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Tag Archive for: savvy cycling

Join Us at the Philly Bike Expo!

October 28, 2021/0 Comments/by John Allen

The American Bicycling Education Association is pleased to announce that we’ll be at the Philly Bike Expo. So mark your calendars!

Our booth at the Philly Bike Expo
We’re back! This was our booth in 2019.

Founded in 2010 by Bilenky Cycle Works, the Philly Bike Expo promotes “the fun, function, fitness and freedom to be found on two wheels.” The event fosters relationships between the cycling community and dedicated companies and organizations.

Bilenky hosts the event so we can all “admire the artisans whose craft enables us to ride two-wheeled art, to applaud the activists whose tireless efforts further our cycling infrastructure and to explore cycling as a fun and efficient transportation alternative.”

We’ll be sharing a booth in the Expo Hall with the Lehigh Valley CAT-Coalition for Appropriate Transportation.

Concerned about Covid? There is information online about the Expo’s Covid Protocol. We are vaccinated, will be masked, and consider the risk acceptable.

Pam Murray’s bike, home from errands…

Street Smarts — and a raffle.

The recently published Bicycling Street Smarts, CyclingSavvy Edition will be available at the CyclingSavvy/CAT booth. Yes, autographed by the author!  And we’ll be raffling off copies. The grand prize winner also gets a full scholarship to a CyclingSavvy course, online or in person.

We’re having workshops too!

Two of us are giving presentations on Sunday:

John and a friend rode Spruce Street.

Pamela Murray, The Bike Life, Sunday. 1:30 PM — Pam rides over 6,000 miles per year for transportation, fitness and recreation. She is a CyclingSavvy instructor and Bicycle Benefits Ambassador, and leads bike rides for vacation and camping.

John Allen, Riding Philly Streets, Sunday, 3 PM. Videos and discussion of tactics to meet the challenges of Philly riding. In and out of the bike lane! Getting a smile from a SEPTA bus driver!

Click to zoom in for details about the ride.

And a bike ride…

We are also organizing an unracer bike ride. It will leave at 7:30 AM on Saturday from the Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial (just downriver from the Girard Bridge), and will arrive at the Convention Center in time for you to check in for the opening of the exhibit hall.

We hope to see you in The Cradle of Liberty!

https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/PBE-featured.png 310 594 John Allen https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png John Allen2021-10-28 17:56:592021-10-28 22:28:51Join Us at the Philly Bike Expo!
Bicycle drivetrainKeri caffrey for ABEA

Shifting Gears to Accelerate Quickly

August 26, 2021/4 Comments/by John Brooking

Welcome to the next in our series of beginner articles. In this one, I’ll introduce the topic of how to use your gears.

Most bicycles in the USA these days have the chain shifting across several sprockets. Many earlier bikes, and some current ones, have actual gears inside the wheel hub, “internal gears”. We’ll discuss both kinds.

Why do bicycles have multiple gears? Multiple gears can make your riding smoother and less tiring, especially if you live in a hilly area, as well as in extremely windy situations.

The point of gears is to keep your pedaling effort and speed (“cadence”) at a comfortable level. Pay attention to your effort. If you are pushing down too hard, you need to go down to a lower (easier) gear. If you are spinning uselessly, you need to go up to a higher (harder) gear. CyclingSavvy Instructor John Allen demonstrates.

Just as with a car, low (easy) gears are for starting and moving slowly, and higher (harder) gears are to keep your engine — your legs — from turning too fast as you speed up. But there are important differences compared to shifting gears in a car.

Your bike’s drivetrain: 1) front derailer, 2) crankset, 3) chainrings, 4) rear derailer, 5) cassette made up of individual sprockets

Two shifters: what’s that about?

Many bikes have two or three front sprockets (called chainrings) at the cranks (pedals), and several sprockets on the rear wheel, giving you two shifters to think about. It would be simple if you had, say, a 21-speed bike with just one shifter that went from 1 to 21. But unfortunately, it isn’t that simple.

The good news is, using two shifters in combination is not as hard as you might think. Let’s say you have 3 chainrings (front sprockets, left shifter), and 7 in the back (right shifter, remember that both “rear” and “right” start with R). Don’t think of them as having 21 steps in a sequence (because they’re not): think instead of having 3 overlapping ranges of 7 steps each. Each chainring gives you a different range, and the rear sprockets let you make smaller adjustments within the current range.

  • If you have 3 chainrings, think of the middle one as your “normal” range, where you will spend most of your time. Start and stop in this range, generally with the back sprockets at or near 1 (easiest). The smallest (inside) chainring shifts the whole range down to be  easier, for when you are going up a steep hill or into a strong headwind. The largest (outside) chainring shifts the whole range to be harder, useful downhill or with a strong wind at your back.
  • If you only have 2 chainrings,  which one is “normal” will depend on you and on the specific gearing. Experiment.
  • If you have just 1 chainring, the preceding 4 paragraphs don’t apply. :-)

You can feel how pedaling gets harder as you move a shifter one way, easier the other way.

Homing in on the range

One way or the other, once the range is right for the conditions, just shift your back sprockets as necessary. (Remember, rear = right shifter). Start from a stop at the easy end, or near it. As you gain speed, you will notice at some point that your pedaling is no longer delivering much power; then it’s time to shift up. This is usually all with the same front chainring.

The outermost of three chainrings (at the cranks) should be used only with the outer four or five rear sprockets, the inner chainring only with the two or three innermost rear sprockets. This essentially boils down to: avoid having the front in the easiest gear while the back is in relatively a hard gear, and vice-versa. Keep easy with easy, and hard with hard.

The middle chainring can be used with any unless the chain rubs against the outer chainring when used with the smallest rear sprockets. If there are only two chainrings, the outer one can be used with more of the rear sprockets.

Shifting gears strategy

Think “how do I shift to get to the gear I need to use,“ not “am I in 7th gear or 8th gear.” It would be complicated to keep track of the sequence from gear 1 to gear 21; also, many combinations are duplicates and near-duplicates, so it is pointless. Typically, a “21-speed” bicycle will have a working sequence of 10 to 12 different gears, and a wide enough range for any terrain and level of fitness, with small enough steps to be comfortable. Use the numbers on twist-grip shifters only as a guide — lower numbers, easier.

The basic sequence is to start in a low (easy) gear, and shift to a harder one when the pedals get to turning too fast. Keep pedaling lightly and shift down as you slow down. This will allow you to accelerate briskly from a stop or a low speed.

When accelerating from a stop, you may need to shift as often as once per second. This keeps your cadence in the sweet spot and accelerates you quickest. You have something in common with a big semitrailer truck — listen to it as it accelerates. The driver shifts through multiple gears, because the truck also has a narrow range of engine speed which optimizes power production.

Gear range wide enough?

Is your bicycle’s easiest gear easy enough? That depends on the terrain where you ride, and on your fitness. On most bicycles, it is possible to replace rear sprockets and widen the range. There is no shame in using an easy gear. It shows that you know how to take care of yourself.

No matter how many speeds your bicycle has in theory, you can use only one at a time! “21-speed” does make a nice advertising slogan, though, doesn’t it?

Derailer Complications

Most multi-gear bicycles in North America use derailers at the cranks and the rear wheel. Those mechanisms push (derail) the chain to one side or the other, from one sprocket or chainwheel to another. The derailer at the rear wheel has pulley wheels to take up slack in the chain produced by the different-sized sprockets. (Clever, right?)

A derailer system has some complications:

  1. Shifting works only when the chain is moving forward! If you shift without pedaling, including when stopped, you will get a lot of grinding once you start pedaling, as the chain finds its way to the right spot. That is tough for the chain and sprockets, and embarrassing for you. If you did not shift down before stopping, the bicycle will be in a high gear and starting will be hard.
  2. To shift smoothly as you slow down, keep spinning the pedals but without putting any force on them. When accelerating or holding speed, reduce force on the pedals momentarily as you shift.
  3. You backpedal to step forward off the saddle when coming to a stop. (See our post about starting and stopping.) Finish shifting before you stop. If the chain and derailers are not aligned, the chain will jam as you backpedal. Test by backpedaling lightly. Sometimes you can adjust the shift levers even after stopping.

Internal Gears

Instead of a derailer, some bicycles have gears in the hub of the rear wheel, or sometimes at the cranks. Usually a shifter and cable connect to the internal mechanism; some two-speed hubs shift by backpedaling. 3-speed internal-gear hubs were very popular in the mid-20th century. Now 7 and 8-speed internal-gear hubs are common, and some have even more speeds.

An internal-gear hub shifts best when the chain is not moving, just the opposite of a derailer system. Coast or backpedal slightly for a moment while you shift. You don’t need to worry about downshifting while slowing to a stop; you can do that after you stop. It’s one less thing to concern yourself with. The sprocket can be changed with internal gears, in case you find that the range is too easy or too hard (usually, too hard). More about internal-gear hubs.

Shifting gears – Summary

Now that you know how shifting works, keep the goal of consistent cadence in mind as you ride. If your bicycle has more than one chainring, remember that the easy range is for uphill or headwind, hard one for downhill or tailwind. Middle (if you have 3) is for all other conditions. Use the sprockets at the rear wheel to adjust within the range as necessary. Easier gears are also good for creeping along while maintaining control, and being ready to accelerate, for example if a red light turns green before you reach it.

The idea is to keep your feet turning at a constant rate. A follow-up article will help you feel in your legs what that rate needs to be.

https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/bike-drivetrain-01.jpg 682 1011 John Brooking https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png John Brooking2021-08-26 14:45:512022-03-13 22:41:38Shifting Gears to Accelerate Quickly
John S. Allen, CyclingSavvy

Would You Ride A Bicycle Through Here?

August 14, 2020/15 Comments/by John Allen

If you’ve taken the CyclingSavvy course, you’ll recall the video of John Alexander’s bicycle ride across a huge highway interchange.  At less than 10 miles per hour, on an Elektra Townie bicycle.

If you haven’t seen the video, watch it here, and relax. John’s bicycle ride was boring, not daring.

John — and Keri Caffrey, riding behind him with cameras to record it all — had the road almost entirely to themselves, through thoughtful choice of lane position, and by taking advantage of traffic-signal timing.

My own gnarly bicycle riding challenge

I face a similar situation later this month. I have two doctor’s appointments about a mile apart. By far the shortest route between the two doctors’ offices passes through a similar huge highway interchange. I could take a much longer way there, but this longer ride would include backtracking on a poison-ivy-infested sidewalk.

On Monday, I checked out the route in a car, with a dashcam running:

So here’s a challenge for you:

How would you ride this?

Would you ride it at all?

Have a look in Google maps

The image below shows my route, from right to left, in Google Maps. (When I drove, I went straight through on Route 9 rather than turning into William Street. That doesn’t change anything important.)

