Take the Lane

The buzz about bike helmets is back

This column by The Record's Luisa D'Amato may not swing any voters, but it will surely stir the pot in the cycling community, especially her advice to the next premier to make bicycle helmets mandatory for all cyclists in Ontario.

Nothing stirs the blood of cyclists like the matter of bicycle helmets. The opponents are loud and fact-backed. The proponents are insistent and supported by facts, too. And in the middle are people like me who are happy to make the choice to wear bicycle helmets on the basis of what they think of as good common sense.

It's pretty clear that the tides are flowing against the anti-helmet (or rather, pro-choice) group. If you want to ride a Kitchener Community Access Bicycle, you need a helmet. If you want to ride in a charity fundraising event, you need a helmet. The CAA, the police and Ontario's doctors want you to wear a helmet.

Every time I read a police report about an adult involved in a cycling accident, the point is made by the reporting officer that the cyclist "was not wearing a helmet." This fact is reported with the same gravity (and blame for the cyclist) as if that person was a motorist who was not wearing a seat belt. Yet, wearing a seatbelt is a legal requirement, while wearing a helmet, for anyone in Ontario 18 years of age or older, is not.

Odd, isn't it, that in Ontario (stats from the late 1990s, from the Office of the Registrar General) the number two cause of death is lung cancer, at something around 6,500 deaths a year, yet we haven't ordered people to stop smoking. Yet something like 12 to 20 people died in cycling accidents each year, and of those, only a few would have been helped by wearing a helmet, yet the discussion around bicycle helmet laws keep coming back like a bad penny.

Don't get me wrong. My head has bounced off pavement, and I was glad I was wearing a helmet when it happened. But the attention paid to helmets has me puzzled. Where is the pressure coming from?

 

 

Critical Mass on Friday

The last Friday of September is usually one of the largest Critical Mass events of the year in Waterloo Region.

The student population is back, the weather is often good and after the first few weeks of classes, there are a number of cycle-equipped, energized, would-be alternative transportation advocates ready to roll.

Not sure what kind of turnout you might see on Friday in Waterloo: the Facebook group has been dormant since July. The Waterloo Public Interest Research Group (WPIRG) has some details on its website. Although the rally time is given as 4:30 p.m. at the Waterloo Park bandshell, it seems to me that the actual start time can vary.

While I'm a big fan of the concept, the actual execution can sometimes be marred by counter-productive behaviour from wannabe cycling advocates who ride once a year and think gasoline engines are evil. Blocking public transit vehicles is just dumb (public transit and bicycles are on the same page, guys!).

And then there are the non-cyclists who are just piggybacking on a parade so they can make a point about land claims, globalization, and any number of issues (What! No Scientologists?). Get your own parade.

I have seen toxic rides and fun rides. I prefer the fun ones, so I encourage the bicycle advocacy moderates -- the Cycle Chic, the Easy Riders, the recumbent fans, the cycle commuters -- to come out, so that the original intention of the Critical Mass is not hijacked by the loons.

Moron of the week, #37

You were a Cycle Chic-worthy, early thirty-something female rider, making good time Wednesday along Queen Street approaching King Street in downtown Kitchener, arguably one of the busiest intersections in the urban heart of the city.

And, without signalling, you cut in front of an SUV to move over to the centre of the road, just about on the centre line. Oh, I thought, you must be about to turn left at that alleyway. And you passed the alleyway, still in the centre of the road.

Oh, I thought, as I am sure the SUV behind you thought, you must be planning to turn left at the light.

And you continued on through that intersection (on the green), still on the centre of the road.

No signals, no glances over the shoulder. Total oblivion to the one-tonne metal monsters on all sides.

I was so hoping you would do something sensible that I stopped what I was doing and adjusted my vantage point to watch you, silently saying, please turn left at the next alleyway.

No. You continued on, up the street, passing on the left the cars stopped for the traffic light and then, not even turning left there, continued on straight through the red light, on the centre line, confusing and blocking the cars behind you.

At this point, even I would have honked at you.

Oh cyclists, you do not "own" the road, you "share" it. The centre line is not a narrow bike lane! There are signs and signals, rules of the road, even simple etiquette. Did your mothers not teach you to say "please" and "thank you?" Signalling an intention, any intention, is the "please" of the roadway. Acting like a competent member of the road-sharing community is the "thank you."

It's been a long time since I have seen a cyclist worthy of being Moron of the Week, but this rider deserves the honour.

