really careful if you need to move to the other one. I went down once last winter doing exactly that. It was also on a slight downhill, so the higher speed didn’t help, and the snow in the middle was about 6″ deep.

Lastly, vantage around corners — another great reason to be further away from the edge, where it’s easier to see and be seen.

Can you see around this corner? Can a motorist pulling out see you?

Riding in winter can give you a great sense of accomplishment. I think all of us winter commuters have experienced this situation at one time or another (credit YehudaMoon.com):

And there’s always the co-workers to impress (or convince that you’re crazy):

Yes, you can ride in the winter! Be safe and have fun!

Ebikes: Education, Training & The Law

January 17, 2018/10 Comments/by Clint Sandusky

Electric pedal-assisted bikes are becoming more prevalent at bicycle industry trade shows and bike shops. They’re being ridden for recreation and transportation, at MTB races, and even now by some public safety agencies across the US and beyond. My purpose in writing this post is to point cyclists and cycling instructors in the direction of educational, training, skills and legal aspects associated with e-bike use. This serves only as a starting point. Never stop learning and improving your skills, whether on a “traditional” bike or e-bike!

Clint Sandusky at Interbike 2017, with an e-bike in the Bosch “Circuit” test track staging area

My experience and knowledge of e-bikes comes from riding eMTBs at Interbike trade shows, at home, and at a recent Southern California bike patrol class. I’ve also read countless articles on e-bike use in public safety and by the community. At Interbike 2017 I attended the presentations on e-biking offered by Bosch, People For Bikes and the International Mountain Bicycling Association. But don’t call me Mr. E-Bike. I’m always learning, too!

Education & Training

In her recent post “Savvy E-Biking To A Car-Free Future,” Karen Karabell writes:

[T]here’s a catch [to e-biking] many people don’t realize. With speed comes a greater need to understand the traffic environment: sight lines, door zones, blind spots, and common motorist mistakes caused by underestimating speed. Without this understanding, an e-bike may be just as likely as any other bike to gather dust in the garage after a few close calls. This is why the engagement of CyclingSavvy and e-bike owners needs to happen, and can’t be a moment too soon.

As a longtime bike patrol instructor and now bicycle safety advocate, I TOTALLY agree!

I’ll take Karen’s thoughts one step farther. Additional training and/or evaluation MUST be done for riders wanting to use an e-bike during any CyclingSavvy, Public Safety Cyclist or other bicycle safety course. This should be done prior to the start of a class (not on Day 1) to ensure the rider understands how to safely operate an e-bike and is skilled enough to use it. This also means that bicycle safety instructors — even if they don’t ride e-bikes — now need familiarity with their operations and challenges in traffic.

Important topics and basic principles that should be discussed prior to or at CyclingSavvy or other courses where cyclists ride or are considering riding e-bikes include:

Hazards and conflicts associated with higher-speed riding. With speed comes responsibility!
Maneuvering and stopping considerations. E-bikes are 15 pounds or so heavier than their equivalent “traditional” counterparts
The dynamics of lane control, and a solid understanding of cyclist behaviors and how to use them. If you’re riding an e-bike at its maximum speeds, you want to do so ONLY when you’re practicing “driver behavior.” DON’T ride an e-bike fast on edge of the road, or on sidewalks
Legal & safety issues (to be discussed below)

When e-bikes are used during any type of cycling class, they must be inspected prior to use to ensure they’re safe and adequate.

By ensuring the rider has adequate knowledge and ability to use an e-bike and that the bike is safe to use, time and attention won’t be diverted from the other students in a class. IPMBA and the agency I teach bike patrol courses for are looking at these very issues.

Safety & Legal Issues

The adage of “speed kills” is a legitimate concern when using an e-bike, both for you and fellow roadway users. As an example, a Class 3 e-bike provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling, and ceases to provide assistance when the e-bike reaches 28 mph. Twenty-eight mph!!! You must have excellent bike handling skills and know how to protect yourself when you’re riding that fast. Simply manipulating the different modes of pedal-assist can be distracting for a novice cyclist.

