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Tag Archive for: CyclingSavvy

Bike Wonk: Ride Like You’re Invisi … Relevant

July 12, 2017/10 Comments/by Mighk Wilson

It was a typical winter morning in Downtown Orlando. Clear, cool and sunny with normal rush hour traffic. Because it was cool, I was wearing my usual neon yellow jacket. I’m not obsessive about “hi-viz” clothes, but if I’m going to wear a jacket, I figure it may as well be a bright one. I’d just turned onto Rosalind Avenue, a one-way three-lane street with short blocks, lots of signalized intersections and a bike lane. I normally use the bike lane.

On this particular morning I made the right turn onto Rosalind at such a time that it held off most of the heavy northbound traffic. I had the street almost entirely to myself. In my helmet-mounted mirror I could see only one vehicle approaching from behind. A woman was driving a van in the right lane with the right turn signal on. We were both coming up to the intersection with Church Street. I could tell that the van would get to the intersection at the same time I would. I’m heading straight. She’s turning right. I tell myself, “This should be interesting.”

Sure enough, as we reached the intersection, she turned right in front of me. Since I wasright hook bicycle accident, bike lanes expecting it, it wasn’t a big deal. I tapped my brake and no contact was made, but she missed me by only about a foot. An untrained cyclist might not have had the same outcome.

The point of this story is not to illustrate the fairly common “right hook” conflict, but why this particular driver did something so obviously stupid. She had no other person or vehicle to pay attention to for the few seconds leading up to our conflict. I was exceptionally conspicuous in my jacket. As it was a one-way street, she had no concern about on-coming left turns. There were no vehicles waiting at the cross street. I was the only thing in the world she had to avoid, and she failed.

I can guess at her thought process. Perhaps she misjudged my speed. Perhaps she assumed I would yield. Or perhaps she was so preoccupied that she was not paying attention to anything outside her lane. Whatever. One thing was clear: Even though I was highly conspicuous, I was not relevant enough for her to make the right decision.

Relevance:

The difference between frustrating routine conflicts and a stress-free ride.

CyclingSavvy co-founder Keri Caffrey shot photos of me at this location to give you a sense of how I would have looked to that driver that morning. The photos show more traffic than was present that day and the bike lane is now painted green. But they should still help you “get the picture.”

I do most of my riding in regular clothing and on streets without bike lanes. Over more than 20 years I’ve never had a right hook conflict (or many close calls of any sort), mostly because I ride in the center of the lane by default. But while wearing a hi-viz jacket and riding in a facility that many think is supposed to “make motorists pay attention” to me, I encountered this conflict. (It’s not the only such conflict I’ve had in bike lanes, just the most noteworthy.)

As cyclists we need to understand the differences between “visible,” “conspicuous,” and “relevant.”

You can be visible and highly conspicuous–and irrelevant, as I was that morning:

bicycle driving, bike commuting

You can be clearly visible, though not highly conspicuous, and yet be very relevant. This photo shows the default position I use on streets without bike lanes:

bicycle driving, bike commuting

You can dress to be highly conspicuous and yet be completely invisible to a motorist who needs to see you. See how this cyclist in hi-viz is invisible to the driver about to turn left?

bike lane accident

Or you can be visible, conspicuous, and relevant:

bicycle commuting, bicycle driving

Most cycling safety proponents (and sellers of gizmos) will tell you all about how to be more visible and conspicuous. We hear from lots of cyclists who say they are “doing everything right” and being as conspicuous as possible. Yet they also complain about having too many close calls.

If you’re having close calls, check out the relevance component. CyclingSavvy shows you strategies that will make you as relevant as possible.

You have the power to banish frustrating routine conflicts and enjoy a safer, nearly stress-free cycling experience.

Relevance makes all the difference.

(In a future post I’ll discuss where and when it’s most important and useful to improve your conspicuity, in addition to being visible and relevant.)

https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ride-like-youre-relevant.png 225 400 Mighk Wilson https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png Mighk Wilson2017-07-12 12:00:252018-08-27 21:19:46Bike Wonk: Ride Like You’re Invisi … Relevant
cycling savvy instructors 2017

At CyclingSavvy Boot Camp, The Hug

May 10, 2017/2 Comments/by Karen Karabell

I hope you’re reading this because you’re thinking about taking a CyclingSavvy class. Or perhaps you’re considering the online course, because workshops aren’t yet available where you live.

Ideally you’re thinking:

Who are these people?

