smilingcat
07-26-2014, 08:41 AM
Thread drift got me thinking about riding safety. Eden, Spokewench were talking about riding against the traffic.
And yesterday, I saw an older man using his old bell helmet as a handle bar basket with what looked like a six pack of beer (dark brown bottle long neck so what else could it be?) in it and riding on the sidewalk facing toward the oncoming traffic.
Now I see fairly often of riders with their helmet secured on their messenger bag, day pack, dangling on handle bars. Is it really that hard to wear a helmet? It's bad enough that on occasion you will find those who are wearing the helmet backward.
Then riding the wrong way, I've had people yell at me on the bike lane because I went to my left, out of a bike lane to avoid a head on collision with a person riding the wrong way. He then went out of a bike lane and on collision path with me. I ended up nearly on the yellow double and he kept moving into my direction... We came to a hard stop and he was yelling at me that this isn't England and I needed to stay on his left and that he was trying to go on my left. ??? What about him going in the wrong direction?
Well anyway, using your helmet for other than protecting your head bothers me. I've been known to be a busy body and told people very politely to really should wear their helmet instead of dangling somewhere on their bike. Most of the response were rather negative. One guy even said he doesn't fall so no need. Then he fell at the next light. I stared at him. What followed and came out of his mouth would have made George Carlin proud with “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television”
You can lead a horse to the water but you can't force him to drink.
Cest la Vie
For those who are new here, helmet aka brain bucket saved my life on two separate accidents. Second one left me with no short/long term memory for about a week,In fact I have no memory of that time. And possibly my third in a crash about 4 years ago. I now ride a trike for this reason and even then I have my helmet. Yes I still have my regular bikes.
And yesterday, I saw an older man using his old bell helmet as a handle bar basket with what looked like a six pack of beer (dark brown bottle long neck so what else could it be?) in it and riding on the sidewalk facing toward the oncoming traffic.
Now I see fairly often of riders with their helmet secured on their messenger bag, day pack, dangling on handle bars. Is it really that hard to wear a helmet? It's bad enough that on occasion you will find those who are wearing the helmet backward.
Then riding the wrong way, I've had people yell at me on the bike lane because I went to my left, out of a bike lane to avoid a head on collision with a person riding the wrong way. He then went out of a bike lane and on collision path with me. I ended up nearly on the yellow double and he kept moving into my direction... We came to a hard stop and he was yelling at me that this isn't England and I needed to stay on his left and that he was trying to go on my left. ??? What about him going in the wrong direction?
Well anyway, using your helmet for other than protecting your head bothers me. I've been known to be a busy body and told people very politely to really should wear their helmet instead of dangling somewhere on their bike. Most of the response were rather negative. One guy even said he doesn't fall so no need. Then he fell at the next light. I stared at him. What followed and came out of his mouth would have made George Carlin proud with “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television”
You can lead a horse to the water but you can't force him to drink.
Cest la Vie
For those who are new here, helmet aka brain bucket saved my life on two separate accidents. Second one left me with no short/long term memory for about a week,In fact I have no memory of that time. And possibly my third in a crash about 4 years ago. I now ride a trike for this reason and even then I have my helmet. Yes I still have my regular bikes.