Google map of gnarly route for bicycle ride

Google will let me share the location but not the route information. Here’s the location in Google Maps. You can play around with Google Street View and get a closer look.

map view of Google Maps, featuring yellow Google Dude

Google Dude is the yellow fellow in the lower right corner of Google Maps

Not familiar with Street View? If you’re using a computer, click on Google Dude, the yellow fellow in the lower right corner of Google Maps. Drag the green fog under his feet to any street that lights up in blue, release the mouse button, and there you are.

You can move around using the the keyboard’s arrow buttons.  The right and left buttons turn you around. The down button is your reverse gear, up button moves you forward. Or click on the image and drag with the mouse.

Once you’ve dropped your Dude, there’s a “compass” in the lower right corner that also makes it easy to turn around:

Google Dude view of William Street

Compass in lower right corner (in Google maps but not in this screen shot) spins map to the view you want.

Once I dropped Google Dude on the road, I spun the compass in the lower right corner to point Dude in the direction I’ll be riding next week. I clicked on the street to move forward, and stand with Dude in the middle of any road.

The arrow in the black box at the upper left corner of the screen takes you back to the overhead view.

On a tablet or smartphone, you can tap and swipe the screen to access these same features.

This bicycle ride is possible!

I have discussed this ride with a few other people and found at least two, maybe, three different ways to manage it. I don’t consider the ride difficult even for a novice cyclist, but savvy strategies can make it much more convenient. (Hint: see my description of John Alexander’s ride above.)

Please post comments and suggestions. I’ll get back to you in a couple of weeks with video of my ride.

I love to ride my bicycle, but I have my limits. Arriving at the doctors’ offices drenched in sweat during a pandemic would exceed those limits! If necessary, I’ll ride the route on a different day to shoot the video.

Your turn now.

I’m eager to hear your thoughts on this ride.

 

https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Route-9-fallback.jpg 395 702 John Allen https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png John Allen2020-08-14 11:55:362020-08-28 14:01:43Would You Ride A Bicycle Through Here?

Requiem for a Heavyweight-••-John-Forester-1929-2020

June 2, 2020/11 Comments/by John Schubert

(Also in Spanish — este artículo está también disponible en español en la web de Madrid Ciclista.)

Back in my misspent youth, I dropped 60 cents on the then-new February 1973 issue of Bike World Magazine. In it was the first-ever article by a guy named John Forester.

John Forester photo with note of appreciation.Forester was steaming mad.

The city of Palo Alto, California, had decided it wanted bikeways. The city got them by putting up signage, requiring bicyclists to ride on the sidewalks. Forester tried them and found them dangerous at very ordinary cycling speeds of 10-12 mph, and so he chronicled the hazards in a two-page article.

Forester cited two fatal bike/pedestrian collisions to underscore the danger of mixing bicycles and pedestrians. He wrote about turning conflicts, poor sight distances at driveway intersections, and the impossibility of making a safe and sensible left turn. Forester wrote that he hoped to get arrested, so he could challenge the city’s sidewalk requirement.

That article sparked an epiphany for me. Until then, I’d dreamed of sidepaths along all my favorite roads. Three feet wide, and just for me! Wheeeeee!

The epiphany was, “Be careful what you wish for.” Because even a city as sophisticated as Palo Alto got it completely wrong.

I learned: Sometimes, a well-intentioned intervention is far worse than leaving well enough alone. And that is just the beginning of what I learned from John Forester.

Forester died on April 19, half a year shy of his 91st birthday. The cause of death was a lingering flu, not suspected to be Covid-19. Forester left behind nearly 50 years of immense contributions to the cycling community, in ways that weren’t even imaginable before he articulated them.

My own Forester-related epiphany pales in comparison to those of many thousands of others. I was already a bike rider. Forester made me a better bike rider. Others were liberated to use their bikes to go anywhere, when they previously couldn’t.

Independent mobility for a legally blind person

No one has expressed this better than Eli Damon, a resident of western Massachusetts whose eyesight is not good enough for him to get a driver’s license:

Socializing was especially difficult for me for many reasons, but an important one was that my mobility limitations hindered my ability to act spontaneously or to interact with others on an equal basis. . . . Asking for a ride . . . left me in a constantly dependent and inferior social position. I was lonely and isolated. . . .

. . . My principal social outlet [in 2005] was my weekly choir practice, which . . . was fifteen miles away (ten miles was my limit at the time) on unfamiliar, difficult, scary roads, so biking seemed impossible. I was too far out of the way for other members of the choir to pick me up. There were no buses that could take me.

And Damon had lost his ride to the choir practice.

He found a cycling book that had been given to him.

Eli Damon's copy of Effective cycling 6th Edition

Eli Damon’s copy of Effective Cycling, 6th Edition

In desperation, I dug the book out and started reading it, hoping to find a clue to my mobility problem. The book was Effective Cycling, by John Forester.

As I read the book, I became very excited. It suggested that I should ride my bike according to the same rules drivers of motor vehicles use and that I should stay away from the edge of the road, sometimes riding in the center or even on the left side of a lane, thus occupying the entire lane. I knew that the designs of roads provided a simple and predictable environment for motorists to travel with ease and flexibility. If I could use the roads in the same manner on a bike, then I could go anywhere with the same ease and flexibility. This was a totally new concept to me, and I was somewhat skeptical of it, but I recognized its immense potential.

I quickly became comfortable riding assertively on small quiet roads. I advanced my testing to bigger, busier roads. And then even bigger, even busier roads. . . I was ready to take on the scariest road I knew of: Route 9 in Hadley, a major four-lane arterial.

. . .

Eli Damon Rides Route 9

Eli Damon rides Route 9 in Hadley, Massachusetts

It was as if I was no longer disabled. . . I was still [legally] blind, but ignorance, not blindness, had been my disability all along. I had been healed. I could go wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I could do all of the normal things that other people did. I could live a full, normal life. I could go to choir practice.

That’s what John Forester did for people.

(You can read Damon’s entire 2013 essay at https://iamtraffic.org/equality/overcoming-ignorance-and-fear.)

And yet, Forester made many enemies in bicycling, thanks to a famously abrasive temperament. Sadly, Forester’s detractors are mercilessly dancing on his grave.

For years, Forester’s detractors have shamelessly mischaracterized his opinions with demeaning distortions and outright falsehoods. Some have written hit pieces disguised as obituaries. One obit called Forester a “Dinosaur” in the headline.

John Forester’s contributions . . . far outweigh those of his detractors.

A man who gives legally blind people independent mobility deserves a better remembrance than that.

More like this:

“John’s contributions to bicycling — as transportation, recreation, sport, a vehicle for fitness, social interaction, and discovery — far outweigh those of his detractors, wrote Pete Van Nuys, executive director of the Orange County (California) Bicycle Coalition. “John stood for, and rode for, human dignity and equality. He advocated respect for law and common sense; he trusted civility over fearmongering; he promoted responsibility of the individual above government overreach.”

Yes, one had to look past Forester’s famously abrasive temperament to get the value he offered. But there was immense value.

Because what Forester did was far better than complaining about bad bicycle facilities. He gave us the vocabulary and the framing to understand good versus bad facilities, good versus bad riding, and the root causes of crashes. He gave us the revelation that we could control the behavior of other road users to make ourselves safer. We didn’t have to be passive victims. We could create our own success on the road. On almost any road. Today.

That vocabulary and framing didn’t exist before Forester. If I may exaggerate only slightly to make the point, how good a chemist could you be if you didn’t have the periodic table of the elements?

Before John Forester, we were all road sneaks.

Before Forester, almost every bicyclist rode in a style we call “road sneak,” hiding from other traffic, believing s/he didn’t belong, and even hoping to go unnoticed. Forester replaced all that with a concept well articulated by one of his best instructors, the late Steve Schmitt: “Visible plus predictable equals safe.”

Fred DeLong's illustration of how to avoid a car door

Fred DeLong’s illustration of how to avoid a car door. Well-intentioned, but this exact behavior causes many collisions, some of them fatal. Forester liberated us from this thinking.

Before Forester, other famous bicycling writers pretty much endorsed the “road sneak” vision of a cyclist’s place (or lack thereof).

Even the great Fred DeLong instructed people to ride in the door zone, with the absurd notion that you could swerve to avoid an opening car door and yet be safe. Writers Richard Ballantine and Eugene Sloane, whose books sold in the millions in the early 1970s, offered similarly hapless advice. Other authors of that era were also hapless. They were well-intentioned, but they didn’t know any better.

(In 2013, our colleague John S. Allen wrote a very good critique of the “dark ages” of bicycle safety advice before Forester. It’s at http://john-s-allen.com/blog/?page_id=5273.)

Five core principles guide our thinking

Forester’s framing began with articulating the core principles of traffic law, and telling bicyclists to follow the core principles. Today, they sound pretty mundane:

  • All vehicle operators keep to the right.
  • Yield to cross traffic according to pre-defined rules and traffic-control devices.
  • First-come, first-served (meaning that if someone wants to pass you, s/he must do so safely, and you still have the right to be on the road).
  • Destination positioning at intersections (Left-turn lanes and right-turn lanes are for everyone.)
  • Between intersections, you choose your position on the roadway based on your speed and on the usable width of the road.

Traffic collisions are caused by disobeying these core principles, and not by obeying them.

In 1982, Forester explained to me that these principles were not articulated in traffic engineering classes. He had ferreted them out by thinking and observing the unspoken common principles of all traffic, and seeing how they would be applicable to bicyclists.

Here’s what he said at the time (from a June 1982 article I wrote in Bicycling Magazine):

Highway people had training deficiencies because of the overwhelming success of motorization. They never had to teach any traffic engineers how to drive. They never had to teach the theory of traffic safety — the theory was implicit in everyone’s driving knowledge. Therefore, these people never questioned the principles of the ‘bike safety training’ they had received. They didn’t recognize that it conflicted with the theory behind vehicle safety.

The legislators put up money for very specific things — bikeways. So basically, society bribed the highway departments to do the wrong thing.

John Forester around 1980

Forester around 1980, wired up to score students in a road test. A switch in his glove starts the cassette recorder in his backpack. Credit: IPMBA

So, Forester preached the principles of traffic law to any bicyclist who would listen.

Forester was also a keen student of the characteristics and limitations of bicycles and motor vehicles, bicyclists and motor vehicle operators. His early experience in Palo Alto made him a vigilant watchdog for unreasonable sight distances, curb radii, reaction times and intersection turning conflicts. Forester coined the term “rolling pedestrian,” and noted that even a slow bicyclist is several times as fast as a pedestrian, with very different ability to manage sharp turns and short stops. Forester observed that most bicycle facilities were designed with obliviousness to how a bad sight distance or a sharp turn could make a bicyclist crash.

