Hi. I’m Sgt. Colby Lalli. I’m also an instructor of CyclingSavvy and IPMBA. I’m here to tell you that no law obligates you to endanger yourself for another road user’s convenience. You don’t EVER have to ride in the door zone of parked cars.
Don’t let paint think for you.
CyclingSavvy Instructor John Allen has just released an outstanding video describing many ways to bike through Philadelphia’s intimidating Eakins Oval without breaking a sweat.
John will premiere “Riding the Eakins Oval” to a live audience at this weekend’s Philly Bike Expo. He and CyclingSavvy Instructor Pamela Murray are leading a one-hour seminar, Bicycling In Traffic Is A Dance You Lead, at 10:30 AM Saturday, Nov. 2.
At 3 PM Sunday, Nov. 3, Pam will give a seminar on How to Create a Biking Revolution. If you’re at the Expo, go. Pam is a charismatic dynamo, and walks the talk.
Here’s a link to the weekend’s complete seminar schedule.
Don’t forget to visit the CyclingSavvy/Coalition for Appropriate Transportation booth (number 2009) at the Expo. At the booth, you’ll be able to “drive” an HPV through a busy intersection and see how to avoid the hazards (yes, it’s 100 percent safe).
The recently published Bicycling Street Smarts, CyclingSavvy Edition will be available at the CyclingSavvy/CAT booth. Yes, autographed by the author! At booth 2009!
The Philly Bike Expo is celebrating its 10th year. This remarkable bicycling event brings together under one enormous roof outstanding vendors from throughout the country, including dealers, distributors, advocacy organizations, and specialty frame makers.
If you can go, don’t miss it! I wish I could be there. Sadly I must settle for a cameo appearance in John’s video ;-)
So many ways to bike on Philly’s Eakins Oval.
…about bike lanes in Philadelphia, I showed how I rode on Spruce Street, a narrow one-way street in Center City with a bike lane.
When my safety required it, I merged out of the bike lane — for example, whenever I might be at risk from a right-turning motor vehicle. At those times, it was safest to be in line with motor vehicles, where the driver behind me could see me.
It’s indeed counterintuitive to practice “driver behavior,” and take your place in the queue with motor vehicles. Yes, they are big, and heavy, and they can go fast. But these vehicles also are controlled by drivers. You use head turns and hand signals to communicate with drivers, and move into line when one has made room for you. That driver’s vehicle is protecting you from all the other ones behind!
Putting “driver behavior” into practice on Spruce Street was easy, as traffic there is mostly slow. I had no trouble just falling into line with vehicles waiting at a traffic light.
If you think that CyclingSavvy Instructors always do everything right, watch today’s video. This was my first ride ever on Spruce Street. I wouldn’t do everything quite the same way a second time.
There were a couple of times when I didn’t move far enough OUT of the bike lane. I was in line with motor traffic, but I stayed in the right tire track — on the passenger side of cars — so that bicyclists in the bike lane would show in my video.
That distracted me from an option which would have made my ride go better. As I reviewed raw footage, it dawned on me that most of the streets which cross Spruce Street are one-way. Some are one way right-to-left, others left-to-right.
I could take advantage of this!
Look at the incidents at one-way left-to-right cross streets. In one of these, a motorist ahead of me pulled over to the right curb just past the intersection. In the other, a motorist behind me turned right. Neither used turn signals. The driver who merged right delayed me, and I delayed the one who turned right.
Things would have gone more smoothly if I had been riding farther to the left. That is my usual practice where traffic can turn right, but it is even more emphatically correct where traffic can’t turn left.
I still won’t pull all the way over to the left, out of line with the motor traffic: even if a motorist is unlikely to turn the wrong way into a one-way street, one could still merge over to the left curb, like the one who merged over to the right curb in my video. It’s safest to wait in line.
I’ve included a third incident where the mistake was made years earlier, in the design department of an automobile manufacturer halfway around the world.
In this segment, the driver did use a turn signal, but it was so far around on the other side of the car, I couldn’t see it.
