Take the Lane

Time to think about being safe on the roads

With the countdown to back to school now on, it's a gimme that there will be more peds and cyclists on city streets.

Today, members of Waterloo Region Public Health are at the new roundabout at Homer Watson Boulevard and Block Line Road, just a short ambulance ride from St. Mary's High School, talking to kids who are using the new pedestrian crossovers (when did they stop being called crosswalks?). The plan is to at least have satisified the legal requirements to alert the young peds before the official start of school and the herd-thinning begins.

Waterloo Region Police Service has also released its annual reminder to motorists, pedestrians and cyclists about mutual respect and road safety. Wish everyone would read it.

If you have a young cyclist in the family, you might have them review this part from the WRPS press release:

Cyclists should: remain aware of your surroundings and obey signs and signals; ride according to the rules of the road; use hand signals to communicate your intentions and use your bell or horn to signal your approach to pedestrians; always wear a helmet regardless of age; and avoid wearing headphones or using electronic devices.

The observant may note that while the rules suggest that cyclists should use the roadways, it's clear that police expect some will use sidewalks, and of course, the younger ones are permitted to use sidewalks by municipal bylaws.

Motorists, as well as being advised to watch for children on foot or on bicycle, especially around schools, are asked to: not speed; watch for children at designated and non-designated locations; not use cellphones; and drive sober.

Sad, isn't it, that a reminder about motoring during kids' school hours has to repeat the no drunk driving message. Let's have a couple of beers with breakfast and then buzz the school bus dropoff zone! Probably happens, but it's still sad.

It's amusing that cars have to be designed with no sharp edges, for the safety of passersby. They have special valves so that gasoline and toxic gases can't leak into the environment. They have to be designed with mufflers for the safety of our ears. They have to have air bags, for the safety of the occupants. You can't put a kid in the back seat for a ride to the corner store without the safety seat appropriate for their age and weight. And yet a bonehead with a bottle of booze in him can climb into the driver's seat, put the key in the ignition and drive, with no safety mechanism to stop him. The "safety" part is the court process that will begin when he plows through a crowd of cyclists.

Perhaps we need to rethink our motor vehicle design basics?

 

Bicycle tires that pump up themselves

Bicycle tech is not always about frame materials or gearing. Witness Pumptire, a prototype self-inflating bicycle tire.

According to the website and video, Pumptire literally pumps itself up to user-determined tire pressure while the bicycle is in motion. The two developers are using the Kickstarter website to attract enough backers to take the project from prototype to production.

It sounds good. There are two types of tire, one with a max 60 psi and another with a max 100 psi. Sounds like the right pressures for most city bikes. Probably not right for the high-performance roadie, but even tech geeks might want to try a set.

Of course, there will be no sets unless Pumptire gets enough backers. Have a look at the website.

Want to be on TV?

Attention Waterloo Region cyclists: Want to be on TV? Got some time on your hands around noon any weekday? Feel like a ride up King Street between Kitchener and Waterloo?

Every Monday through Friday, CKCO TV news opens their noon newscast with some in-studio highlights, and then flips outside to weather-person Ross Hull, standing with King Street behind him and Grand River Hospital in the background.

I've noticed the occasional cyclist in the background, climbing the hill towards KCI and rolling down toward Union Street, and thought: "Wouldn't it make a statement about cycling in Waterloo Region, if a couple times a week, there were 20 or 40 cyclists in the background?"

So, if you happen to have to ride down King Street, and can time it to be rolling past the CKC studios right at noon, and bring a dozen friends, you can get some free air time for the bicycle movement.

 

It's a crime how many motorists drive distracted

Earlier this month, I posted about Devin Kunich, of Kenosha, Wisc., who was hit from behind while cycling just after midnight by a young female driver who was blind in one eye, not wearing her corrective lenses, and talking on her cellphone.

At the time, I suggested that the driver, Quashae Taylor, might get off with a wrist slap because the cyclist was wearing dark colours and appeared not to have lights on his bike. Taylor has been charged with negligent homicide and at last week's preliminary hearing, was bound over for trial.

There have been comments about that item since, including the observation that a bike light was found at the scene.

I have also had some web conversations with Devin's father, Gary, who spoke about his son in this article on a Kenosha news site, KenoWi. There were 1,000 people at Devin's funeral, a testament to the loss his community feels.

One of the things Gary Kunich is trying to do is to make people aware of the dangers of distracted driving. He's changed his Facebook profile pic to a poster that says: "Don't drive distracted. Put away your electronic devices before you start your engine. In Memory of Devin." He's also launched a Facebook page that you can join here, and has ordered 300 pink wristbands that say, "Save a Life. Hang up and drive."

Gary has other plans to get a public discussion going about distracted driving, although he is keeping a relatively low profile for the time being, so as to not hinder in any way the negligent homicide court case. But a non-profit foundation may be in the future.

Wisconsin is one of the many U.S. states to not have a cellphone-driving ban. No texting while driving in Wisconsin, but cellphones are apparently OK. Getting such a ban in Wisconsin might be the first step for Gary Kunich.

While it seems to me that cellphone and texting bans are no brainers, it's also clear that a the ban will stop the practice. We have a ban here in Ontario, but I'm driving back and forth to Toronto almost every week, and every week, I see slow-moving vehicles, vehicles that slowly weave from side to side in their lane, and, worse, fast-moving vehicles, that all have something in common: a driver who is talking or texting on a smart device.

(Why do they call them smartphones, when the users are so clearly stupid?)