Cyclists using e-bikes need to know how they and their bikes work together, especially under high-speed, emergency and/or adverse conditions. As Clint Eastwood said in the movie Magnum Force: “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Therefore, the faster you intend to go, the more skill and training you need.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission and Bicycle Products Suppliers Association were the first to define e-bikes. Initially California, then other states defined and regulated e-bikes into three classes as follows:

Class 1: Max pedal assist of 20 mph
Class 2: Max throttle assist of 20 mph
Class 3: Max pedal assist of 28 mph

“Conversion kits” are also available, allowing someone to turn a “traditional” bicycle into an e-bike. Cyclists should be very leery when adding this technology to their existing bicycles, especially due to the likelihood of insufficient braking systems and frames!

An NL Times (Netherlands) article from last September noted that “The number of fatal traffic accidents involving e-bikes is increasing, especially among older people.” Is this because Europe has embraced the use of e-bikes much more than the US, or because elderly people may tend to be less fit and skilled in higher-speed cycling?

Cyclists riding e-bikes both on- and off-road MUST know local, state and federal laws/regulations/definitions pertaining to all types of e-bike use, especially if they’re riding a Class 3 e-bike. This includes riding on sidewalks, bike lanes, shared-use paths and trails. I recommend e-bikers contact their local jurisdictions and/or land management agencies for up-to-date laws and regulations on where they’ll be riding.

Resources

People For Bikes offers a handy guide to your state’s specific e-bike laws.

Lots of useful info at the Electric Bike Association, the industry voice for e-bikes.

While we don’t endorse specific products, Bosch powers many of the e-bikes on the road, and offers excellent information on the mechanics and technology of e-biking.

Bottom Line

Technology can be a wonderful thing in bringing people to cycling, and riding e-bikes is certainly FUN!!!

However, cyclists choosing to ride e-bikes — for their safety and the safety of others — NEED to take important steps to learn how to interact safely, legally and with less stress with all users of the road. A CyclingSavvy course will do that for you!

As always, be safe out there, everyone!

Next in this series: Ebike benefits and challenges – it’s a different machine.

My best buddy, Eric, showing off his personally-owned Trek eMTB at a recent California POST bike patrol course.

Everyone’s A Racer Now

January 10, 2018/6 Comments/by Karen Karabell

How fast is your city? You might have missed this info at the bottom of last week’s post about electric bikes. For most trips, an e-bike could get you to your destination as quickly as your car.

The trick is knowing how to keep yourself safe while you zip around.

Part Two

Four days after returning to St. Louis, I walked into my local e-bike dealer with my credit card ready. My husband and I didn’t own a cargo bike. After riding my sister’s electric cargo bike in Nashville, I wanted to see for myself if an e-cargo bike could truly replace car trips.

One less car.

While we looked around the store, my husband noticed a lovely commuter bike. “That one’s used,” Archie, the dealer, told us.

It looked hardly used, and was deeply discounted. Harold and I would be able to ride together!

We bought it, and that hasn’t happened. Harold prefers his 100 percent human-powered bikes. There’s certainly good reason for that. With e-bikes it’s easier to get in trouble, because of the higher speeds a person can go. Harold calls himself “Old Turtle.” He likes to go slow.

I love using both e-bikes. To my surprise, I’m on the commuter much more than the cargo e-bike. I was on the commuter e-bike when I crashed.

A previous owner named the bike “Black Beauty.” I call it the “Black Stallion,” because it zips along like the most gorgeous beast.

When I had my accident, I was riding on Kingshighway, one of our town’s major arterial roads. The Stallion and I were zipping over to The Hill, an Italian neighborhood about three miles from my home. I was in the outer of three lanes and stopped at a red light with other traffic. I planned to turn right, and had already signaled my intentions to the driver behind me.