This driver was yielding right-of-way to me when I should have yielded to him. To avoid a “no, you go first” situation, I went ahead. If I’d known that the driver wanted to turn right and would have to follow me, I would have been more assertively polite. Why would I want motorists behind me if they don’t have to be? I don’t!
The first two incidents illustrate why I never assume motorists will use their turn signals. The third incident brought home to me that I sometimes can’t assume that they are not using turn signals.
While I kept safe, the encounters I’ve described could have gone more smoothly. Every ride can be a learning experience, and the next ride can go better.
I have one more post about Spruce Street on the way. So far I’ve done my best to avoid discussing politics and religion.
But in my final Spruce Street post, churches are involved. In that post I’m going to let loose!
In fact, I was the skinny uncoordinated kid who got picked on in gym class. One of my few accomplishments in that dreaded period of the school day was during the wrestling unit in junior high. Despite my never winning a match on points, I was also never pinned, because, as the jocks explained to each other: “He’s too wiggly.”
I took athletic pride where I could get it.
I find myself putting over 3000 miles a year on my bicycle for transportation. I do this primarily for the environment, not the athleticism, although I do appreciate the nice side effect of improved fitness. My arms are still skinny, but no doubt my cardio is in better shape, and “bicycle thighs” are a thing. I’ve tried mountain biking. Honestly, it’s too much work for my taste.
But on a paved road, I can ride all day long, if I pace myself.
I usually get in some longer rides in the summer months, up to 60 miles once or twice a year. I rode 100 miles in a day once, characteristically still “for transportation,” from Portland to Maine’s Common Ground Country Fair with my biking friend Michelle. (Benefit for a 40-something non-athlete: Hearing one of your riding partner’s 20-something friends excitedly proclaim cycling 100 miles in a day to be “totally effin’ rad!”) And self-supported touring has always held an appeal, although I’ve found it hard to get started, being out of practice at camping and such, and short of disposable time and income.
After my 30th high school reunion five years ago, I got to thinking about getting older, as one does, and how bicycling is a physical activity that can still be done well into one’s advanced years. Out of this, an idea was born: I could bicycle to my next reunion!
I posted the idea on my class’ Facebook group, figuring that if I put it out there publicly, there’d be less chance I’d wimp out when the time came.
Guess what? It worked.
I was born and raised in the small town of Massena, NY, on the shores of the St. Lawrence River at the extreme top of New York State. I now live near Portland, Maine. It’s roughly 300 miles, which divides nicely into a 5-day trip of about 60 miles each. I talked about this to a friend at church, Cheryl, who also happens to be a cyclist, hoping to get some advice about getting through the White Mountains of New Hampshire. She responded by asking if I’d like a riding partner. Of course I said, “Sure!”
We’re leaving Portland on Sunday, July 14th, and planning to arrive in Massena on the afternoon of Friday, July 19th, leaving an extra day in the middle for contingencies. Cheryl’s wife will travel to Massena in their car that weekend, and give us and our bikes a car ride home at the end. (Yes, we’re cheating on the return trip.)
About now you may be thinking, “This is all very nice, John, but what does your ‘skinny kid comeback ride’ have to do with savvy cycling?”
When I started biking for transportation 17 years ago, I didn’t really know what I was doing, beyond having a vague sense of needing to obey the same laws as car drivers. I didn’t have much of an idea regarding my rights on the road, or even where to look that up. I had so many questions!
Will motorists get mad at me if I’m too far left?
How far is too far?
Is it legal?
Will they hit me?
What was I “supposed” to do at intersections?
What’s the best way to turn left?
Online discussion forums were sometimes helpful, and I discovered the section of Maine statute pertaining to bicycles. I rode with some other people occasionally. I got involved with the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, and I took classes, most recently from CyclingSavvy.
Fear of traffic is probably the biggest challenge most bicyclists have when they start riding on roads. I remember one friend expressing disbelief that I could bike on the 4-lane arterial that goes through my current town, and hearing other cyclists talking about the big scary suburban roads out by the mall, near my office.
It was a little scary at first. Yet today, not only am I not scared of those multilane roads, sometimes I welcome them, because they are really easier to use in a lot of ways.
