Interesting Information

[LisaB]

Wow -- looks like I'm a day late to this party. Helmets do not "improve safety." This seems to be the basis for the guy's argument, and, as most daily-riding cyclists know, all helmets do is protect your head. There are ancillary effects (getting called a dork, having a place to mount your light, etc.), but helmets only do one thing: protect your head. Helmets don't improve safety. These things do:
• Being an aware and experienced rider
• Riding on a low-risk facility
• Riding with aware and experienced facility co-users
• Communicating with your facility co-users with your voice, bell or horn
• Signaling to traffic and obeying traffic laws while behaving in a predictable fashion (i.e. "like a car").

Wearing a helmet just reduces your chances of severe insult to the organ you keep in your skull -- NOTHING MORE. Further, the connection of "bicyclists who wear helmets are more likely to be hit by a motor vehicle" and "I really doubt if it’s necessary to wear a helmet while riding my bike to work on the bike trail" when cars are a factor in the former and are not in the latter... okay, soooo not gonna go there.

The study is spurious at best (the results are observed, not causal). YMMV.

[Kitsune06]

I know cycling police/security officers are far more common these days. Has anyone considered buying a couple unlabled 'official-looking' jerseys and/or jacket (yellow on top with black down under) for commuting?

I know you can legally (in the States) buy clothes that read 'Security' because it's such a general term (and security officers have few or no rights the general public doesn't have)

It might make life a little safer for us out there.

exDH and I had matching jackets that looked a lot like bike-officers' jackets, and we had a *lot* of respect, biking together. ...and we had one drunk student yell "F***ing Pigs!!!" out the window of a BMW. We only wished we could be... then we'd write her smart *** a ticket (or so)

[DebW]

I passed the link from that study

http://www.bath.ac.uk/news/articles/...ing110906.html

on to the MBTA (local transit agency) after getting passed by a bus a mite too close this morning. I told them exactly where and when buses are passing me too close, so they could track down the driver if they want. And I encouraged them to educate their drivers regarding proper passing distance and speed. We'll see if anything changes.

I just received the following letter regarding my complaint to the MBTA about their bus operators:

Dear Ms. W,

Thank you for your letter about bus operators driving dangerously when
passing cyclists. We appreciate hearing from you and we are very sorry
for the operators' behavior. There is no excuse for it.

The type of behavior you describe goes against all our operators'
training.

Operators driving in this manner will face discipline. If this happens
in the future, please provide us with the date, location, bus route,
direction traveled, location and, if possible, the four-digit vehicle
number. The vehicle number is visibly located on the outside of the bus
on the front, back and side and also inside the bus. With this
information we will identify, interview and re-instruct individual
operators.

Again, we extend our apologies. Thank you again for writing.

MBTA Feedback

[Denise223]

Hey Deb:

That's awesome -- I'm really happy that the MBTA responded to you. What you did will help all cyclists!

Thanks for letting us know.

Peace & Love,

Denise

[Lise]

Nice, Deb! Thanks for posting that.

I'd heard about the study on the radio, but somehow missed this thread. It's good to see a full discussion. As LisaB. said, "The study is spurious at best (the results are observed, not causal)."

I give cyclists as much room as I can, period. I give extra room to non-helmet wearers, because I assume that they're stupid as it is. Given that they're stupid and don't value their own brains, I presume that they may make other stupid decisions. As I don't want to end up in an ER or court room with them, I cut them a wide bearth. The dingbats who ride, oblivious, with their ipods in and helmets dangling from the handlebars are a particular annoyance to me. But they're not as likely to be daredevils like the roadies with no helmets. Oblivious, however, is very dangerous on Chicago streets. The other night I spotted a guy in dark clothes, on a bike with no lights, coming toward me the wrong way down a one way street. Of course, on his head he sported only a baseball cap. There was no one behind me, so I just crawled to a stop in my car and let him pass me, going the wrong way. He stared at me as if *I'd* lost my mind. But I wasn't going to keep driving straight at him when I had no idea what bone-headed move he might make. At least I had headlights and bright red tail lights, and if someone were coming behind me, I could start creeping forward again until he passed.