Why should I trust them?

What makes CyclingSavvy worth my time?

A peek into Boot Camp will answer your questions.

I hear disdain from the founders: We offer nothing called Boot Camp!

True. It’s called CyclingSavvy Instructor Training.

CyclingSavvy is new. Currently 99 people are certified as CSIs (that’s the acronym for “CyclingSavvy Instructor”). Ask any of them about their training, and you’re likely to hear these words: Hard. Intense. An ass-kicker.

bike training

Keri Caffrey uses “Chalk Talk” to illustrate an idea for CyclingSavvy instructor candidates

Ryan Scofield, a new CSI from Bonita Springs, FL, summarized his training beautifully in a Facebook post:

“Keri, Lisa, and Karen did an amazing job of simultaneously scaring the crap out of us and invigorating us.” He’s referring to CyclingSavvy founder Keri Caffrey, instructor trainer Lisa Walker, and me. (I’m learning how to become an instructor trainer. That’s another story.)

“It’s a big deal to design these courses and teach classes,” Ryan wrote, “and it’s not to be taken lightly.”

CSIs are entrusted with a solemn responsibility: Teaching people how to ride safely anywhere. This naturally includes riding on all kinds of roads. (Click through on any of our videos, and you’ll understand why we throw away the vast majority of our footage. It’s boring.) If you’re going to show people on bicycles how to take their place in traffic and love it, you’d better know what the heck you’re doing.

“Taking a CyclingSavvy class is easy and fun,” observes CSI John Schubert. “Taking the instructor training is difficult. The difference is because the instructors have to know a lot to make the class easy and fun for the students.”

Yep, he’s that John Schubert, affectionately known as one of “The Johns.” In the United States a group of men named John have helped untold numbers become better bicyclists through their books, essays and advocacy.

An article that Schubert wrote for Adventure Cycling Magazine inspired me (a Missourian) to travel to Florida to check out CyclingSavvy.

“I am well aware of the bad rap education has received,” Schubert wrote in that article. “Visualize a middle-aged guy with a pot belly filling out his jersey spending way too much time explaining gearing to a bored audience before launching into that overly sincere ‘bicycles are vehicles’ speech.

“Now imagine the gearing lecture all gone and the speech replaced by interactive teaching methods that truly engage the students.”

How to engage people: That’s what boot camp instructor training is all about. At every step in the process, candidates are exhorted to put students first. “The most precious thing people give us isn’t their money,” Lisa Walker told the candidates. “It’s their time.”

Effective time management was one of the training’s many epiphanies for John Allen, another new CSI, and yes, one of “The Johns.”

John Allen is perhaps best known as the guy who wrote Bicycling Street Smarts, with more than 300,000 copies distributed in multiple languages. Keri credits him with being one of her first teachers.

In an exquisite turn of events, John was an excellent student in Keri & Lisa’s March 2017 training. Here’s another thing we CSIs have branded into our skulls: We are always learning. We learn from each other. We learn from our students. We are always looking for ways to make what we do better.

About halfway through the training weekend, John Allen said something that stopped us in our tracks. We were working in a parking garage on a chilly Saturday in Downtown Orlando, learning how to effectively teach bike handling skills. Suddenly this national bike safety expert marched over to Lisa and pronounced:

“I’m humbled with what I’ve learned that’s above and beyond what I already knew.”

After a intensely gratifying moment of silence, Lisa responded: “Thank you, John! I want to hug you for saying that.”

And she did.

bike training

CyclingSavvy Instructors in Orlando, March 2017. From left: Karen Karabell, Shannon Martin, Yvonne LeFave, Steven Goodridge, CyclingSavvy founder Keri Caffrey, Esther Lumsdon, Instructor Trainer Lisa Walker, Dan Carrigan, John Allen, Ryan Scofield & Katherine Tynan.

On May 19 & 20 John Allen and Charlotte, NC’s inimitable Pamela Murray are leading Boston’s first CyclingSavvy workshop. John reports that he is loving spreading the word to folks in Beantown. “Why?” he says. “Because I have something positive and engaging to offer people.”

There’s still time to register here.

Boston too far? Meet me in St. Louis! Newly minted CSI Katherine Tynan and I are leading an STL workshop that weekend. Details here.

https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/csis.jpeg 203 400 Karen Karabell https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png Karen Karabell2017-05-10 12:00:302018-08-27 21:26:55At CyclingSavvy Boot Camp, The Hug
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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.

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