Door zone bike lane
Urban riding is well covered by CyclingSavvy’s teaching about intersection conflicts and hazardous situations like door zones and turning trucks, while rural riding benefits from CyclingSavvy’s “control and release” technique, especially when lane control is the default, with release when appropriate.
Urban, suburban, rural… we got it all covered! What else is there? Riding on interstate highways is prohibited everywhere that I know of in New England, although I know it’s allowed in some western states. So we won’t be doing that.
Controlling your space
Thanks to CyclingSavvy, I’m pretty confident in my ability to handle any road that I might encounter in 300 miles between here and my hometown, even roads I’ve never laid eyes on before. Once you know the general principles, they are universally applicable.
I’ve never been athletic, but safety in traffic is not about being athletic. “Strong and fast” is a myth! It’s about knowledge, awareness, strategy, communication, and some basic easy-to-learn techniques.
A brief aside about equipment. CyclingSavvy is agnostic about equipment that is not legally required, and I try to be as well.
Helmets are required for our classes due to insurance. I wear mine most of the time, although sometimes I forego it for short utility trips on hot days (don’t tell my mom!). But for a long trip over unfamiliar roads, I certainly will wear it, as I figure that the unfamiliarity and exposure will elevate the risk slightly.
I used a mirror for many years when I started bike commuting, but gradually became tired of replacing handlebar mirrors that broke when the bike fell over, or eyeglass-mounted ones when I lost them because they were so small. They started seeming less necessary after I got good at looking behind me without swerving, so I haven’t bothered with one for a few years now.
However, again in the name of preparedness, I was just contemplating going back to using a mirror for this trip, when CyclingSavvy Instructor Brian Watson published his Mirror Manifesto and offered to send a free mirror to anyone making a donation to CyclingSavvy! How could I refuse? Thanks again, Brian!
Lights are of course legally required after dark. Although our riding time on the trip should be all in daylight, it’s best to be prepared. It’s also a good idea to use lights if it rains. And once we get there, I’ll be riding back to my Mom’s house after the evening reunion activities.
My final frontier equipment-wise is something I’ve actually never tried before, and that is a so-called “clipless” pedal binding system. Being a utility cyclist making mostly short trips on urban and suburban roads, and liking to keep things simple and cheap, I’ve steadfastly stuck with my basic flat pedals all these years. I don’t even care for toe clips and straps. I know all about the increased efficiency, but I also have a stubborn streak. The times that people have tried to argue me into using “clipless” have actually only increased my resistance.
But now, I understand that I will be going up (literally) against the immovable force called mountains. So I intend to finally relent and give it a try. Remember, I’m not athletic. I’ll need all the help I can get!
Another inspiration for this trip is to leverage it into something that will help my hometown, which is struggling, like so many small rural towns. Therefore, this ride is a fundraiser for Boys & Girls Club of Massena, so that my classmates (and others) can contribute to the lives of kids currently coming up.
If you care to contribute, that would be great! However, this being the Savvy Cyclist blog, and my being a CyclingSavvy instructor, I hasten to add that CyclingSavvy’s parent organization, the American Bicycling Education Association, is also a worthy non-profit.
So if you want to donate, I’d recommend deciding on the total amount you can afford to give, then give half to the Boys & Girls Club, and the other half to the ABEA. Deal?
If you’d like to follow us, I intend to post nightly updates to the fundraising site, and you can even follow us in real time here!
Thank you, CyclingSavvy, for giving this skinny kid the confidence to undertake this meaningful personal journey!
One final important piece of optional equipment, found in my mom’s attic!
This is the story of Street Smarts, a book that — like Keith Richards — keeps coming back.
Book publishing has always been a brutal business. You sit at your writing device, slice open a vein, and the market rewards you by buying dozens of copies.
Two months later, you see your pride and joy on the remainder rack for a buck.
John S. Allen’s little bombshell of how to ride in traffic has thrived since its initial publication in 1988. The just-published Cycling Savvy edition promises to live long into the future.