(Even that observation got distorted by Forester’s opponents. Forester once wrote that a bicycle facility should be designed for a bicyclist going as fast as 30 mph, to accommodate all extremes of bicyclist behavior. His opponents turned that into, “Forester brags that he rides 30 mph.” And Forester’s advice to make traffic law work for you was twisted into “compete with the cars,” or “think you’re just like a car.” That level of distortion can best be described as mean-spirited.)

Without Forester’s innovative instruction, bicyclists of the 1970s, including those who considered themselves safety advocates, simply didn’t have the vocabulary to talk about how a bicyclist’s operating characteristics would interact with a given facility design, to produce a crash. They certainly had little notion that a bicyclist’s own behavior could make him safer.

Forester knew why bicyclists thought that way, and gave it an annoying, but accurate name: the “cyclist inferiority complex.” The cultural pull of the cyclist inferiority complex — the belief that we don’t have the full right to use the road — was, and is today, so strong that it subverts safe behavior.

We all thought we should stay out of the way of “real” traffic, hug the curb, and hope for the best.

Abrasive . . . but he wanted to sit next to me!

And with all the diplomacy of a professor dressing down an ill-prepared student, Forester told us all to think again.

So, let’s talk about his abrasiveness.

Many of us have been on the receiving end of it.

You could be in 98 percent agreement with Forester, and he’d come down on you like a ton of bricks. It sure happened to me plenty of times. I disagreed with Forester on technicalities of retro reflectivity and night time conspicuity; on developmental maturity and teaching children to ride in traffic; on an aspect of rider position during maximum-performance braking; on the political tactics of opposing or not opposing dangerous bicycle facilities; and a few other topics. I learned to ignore — and often not even read — his, uh, disagreements with me.

Still, he must have disagreed with me less often than he disagreed with many others. Because he always wanted to sit next to me in various national committee meetings.

And I watched him make an arse of himself in those meetings, grinding my teeth while it unfolded. If a well-intentioned mayor or traffic engineer used one wrong word, Forester would stand and attack. The vitriol made many of us wince, because we knew it undermined his persuasiveness.

I can’t defend the vitriol.

But in some instances I can explain it. Forester was using science and engineering to describe how bicyclist behavior and bicycle facilities could either help or hurt people. Forester took very seriously the immense responsibility of telling the public what was good for their own safety, and he expected others to gravitate to the facts he presented. When Forester’s opponents displayed obliviousness and/or defiance to the reasons why they were risking serious personal injury or death — not for themselves, but for others — Forester would attack.

It’s a shame so many people never saw past the vitriol, because there was much wisdom underneath it.

John Forester’s books, the curriculum, courses

So, let’s talk about that wisdom — and about how he promulgated it.

That first Bike World article gave birth in 1975 to the book Effective Cycling, which Forester self-published with his own printing press in his garage. It would go through many editions and get published by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Press; it is now in its 7th edition.

Forester also devised a 30-hour course, also named Effective Cycling. That course made novices into cyclists who were self-sufficient and proficient in every way. In keeping with the more self-reliant ethos of that era, Effective Cyclists were expected to be capable of doing their own repairs, sewing their own cycling clothing, and making various adapters and accessories for their bikes. And, of course, they could ride confidently and safely on big arterial streets just like my buddy Eli Damon.

Forester wrote a second curriculum, called Effective Cycling at the Intermediate Level. He successfully taught it to middle-school students in Palo Alto for a time. He created an instructor’s manual. He scripted and directed Iowa State University’s 1979 film, Bicycling Safely on the Road. and was behind the 1992 Seidler Productions film Effective Cycling.

Cover of Bicycle Transportation, by John ForesterForester also saw the need for professional training, so that engineers would not design bad bicycle facilities. This led him to write the book Bicycle Transportation Engineering, later renamed Bicycle Transportation after MIT Press picked it up.

The book Effective Cycling has a defiant, angry tone. Forester believed that you couldn’t be a safe cyclist without being aware of public policy’s endorsement of the cyclist inferiority complex, and the book gives a lengthy dressing down of that policy. Forester offered his rants, expected the reader to take his side, and then showed the reader how good cycling works. It’s not the most welcoming sales pitch I’ve ever seen. But it created an aha moment for many thousands of people.

Forester reached an agreement with the League of American Wheelmen (which subsequently changed its name to the League of American Bicyclists) to train instructors nationwide.

Forester travels the country for policy advocacy

The man went to conferences everywhere, to offer his advice on designs, and on the bad assumptions behind bad designs. No one was paying him. He did it out of a passion for safety.

In the 1970s, many people were working with this newly popular concept of adults riding bicycles. Government agencies everywhere wondered what they should be doing about it. Palo Alto’s sidewalk bikeways were only one small piece of a nationwide let’s-try-this approach to bicycle facilities.

Forester was willing and able to tell them all how it should be done. Having written his books and taught his classes, he set his sights on government policy documents.

Forester was afraid, not without cause, that government policy for bicycle facility design would shunt bicyclists off to sidewalks, leading to turning-conflict collisions and other bad outcomes. Along with other stalwarts of that era (notably the late college professor John Finley Scott and traffic engineer Bob Shanteau), Forester worked hard to make sure that the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) policy would be good for safe cycling.

The CalTrans policy went national in 1981. Much of the language in the CalTrans policy was used in the 1981 edition of the American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials’ Guide for the Development of New Bicycle Facilities (AASHTO Guidelines). “That AASHTO document explicitly states the detriments of bike lanes and mentions the alleged benefits in the 1981 AASHTO Guidesubjunctive mode,” Forester said at the time. For once, he was actually pleased.

Forester advocated for competent, safe cycling.

But by necessity, that meant he spent most of his energy, and his audience’s attention, talking about things he was against — laws and societal customs that prohibited safe cycling. The big three such laws were laws requiring riders to ride far to the right, laws requiring bicyclists to ride in bike lanes, and laws requiring bicyclists to use sidepaths. Almost every conversation with Forester quickly turned to the bad consequences of these three.

Forester spent about $50,000 of his own money, and months of his time, in support of the California Association of Bicycle Organizations (CABO) for bicyclists’ rights in a well-known lawsuit, Prokop v. City of Los Angeles. The problem Forester was fighting was government immunity. Under certain circumstances, the government could build a bicycle facility and if the facility was dangerous, there would be no recourse for an injured cyclist. Sadly, Prokop lost that lawsuit. Forester again showed generosity to CABO when he had to give up bicycling. He donated his bikes, equipment and tools to CABO, and CABO sold them on eBay. (Not incidentally, Forester was the founder of CABO.)

Held up by Downward Pull. Yes, really!

And although Forester was known primarily for opining about traffic riding, he was a top-shelf expert in many other areas of cycling. I’ll mention my three favorites:

  • In August 1980, Forester published the provocatively titled “Held Up by Downward Pull” in the League of American Wheelmen magazine, explaining with great clarity the counterintuitive way a tension-spoked wheel supports the rider’s weight. (Writer Jobst Brandt is widely acclaimed for explaining this in his book The Bicycle Wheel, but Forester was a year ahead of Brandt.)
  • In April 1983, I had the pleasure of publishing in my very own magazine, Bike Tech, Forester’s eye-opening and ground-breaking “Physiology of Cyclist Power Production.” Forester deftly explained why measuring efficiency on an ergometer was misleading, and how the makeup of muscle tissue meant that a faster riding technique would score less efficiency in the lab.
  • In the 1971-1976 time period, Forester sued the then-new U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on the grounds that many of its proposed regulations were technically incompetent. He had many spot-on arguments. Accordingly, the CPSC 1976 Bicycle Safety Standard — which remains federal law today — has many numbered paragraphs that simply say “[reserved]”. The court picked through Forester’s points and upheld some and rejected others.

Back in 1977, I spent some time in a Washington, DC courthouse studying the lawsuit documents, and I marveled that a non-lawyer could get to first base arguing on his own behalf in federal court. Forester would write incisive technical stuff, and the attorneys defending the CPSC would get it struck down because he’d used the wrong-size paper. Nevertheless, he persisted. (How does this affect you today? The bikes you buy today are not burdened with useless design constraints they would have had without Forester.)

These are only three examples. There are hundreds more.

Time does not permit a listing of all the unfair criticisms of Forester’s work. But one I’ve seen repeated endlessly was that he was “against all infrastructure.” He was certainly against unsafe infrastructure. But he had no objection to rail trails, and in certain circumstances (bridges and high-traffic-volume arterial streets) he was okay with well designed bike lanes. I never asked him about secure parking or bike stations, but I believe he would have supported them.

Forester was the son of C.S. Forester, the famous British author. There was a complicated father-son relationship, and Forester’s two-volume biography of his father (available for free download at JohnForester.com) will test your attention span. Forester was born in England, and his childhood years cycling there, sharing roads with motor vehicles, demonstrated to him that bicyclists could do so safely. He frequently cited his experience in England as informing his advocacy when he moved to the U.S.

Ballroom dancer, model boat racer, photographer

John Forester was an industrial engineer with two masters’ degrees and a couple decades of work experience before he quit engineering in 1972 to go full-time on bicyclist advocacy work. He once said, “If you can’t make it as a mechanical engineer, you become an industrial engineer. If you can’t make it as an industrial engineer, you become a traffic engineer.” He wasn’t particularly modest, but that was his way of saying he had insights that many traffic engineers didn’t, without sounding too imperious about it.

The man had a human side too. He was enormously talented in more ways than I’ll ever know.

John Forester was an avid photographer with his own darkroom, an accomplished ballroom dancer, an avid square dancer, a downhill skier and active swimmer.

Forester had interests you might expect of an engineer: a broad knowledge of train engines and aircraft. He built radio controlled model airplanes and ship models. He built and raced radio-controlled model boats. He had an aquarium and, of course, lots of papers and books.

His own cycling got slower as his years went on, and continued until about age 80. His last bike had five-cog half-step gearing, with a top gear of about 78 inches. That’s about right for an old man.

“I just got rear-ended.”

Once, I saw John Forester look a bit embarrassed. It was 1986, and I was interviewing him in his house, which at that point was in Sunnyvale. It was raining cats and dogs outside.

The front door burst open, and in stormed a teenage girl. It was Forester’s significant other’s daughter. Not only was she soaking wet. She was carrying the pieces of a broken bicycle, and she was mad as a wet hen.

“I just got rear-ended,” she shouted. “The Ken Cross study says that motorist overtaking collisions are only four percent of non-fatal car bike collisions, and I just had one.” Forester responded with . . . embarrassed silence. You could see his pride that the girl knew to cite the Cross study, his horror that she’d been hit, and his relief that she wasn’t hurt.

I smiled inside. It was a unique interaction between a teenager and a semi-parental unit.

