Unexpected Commuting Benefits

[Owlie]

I learned to ride in urban Cleveland. Granted, on a college campus, but it was still high-traffic, and spent the next year in a similar area. I rode early in the morning or in the evening after rush hour, so traffic wasn't bad, but it was a lot denser than the trails I've been riding on for the last year. Now that I look back on it, I have to wonder what on earth I was thinking, and how I didn't end up as a hood ornament.

I'm still not entirely willing to ride on some of the roads around here, because they're high traffic density as well as high speed, and unlike Cleveland, drivers aren't used to seeing cyclists or pedestrians.

There's a lot to be said for confidence and taking the lane when you need to, and most drivers aren't out to get you, but there are a lot who aren't quite paying attention...

[OakLeaf]

I didn't mean trusting them. Not one bit. Not as far as I can throw them.

I meant the self-confidence to ride assertively, which is actually much safer. Assertive riding is predictable riding, behaving like a vehicle with equal rights and responsibilities with all the other vehicles out there. It's when you act like a car sometimes and a pedestrian some other times and something that's neither fish nor fowl the rest of the time, that's what not only angers motorists, it confuses the ones who are trying to do the right thing.

It's as non-subtle a thing as taking the lane, and also as subtle a thing as the message you send with your body language. I don't believe in eye contact (along your lines of not trusting them), I've experienced too many times when someone's looked me straight in the eye and taken my right of way anyway - but the ones who do look me in the eye are getting the message that I will run you over if you take my right of way. Obviously I won't, and couldn't if I tried, but people who see them do respond to that kind of body language message on a visceral level.

Assertive riding also means trusting yourself. Hesitation costs you precious microseconds in a dangerous situation. Hesitation also, on that visceral level I mentioned, invites other road users to take your right of way and infringe on your lane. Trusting yourself is no different from the "flow" people talk about in competition, where mind and body are totally in sync and you instantly see and execute your next move.

IMO, it's just as dangerous not to trust yourself as it is to trust other road users. Even more dangerous, honestly, because hesitation can put you in a ditch on your head when there aren't even any other vehicles around.

[lph]

Absolutely. I have seen so many people get into dangerous situations by not being assertive, or by making up their minds too late. Or even put others into dangerous situations. Just the other week I was coming down a hill, and the cyclist in front of me decided for no particular reason to suddenly slow down, waive her right of way and let a car turn in from a driveway into the road in front of her. The driver was looking only at her, and not at me approaching right behind her, which meant that suddenly I too had to come to almost a full stop.

[indysteel]

Catrin,

I would caution you a bit about the Cultural Trail. It is a nice thing to have in the city (at a cost of $50 million for a 7.5 mile trail, it darn well better be ), but I do think it poses problems because it is, in actuality, a glorified sidewalk and, as a sidewalk, it poses some potential hazards for cyclists. I'll give you a for instance. If you were traveling east by bike on the Trail as it parallels North Street and approaches Delaware, you could very easily get hit by vehicle that is turning left--and that is totally oblivious to your rearward approach--onto Delaware. And you may have trouble even seeing what that eastbound traffic is doing because there are cars parked alongside the trail, as well as westbound traffic. Some of the streets that parallel the Trail only allow cars to turn left when they have a green arrow and Trail users have a red light, but not all of the intersections offer that protection. I'm afraid that some Trail users who aren't used to riding on the street at all will assume that it offers more protection from traffic than it actually does.

[Catrin]

IndySteel - good call on being cautious with it. Depending on the time of day I won't always use it, and I am trying to be especially careful downtown anyway about stopping and looking before I ride out into traffic or cross the street. Out on my empty country roads I am more likely to look "on the move" as it were, but thankfully urban riding is so new to me that I am being extra cautious.

What makes it even cooler to use it is that my agency was involved in the initial planning stages