Street Smarts author John S. Allen, circa 1982. He customized this Raleigh Twenty folding bike with a Sturmey Archer five-speed hub and corrosion-proof marine epoxy paint. He’s ridden that bike on half centuries, commuting around Boston, and from the Bethlehem, PA, bus station to my flophouse.
John Allen has been at this for a while. As long ago as 1965, he was bicycle touring in Luxembourg and Germany, and urban bicycle commuting in Baltimore. A few years later, he moved to Boston.
In 1977 he bought and read John Forester’s Effective Cycling, a book which has taught thousands safe riding — but has also put off thousands because of its relentless “rage-against-the-machine” tone. Allen spent a few years thinking about how he might deliver a more upbeat version of that information.
Picture a bike riders’ flophouse down a dirt road, deep in the woods west of Coopersburg, PA.
That flophouse was mine.
We made great fun out of living, on a tiny budget. I was senior editor at Bicycling magazine in nearby Emmaus, and John had a book contract with Rodale Press to write The Complete Book of Bicycle Commuting. That book would become the basis for Street Smarts.
John wrote most of the book at the apartment he shared with roommates in Brookline, Massachusetts. But when he needed one of those quiet “writer’s retreat” type places, my spare room was all he could afford. (It was free.)
Every hour or so John would emerge from the room with a few sheets of paper, enthusiastically reading his latest section.
John created an upbeat, pleasant vision of safe traffic cycling empowered by the rider’s own wisdom. Paragraph by paragraph, it was flowing out.
My well-loved copy, featuring my friend Kerry Pechter, whose awesome good looks launched 15,000 book sales ;-)
We — well, mostly I — drank Gibbon’s beer in 16-ounce reusable bottles, pedaled to Bicycling’s offices via a mountainous six miles — with 680 vertical feet of climbing and 1030 feet of descending — and complained about the Rodale Press bureaucracy. Gary Fisher, the mountain bike pioneer, and Jacquie Phelan, the woman’s mountain bike racing pioneer, were also staying with us at the time.
John wrote his book on a 1932 Royal portable typewriter. He used erasable bond paper, paste and scissors to edit.
Another friend, Kerry Pechter, donned a sport coat, necktie, chinos, and the all-important first-generation Bell Biker helmet for the cover photo.
The Complete Book of Bicycle Commuting had excellent information. It had hundreds of great photos and illustrations — by John, the late, great Sheldon Brown, and George Retseck — making it easy for the reader to absorb the information.
What it didn’t have was a winning sales strategy. My buddy Pechter is a handsome guy, but his mug didn’t make millions grab the book. And so The Complete Book of Bicycle Commuting went out of print after selling about 15,000 copies.
Bicycling magazine had a regular feature called “In Traffic.” John wrote many pieces for “In Traffic.” I had the, uh, privilege of editing his copy. John used information from the book, plus new insights from his ever-active mind, to make In Traffic a great go-to source for several years.
The circulation of Bicycling was about a quarter million, so we were reaching many cyclists with well-presented and thoroughly vetted information.
I left Bicycling, moving to Bicycle Guide and then Adventure Cyclist. John stayed in touch with Rodale Press, and a few years later, another opportunity arose.
Bicycling’s phenomenal circulation manager Patricia Brown needed a premium gift for new subscribers. She spoke with John about repackaging the traffic-riding portion of The Complete Book of Bicycle Commuting as a premium booklet.
The first Rodale edition of Street Smarts
After another spell of editing and revisions, the first edition of Street Smarts was born in 1988. Another score for good information dissemination! New subscribers to a special interest magazine are often in that “drinking in all information” stage. Street Smarts was a great source for them.
Subscription premiums have a short life. After some years, Street Smarts lost its effectiveness as a subscription premium. Rodale was losing interest in it.
But in the late 1990s, a guy named Dave Bachman had great plans.
He was going to keep Street Smarts alive.
Bachman was the state bicycle coordinator for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. PennDOT had given him an opportunity: The publications people weren’t willing to add a big bicycling section to the state driver’s manual, but they were willing to publish a separate bicycle driver’s manual.
Hearing that, Bachman held up a copy of Street Smarts, and said, “How about we use this?”