While waiting at the light, I glanced to my left at a woman in a white car. She thankfully saw me, too, because of what happened next.

The light turned green. A shiny red pickup truck in front of me started to go. The Stallion took off as I engaged both the throttle and pedal assist, which was in its highest speed.

Then the driver in front of me stopped.

I slammed on my brakes to avoid hitting the back of the truck. Because this e-bike’s back end is heavy — that’s where the battery is — I didn’t fly over the handlebars. But I did lose control. I fell to the left on the road, and was suddenly blocking two of the three lanes of traffic.

At the time I had a milk crate zip-tied to the rear rack. As I fell over, the crate’s contents spilled onto Kingshighway. (Yes, after this escapade I started using a bike cargo net.)

The woman in the middle lane stopped her white car and jumped out. “Are you OK?” she asked. “I’m fine,” I responded as I stood and lifted my bike back up. “I just didn’t want to hit the truck in front of me.”

I don’t know what story she told that night at her dinner table, but that’s my version. Mainly I was embarrassed, holding up TWO of the three lanes of traffic going in my direction. All I wanted was to get out of the way.

The woman found my U-lock in front of her car. She picked it up and gave it to me. I waved apologetically to all the people I was holding up and walked my bike and bruised ego onto the sidewalk.

This is typically how the Kingshighway bridge looks as I cross it. There’s nothing scary about empty pavement!

e-bike on sidewalk overlooking next traffic wave.

While the light is red, though, lots of others pull up and wait at the light with me. When I slammed on my brakes and crashed to avoid hitting a pickup truck in front of me, this bike and I blocked two of the three traffic lanes.

I’ll make a mistake once, but not twice. As soon as I got home, I described what happened to my fellow CyclingSavvy instructors. I needed to talk about this. I never dreamed I could smash a bicycle into the back of someone else’s vehicle! CSI Brian Cox, a fellow e-bike enthusiast and bike shop owner in Southern California, had excellent advice.

“Leave a car length between you and the motorist in front of you,” Brian wrote. “You now have the speed to beat motorists off the line and you are responsible to not hit the motorist in front of you.

“With a people-powered bicycle, you did not have the acceleration capability you now have with a motorized bicycle.”

CSI John Schubert offered framing that I’d never considered.

“With an eBike, we ordinary riders can now ride at racing speeds,” he observed. “We therefore need the vigilance, razor sharp attention, and caution that go with riding that fast.”

Hmm. John’s right, though when I’m practicing “driver behavior,” I’ve felt fine riding the bikes at their max speeds of 20 to 25 MPH.

E-bikes magnify the need to understand both cyclist and motorist behaviors. For example…

My e-bikes have indeed replaced my car trips. But I’m well aware that they are still bikes — and that no motorist wants to be behind me, even if I am going as fast as Lance.

This is part of being savvy, too: How to help others who want to go faster than you do so, easily and without conflict.

Then — especially on an e-bike — you invariably pull right up behind them at the next red light. Just make sure not to hit ’em.

CSI Shannon Martin had comforting words.

“As more riders adopt e-bike technology, experiences like yours will help riders understand the power of the machines they ride and the need for sound bicycle handling skills to keep themselves safe.”

Next article in this series: Ebikes, education, training and the law.

Savvy Ebiking To A Car-Free Future

January 3, 2018/11 Comments/by Karen Karabell

Part One

My sister warned me. “After you ride mine, you’ll want one.”

She was talking about her electric bicycle. Ironically, she’d never heard of e-bikes until I suggested she buy one.

Shannon learned to ride when she was 11, but for the next 30 years or so, showed no interest in bicycling, except to comment on observations she’d made from behind the wheel of her car.

During those years we enjoyed lively conversations about bicycling. If Shannon asked my opinion, I’d give it. Otherwise, I tried not to proselytize.

I’ve been an avid transportation cyclist for years, but I’m well aware that this is a tough sell to most Americans.