Cyclists fare best when. . .

John Forester usually spoke and wrote in long paragraphs, but his best sound bite was 13 words:

“Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles.”

As long as this remembrance is, it leaves out many, many things. There is so much I failed to mention. Forester’s work was very far-reaching, and his motives were always to help us be better bicyclists.

John Schubert during his transcontinental tour

John Schubert during his transcontinental tour

Shortly after I first met John Forester, at a mini road course he taught in Washington DC in 1977, I launched on a spectacular solo 4,000-mile transcontinental tour. I was grateful for Forester’s wisdom to make myself a safer rider on that tour. My buddy Eli Damon is glad he could go to choir practice. Many thousands of others thank Forester too.

We’ve come a long way since 1977.  The way we teach safe cycling behavior is far easier for a novice cyclist to learn and do. That’s the way of all improvement. Complexity starts. Simplicity follows.   In future articles, John S. Allen will describe how Cycling Savvy was able to stand on Forester’s shoulders.

For that instruction to be improved on, it had to start. And it started with Forester.

Thanks, John.

With thanks to Jim Baross, Bill Hoffman, John S. Allen, Clint Sandusky, Robert Seidler, John Brooking, Eli Damon, Keri Caffrey and many others.

Countless other people had remembrances about Forester. Read some here.

https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/john-forester-feature.jpg 499 700 John Schubert https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png John Schubert2020-06-02 12:55:222021-01-04 12:23:32Requiem for a Heavyweight-••-John-Forester-1929-2020

Should I Be Riding Now?

April 18, 2020/7 Comments/by John Allen

Should bicyclists be riding now? Should bicyclists wear face masks now to avoid the risk of catching the COVID-19 disease?

Common sense suggests that masks help, but the US Centers for Disease Control until recently downplayed them. With masks in short supply, the highest priority has been to ensure first responders and medical professionals have protection.

Judgments like that are about the Greater Good. They aren’t just about saving you in particular.  They are based on epidemiological risk assessments from one point of view or another.

Good Health and the Greater Good

I like to think that I advocate for the Greater Good, but I do better at that if I am in good health. I might take that idea farther than some people. By 1978, bicycle helmets were becoming common, and like many people I wore one.   But I was unique in wearing an industrial respirator mask when riding in the city.

Should bicyclists wear face masks? The author wore one in 1978.

The author riding with helmet and mask in 1978 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo by Anita Brewer-Siljeholm

Cities were smelly in 1978.  Most cars did not have catalytic converters. Brake shoes were made of asbestos, and they shed asbestos fibers into the air. But my respirator worked great. Car exhaust had a heavy, oily smell back then, but it came through the mask odorless. Acrid diesel-bus exhaust exited the mask’s activated charcoal filters smelling like a fresh slice of whole-wheat toast.

If I hadn’t been wearing a respirator mask while cycling in the late 70s, the damage to my lungs and body would have been as significant as if I smoked cigarettes. Then, things got better.  As pollution control on cars improved, I used the respirator less. It deteriorated in storage, and eventually I threw it away.

Now we have a different problem.

The pandemic has created a new and different problem.  CyclingSavvy outdoor sessions have been postponed or canceled. Bicycle clubs have suspended their group ride programs.  Should I ride at all? Wear a mask?

There is no absolute social distancing. The widely cited 6-foot rule reflects a balance of  risk against what people will tolerate.  The good news is that you don’t get infected by just one individual virus spore. Exhaustive research on the AIDS virus has established that there is a threshold level of contamination below which it does not take hold in a person. With the virus that causes COVID-19, the principle is the same, though the amount is not yet known. Individual susceptibility varies, and a higher dose appears to result in worse symptoms. Wearing a mask does lower the risk of catching the disease, or transmitting it.

Are Masks Practical?

I happen to have a few N95 masks left over from sanding and painting projects (opened box, not accepted for donation). I have shaved my beard — for the first time in 50 years — to make the masks work better.

My wife and I reserve the masks for shopping trips. We use them only once every several days, so they have time to decontaminate themselves.  (Viruses die outside of the host animal’s body.) Three or four masks between us will probably hold out until supply improves. I  wear eye-protection goggles over my eyeglasses. We also happen to have a couple of surgical masks.

My experience:

  • An N95 mask proved practical only for short bicycle trips, especially in cold weather, because I couldn’t lift it off my face to blow my nose.
  • A surgical mask is not practical for me when cycling in cool weather, because it doesn’t seal, and fogs my glasses. Lifting this mask is possible, though, without unbuckling the helmet.
  • There are too many kinds of improvised cloth masks for me to come to a single conclusion. A bandana that hangs down and can be lifted up is probably going to allow blowing the nose.
  • An industrial respirator mask is practical, though it could become uncomfortable on a long ride. The degree of protection it provides depends on the type of filters.

Any mask will somewhat impair breathing.

Should Bicyclists Wear Face Masks For Shopping Trips?

While I have access to a car, I prefer to shop by bicycle. The bicycle is more convenient when I am bringing home a small load. Cycling to the store alone generally carries far less risk of infection than riding public transportation. But when shopping, I have to interact with people, and sometimes go into a store.

Should bicyclists wear face masks for this kind of trip? Yes, at least when going into the store, but also if having to ride under crowded conditions.

For shopping trips, I wear gardening gloves with rubber fingers and palms. I carry a small bottle with disinfectant solution, and disinfectant wipes. I disinfect the shopping-cart handle before gripping it. I also disinfect my gloves, then my hands after I leave the store. When I get home I disinfect them again after removing the mask, goggles and helmet.

The reusable shopping bag in the picture below does not go into the store. Stores in Massachusetts don’t accept them any more, as they might carry infection. I use the bag after I’m done shopping, to increase the carrying capacity of my bicycle.

Should bicyclists wear face masks? The author in full kit for a shopping trip.

The author, April 2020, in full kit for a shopping trip. Photo by Jacob Allen

When I get home, I lay out items that I bought in the driveway to disinfect them, or pour food out into clean containers. Apartment dwellers have to disinfect indoors. There’s plenty of good information online about how to disinfect foods, and yourself after handling them. Here’s one example.

Should Bicyclists Wear Face Masks For Recreational Riding?

Should you wear a face mask while riding?  Or not? Or just hang up the bicycle? Strategies are different if you’re riding solo or with someone else.

Each person’s circumstances are unique. In my case, it’s only a mile from my home to semi-rural outer suburbs.  Traffic on roads there is very light now, and I’ll go on solo rides without wearing a mask.

Urban and suburban traffic is also light, though a friend — a high-mileage recreational road rider — has had to dodge many newbie wrong-way riders. (This is one more reason to stay away from riding on the edge of the road.)

Another friend who is a strong advocate for shared-use paths avoids them now, because they are crowded, largely with people who don’t know how to be safe on them.

In some places, notably New York State, masks are now required for everyone where social distancing is impossible.  Spain and Italy have banned recreational cycling, allowing cycling only for some kinds of essential trips. That seems excessive to me, at least where I live, considering the low risk of contagion on lightly-used rural roads.

If You Ride With Another Person

The 6-foot rule doesn’t apply to bicyclists riding together, because bicyclists are moving, and the risk depends on which way the wind is blowing. One recommendation was to maintain 35-foot spacing, and greater at higher speeds. The front rider uses hand signals to indicate turns; the rear rider repeats them to confirm. Checking for confirmation is easier if the front rider uses a rear-view mirror.

Crash Risk

I do think about the risk of a crash that would require care in an already overburdened hospital. It could happen, but my last crash that required a doctor’s attention was in 1984, to no small extent because of the kind of skills that CyclingSavvy teaches. There is a balance to achieve.

Should bicyclists wear face masks? The author headed out on a recreational ride, no mask. Photo: Jacob Allen

April 2020: The author headed out on a recreational ride, no mask. Photo: Jacob Allen

I’ve been riding on the nearly empty semi-rural roads — without a mask, to stay in shape and avoid going stir-crazy. But you have to make up your own mind about this.

Something to Do at Home

CyclingSavvy online courses are available, and discounted during the pandemic. And my booklet Bicycling Street Smarts is for sale in print and as an e-book, with Keri Caffrey’s all-new illustrations (shameless promotion, sorry).

Even if you have hung the bicycle up for the duration, the time will come when you dust it off and ride again. This is a useful way to while away the time until then.

https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/john-allen-with-mask-2020-featured.jpg 231 248 John Allen https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png John Allen2020-04-18 10:00:422020-04-19 23:23:43Should I Be Riding Now?
map diagram shows path to ride eakins oval

Eakins Oval, How Do I Bike Thee? Let Me Count The Ways

November 1, 2019/1 Comment/by Karen Karabell

New Video Just in Time for Philly’s Bike Expo

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.

Savvy Cycling in Philadelphia

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).

Street Smarts, Autographed

The recently published Bicycling Street Smarts, CyclingSavvy Edition will be available at the CyclingSavvy/CAT booth. Yes, autographed by the author!  At booth 2009!

One of the Nation’s Best

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 ;-)

one path for biking eakins oval in philadelphia

So many ways to bike on Philly’s Eakins Oval.

 

https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Screen-Shot-2019-10-31-at-5.36.36-PM.png 1026 1274 Karen Karabell https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png Karen Karabell2019-11-01 11:00:202019-11-01 10:24:25Eakins Oval, How Do I Bike Thee? Let Me Count The Ways
CyclingSavvy Instructor Brian Watson and his bicycle helmet mirrors2018

My Helmet Mirror Manifesto

December 14, 2018/6 Comments/by Brian Watson

A mirror?

For me?

On my helmet?

Ya gotta be kidding.

Back in the day

When I was a hot-shot, I wanted to be the next Greg LeMond (I know, I’m dating myself). I stripped every nonessential gram from my Italian racing steed, so I could go that much faster. I actually looked into how I could inflate my razor-thin tires with helium, so I could shave off another fraction-of-a-fraction-of-an-ounce.

A mirror on my helmet? Pfff. I was too cool to even wear a helmet, let alone put a dorky mirror on it. None of the professional cyclists I idolized even wore helmets, let alone helmet mirrors. And I was practically one of them.

My cycling spidey sense was so sharp…

…I didn’t need a mirror on the helmet I didn’t wear. My ears told me the make, model, year, closing speed, and passing clearance of whatever was behind me. Oh, yeah, my ears knew the color of the vehicle behind me, too. Amazing!

What can I say? I was an over-confident teenage boy with an overabundance of derring-do — and a decided lack of humility. Yes, I could hear an approaching vehicle, and even be able to guess pretty accurately whether it was a sedan or a semi. But that’s nothing special if you have average hearing, which mine most assuredly is. Ask my wife.