Street Smarts is a very proactive book, telling riders how to assert their own safety. PennDOT had people who were more accustomed to the “stay out of the way, stop at stop signs and be very afraid” sort of instruction that was (and is) the more common (and quite unhelpful) bicycle “safety education.”
I would have expected PennDOT pushback. And the copyright belonged to Rodale Press.
But Bachman overcame hurdles at PennDOT by deploying his superpower: Patience.
Bachman was a master at calmly watching the bureaucrats and knowing when to say what to whom. He was quiet, never openly frustrated, and always mellow. He used those traits to enact the policies that more strident people (like myself) would shove and shout over.
Pennsylvania’s first Bicycle Driver’s Manual rolled off the presses in June 1999, exactly 20 years ago. PennDOT’s Bachman added a section with specific language from Pennsylvania traffic laws for bicyclists, together with his own plain-English explanatory language about how a bicyclist should interpret and comply with the legalese.
This first Street Smarts edition of the Pennsylvania Bicycle Driver’s Manual is a collector’s item because of a design mistake. Look closely at that wheel. It has two valve stems!
Rodale editor Nelson Peña handled the reassigning of rights. This was no trivial matter. Too often, a publishing house will refuse to let go of something it no longer wants for itself, but can’t bear to give away.
But Peña made it happen. In the process, Street Smarts established a working template for cross-licensing the publication with a government publishing office. That, too, was no small feat.
John took his gem to a new publisher, Rubel Bikemaps, did some technical cleanup, and worked with Andy Rubel, Madeleine Noland and Conrad Willeman on revisions.
Rubel’s edition appeared in 2001 and was sold through bicycle shops and bicycling organizations, along with Rubel’s line of maps.
Street Smarts in 2001.
And then — wonders never cease — Rubel reached out to other states, and they decided to follow Pennsylvania’s lead!
Idaho, Ohio, Florida, California and Arizona adopted Street Smarts as their bicycle driver’s manuals. Street Smarts became the owner’s manual for Joe Breeze’s Breezer brand of urban utility bicycles.
Allen and Rubel Bikemaps put the entire book online. So did several states. French, Romanian and left-hand-drive editions also were published online.
CyclingSavvy was launched — and rearranged the way we taught people about their place on the road.
The paradigm changed from: “Yeah, people expect you in the gutter, but move out a couple feet” to: “The lane is yours. Control it unless you decide you have a good reason not to.”
CyclingSavvy included new strategies and techniques beyond those published in Street Smarts.
Street Smarts 2019
Once again, this required interagency cooperation, this time among Rubel Bikemaps, the American Bicycling Education Association, and John Allen. CyclingSavvy cofounder Keri Caffrey provided new design and illustrations. She and CyclingSavvy Instructor Gary Cziko joined the list of Street Smarts’ editors.
When people work together well over decades, a good thing doesn’t have to be buried underneath bureaucratic dysfunction or “not invented here” syndrome. The good thing can evolve for the better. Everyone named in this article played a key role in launching and nurturing Street Smarts to where it is today.
And we’re ready for state DOTs to call up, saying, “We want that!”
The new Cycling Savvy Edition of Street Smarts poses with four earlier editions. The editions of CyclingSavvy Street Smarts in this photo were a part of a generous gift of two cases from Marc Caruso to the Bethlehem, PA, Coalition for Appropriate Transportation.
Get the new CyclingSavvy edition of Street Smarts for your bookshelf!
Share it with your friends, and make it a frequent gift. For the price of a Starbucks coffee, you can transform a friend’s cycling. For a few bucks more, you can donate a case lot to your cycling club or advocacy organization. Want to resell? You may, and enjoy an excellent profit margin. (Calling all bike shops!)
Full details for ordering here.
Los Angeles is considered by many to be the worst city in the U.S. to ride a bike. And it sure ain’t because of the climate!
No, it’s believed to be a terrible city to ride because of L.A.’s car-centric transportation culture, high speeds, heavy traffic, and frustrated motorists.
