Safety on crazy roads

[OakLeaf]

You know, nine times out of ten, when someone tells me how quiet my Prius is, the gas engine is running.

The other day I was running in the middle of a quiet street, as I often do to avoid the crown. A car came up behind me, a great big American gas-only land shark. But it was following me at my jogging pace - and so the tire and wind noise, which is the great majority of noise from ANY car these days due to EPA noise regulations, was too faint for me to hear, and I didn't know they were there until they gently tapped their horn.

That whole thing about hybrid exhaust noise is driven by people who want to put straight pipes on their motorcycles and claim it's for safety reasons. And, to a lesser extent, by people who want license to run down bicyclists in the street (even more license than they already have, that is, since they nearly have carte blanche already) because we don't make noise... and, I must admit, by pedestrians and cyclists who want to tool around just like motorists do, with their phones or iPods blasting in their ears, completely oblivious to the traffic around them. At root, it's mainly driven by people who have contempt for anyone who wants a more fuel-efficient vehicle. I can see how popular that viewpoint would be in Texas, since we have enough oil and gas extraction here for people to act that way too.

Please don't perpetuate that myth.



Also related to this thread is issues of visibility. See my post in the other thread about why a little bit of visibility aid is worse than none at all. Be very alert for motorists who will target fixate on you.

[Sky King]

Also related to this thread is issues of visibility. See my post in the other thread about why a little bit of visibility aid is worse than none at all. Be very alert for motorists who will target fixate on you.

Target fixation is why I do not like blinking type lights, they drive me nuts as I think they are super unsafe. As Oakleaf pointed out, a light that doesn't give enough visibility is equally dangerous. In fact I believe blinking lightst are illegal in Germany.

Good, visible lighting with a steady beam is what I use. I am lucky to have a dyno hub so I never have to worry about making sure my light is charged.

[Geonz]

I just finished LCI training... yes. "Common sense" is often dead wrong when it comes to cycling.

http://www.bikelib.org/safety-education/adults/ has some good information...

A story about lane position. I read and asked a lot of questions about where to ride in the lane and yes, I was told that I should ride out there and control my lane... because it is my right! I just should! I need to control things!

Well, I care a lot more about getting there alive than I do asserting my self... so I took that stuff with a grain or three of salt.

Then, I was doing a 100 mile ride with a friend of mine, on a road a bit faster than we were accustomed to. He was the first to complain about the drivers, who were constantly buzzing us even though there was rarely approaching traffic; they could have gone around. It made me think, and I said "this is where I've read we should move out in the lane and supposedly things will get better." Of course, I was thinking "the drivers will get mad!"

We moved out. Suddenly, a wave of Good Driving Etiquette enveloped the road. Drivers signaled and passed us as if we were tractors -- they'd just go out into the oncoming traffic lane when it was safe, and move around us.

Then we stopped for a bite to eat. Darn it, when we came out, all the bad drivers were out in force. They were all buzzing us again... well, that is, until we remembered to Change OUr Ways and ease out another foot or so -- not a lot, but basically in line with where the right wheel of a car would be.

Yup. Suddenly the drivers got better.

There are all *kinds* of other reasons that it's safer to be out there, such as the "arc of attention" that doesn't include things on the shoulder...

... and that's just one example of the counterintuitive realities of riding on the road. Unfortunately, a fair number of the people out there who take the lane are like those folks I didn't believe -- some of them basically think that the solution to *everything* (including the common cold) is to "move further out" and that "hey! we belong on the busy roads!!!" and "if you're on the sidewalk, you're wrong. Period. Always." They don't realize that they explode their credibility when they wax dogmatic ...