Maybe hearing is good enough…

…if all you ever do is hug the edge of the road (and pray for your life as you hear a roaring engine barrel toward you). Your hearing might be all you ever need if you never leave the edge to make a turn, change lanes, or avoid a hazard. Or if you don’t mind getting your legs shaved by the land rocket that just buzzed you.

CyclingSavvy Instructor Brian Watson riding with his helmet mirrors.

Not so cool anymore.

If you’d like more space, read on.

First, understand this:

When you choose to ride on the edge, you’re irrelevant.

This is one of the most important things I learned when I encountered CyclingSavvy. The more relevant you are to motorists, the more you influence their choices. Where are you more relevant? Somewhere away from the edge.

Every time you glance over your shoulder, you take your focus away from where it’s most needed: In front of you.

The exact location away from the edge depends. That’s the next thing I learned from CyclingSavvy: How to think critically about the road and the traffic on it. How wide is the lane? Can I safely share it with a car? An F-150? A semi? How heavy is traffic? How fast? What conflicts am I vulnerable to? How can I reduce my risk? What’s my cycling behavior communicating to others?

It’s OK to ride far to the right, if many conditions are met.

Brian riding with a motorist behind him.

Can you see the car behind me? I can, too!

Often, though, it’s not OK. It’s more dangerous to be on the edge than in the lane of traffic. With savvy cycling know-how, I learned how to tell where I should drive — yes, drive — my bicycle.

This is CyclingSavvy’s other big takeaway: Cyclists who adopt driving behavior — rather than edge behavior — are more visible, less prone to conflict, and more relevant to others on the road. They also get where they’re going faster and more directly.

Oh, and they have more fun.

What does this have to do with bicycle helmet mirrors?

Think about it. Do you need mirrors on your car? On your motorcycle? Yes, of course. They’re required by law, and for good reason. Drivers need to be able to see all around them in order to change lanes and make turns.

Bicycle drivers are no different. Unlike car drivers, though, we have a built-in advantage. Because we’re not encased in a steel and glass box, we have much more ability to know what’s going on around us. My teenage self was spot on: you can hear what’s coming from behind you. Seeing what’s behind you is pretty simple, too. Just glance over your shoulder.

Here’s the thing, though. Every time you glance over your shoulder, you take your focus away from where it’s most needed: In front of you.

Me and my helmet mirrors. Yes, mirrors.

Rockin those mirrors, Brian!

I love — and I mean capital “L” LOVE — my helmet mirrors. Yeah, that’s plural. I have one on my left, and one on my right. I often need to change lanes to the right. A mirror on the right gives me a quick check of what’s behind me on my right.

(If my know-it-all doofus teenage wannabe racer self could see me now, his eyes would roll right out of his head.)

With mirrors, I keep my focus in front of me more of the time because I can just move my eyeballs instead of having to move my whole head — or in my case, my whole upper body, since I’m not quite as limber as I used to be.

Whether you use a mirror or not, ALWAYS look over your shoulder before making a lateral move.

By taking a quick look in my mirrors, I get a preview of what’s going on behind me. I can read the behavior of the drivers behind me and see in real time how they’re responding to me.

Note that I used the word preview. Before changing lanes or lane position, I always look over my shoulder as well.

I’ll say that again. It’s super important.

Whether you use a mirror or not, ALWAYS look over your shoulder. Turn your head or torso to see what’s behind you before you change lanes or lane position.

A mirror can be helpful, but it’s not a good substitute for a head turn.

Why should you look over your shoulder if you have a mirror?

“Shoulder Check” a crucial savvy cycling skill

Mighk looks over his shoulder while keeping his bike in a straight line.

CyclingSavvy co-founder Mighk Wilson demonstrates a perfect shoulder check

“A mirror can be helpful, but it’s not a good substitute for a head turn,” said CyclingSavvy co-founder Keri Caffrey.

During the parking lot skills session, CyclingSavvy instructors work extensively with their students on “Shoulder Check.” Being able to look over your shoulder while keeping a straight line does several things: It helps you check for traffic. It establishes your humanity and allows you to communicate with others. Also, you don’t want to “wobble” when you’re out and about (and we show you how not to). Riding straight is important for predictability and respect from others.

“A good head turn is a tool for getting drivers to notice that you want to do something,” Keri said.

“When you turn your head over your shoulder, more often than not, other drivers will help you out if they can.”

It’s a skill that doesn’t come naturally, even for bicycle safety experts.

“I didn’t develop a good shoulder check until I rode without a mirror for several months,” Keri said.

Why I became a helmet mirror fan

I came to CyclingSavvy already well established as a bicycle safety expert. Yet a huge “Ah-Ha!” moment for me was learning the strategy of “Control & Release.”

CyclingSavvy taught me that I have a right to use the road, and that cowering on the edge doesn’t do me or anybody any good. But in addition to that, I learned how to claim my rightful road space and cooperate with other drivers as I control my space.

This is the essence of Control & Release. With helmet mirrors, it’s a lot easier.

Here’s how: Let’s say I’m riding down Perry Avenue near my home. Like most roads around here, it’s a 2-lane road with 11-foot lanes, too narrow to share.

There’s no way I’m going to “get out of the way” and “share” a lane with that 10-ton behemoth, so I calmly give everyone The Hand.

I make myself relevant by riding in the middle of the lane, so it’s obvious to drivers who want to overtake me that they’ll need to change lanes to pass. This is the passive communication that our lane position always gives.

As I ride along, I glance at my mirror and see a car approaching me quickly. I glance again, and see that the driver has slowed down. She’s hanging back, patiently waiting for a safe opportunity to pass.

Motorist Eternity

After a few moments, I take another look in my mirror. Now I see a monster truck stacked up behind the nice patient lady. Monster Truck is not happy with the delay. It’s been about 30 seconds — an eternity in “Motorist Years.”

I wave to Monster Truck and don’t get a return wave. That’s OK. I got what I wanted, which was my space.

“Motorist Eternity” — also known as Must Pass Bicyclist Syndrome — happens when a motorist finds him- or herself “stuck” behind a bicyclist. Motorist Eternity can kick in as early as five seconds of being “stuck” behind the bicyclist.

(Funny how Motorist Eternity never kicks in at red lights. Motorist Eternity doesn’t appear to afflict drivers completely stopped in interstate traffic jams. No bicyclists there. Hmmmm.)

The nice lady’s patience is starting to wane.

But it’s the driver of the monster truck who I’m really thinking about. Sure enough, at Second 31, Monster Truck starts scooching over to pass both of us, even though there’s an oncoming car.

There’s no way I’m going to “get out of the way” and “share” a lane with that 10-ton behemoth, so I calmly give everyone The Hand.

I just hold my hand there and glance in my mirror again.

“The Hand” is the universal hand signal for “stay back,” left arm extended diagonally out, palm back. Sure enough, Monster Truck moves back into the lane. That driver is not happy, but gave me what I wanted, because I asked.

I knew to ask because I could read their behavior in real time by looking in my mirror. Passive communication with my lane position wasn’t enough. I needed active communication too.

The Hand,  the Come Along Wave, and Thank You Wave

Fortunately, there’s a usable shoulder coming up, so I retract The Hand, and give a right-turn hand signal as I maintain lane control. When the shoulder opens up, I look over my right shoulder, move to the right, stop pedaling, and give everyone the Come Along Wave, left hand making a circular motion in a “come along” kinda way.

As the nice lady starts to pass me, I now give her the Thank You Wave. She waves back!

I wave to Monster Truck, too, and don’t get a return wave. That’s OK. I got what I really wanted, which was my space.

Brian signaling a left turn on his bicycle while keeping tabs on traffic behind with his bicycle helmet mirrors

Signaling left and keeping tabs on the car behind me

After Monster Truck passes, I glance in my mirror again, see nobody behind me, do a shoulder check, give a left-turn hand signal, do another shoulder check (since my arm is already out anyway), and move left into the middle of the lane.

Those dorky helmet mirrors give me the awareness I need to be able to mix and mingle with traffic in a fluid, harmonious way.

In all of this, the mirror allowed me to see how drivers were responding to me without me taking my focus away from where I was going. My mirrors also gave me a first glimpse prior to my shoulder checks as I prepared to make lane position changes.

It’s certainly possible to do Control & Release without using mirrors. It’s just that without a mirror, you’ll spend an awful lotta time looking over your shoulder…over and over…each time you want to see what’s happening back there. No fun!

Act like a driver to be treated like one.

The more relevant you make yourself, the more you are respected. Using “driver behavior” makes it easier to see what’s happening around you, so you’re able to respond more quickly to dynamic situations.

Why every ride is a joyride.

My mirrors are key to my safety and success on my bike. It’s why every ride is a joyride. Because, yes, those dorky mirrors on my helmet give me the awareness I need to be able to mix and mingle with traffic in a harmonious, responsive way.

My bike is no longer a stripped-down thoroughbred. I always wear a helmet now. My younger self would be embarrassed to be seen with me.

But if I had the chance to take my younger, sportier self out for a ride, I think even he’d be impressed with that middle-aged guy with the dorky mirrors, riding with grace and confidence, hardly ever getting buzzed, fluidly cooperating with traffic, glancing back occasionally in his mirrors to see if that young racer know-it-all is keeping up.

Brian’s Holiday Gift to ABEA

Now through December 31, when you donate $40 (or more!) to the American Bicycling Education Association, Brian will say “Thank You” with an EVT Helmet Mirror.

cycling using bicycle helmet mirror on wide open road

CyclingSavvy co-founder Keri Caffrey uses an EVT helmet mirror when she shoots video

That’s right! For the same price you’d pay online for one of these fantastic mirrors, you’ll be helping ABEA spread savvy cycling to more people. 

“Wearing my EVT Helmet Mirrors are like having eyes in the back of my head,” said Brian, who loves these mirrors so much that he became a dealer. He also suggested this promotion to benefit ABEA.
While ABEA makes no specific product endorsements, many instructors join Brian in making good use of EVT helmet mirrors. ABEA also appreciates Brian’s incredible generosity!

Your Donation to ABEA is Tax-Deductible

Make a $40 donation for each mirror you want. Your tax deductible amount is $18 per mirror. The rest covers the cost, shipping and handling of the mirror from Bremerton, WA (USA).
Match Brian’s generosity with your own and help “pay it forward” for ABEA. Thank you, Brian!
And thank you!
https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Brian-head-shot-with-mirrors-e1544722553241.jpg 1920 1080 Brian Watson https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png Brian Watson2018-12-14 08:00:532020-01-08 14:04:40My Helmet Mirror Manifesto
riding on sidewalks

When Sidewalk Riding Is Your Best Option

May 30, 2018/6 Comments/by John Allen

I’m not a great fan of riding on sidewalks. If I’m riding on anything located alongside a street, I slow way down, because I know I must be able to stop on a moment’s notice.