Our wonderful classical music station even plays an “Anti-Road Rage Melody” each weekday at 5 PM in an attempt to soothe the savage beasts — er, L.A. commuting motorists.
Transportation officials love acronyms. L.A.’s transportation officials have special terms for the corridors and intersections with the highest concentration of people killed or seriously injured in cars, on bikes or on foot.
People killed or seriously injured are somberly referred to as “KSIs.” The roads on which these horrific injuries take place are known as part of the “HIN,” or High Injury Network.
Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?
What might it be like to ride a bike on L.A.’s most dangerous streets? Indeed, wouldn’t you have to be crazy to even want to bike on the most dangerous streets in L.A.?
And wouldn’t you have to be even crazier — if possible — to ride during the busiest traffic periods on a weekday morning or late afternoon?
Maybe not.
What if you were a CyclingSavvy Instructor and program developer wanting to show how CyclingSavvy’s defensive bicycle tips and techniques can make bicycling on L.A.’s most challenging streets easy and fun?
What better place could you choose to make your point than Los Angeles’ High Injury Network?
Hey, if you can bike and stay alive in these conditions, you should be able to bike and thrive anywhere, right!?
So this spring, after making sure all my affairs were in order, I started shooting traffic cycling videos on High Injury Network roads close to my home in Westside L.A.
The first is Lincoln Boulevard in Venice, between Venice Boulevard and Commonwealth Avenue. This 1.12-mile stretch had 19 KSIs over five years from 2013 to 2017, making it the fifth most dangerous segment in the city during that time period.
Check out the two short videos below. Let me know what you think. Is this foolhardy, confidence-inspiring or oddly uneventful? You can choose more than one!
I used a “pseudo-drone 360-degree” video technique. This means that if you view these videos on your computer using an updated browser (Chrome and Safari 12.1.1 work) or on your portable device using the YouTube app, you’ll be able to control the direction and zoom of the videos. Using a web browser on your portable device will not allow 360 and zoom control.
Because the extreme wide-angle perspective of the Garmin VIRB 360 camera makes speeds appear much faster than they are, be sure to check the speed display in the forward and rearward views of the video. You’ll see that I’m usually moving about 15 MPH and often slower on my cargo bike, showing that you don’t have to be a high-speed bicyclist to fit into L.A.’s traffic system.
Disclosure: ABEA is an Amazon affiliate. If you are in the market for a 360 camera and use the link above, your purchase will help us continue our work.
What in blazes is the Zaveruha Doctrine of Responsibility?
It’s this: A person is fully responsible for how he influences others. On a bicycle or in any other aspect of life.
If you use ridicule or sarcasm, you are responsible for the actions people take as a result of your ridicule or sarcasm. If you give bad advice, set a bad example or otherwise mislead, you are responsible for people who follow your example.
An old girlfriend taught me that, in a way that stung at the time, but it stayed with me. It’s a good story.
In the autumn of 1972, I was a feckless college junior. I had just dropped my life savings on a Motobecane Le Champion racing bike. That bike checked all the boxes: Reynolds 531 tubing! Campagnolo Nuovo Record derailleurs and Campagnolo Nuovo Tipo hubs! Hutchinson sew-up tires! Stronglight Model 93 cotterless crankset! Brooks Professional saddle! I was fit and fast, and loved riding that bike as hard as I could.
One day, I took an impressionable young freshman, Lee Grunes, out for a ride. And I decided to show off. I let loose a mighty sprint on East Possum Hollow Road, seeking the cheap thrill of out-sprinting my inexperienced companion, who was riding a cheaper, heavier, slower bike.
Lee Grunes broke his collarbone riding this stretch of Possum Hollow Road. I now know this was my fault. Possum Hollow Road looks today almost exactly what it looked like 46 years ago.
Lee tried to match my sprint. His foot slipped, he lost control, the handlebars went sideways, and he fell. Hard. He writhed on the ground in front of me, in searing pain. He said he’d broken his collarbone.
A passing motorist took us to the college infirmary, where the broken collarbone diagnosis was confirmed.
I felt sorry for Lee, but it didn’t occur to me to feel any guilt or shame. Until my then-girlfriend, the lovely and elegant Susan Zaveruha, heard what had happened.