“C’mon now. Can it possibly be safe AND courteous to ride a bicycle in traffic?”

Adult bicycling education is an even tougher sell.

Savvy cycling makes transportation cycling a no-brainer. Yet you don’t learn this stuff overnight. Savvy cycling needs to be experienced. Then it takes time to process what you’ve experienced. There’s a lot to absorb, and deep cultural conditioning to overcome. So, I didn’t push my love of cycling on my sister.

But then, out of the blue in the Spring of 2016, Shannon called with shocking news.

“I bought a bicycle,” she said.

“Really?” I responded. Nothing she could tell me would have surprised me more.

Once Shannon decided to get a bike, education was an easy sell! Shannon is the kind of woman who becomes an expert at anything she sets her mind to. She read voraciously about bicycling and signed up for CyclingSavvy Online (there were no CyclingSavvy instructors in Nashville at the time). She loved the online course so much that she decided to travel to St. Louis to take an in-person workshop.

Shannon used her recumbent trike when she participated in a St. Louis CyclingSavvy workshop in August 2016

Shannon discovered for herself 1) the tremendous control she could have over her safety while riding and 2) that it was impossible for her to significantly delay motorists. Trust me, she tried. One of her vehicles is a recumbent tricycle. You have to change lanes to pass those things.

In traffic-choked Nashville, she figured that she could get to her office almost as quickly on her bike as in her car. She was ready to ride everywhere. Then Middle Tennessee’s “hills” put the kibosh on her plans to become a bicycle commuter, at least temporarily.

Nashville features gorgeous mountainous terrain, a challenge for anyone who commutes by bike. Shannon has no shower at her office. She didn’t want to carry multiple sets of clothes, and needed to look professional when she arrived. I suggested she consider an e-bike, even though I knew next to nothing about them.

She researched various brands, and rode e-bikes in New York City and Nashville. She decided to patronize a local dealer, and bought not one but two: a cargo and a commuter. I loved hearing about her adventures with each e-bike, which served very different purposes.

When I went to Nashville last April to celebrate Shannon’s birthday, we rode her e-bikes around town.

She was right.

I wasn’t “sold,” though. I was captivated.

Shannon riding on Hillsboro Road in Nashville, Tennessee

E-bikes aren’t replacements for bikes. They replace cars. They can move you across town, and over steep hills, at higher speeds with less effort while still offering clean, low-cost transportation. What a tremendous opportunity to change the conversation about transportation, and maybe finally make bicycling normal in America.

But there’s a catch many people don’t realize. With speed comes a greater need to understand the traffic environment: sight lines, door zones, blind spots, and common motorist mistakes caused by underestimating speed. Without this understanding, an e-bike may be just as likely as any other bike to gather dust in the garage after a few close calls.

This is why the engagement of CyclingSavvy and e-bike owners needs to happen, and it can’t be a moment too soon.

“I am a textbook example of how an e-bike transformed someone who doesn’t ride into a cyclist,” Shannon said.

That, and a solid knowledge of savvy cycling. Shannon went on to become a CyclingSavvy Instructor. (I wasn’t kidding when I called her an expert.)

Now that I’ve told you some of Shannon’s story, I want to tell you mine. But that’ll have to wait until next week.

Next Week: The Crash

The Reality of Speed

While pondering how to make the shidduch of e-bike owners and CyclingSavvy, I did some Googling. It hopefully won’t be news to you that personal automobiles are a major cause of global warming. But do you truly appreciate how shockingly inefficient cars are at getting us anywhere?

How fast is your city? If you click through, you’ll likely be surprised at how slow motorists are in cities. Your e-bike can get there just as quickly.

The Cycle of Habit and the Habit of Cycling

December 27, 2017/11 Comments/by Mighk Wilson

“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

I’m a habitual reader, bordering on addiction. I’ve always got (at least) one book going, and when I finish it I’m immediately looking for my next “fix.”

