Bike class teaching

[Melalvai]

Has anyone taught Traffic Skills 101 or related classes? I'd love to hear your experiences.

I got my LCI last year, but what with moving and all I haven't had a chance to teach TS101. At my new workplace, we have these employee wellness seminars, and I volunteered to give a one-hour seminar on Bicycling with Traffic. Of course I didn't try to fit the 9 hour course into one hour. I went through the 5 Crash Prevention steps.

I had a great time because I love talking about bicycling and traffic. The class was fairly receptive to the concepts. It was small, because it had gotten scheduled at a time when there were several conflicts, but I am pretty sure a lot of people will watch it on DVD because we have to attend or watch 4 seminars to get our health insurance discount, and this was a popular topic. I want to do it again next year, with some review and some new information, perhaps more discussion and maybe even a ride afterward. (Hazard Avoidance Maneuvers I only touched on, since I couldn't demonstrate these in a classroom.)

No one argued about the principles of Vehicular Cycling, which is what happened when I took the class several years ago so I was prepared for that. But one guy did go on about how his wife won't let him bike by himself anymore since his last MRI, how he'd had run ins with dogs, and cars driving him off the road. That sort of thing is going to scare off other people from cycling.

Reflecting on this later, I decided that next time I could first emphasize that rural riding is different than in town riding, and while the same rules apply for the most part, you do have to accept that rural riding, particular on Missouri roads without shoulders, is more dangerous than in town riding. Second when someone starts telling their horror stories I should return to the point about the difference between anecdotes and statistics, and remind everyone how dangerous it is to drive a car but we do it fearlessly.

I liked having him in the class because I think every time I teach it I can learn how to do it better.

[OakLeaf]

In motorcycling we call those Uncle Fred stories.

There's a certain class of people who is compelled, whenever they hear that someone rides a motorcycle, to tell them about their "Uncle Fred" who was horribly injured or killed in a motorcycle accident. It doesn't surprise me that there are the same people with bicycles.

[Melalvai]

His wife won't let him.
Yeah, later I thought I should tell him to buy her a bike, or buy a tandem! It cracked me up because he's a department head but clearly not in charge at home.

[PscyclePath]

I've been teaching Road I/TS 101 on a pretty regular basis (at least semi-monthly) for a little over three years now. It's fun, it's challenging, and I hope that I get a little better every time. Sometimes you do hit a tough crowd, though...

Most cyclists aren't taught to ride by somebody who's already an experienced cyclist. They're told to stay away from the road, and from traffic. Consequently, our "lizard brains" -- those deep, internal instincts -- are accustomed to being scared of traffic. Maybe, way down deep, that instinct might also be a source of road rage toward cyclists riding in traffic.

I don't use the word "dangerous" in my classes, because that simply reinforces that lizard-brain instinct. Likewise, I don't use the word "accident," either. What occurs in traffic and on the trails are either "crashes" or "collisions," both of which have -- somewhere -- some causal effect.

We do encounter hazards out there on the streets and roads. And what we're learning in this class is how to recognize what those hazards are, and what they can potentially do to you. For part of this, I use a set of powerpoint slides with photos taken in our local town of various problem areas, and I use some video as well, especially in showing how you would use the avoidance drills. Now that you can recognize that hazard, we learn the steps that you can take to avoid them, or stay out of those situations entirely. These are condensed down into what we usually call the five "layers of prevention." And since we run the classes on a tell-see-do basis, we re-emphasize that part of the lesson when we go out in the parking lot and learn the avoidance drills.

In any class of more than 4 or 5 folks, you're always going to have some fellow who has a personal horror story. (And I'll usually share a couple of my own, and explain how I let myself get into that situation, what happened, and what I learned from it) What I try to to with those cases to to show them how to confront those fears, discern what they really consist of, and show them how to overcome those problems.

After all, some of the most important things we do as LCIs is to coach and encourage other riders so that they get more enjoyment, and better benefits out of their cycling...

Tom
#1853M