“You caused that crash,” she scolded.
And she rubbed my nose in that which I didn’t want to face: that Lee had been unduly influenced by my showing off.
It stung, because she was right. Lee’s crash was my fault. The Zaveruha Doctrine was born.
40 years after giving me the scolding I deserved, Susan Zaveruha obligingly posed for a photo. She’s on the right, if it’s not obvious.
A few months later, Susan wisely dumped me. I bet that news makes you smirk.
Lee’s collarbone healed. He got a PhD in physics from Cornell, and had a suitably distinguished career. And I was left with a lesson of responsibility.
The thing that most matters is how I influence others.
What I say or write matters. How I say it matters. My actions matter.
I apply the Zaveruha Doctrine unsparingly to myself and my work, because Susan was right.
In the world of bicycling, writers and advocates who use ad hominem attacks, logical fallacies and diversion tactics to obfuscate the delivery of important safety information?
Editors who withhold information because they don’t want to deal with the topic?
If you advocate for on-road bicycle infrastructure because it’s “better than nothing,” remember Susan: Every coffin corner collision, every broken collarbone from a car door collision — that’s on you.
And my favorite: You can’t glide past the fact that the coffin corner, the door zone, and other hazards actually do cause human tragedy, and then say:
“Oh, but these facilities will induce so many people to ride bikes that the overall crash rate will go down.”
Um, no.
An alleged — and roundly discredited — mythical safety “statistic” doesn’t absolve your responsibility for individual tragedies.
Guilty with a cherry on top.
You can’t smirk at Susan’s decision to dump me unless you also accept this expanded definition of responsibility. With that definition comes your own responsibility to look in the mirror for breaches of responsibility.
That, my friends, is the Zaveruha Doctrine. We should all adhere to it.
An observation, and a confession:
It’s much easier to shoot video than to edit it.
I use bike lanes.
In November 2015 I spent part of a day exploring Philadelphia by bicycle. I shot video of my ride, as I like to do.
I ride with a forward-facing camera on my helmet and a rearward-facing one on the bicycle’s rear rack. The video accompanying this post was recorded on Spruce Street in downtown Philadelphia.
Spruce Street is straight, narrow and one-way, lined with brick row houses. There are a couple of big, old churches. The street has sidewalks on each side and, from left to right, a parking lane, single travel lane and bike lane.
In November 2017, 24-year-old cyclist Emily Fredericks died at the corner of 10th and Spruce streets. As she rode on Spruce in the bike lane, a right-turning garbage truck swept over her and she went under its rear wheels.
Then in December, one block from Spruce Street, a truck turned right and ran over Becca Refford, also 24 years old, leaving her seriously injured.
moved me to edit my Spruce Street video and place it online.
I can assure you that I wish this post didn’t have to be written.
I wish Emily and Becca — and every cyclist — knew what I know: How to protect yourself when choosing to use bike lanes.
I want you to understand why what happened to them doesn’t happen to me.
I want you to know how to avoid a catastrophe when you use a bike lane.
A cyclist who insists on never using bike lanes is, without question, rigid and dogmatic.
But a cyclist who insists on always using bike lanes is equally rigid and dogmatic.
My use of bike lanes is pragmatic.
I use a bike lane when it works. I get out of it when it doesn’t.
The bike lane on Spruce Street is entirely reasonable where it does work. The bike lane is next to the curb — parking is only on the other side of the street — so the bike lane doesn’t create a problem with a door zone or blocked sight lines.
I used this bike lane to let motorists pass me when they were faster. The bike lane also let me pass motorists when they were slower. Here’s what’s important:
When I use a bike lane to either release or pass motorists, I do so with caution — and constant observation of what’s happening around me.
Especially when approaching intersections, riding in line with motor vehicles is safer, and often easier.
For much of Spruce Street’s bike lane, sight line obstructions are minimized and there’s no door zone to worry about. But the remaining hazard killed Emily Fredericks and put Becca Refford into a body cast. You can avoid this!