At the recommendation of my wife, Carol, I’m now reading The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg. It’s an engaging and enlightening investigation of how our habits are formed, how difficult it is to change them, and how we can create new ones.

My other major habit is, of course, cycling. My habits of reading and cycling began around the same time, and perhaps for the same reasons. My earliest memories of reading are tearing through the SRA Reading Lab cards, starting in first grade. First grade was also when I finally managed to get the training wheels off my bike and ride on two unfettered wheels. Both served my curiosity and desire for freedom and exploration. As a teen I’d sometimes carry a book on my summer break cycling explorations in rural northeast Ohio. I’d often stop in a park in some small town and read. Today I cannot imagine a life without either habit.

I’ve certainly thought of my cycling as a habit, but never in the clinical sense as explored in Duhigg’s book. Perhaps that’s why I’ve always bristled when asked by a non-cyclist acquaintance I haven’t seen for some time: “Are you still bicycling?” It sounds vaguely accusatory to me, like: “Are you still an alcoholic?” I’ve been so permanently hard-wired as a cyclist that it’s just like a chemical addiction.

Unlike most adult cyclists, I didn’t give up cycling when I got my driver’s license, then pick it up again some years later when looking for a way to “get back in shape.” I never had to “create a new habit” for cycling, so I may not be the best person to tell you how to do that. But building any new habit requires removing barriers to the new behavior, and then rewarding yourself when you do it.

Removing barriers could include putting your bike in the most convenient place to be used, buying a floor pump so it’s easy to keep your tires inflated or – best of all – being comfortable riding on the streets where you live and work, so you don’t feel like you have to load your bike onto your car and take it to a trail to ride.

And rewards? Well, that’s the easy part. Cycling burns calories, so you can reward yourself with your favorite food or drink.

“Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.” – Mark Twain

What keeps so many of us from biking more is other peoples’ habits – particularly motorists. So much of what we hear and see in bicycle “advocacy” is really not advocacy of cycling at all; it’s advocacy to suppress or change the habits of motorists. As hard as it can be to change your own habits, it’s many times harder to change the habits of others. Especially when those others outnumber you 100-to-1. Motorists don’t necessarily improve their habits when a bike lane, sidewalk or sidepath is built, or when a new law is passed.

In order to change a habit you need a cue and a reward. Finger-pointing is counterproductive. Telling others “You have to change your habits for my sake” is a non-starter. Even if they did want to change, are they going to get enough opportunity and practice to learn a new habit?

For example, the most common crash between a motorist and bicyclist is when the motorist is pulling out from a driveway or side street preparing to turn right and the cyclist is coming down the sidewalk facing on-coming traffic. The average motorist might look just a few feet to the right where a pedestrian might be. But to see a cyclist approaching at 12 miles per hour, that driver will need to look at least 100 feet down the sidewalk to the right. They rarely do. In most areas the chance that such a driver will encounter an approaching cyclist is very small. A cyclist might come by once every fifteen minutes.

So even a motorist consciously trying to build a new habit is going to get little opportunity to practice. The cues are rare, and so are the rewards. The same can be said for all the other less-common types of conflicts.

Advocates like to tout the safety of cycling in The Netherlands, but may not realize that Dutch drivers have always had far, far more opportunity to build the habits of scanning for, yielding to, and safely passing cyclists. Long before the Dutch started building so many bikeways, it was common to see 10 to 15 percent bicycle traffic in their cities. That means one out of every seven to ten street users is a cyclist. Think of the habit-building opportunity in such an environment compared to the average American street, where cyclists are less than 1 percent.

Rather than tell millions of others to change their habits in an environment that discourages them from doing so, what if we changed our cycling strategies to take advantage of the habits drivers already have?

That’s what CyclingSavvy is: A set of strategies designed to take advantage of the habits American motorists have now. Our challenge at American Bicycling Education Association is to make successful cyclist safety strategies habitual for American cyclists. With a New Year around the corner, that will be – continues to be – our resolution.