Sidewalk riding is sometimes exactly the right thing to do.

You may be surprised, then, when I say that sidewalk riding is sometimes exactly the right thing to do.

Let’s look at a specific location: Massachusetts Route 9 and Kingsbury Street in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Route 9 is a four-lane divided highway with a 50 MPH speed limit. Quiet local streets on either side of Route 9 make some good connections for bicyclists.

Kingsbury Street T’s into Route 9 from the south. A signalized crosswalk across Route 9 connects with the sidewalk on the left side of Kingsbury Street. Push-buttons trigger the signal to stop traffic on Route 9.

Looking toward Route 9 from Kingsbury street (Wellesley, MA)

Looking toward Route 9 from Kingsbury street (Wellesley, MA)

Need to cross Route 9 with your bicycle?

Push the button, use the crosswalk. End of story. Right?

Whoa, no, wait a minute. Let’s think about this.

Savvy bicyclists plan ahead.

The best strategy is to use the left sidewalk to get up to the intersection, crossing Kingsbury Street well before reaching Route 9.

Yes, I just wrote that.

Why? Think about it. I want to use the pedestrian crosswalk there to get across Route 9.

pedestrian behavior for cyclists

Don’t follow the on-road shared lane markings at this intersection. Easiest way to cross is to use “pedestrian” behavior

What could happen if I followed the shared lane markings in the photo and rode up almost to the corner on the right side of Kingsbury Street, and then cut across?

What if a motorist is turning right — like in the photo above — just as I want to move left to use the crosswalk cut-through? The driver coming around the corner might not see me making that maneuver until too late to avoid a collision.

Instead, I wait until there is no vehicle in front of me that might turn left into one of the last driveways before Kingsbury Street, then merge into one and ride on the sidewalk up to the corner.

I’m cognizant of being on a sidewalk, so I ride slowly enough to see into the other driveways that cross this sidewalk, no problem.

When I get to the corner, sometimes a car will have triggered the traffic signal. If not, I push the button and cross after the traffic signal changes.

Route 9 northbound from Kingsbury Street to Sprague Street (Wellesley, MA)

Route 9 northbound from Kingsbury Street to Sprague Road (Wellesley, MA)

The picture above shows my path:

  1. On Kingsbury Street headed for Route 9
  2. Using one of the driveways to get onto my preferred sidewalk
  3. Pushing the button on the corner and waiting for the signal to change
  4. Turning left onto Route 9’s right traffic lane
  5. Turning right onto Sprague Road

Because I’m riding off of a sidewalk

and entering the intersection from an unusual location, I’m careful to wait until all traffic has stopped. Since Route 9 is a divided highway, I can roll across to the median without concern that a motorist behind me might cut a left turn across my path.

When I get to the other side of Route 9, I turn left and ride on the road a short distance to turn right onto Sprague Road.

Wait a minute. Why does the illustration show me riding in the travel lane on high-speed Route 9? Why would I do that? There’s a wide, paved shoulder!

Well, yes, riding on the shoulder would be nice, but isn’t always possible. Have a look at the next image, a Google Street View:

Child activates traffic signals. Shoulder of Route 9 is in use as a travel lane due to construction (Wellesley, MA)

We are looking west along Route 9 from location D in the earlier image, with location E in the background. A child with a backpack is pushing the button to turn the traffic signal red and use the crosswalk. That isn’t surprising. There’s a public school on Kingsbury Street.

But in the photo, construction work is underway and the shoulder of Route 9 is serving temporarily as a travel lane. You can’t always count on an empty shoulder’s being available, whether because of construction, snow in winter, a disabled vehicle, or a state trooper issuing a traffic ticket to a wayward Massachusetts driver.

So, yes, I’m going to enter from a crosswalk and immediately turn left into the right travel lane on a highway with a 50 MPH speed limit. Scary? Not!

Confession time

For decades, I’ve worked as a bicycle safety and crash reconstruction expert. I wrote Bicycling Street Smarts, which has been published in several editions and sold more than 300,000 copies.

Even experts learn new things.

Even experts learn new things. I learned the following incredibly useful technique only last year, when I became a CyclingSavvy Instructor (that story is here).

What technique is that? Using traffic-signal timing to get a busy road to yourself.

In this case, it’s easy to move onto Route 9 from the Kingsbury pedestrian crosswalk when Route 9 traffic is stopped at the light.

I have Route 9 all to myself all the way to Sprague Road!

Using traffic signal timing to ride on “scary” roads with little to no other traffic was a revelation. (Yes, this technique is now included in the CyclingSavvy edition of Bicycling Street Smarts.)

How to cross Route 9 in the opposite direction

The most favorable route enters at Audubon Road, which Ts into Route 9 without a traffic signal or crosswalk. The image below shows the route. You ride on Route 9 from Audubon Road to Kingsbury Street, and cross there. You could ride on the shoulder (if available) and pull onto the sidewalk to push the crosswalk button.

Route 9  southbound from Audubon Road to Kingsbury Street, shoulder option (Wellesley, MA)

If the shoulder’s available, riding on it is fast and easy. If there’s absolutely no traffic on the road, you might move from Audubon directly into the left lane to get easily onto the crosswalk at Kingsbury.

Don’t do this if there’s any other traffic on the road. Traffic signals won’t help. The previous traffic signal is more than a mile back, and platoons of traffic spread out and mix together. It’s hard to judge the closing speeds of fast-moving traffic (and you don’t want to get caught up in that).

If the shoulder isn’t available, use the sidewalk.

Yes, you read that right. A quick exploration of Route 9 in Google Street View reveals that there are exactly zero driveways on the north side of Route 9 between Audubon Road and Kingsbury Street.

When planning your next bike trip or adventure, Google Maps and Google Street View are your best friends.

Instead, a long, high fence gives residents relief from the unpleasantness of Route 9 — and offers bicyclists a first-rate opportunity to ride safely on a sidewalk. Just take care around any schoolchildren or others who may be sharing the sidewalk with you.

Now that we’ve looked at both directions of travel across Route 9, let these be your takeaways:

  • Riding in sidewalk space is unsafe where there are hazards with turning and crossing traffic, obscured sight lines and unpredictable pedestrians.
  • Even so, sidewalk riding can be useful. Remember that when you’re in pedestrian space, use pedestrian behavior.
  • Smart use of traffic-signal timing can empty a busy street for you.
  • Planning ahead makes it easy to get through segments which at first appear challenging and even intimidating, because:
  • Google Maps and Google Street View are your best friends for armchair pre-planning.

Happy savvy cycling, wherever you ride.

https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/riding-on-sidewalks.jpeg 303 304 John Allen https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png John Allen2018-05-30 11:30:462018-08-23 01:29:48When Sidewalk Riding Is Your Best Option
four dimensions of savvy cycling

Four Dimensions of CyclingSavvy

April 11, 2018/6 Comments/by Gary Cziko

Four Priorities

Four Techniques

1. Safety
2. Cooperation
3. Convenience
4. Legality

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1. Drive
2. Communicate
3. Cooperate
4. Facilitate

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Four Questions

Four Goals

1. Is it legal?
2. Is it safe?
3. Is it rude?
4. Is it stressful?

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1. Change bicyclist behavior
2. Change motorist expectations
3. Change cultural beliefs
4. Create healthy, livable communities

learn more

CyclingSavvy is many things to many people. At its core, it’s a traffic cycling education program. When you’re a savvy cyclist, you can go anywhere on your bike with safety and confidence — which also makes bicycling more fun!

Savvy cyclists are paving the way for a new understanding and acceptance of cyclists into the transportation network.

But there are other facets. CyclingSavvy goes beyond cyclists’ training as a resource for bicycle-related education for traffic engineers, transportation planners, law enforcement professionals, educators and the general public. Urban planners and environmentalists see CyclingSavvy as a tool for social change, leading to more sustainable and livable communities where the drivers of human-powered vehicles are expected and respected as a normal part of traffic. Here in Southern California, I’ve used the resources of CyclingSavvy in the courtroom as an expert witness to defend cyclists unfairly ticketed for defensive bicycle driving.

Because there’s so much to CyclingSavvy — and because we all encounter occasions to discuss savvy cycling with others who want to learn more about our passion — I’ve developed a four-by-four framework to capture four dimensions of CyclingSavvy. The framework easy to memorize and once committed to memory it’s instantly accessible and useful for impromptu discussions about bicycling.

Four Priorities

As a traffic cycling program, CyclingSavvy has priorities for how cyclists operate in traffic:

Safety is paramount — safety first! As vulnerable road users, we need to control our space, maintain good sight lines to see and be seen, and be relevant and predictable to other road users.

Safety, Cooperation, Convenience, Legality

Cooperation is also a priority for savvy cyclists. The Rules of the Road require cooperation among all road users. As drivers of narrow and relatively slow vehicles, cyclists have many opportunities to cooperate with motorists as well as other cyclists and pedestrians.

Convenience is essential for bicycling to be a practical means of transportation. Cyclists must have access to all surface streets to minimize travel time and distance, and have the option to control the full lane on travel lanes that are too narrow to share safely with motor vehicles (which is usually the case). This is particularly important for faster cyclists — which now include not only fit roadies, but also anyone riding an e-bike, regardless of age and fitness level.

And it’s more convenient for two cyclists traveling together to ride side-by-side in order to converse, the same way a motorist and passenger can talk. This, of course, requires full lane use.

Legality is also important. In all states, cyclists are expected to observe the same laws as drivers of motor vehicles, with a few exceptions. But there are some situations, such as in states with mandatory bike lane, bike path and shoulder use laws, where following the letter of the law may not be the safest option for cyclists.

A savvy cyclist knows where safety takes precedence over strict legality. As CyclingSavvy co-founder Mighk Wilson has observed, “It’s better to risk the courtroom to avoid the emergency room.”

Four Techniques

CyclingSavvy offers four broad categories of techniques to achieve the priorities described above.

The first is Drive your bicycle. This involves:

Drive, Communicate, Cooperate, Facilitate

  • Following the rules of the road for drivers of vehicles
  • Riding on the road and avoiding sidewalks and sidewalk-like facilities, and understanding their limitations if you do use them
  • Using lane control as the default mode of operation (but see Cooperation below), and
  • Anticipating and using the proper lane on multilane roads — such as turning right into the leftmost lane when planning to make a left turn.

We must also Communicate. Using hand signals to convey our intention to turn, change lanes and slow down or stop helps motorists give us the space and time we need to be safe and comfortable on the road.