Merge left to ride in line with motor traffic. It’s easy to communicate with slow-moving motorists. Look over your shoulder and signal to the driver behind you that you want to take your place in the queue.
In the video you’ll see me take my place in line. I followed our traffic system’s Rules of Movement and passed right-turning vehicles on the left.
Yes, I waited a few seconds longer than some of the cyclists who stayed in the bike lane, but I also could get moving while others were trapped behind right-turning motor vehicles.
No motorists had to wait for me before turning right. So this worked better for the motorists too.
I rode Spruce Street on a Sunday morning. In the video, you’ll see worshipers’ cars parked illegally in the bike lane.
I preferred not to get into the middle of a dispute involving politics and religion, so I got into the middle of the travel lane instead, avoiding the door zone on both sides.
Pragmatic, not dogmatic.
to get into a bike lane, once you decide it’s OK to use.
to get out of a bike lane, once you find yourself in danger.
for a post about a couple of encounters on Spruce Street that could have turned into real trouble, and how I managed them.
You’re In For A TreatJim Dodson — the attorney known as the Florida Bike Guy — conducted a 45-minute interview yesterday with CyclingSavvy coFounder Keri Caffrey. It’s outstanding! As you watch, I promise light bulbs will pop on and you’ll be saying “yes” throughout.
You can watch the public Facebook Live interview, or the Youtube video embedded below.
The presentation features eye-opening graphics interspersed throughout.
Essential viewing for everyone who uses our public roads. I hope you’ll share this with everyone you know.
Do you know the safest lane position?? It’s probably not what you think. Find out the truth about the safest lane position by watching our interview with the co-founder of CyclingSavvy, Keri Caffrey. Keri provides valuable safety tips so you will not want to miss this one!
Right hooks are one of the most well-known crashes among road cyclists. Many of us have experienced close calls, or worse, with this crash type.
It takes only one person to avoid a crash. Let it be you.
In CyclingSavvy courses, we teach cyclists to recognize situations in which they are vulnerable to right hooks. We teach countermeasures to discourage motorists from hooking them, and emergency maneuvers to reduce or avoid impact in the event those countermeasures fail.
This year we’re creating educational materials for motorists. It takes only one person to avoid a crash. Let it be you!
Typically, a right hook happens when a motorist passes a bicyclist and then turns right.
Sounds dumb, right?
As you see in the video, there can be a good bit of time and distance between the pass and the turn. But here’s the problem: The speed differential is not that great.
This is even more true with e-bikes. As a motorist, once you pass, the bicyclist is out of sight, out of mind.
But what if you’re turning right up ahead? You have to slow down. The tighter the turn, the more you must slow.
As your car slows, the bicyclist catches up.
You both end up in the intersection at the same time.
They’re supposed to be.* Drivers must turn right from as far right as practicable. Before turning right, you’re actually required to merge your car into the bike lane.
If your vehicle has a long wheelbase, it may not be possible — or practicable — to make the turn from that far right. It’s also counterintuitive to merge into a space that’s a fraction the size of your car. But that’s the rule.
Merging requires you to signal and scan to make sure it’s clear to move right. Once in the bike lane, if a fast cyclist approaches from behind, she will either need to slow and wait, or pass on the left.
If you can’t merge into the bike lane, due to vehicle size or because of the speed and timing of an overtaking cyclist (as in the video above), you must yield before turning. Signal, wait for the cyclist to pass, and continue to scan behind you until it’s clear to turn across the bike lane.
Don’t forget to check for pedestrians in the crosswalk, too.
The chain of events for a right hook crash can be broken at any point, by the motorist or the bicyclist.
It’s not that hard. But never lull yourself into thinking it’s easy.
Thank you for being an Awesome Driver!
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*Except in Oregon, where bike lanes are not considered part of the roadway. Motorists may not merge into the bike lane, they must yield before turning right across the bike lane at intersections and driveways.
CyclingSavvy is a program of the American Bicycling Education Association. Our mission is to provide programs and resources for the education of bicyclists as drivers of vehicles, and bicycling-related education for traffic engineers, transportation planners, law enforcement professionals, educators, and the general public.