What’s your resolution to make cycling a stronger habit for you and your friends? What cues and rewards will you use? Please share your comments below!

Instructor Site Update 12/2017

December 23, 2017/by Keri Caffrey

Don't you hate it when you go to the grocery store and they've rearranged all the aisles?

OK, I didn't quite do that here. What I did was consolidate and reorganize some items, hopefully to make the site easier to use. Just like the grocer, I'm hoping this might prompt you to find things you didn't...

Use Horse Sense To Avoid A Horse Wreck

December 20, 2017/8 Comments/by John Allen

The weather was overcast and in the 50s on that Sunday last October, as Dan Marinos ponied his horses on a quiet country road in West Newbury, MA.

“I’ve done this hundreds of times,” Dan wrote to me as background to what happened next. Dan and I connected through my work as a bicycling instructor. He wanted me to spread the word, so that all cyclists would know how to avoid what could be a dangerous or even deadly situation.

Dan wrote: “My horses are well trained and very much used to traveling on roads. But they are horses–prey animals. They choose flight when perceiving a threat.”

What was the threat? Two cyclists, who had ridden up behind Dan and his two horses. Dan was astride one and ponying (leading) the other.

“The cyclists came up silently and were upon us in an instant, much like a mountain lion would behave,” Dan wrote. “The ponied horse spooked and bolted. The horse I was on did the same, herd instinct it’s called.

“I had to let go of the second horse in order to gain control of the horse I was on,” Dan continued. “The loose horse lost his footing, went down, and slid 40 feet on his side.

“I’m extremely lucky that his wounds are superficial, and he’ll be OK. It could have been so much worse.”

Recreational horseback riders frequent many of the same trails as mountain bike riders. Amish horse-drawn buggies are common in some rural areas. Urban areas have police patrols on horseback, and horse-drawn carriages are popular with tourists.

This sign is often posted on trails. It’s a start in dealing with horses and their riders, but there’s more to that than the sign can show.

Communication is central to success as a bicyclist. With other road users, it is mostly through lane positioning, hand signals and head turns.

Horses, though, respond to different signals.

“It could have been avoided so easily,” Dan wrote. “Two words: ‘Behind you!’ If the cyclists had announced their presence, like most cyclists do, none of it would have happened.”

Dan’s advice is excellent:

“When approaching a horse on a cycle, do not stay silent, it worries them. When approaching from the front, slow down, look for direction from the rider, say anything so the horse realizes it’s a human approaching. All horses are different, a good rider who knows his horse is responsible for instructing cyclists on what to do after they greet.”

Dan continued:

“Approaching from the rear is a whole different story. They don’t see you or hear you. It is imperative you announce your approach from a decent distance.

“If this had been done the other day, I would have stopped, turned the horses so they could see what was approaching, and allowed the cyclists to pass.”

So – horses, as imposingly large as they are, are nonetheless prey animals, like deer and squirrels. Their instinct is to flee danger.

In the early days of bicycling, bicycle-mounted police were often called upon to bring stampeding horses under control. We’re not asking you to do that, only to avoid causing them to stampede in the first place.

It isn’t only the horse and rider who could be injured. It could be you, too.

This article has been about not inducing fear. But also, you might turn that thought back on yourself. Just as an example, do you have a clenching feeling in your belly if you hear car tires screeching?

Humans also experience fear, and many are fearful of bicycling. With CyclingSavvy instruction, cyclists discover how we can shed – not suppress – that fear, through bike handling, positioning for visibility and safe maneuvering, and proactive communication with other road users. These strategies avoid your surprising a driver and having car tires screech in the first place.

I extend many thanks to Dan Marinos for his concern and attention – and for writing most of this article for me. Also to Kirby Beck for digging up the stunning Collier’s magazine cover.

Be safe out there!