But there’s another form of communication that’s even more important than hand signals. We use this to communicate 100 percent of the time we’re bicycling on public roads: our lane position.

your lane position is communication

CyclingSavvy encourages additional hand signals that are not taught elsewhere and yet are very useful and instantly understandable by our fellow road users. One is the “stay back” signal (hand extended to the side with palm facing back), which tells following drivers not to pass. Encouraging motorists to pass when safe can be done by using a side-sweeping motion from back to front.

shaka emoji

Shaka hand signal

To recognize and reward the cooperation of other drivers, we can use a “thank you” signal by raising an open hand toward the sky–although in surfing states like Hawaii and California, the shaka (or “hang loose”) sign might be appropriate (extending the thumb and little finger).

Finally, the shoulder check to view traffic behind is also a means of communication, but its meaning depends upon the context. When done from the middle of the lane looking left, it will mean the cyclist is looking to merge left into the next lane. But when done before or after having moved toward the right edge of the road, it can be understood as an invitation for following traffic to pass.

That savvy cyclists Cooperate has already been mentioned above as one of the four Priorities, but cooperation must be included here, too, as a set of techniques.

Unique to CyclingSavvy are four traffic release techniques:

  1. Control and Release involves a centered lane position with perhaps the “stay back” signal to inform motorists behind that it is not safe to pass, and then encouraging them to pass when safe by moving right in the lane and perhaps using a “pass now” hand signal.
  2. Release on Green involves pulling over to the side of the road to allow accumulated traffic to pass when a traffic light turns from red to green

    cyclist to left of lane allows motorist to turn right

    CyclingSavvy co-founder Mighk Wilson practices Release on Red

  3. Release on Red allows motorists to turn right on red when the cyclist moves to the left of a dual-destination (through and right turn) lane
  4. Slow and Release can be used when two traffic lanes merge into one; the cyclist slows down before the merge to allow traffic behind to pass before moving into and controlling the sole remaining travel lane.

Finally, CyclingSavvy teaches several ways to Facilitate traffic cycling, so that situations that would intimidate many cyclists can be handled easily and without stress.

Some of these techniques involve timing your moves for when there is no or little traffic on the road, even on normally busy streets. Waiting for a green signal to turn right into the leftmost lane where the cyclist will next turn left is a good example. This “right-left” maneuver is taught in just about all on-bike CyclingSavvy courses as it facilitates cycling by both reducing traffic and eliminating lane changes.

Waiting for gaps in traffic between “platoons” is another way to reduce traffic and facilitate lane changes, as is making lane changes early if a gap appears in traffic. Such techniques facilitate both the cyclist’s travel as well as that of nearby motorists.

And perhaps surprising to many, cyclist lane control on multilane roads makes it easier for motorists to pass, as this makes it clear from far back that they must change lanes to overtake, giving them more time and space to do so.change lanes to pass

Four Questions

cycling in traffic is a dance you must leadIn my one-hour classroom introduction to CyclingSavvy, I start by showing the Dance video, in which CyclingSavvy co-founder Keri Caffrey and other savvy Orlando-area cyclists demonstrate bicycle driving using lane control and cycling on the center and left lanes of multilane roads.

When I ask attendees why all bicyclists don’t operate in this manner, four questions are usually raised.

Legal? Safe? Rude? Stressful?

The first is whether cyclists’ use of the full lane and use of center and left traffic lanes is Legal. The answer is “yes” in almost all cases. States that have “Far to the Right” laws and mandatory bike lane/bike path/shoulder use laws have many exceptions to these requirements. No state obligates you to endanger yourself for another road user’s convenience.

A second question is whether bicycle driving in this manner is Safe. Technically, this is impossible to answer without agreeing on what “safe” means and knowing “compared to what.” But it’s clear that bicycle driving involving lane control on lanes too narrow to safely share is usually safer than edge or sidewalk riding. Lane control eliminates or significantly reduces the probability of the five most common motorist-caused car-bike crashes: sideswipes, doorings, right hooks, left crosses and drive-outs.

Even if savvy bicycle driving is legal and safe, might it not still be Rude? A bicycle is, after all, a narrow and relatively slow vehicle. Doesn’t cyclist lane control delay motorists?

cyclists delaying traffic is a myth

No bicycles involved in typical traffic jams

Anyone who drives or bikes in a city with congested traffic knows that it isn’t bikes that delay traffic. It’s other motor vehicles. And bicycles are not the only slow-moving vehicles. There are garbage trucks and city and school buses. Not to mention traffic signals and grade-level railroad crossings with long and slow freight trains. As mentioned above, cyclist lane control on multilane roads may actually make it easier for motorists to pass. And recall the four traffic release techniques that CyclingSavvy teaches and encourages cyclists to practice — quite the opposite of rudeness!

Finally, while bicycle driving may be legal, safe and not rude, isn’t it nonetheless Stressful? Well, that depends both on where you ride and what you know.

If you believe that the faster motor traffic behind you is your greatest danger on the road, you may well find lane control stressful. But a savvy cyclist who understands that lane control eliminates or significantly reduces the “Big Five” motorist-caused car-bike crashes will recognize that in most cases, lane control is safer and therefore less stressful than edge riding or sidewalk riding.

From video of traffic behind as I ride on Culver Boulevard (click image for video)

Even as a savvy cyclist, I find some roads not particularly enjoyable for cycling. One such road is westbound Culver Boulevard in Los Angeles through the Ballona Wetlands. This road connects my neighborhood of Playa del Rey with the adjacent neighborhood of Playa Vista.

There are no cross streets on this stretch, so it has a freeway-like feel to it. Since there’s no convenient cycling alternative, I use this road, making sure I’m visible and relevant. And I keep tabs on the traffic behind me with frequent glances into my helmet-mounted mirror.

There’s no useful shoulder, so I control the right lane. I almost always get full lane changes. I know that riding on the edge would be much more stressful, as I would be effectively telling motorists to squeeze by me in the narrow lane. In fact, I wouldn’t even consider using this road if I felt I had to ride on the edge.

If traffic builds up behind me at the first stop light on this stretch, I use “release on green” to let these motorists go ahead of me before taking possession of the full lane. This ensures that motorists in the next platoon coming up behind me have plenty of time to see me and can easily change lanes to pass, as you’ll see in the video.

Four Goals

While CyclingSavvy is at its core a traffic cycling education program, it has the greater potential to transform our transportation culture and how we move about our communities.

In a recent Savvy Cyclist article, Mighk Wilson uses a photo to highlight four goals of CyclingSavvy:

how to change American bicycle culture

How to jumpstart a virtuous traffic culture

What I like about this perspective is the realization that my savvy cyclist behavior is not only serving to enhance my safety and enjoyment of bicycling, but it’s also helping to change cultural beliefs of how cyclists typically do and should behave.

When you’re a savvy cyclist, you upgrade the expectations of others about cyclists, and this cultural shift upgrades the quality of life in your community

A short time ago, a friend and I rode 52 miles through the arterials and residential streets of Los Angeles. For much of our ride we were side-by-side, controlling the right lane on multilane urban arterials. We experienced not a single challenging honk, no close passes, and no incivility whatsoever from the hundreds of L.A. motorists we encountered. Of course, we looked for opportunities to allow motorists to pass us where convenient and safe, and we exchanged many friendly waves and smiles with other road users.

It’s exciting and satisfying to realize that my savvy cycling behavior is helping change the beliefs and expectations of motorists and other cyclists with whom I interact.

Cyclists in the 19th Century were responsible for getting roads paved. These roads were eventually swarmed by motor vehicles in the 20th Century.

Now in the 21st Century, savvy cyclists are paving the way for a new understanding and acceptance of cyclists into the transportation network of our cities, towns and neighborhoods.

Many savvy cycling topics and techniques have been presented here — and many more could be added. But the primary purpose of this article is to provide a simple framework for CyclingSavvy instructors and graduates to aid them both in their traffic cycling and communicating about CyclingSavvy with others.

Memorize it, go forth, have fun and change the culture!

Four Dimensions of CyclingSavvy

https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/savvy-cycling-four-dimensions.png 245 400 Gary Cziko https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png Gary Cziko2018-04-11 11:30:222018-08-23 17:10:17Four Dimensions of CyclingSavvy
arne buck

My Fateful Meetup Ride

March 28, 2018/2 Comments/by Arne Buck

What a great evening for a bike ride.

This was spring in Boston, on a beautiful night. I had joined a Meetup ride, and a group of us were chatting afterward at a local eatery. Pamela Murray, a lovely Asian woman with a Southern accent, sidled up to me with a question.

“Are you going to the CyclingSavvy class that’s starting tomorrow?”

I didn’t know what she was talking about. I’d never heard of the program. But as she and John Allen described it, I thought: What have I got to lose? When I got home that night, I registered on the website.

cyclingsavvy classroom session

Classroom session at Dana Farber Institute in Boston, with instructors Pamela Murray and John Allen

There’s a lot to a CyclingSavvy workshop.

The Friday evening program consisted of short lectures, videos, diagrams of street scenes, and techniques to avoid dangerous road conditions and traffic configurations.

The emphasis, to me, was on maximizing visibility — you can’t be too visible in traffic. A secondary topic was reading and assessing street and traffic patterns to anticipate potential dangers and avoid them. To this end, we discussed optimizing road position for safety and making one’s intent clear and unambiguous at all times.

The Friday evening program reminded me of the United Kingdom’s voluntary Institute of Advanced Motorists program, modeled after a defensive/assertive driving course developed by the London Metropolitan Police. It taught forward-looking road positioning, awareness of other road users (motor vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, livestock!) at all times, anticipating their intent and actions, and generally avoiding potential trouble spots.

As a result of taking that course, I was rewarded with a healthy discount on my auto insurance. And not coincidentally, I had neither crashes nor close calls during the two years I drove throughout the UK and continental Europe in a right-hand-drive car.

CyclingSavvy holds benefits for people from all levels and backgrounds.

The six participants Friday evening represented a wide range of experience and riding skills. Another gentlemen and I had been bike commuting year-round for decades in and around Boston.

One woman had recently moved from New York City. She enjoyed the Hudson River Greenway and Central Park for weekend recreational rides, but was fearful of riding on NYC or Boston streets, even in bike lanes. She had learned of the program only that morning at a Bike Week get-together. She was willing to learn whatever CyclingSavvy had to offer, as commuting by bike was her best option.

A couple of other folks had ridden occasionally in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville running errands and on weekend group rides, yet felt uneasy riding alone on city streets.

Another woman, Binbin, had purchased a bicycle only a month earlier. She told me she was frightened to do anything but ride in circles in an empty parking lot on Sunday mornings.

Saturday morning:

How far can a bicycle lean before it skids out? Preparation for quick-turn practice. Photo by John Schubert

Train Your Bike offers an easy way to discover the amazing capabilities of the marvelous machine known as the bicycle

The class spent three hours practicing bicycle-handling drills in a parking garage. The first exercise was to mount the bike and start from a dead stop. Most everyone could do this effortlessly, but Binbin appeared to have no idea how to get started. At one point she said she started in her favorite empty parking lot with a gentle slope, and used gravity to gain enough momentum to stay upright. She practiced that morning until she could reliably get the bike going by pushing off on one foot.

