Why Car Drivers with a Clue Support Bicycle Infrastructure

Photo courtesy of therozblog via Flickr

Imagine what it would feel like to accidentally maim, cripple for life, or kill a bicyclist (daughter, wife, mom, son, husband, dad, teenager or kid) with your car, regardless of who got the traffic ticket.

On top of that guilt, imagine the potential for an emotionally and financially devastating lawsuit.

Oh, and don't forget the deductible on your car insurance.

I've had to brake hard to avoid hitting a cyclist, day, night, rain, or shine, many times in my life. As a cyclist, I've been on the receiving end more times than I can count as well.

A bicyclist can be difficult to parse out against a cluttered background and can be moving five times faster than a pedestrian. It's just physics.

Any motorist hoping that bicycling will be made illegal has a screw loose. This is a case where it would be much better to join them rather than fight them. Motorists should be the most enthusiastic supporters of any infrastructure that gets bicyclists out of their hair.

And did I mention all of the parking that bicyclists free up?

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Carnage in the bike lanes streets

(Photo credit coffeego via the Flickr Creative Commons license).

Two recent articles have motivated me to do another biking post. First up is this one, from Science Daily

Despite the wide-spread attention paid to the importance of wearing helmets, helmet use did not change during the time period of the study, and more than 33 percent of 329 bicycle injury victims had a significant head injury. Even more alarming, the number of chest injuries increased by 15 percent and abdominal injuries rose three-fold over the last five years. “We were astounded by that data,”

“We’re talking about injured spleens and livers, internal bleeding, rib fractures, and hemothorax [blood in the chest]. Those kinds of injuries are reflected by an increase in injury severity score,” he added.

The study was done in Denver, apparently a very bicycle friendly city. I would hate to see the data from Seattle's Harborview trauma center.

In a nutshell, increased bike traffic without improved bike infrastructure = carnage. The only way to motivate politicians to prioritize bicycle infrastructure is to motivate their voting constituencies. The snarling car drivers should take a back seat. Life is a power struggle but it never hurts to hold the moral high ground when attempting to plant a meme.

The second post was from Treehugger. The picture of the little girl who lost both of her parents is just heartrending.

Random bike advice and some helmet cam footage

I've been attaching a video camera to my bike helmet when I take longer rides (when it isn't raining). I just leave it running for the whole trip. You never know what you will run into on a bike ride, or get run into by. This is a nondescript clip of me returning a DVD up on 45th. The ride was only a few miles long but the errand took half the time it would have taken in a car. If cars are free to pass me on the left, I feel free to pass them on the right. Two things you must watch out for: People in parked cars who may open a door on you and people stuck in traffic who suddenly and without warning decide to get out of line at the next cross street just as you are going by. This happened to me last year. I left a dent just above the car's gas cap.

The other night I was riding with the camera on when another biker started drafting. People behind me can see what I see in the camera's screen, especially at night. This guy was strong. I've never had a rider stick with me like that. I moved from the bike trail into the street and cranked it up to about 30. He stuck right with me. I eventually got enough air between us on a hill that he lost the drag advantage and dropped back. I might just get a bigger front ring. I was pedaling like a hamster on a mouse wheel.

On occasion I wonder if it's worth getting on my hybrid electric bike but then I remember what it's like to drive in Seattle traffic and off I go. Bike riding isn't a religion. If it's raining, too cold, or you have a cold, just drive your car. The key is to minimize how much you drive without sacrifice. Sacrifice is for martyrs and as a solution does not scale. Riding my hybrid bike is usually more pleasant and faster than driving a car.

Remember to sit correctly on the bike seat. Your butt should be on the back part. If you sit on the front half of the seat you will eventually notice a tingling sensation, and not the good kind. Do that often enough and you will be visiting your urologist or a fertility clinic.

The back rim on my bike developed several metal fatigue cracks. I bought a heavy-duty rim at a local bike shop and asked them to string up my electric motor. A young bike mechanic wanted to give it a go, assuming he will eventually see a lot of electric bikes in the future. He did a great job and the wheel is working fine.

I will be posting video on occasion when I encounter something of interest, which is pretty often in this city.

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Solar powered pogies and other oddities

Always a day late and dollar short, I thought I'd get this post out before winter ends next week.

Yesterday, I rode my hybrid electric bike from Fremont, which is at sea level, over Capital Hill, down into the Rainier Valley and back. It was about 15 miles round trip. I took mental notes on the discomfort I experienced along the way.

1. It was a cold and my face was freezing.
2. Although I had on thick gloves my fingers still got cold.
3. Whenever I needed to undo a zipper or do anything else with my hands I had to take my gloves off.

Taking gloves off so one can do something like adjust a jacket zipper requires riding with no hands while dodging potholes and cars. Yes, I know I could just stop riding to do it but like most other guys, I'm too stupid for that. And once you get your gloves off, you have to stick them under one arm. Putting them back on is even worse because you now have to bring your teeth into the act as well.

I spent the last two days in my workshop cobbling together fixes. The freezing face problem was handled by bolting on a cheap and simple face guard (found at Lowes and Home Depot among other places). I used wing nuts to make it easy to remove. Much to my surprise, it worked flawlessly on several test-rides in cold air. You can see it in action here. Never mind the bolt sticking out of the top. I'll get to that in another post.

This fix may also offer some protection against face plants. I know three people who have augured-in face-first this year. My wife's walking buddy woke up with face rash and a concussion. She isn't sure what happened but thinks she may have hit a slippery painted stripe on the road. She's afraid to get back on her bike. My wife's Spanish teacher managed a rapid deceleration using her face and a metal fence post, splitting her lower lip. My daughter's friend's boyfriend lost several front teeth and needed reconstructive surgery on his nose after his front wheel came off. Luckily for him, chicks dig scars. Bike helmets just don't offer much in the way of face protection unless you are willing to wear a full-faced version used in racing circles. The ones on the market today tend to be hot and uncomfortable. If anyone knows about one that works for regular bike commuters let me know.

The cold fingers problem can be resolved by a combination of Atlas 370 Nitrile Touch Gloves (preferably black to maximize solar gain) and a pair of solar powered pogies which you can make yourself. These gloves are very flexible with textured rubber on one side and cloth on the back to let them breathe. They are thin enough to manipulate things like zippers and bike helmet latches with ease but you can't quite pick your nose with them on. If that's a priority with you, consider cutting the tip off the index finger.

What's a pogie you say? It is, among other things, a wind and water proof cover that fits on an oar or handlebar (motorcycle or bicycle) to keep your hands warm and dry. This is an example of a pogie fail.

After much deliberation and a few glasses of wine, I made a pair out of one-gallon Glad double-lock freezer bags. Clamp one end around your handle bar with a paper clamp and cut a six-to-eight inch slit on the bottom side about two inches from the aft seam to stick your hand in. Experiment until you get it right. They come 40 to a box. Keep a few in your bike bag for riding in the rain or on cold days. I was hoping that by using a transparent material I would get some solar heating and sure enough I did when stopped at a light. Convection losses while moving overwhelm any solar heat gain. Who knows, one day you might start to see solar heated pogies available commercially.

You can't tell a nerd from a dork by looking. A dork does not realize that his or her pants are too short, whereas a nerd just doesn't care. Saving the planet is going to be a delicate balancing act. Ideas must scale (become popular with large numbers of the unthinking herd) and to do that they have to cross the coolness barrier. I am hopeful that if fixie bikes (which have the advantage of being able to go in reverse) can cross that boundary, this helmet and solar powered pogie can.

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