Palpable and Priceless

December 13, 2017/1 Comment/by Stephen McKenney Steck

Recently I completed 1,000 consecutive days of riding my bicycle an average of 17 miles each day. During those 1,000 days, I cycled an average of 90 minutes each day. The cumulative mileage ridden totaled 17,907 miles–enough to have cycled almost three-quarters of the way around our planet.

I understand such consistent focus is called a “streak.”

Stephen McKenney Steck

I Googled the phrase “notable cycling streaks.” In less than a second, 279,000 search results appeared.

A brief look at a few of the search links made me realize my 1,000-day streak places me in the “slacker” category, at least compared to a cyclist who has ridden 24 consecutive years or 8,760 days.

My streak standard of measure is not complicated. I ride daily and for at least 30 consecutive minutes per day. When not on a tour, I cycle alone and in the early morning hours before full sunrise. I’ll allow myself the use of an indoor stationary cycle if need be, though that’s not yet happened. I can stop after the first 30 minutes, say for attending a church service or meeting a friend for coffee, and then I resume whatever route I’m on until I’m done for that daily ride.

Two to four times per year, I ride in organized events or on solo cross-country rides. The streak applies here, too. On cross-country rides, I do take a break on the 7th day, but still maintain my streak commitment on that “rest” day by cycling the requisite 30 minutes.

I keep a journal in a spreadsheet-like format recording usual stats like speed, miles, moving time, heart rate, calories burned, etc. I link each day’s results to a cumulative total so I can easily see my streak results.

grandpa and grandson with beach behind them

Stephen with his grandson, Lawson Stephen Horner

Here’s the important point: I credit CyclingSavvy courses for giving me the confidence to safely navigate urban, suburban and rural country roads. Without their incredibly helpful instructors, cycling and my streak would never become something I look forward to each day and each mile.

I admit to being fascinated by the streak concept — not only the derived physical and emotional benefits, but also what I learn about managing my own “system resources” like nutrition, rest, heart rate, conditioning, bike fit, concentration and applying what I observe to my newfound interest in cycling centuries (100-plus miles as one daily event). I’m likely to turn these centuries into a streak-within-a-streak by cycling at least one century per month.

All of this is pretty comfortable to do as I live in Florida, where it’s possible to cycle outdoors any day of the year. I’m not sure I can maintain the century streak on a cross country ride as terrain and the 50-60 miles per day routine together with a full load drags me down a bit! But I’m giving it serious consideration.

I have loved cycling since I was a kid. In fact, at age 14, I held Florida’s title as the state’s second fastest junior road-bike cyclist of 1957. I don’t boast too much about this as there were only 3 of us in the final deciding race. I knew I couldn’t out sprint the ultimate winner, and the remaining cyclist crashed on the last mile. Thus I claimed second place by simply crossing the finish line!

By my late teens I started a 50-plus-year career in broadcasting. Soon, I grew away from cycling because of challenging career opportunities and building a family. At age 55 I took up marathon running until I retired from work at age 64. Proudly, I’ve completed all 67 marathons in which I ran. I’m a member of the U.S. 50 State Marathon Club and the 7 Continents Club (yeah, including Antarctica!).

Why do I streak? I’m a persistent guy and don’t shy away from challenges. Upon retirement, I drifted back to cycling with a desire to ride across the United States. Getting in condition for such long daily rides led me to realize that I had cycled 20 to 30 days in a row. I wondered how long I could maintain such a practice and only then realized that’s a streak!

After 1,000 consecutive days, you can appreciate the benefits. For instance, I’m the hero of my medical doctors when compared to their more sedentary patients. My mental health is always enhanced when I’m on my bicycle. My appreciation for nature is amplified by what I see as I cycle around the country and in my own community. And my spirit soars on the bicycle as the world around me unfolds –- in an embrace that’s palpable and priceless — mile after mile and day after day.

You bet. I’m gonna keep at this streak thing!

man and touring bike in front of pacific ocean at san diego

With his Co-Motion Pangea touring bicycle, Steve finishes his east-to-west cross-country ride at the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, CA