Then we spent the time practicing weaving around traffic cones, emergency stops, turns, evasive maneuvers. Binbin had a hard time with the emergency stops, but eventually got the hang of it.

I myself discovered that I could do better. During emergency stops, I repeatedly skidded my rear wheel. I’ve since practiced and my stopping distance is much reduced. Among other skills in which I learned that I could improve was a quick evasive maneuver to avoid hazards like potholes, rocks, dead squirrels, broken glass in the street.

On the streets of Boston.

After lunch, we went out on streets, executing prescribed routes and turns both as a group and individually. We made left turns from a major street, crossed trolley tracks the safe way, and finally navigated around the huge complex of streets at Park Drive/Riverway/Brookline Avenue/Boylston Street.

Arne Buck turns prepares a right turn

Here I am, doing a good job communicating with other drivers.

It was impressive to watch Binbin.

She, too, was amazed, as she negotiated the route with ease from Beacon Street to Brookline Avenue. I’d consider it a minor miracle, as a witness to her transformation between 9 AM and 3 PM that very same day.

During the last exercise, Binbin even had the confidence to respond with kindness to an abusive motorist while they were both stopped at a traffic light.

“Bicycles are not allowed on this road!” he yelled at her.

She politely thanked him for his “information.”

John Allen describes a route including a left turn across trolley tracks. Photo by John Schubert

John Allen describes a route including a left turn across trolley tracks

When the light turned green, she proceeded ahead of this obnoxious driver, whose self-advertised knowledge of the law was obviously nonexistent. He offered a clear demonstration of the Dunning-Kruger effect — i.e., the less people know, the more they tend to think that they know.

With awe I still compare and contrast the newfound knowledge and confidence Binbin developed in order to ride safely in traffic in one of the most challenging confluences of streets in Boston.

CyclingSavvy holds benefits for people from all levels and backgrounds. Beginners like Binbin advance to where they can ride steadily and handle everyday cycling challenges. Longtime cyclists like me learn new skills that improve safety and confidence.

I’m kneeling at lower left, with my CyclingSavvy group and statues of Dr. Sidney Farber and Jimmy. Binbin is to my right. Photo credit: Fred Clow. All other photos by John Schubert

 

 

 

https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/arne-buck.jpeg 298 400 Arne Buck https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png Arne Buck2018-03-28 11:30:372018-09-24 23:55:13My Fateful Meetup Ride
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Tag Archive for: savvy cycling

waltham cyclingsavvy class

Three Part Course: Waltham MA – May 2020

November 22, 2018/0 Comments/by John Allen

Maximize your cycling experience!

The full CyclingSavvy Course INCLUDES Truth & Techniques (classroom session), Train Your Bike (bike handling) session, and our signature on-road experience — Tour of Waltham.

Truth & Techniques (classroom session) and Train Your Bike (bike handling) are included in this 3-part workshop. Completion of these two sessions is required before taking the Tour session, and you may sign up for individual sessions  — see their listings to do that.

Truth & Techniques – Friday, May 8, 2020, 6:30-9:30 PM at Linwood Avenue, Newton

Train Your Bike – Saturday, May 9, 2020 at 9 AM – Noon at MacArthur School

…Lunch break…Pizzi Farms deli and ice-cream stand is just across the street.

Tour of Waltham – Saturday, May 9, 2020 at 1 PM – 4:30 PM from MacArthur School

The Tour of Waltham is an experiential tour of our city’s roads. The course includes some of the most intimidating road features (intersections, interchanges, merges, etc.) a cyclist might find in his/her travels. The students travel as a group, stopping to survey and discuss each exercise location. After observing the feature, discussing the traffic dynamics and the best strategy for safe and easy passage, the students ride through individually and regroup at a nearby location.

Train Your Bike (bike handling) and Truth & Techniques (classroom session) are included in this 3-part workshop. Completion of these two sessions is required before taking the Tour session.

The ticket below gives the time for the first (classroom) session, but it is for the full three-part course, including the Tour of Waltham session.

https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/20170806_141756.jpg 720 1280 John Allen https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png John Allen2018-11-22 13:21:382020-02-13 20:58:06Three Part Course: Waltham MA – May 2020
waltham cyclingsavvy class

Three Part Course: Waltham MA – May 2020

November 22, 2018/0 Comments/by John Allen

Maximize your cycling experience!

The full CyclingSavvy Course INCLUDES Truth & Techniques (classroom session), Train Your Bike (bike handling) session, and our signature on-road experience — Tour of Waltham.

Truth & Techniques (classroom session) and Train Your Bike (bike handling) are included in this 3-part workshop. Completion of these two sessions is required before taking the Tour session, and you may sign up for individual sessions  — see their listings to do that.

Truth & Techniques – Friday, May 8, 2020, 6:30-9:30 PM at Linwood Avenue, Newton

Train Your Bike – Saturday, May 9, 2020 at 9 AM – Noon at MacArthur School

…Lunch break…Pizzi Farms deli and ice-cream stand is just across the street.

Tour of Waltham – Saturday, May 9, 2020 at 1 PM – 4:30 PM from MacArthur School

The Tour of Waltham is an experiential tour of our city’s roads. The course includes some of the most intimidating road features (intersections, interchanges, merges, etc.) a cyclist might find in his/her travels. The students travel as a group, stopping to survey and discuss each exercise location. After observing the feature, discussing the traffic dynamics and the best strategy for safe and easy passage, the students ride through individually and regroup at a nearby location.

Train Your Bike (bike handling) and Truth & Techniques (classroom session) are included in this 3-part workshop. Completion of these two sessions is required before taking the Tour session.

The ticket below gives the time for the first (classroom) session, but it is for the full three-part course, including the Tour of Waltham session.

https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/20170806_141756.jpg 720 1280 John Allen https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png John Allen2018-11-22 13:21:382020-10-26 16:09:52Three Part Course: Waltham MA – May 2020
waltham cyclingsavvy class

Three Part Course: Waltham MA, May 14-15 2021

November 22, 2018/0 Comments/by John Allen

May 14, 2021 @ 6:30 PM – May 15, 2021 @ 4:30 PM EDT

waltham cyclingsavvy class

Maximize your cycling experience!

The full CyclingSavvy Course INCLUDES Truth & Techniques (classroom session), Train Your Bike (bike handling) session, and our signature on-road experience — Tour of Waltham. Truth & Techniques (classroom session on Zoom) and Train Your Bike (bike handling, outdoor session) are included in this 3-part workshop. Completion of these two sessions is required before taking the Tour session. Truth & Techniques – Friday, May 14, 2020, 6:30-9:30 PM Zoom meeting online (Signup information to be provided). Earlier online sessions, in person or online, and the self-teaching Mastery Course may be substituted. Train Your Bike – Saturday, May 15, 2020 at 9 AM – Noon at MacArthur School …Lunch break…Pizzi Farms deli and ice-cream stand is just across the street. Tour of Waltham – Saturday, May 15, 2020 at 1 PM – 4:30 PM from MacArthur School. You must have taken the two other sessions to proceed to this session. The Tour of Waltham is an experiential tour of our city’s roads. The course includes some of the most intimidating road features (intersections, interchanges, merges, etc.) a cyclist might find in his/her travels. The students travel as a group, stopping to survey and discuss each exercise location. After observing the feature, discussing the traffic dynamics and the best strategy for safe and easy passage, the students ride through individually and regroup at a nearby location. The ticket below gives the time for the virtual classroom session, but it is for the full three-part course, including the Tour of Waltham session.
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Details

Start:
May 14, 2021 @ 6:30 PM EDT
End:
May 15, 2021 @ 4:30 PM EDT
Cost:
$95.00
Event Category:
CyclingSavvy Full Course
Event Tags:
American Bicycling Education Association, bicycle commuting, bicycle driving, bicycling, bike commuting, bike ride, bike training, confidence, Cycling Savvy, CyclingSavvy, Education, empowerment, John Allen, john brooking, john s allen, Lane Control, safe bicycling, savvy cycling, savvy cyclist, visibility

A virtual session with John Allen and Bruce Lierman

610 Main St,
Waltham, MA 02452 United States
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781 856-4058
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Who's coming?

9 people are attending Three Part Course: Waltham MA, May 14-15 2021

https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/20170806_141756.jpg 720 1280 John Allen https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png John Allen2018-11-22 13:21:382022-03-14 13:09:44Three Part Course: Waltham MA, May 14-15 2021
dooring demonstration

3-Part Workshop, Charlotte NC April 15-17

March 14, 2022/0 Comments/by Pamela Murray
Hybrid Hybrid Event

April 15 @ 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM EDT

$95.00 3-Part Course

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What to Bring

Full Course Includes:

Truth & Techniques (classroom)
Virtual via Zoom (a link will be emailed to attendees)
Friday, April 15, 4 – 7 PM

Train Your Bike (bike handling skills)
Midwood Baptist Church at 2029 Mecklenburg Ave, Charlotte, NC 28205
Saturday, April 16, 2 PM – 5 PM

Tour of Charlotte (on-road session)
Okra Yoga at 1912 Commonwealth Avenue see venue map and instructions.
Sunday, April 17, 2 PM – 5 PM

Instructor:

Pamela Murray

980 288 4801

View Organizer Website

pamlikestobike@gmail.com

Enhance your cycling experience!

What makes CyclingSavvy different from any other course is our deep dive into unique strategies for mastering even the most intimidating and complicated scenarios. You’ll be blown away by the places you can ride a bike without being a road warrior!

Truth & techniques is a virtual classroom session offered over Zoom. Train Your Bike is a bike handling skills class taught in a parking lot. The tour is an experiential on-road session where it all comes together. The classroom and bike handling sessions are required for participation in the tour.

On the Tour of Charlotte, we’ll travel as a group, stopping to survey and discuss each exercise location. After observing the feature, discussing the traffic dynamics and the best strategies for safe and easy passage, participants ride through individually and regroup at a nearby location.

Learn more about CyclingSavvy in-person classes here.

Train Your Bike Location:

NC, Charlotte, Midwood Baptist Church

2029 Mecklenburg Ave
Charlotte, North Carolina 28205 United States
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https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20171112_142725.jpeg 720 1280 Pamela Murray https://cyclingsavvy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CS-logo_xlong-header.png Pamela Murray2022-03-14 18:00:072022-04-07 15:25:023-Part Workshop, Charlotte NC April 15-17

Get Smart!

Brand new edition! John Allen has updated his best-selling Bicycling Street Smarts to incorporate best practices for easy bicycling — wherever you ride!

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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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