Trial or no trial, the matter of distracted driving is one that can be raised at any time, and especially with the cycling community. Talk to your friends, get them thinking about their in-car behaviours. I know that they say it will never happen to them, but it can.

 

Cyclists are the most satisfied commuters

Not too much detail about cycling in Stats Can's latest report: Commuting to work: Results of the 2010 General Social Survey.

In fact, cyclists are grouped with pedestrians, with the other two commuting groups being motorists and transit users. You may be pleased to know that the cyclist-pedestrian clique accounts for six per cent of work commuting, and cyclists-pedestrians consider themselves the most satisfied with their commutes.

I keep telling motorists: be happy, get a bike.

Do we need more ways to "run" dogs with bicycles?

Just a few days after I posted back at a Take the Lane respondent about walking dogs with a bicycle, comes this photo over the news services of a new way to "run" dogs.

It's called a pupRUNNER dog trailer. It converts to a trailer that can carry up to two small dogs, or you can flip up the floor and the dogs can run within the framework of the trailer, behind the cyclist. Thanks to Pete Zimowsky of the Idaho Statesman for this photo, which was distributed by McClatchy-Tribune. Zimowsky's story can be read here.

Pardon me if I don't think this is a better mousetrap. I am almost completely opposed to running a dog alongside a bicycle, but at least when the dog is alongside, the cyclist can see if the dog is flagging. This unit appears likely to wind up dragging the hapless canine if it gets tired.

Please, people. If you are going to get a dog that needs room to run and time to run, budget your time to allow you to run with your dog, or play fetch with your dog, or something. Dogs are not ornaments.

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Mexican radio host tells motorists to "crush" cyclists

This just in: A Mexico City radio host says Mexican motorists should "crush" cyclists when they can.

According to an Associated Press report, Angel Verdugo of the Reporte 98.5 station, told his audience Tuesday that cyclists had almost run into his car, ignored traffic rules and bothered pedestrians.

Verdugo told his radio audience to "run your vehicles at them immediately, don't give them time to think, and crush them."

Mexico City's environment secretary, Martha Delgado, is reported as responding that Verdugo's broadcast is "an attack on the cycling community and the citizens of Mexico City."

Radio hype aimed at boosting ratings, or more evidence of a widening disconnect between cyclists and motorists? Certainly, Mexcio City is one of the traffic hell-holes of the western hemisphere. Pity the poor motorist there, trapped in gridlock in an asthma-inducing, carbon-emitting pollution machine, and watching as a clean-footprint two-wheeler navigates through the smog and the clog. No doubt they have some anger. Too bad it isn't directed at the city planners who allowed circumstances to get that bad, or themselves for wasting their money on a bank-account-emptying automobile.

Someone should buy Angel Verdugo a bicycle, and let him taste real freedom.

 

 

 

Do motorists have a gender bias?

I had an interesting observation and question posed to me recently by Waterloo-area cyclist Paula Verlegh.

She wondered if motorists are more accommodating to cyclistswho are clearly female.

She is a regular road rider who wears bright-coloured cycling jerseys so she stands out on the road. She has found Waterloo-area motorists to be quite aggressive to cyclists, and has been buzzed, yelled at to get off the road and had a number of close calls with vehicles that pass too close or turn in front of her without giving her enough room.

She recently wore a jersey that one might call more "feminine", with the shoulders cut away, and found that on a familiar ride in the Conestogo-St. Jacobs area, motorists were giving her lots of room. She says that she shared this observation with some of female cycling friends, and they believe they have experienced the same thing: when they dress "girly," motorists give them a wider berth.

Verlegh usually wears clothing to protect her shoulders, but wonders if she should add more feminine-style cycling apparel to her wardrobe as a safety feature.

So there's the question. Do motorists cut more slack to women on bikes? Based on my tracking of bicycle fatalities (the worst being a woman pulling a kiddie trailer who was run down by a motorist), I would say "no." But fatalities are a tiny segment of the total motorist-cyclist interface.

Should we forget about "cycle chic" and focus on "cycle chick?" Would this be sexist cycling? Your observations or speculations are welcome.

Regional collision report could do better for cyclists

Thanks to a Take the Lane respondent, for a detailed response to the cycling portions of the Region of Waterloo's 2010 annual collision report, which you can download here.

The Record has pumped out a few stories from the report, including this one from Terry Pender and this column from Jeff Outhit.

Jonathan points out that when it comes to cyclists, some detail is lacking. He notes that while cyclist behaviour is cited in the potential causes for collisions, driver behaviour appears not to be. He notes also that the report cites "other" as the cause for 41 per cent of the collisions where cyclist action is to blame for the collision. What exactly is "other"?

I was interested in the section on cyclist age vs. cyclist condition. Although the section highlighted that two per cent had been drinking, no mention was made of the fact that 62 per cent were perfectly normal. The next largest group was "inattentive," at 29 per cent. Perhaps the report could have highlighted the 179 cyclists who were inattentive instead of 10 cyclists who had had something to drink before riding (none, BTW, were impaired).

 

 

This risk-benefit analysis of cycling falls a bit short

This Macleans article, about whether the health benefits of cycling outweigh the safety risks, will likely cause some discussion, but I think it falls a bit short of the promise in the headline.

Lots of numbers about the percentage of cycling injuries and fatalities, but no data on longevity of cyclists vs. motorists, or overall cost to the medical system of cyclists vs. non-cyclists. Anyone have access to a meta study on the subject?