 

 

Teen hit by truck dies in hospital

Sad to report that a 14-year-old Kitchener boy has died as a result of his injuries after being struck while riding his bicycle across a busy road.

Tyrone Welbanks was struck Sept. 12 at around 9 p.m. after he rode across Fairway Road near Thaler Avenue in Kitchener. The boy was not wearing a helmet, and was riding a bike that was not equipped with a light, reflectors or brakes. He had been fighting for life at a Hamilton hospital, said a recent news report. He died there today, as a result of his head injuries, Waterloo Regional Police said.

The 33-year-old B.C. who was driving the truck will not be charged, according to police. Hard to argue with that decision. So tragic that a 14-year-old boy can make such a fatal mistake.

More stuff to add to your handlebars

What is it about some cyclists that makes them take a wonderfully simple invention like a bicycle and doll it up with all kinds of technical wonders?

I admit to this failing. I have a wireless odometer on one bike, LED lights, even an air horn (when my voice has a quicker trigger and adjustable volume). And I admit to a preliminary attraction to this, the Owl 360, a rear-view video that attaches to your seat and transmits an image to a monitor on your handlebars.

Yes, you can have the same back-up view that the latest SUVs have, except that you won't be backing up. What you'll be watching for is the SUVs coming up from behind you, probably with the drivers who are watching their own heads-up displays, GPSs and DVD players instead of looking through the windshield at you.

I wonder if you can record those final moments...

Like bike-friendly communities? Sign here

Ontario's Share the Road Cycling Coalition is pushing hard to get 1,000 signatures on its Active Communities Pledge.

Coalition founder and CEO Eleanor McMahon hopes the pledge -- a public statement of support for bicycle infrastructure that will create bike-friendly communities for the benefit of all Ontarians -- will influence the thinking and positions of some of the provincial candidates vying for your vote on Oct. 6. If you are a voter, you can read the pledge and add your endorsement here. 

McMahon will be releasing the results of her pledge solicitations on Sunday, as a part of the Share the Road for Greg Ride, the cycling event she launched to honour her husband, OPP Sgt. Greg Stobbart, who was killed on a training ride in 2006. The ride Sunday begins at 10 a.m. at the Kelso Conservation Area in Milton.

Kitchener cycling committee will need a new chair

You may have heard that Tim Kenyon has resigned as chair of the Kitchener Cycling Advisory Committee.

Kenyon says there is nothing political in his departure: accumulated responsibilities of both work life and home life meant that he had to offload something. He says he will continue to advocate for local cycling, but in a way that accommodates his available time.

I think this is a loss for the committee: his was a respected voice for cycling in the community. Getting the cycling master plan passed and getting the commitment from the city to hire a half-time cycling co-ordinator were two big steps forward for cycling in KitchCity.

A new chair will likely be appointed at next month's meeting, and it is likely that the committee will be looking for another member. Could be your chance to make a difference for cycling in your community.

Prepare for low-visibility cycling

Thanks to the Globe and Mail for this timely reminder about night cycling, a subject near and dear to my heart.

You might say that it is unlikely that you would be riding after dark, but it can get dark surprisingly early in the late summer and early fall. The evenings are still pleasant and you may indulge in a post-supper ride. It pays to be prepared with hi-viz clothing and lights.

Build bike lanes to protect pedestrians

I had always thought that cyclists would eventually get segregated bicycle lanes to protect cyclists from motorists, but perhaps they will get separate bike lanes to protect pedestrians from cyclists.

That's a conclusion you could draw from a recent study in New York City of cyclist-pedestrian accidents, as reported by Christine Haughney in the New York Times.

In a story Monday, she reports on a study by two professors from Hunter College who analyzed hospital data collected by the New York State health department from 2007 to 2010, and found that about 1,000 pedestrians state-wide and 550 in New York City are seen by hospitals every year as the result of collisions with bicycles.

An earlier analysis, in 2009, had come up with only about 1,300 peds nation-wide who were treated for cyclist collisions, so this new number is a huge increase.

According to one of the profs, Peter Tuckel, the study was prompted by Nancy Gruskin, whose Stuart Gruskin Family Foundation was launched after her husband was killed in 2009 by a cyclist going the wrong way down a one-way street. According to the foundation website, the Hunter College study was done in co-operation with the foundation.

The NYT story parses which sections of NYC had the most cyclist-pedestrian injuries, and has comment from a spokesperson for the city's department of transportation. Seth Solomonow is quoted as saying that with NYC reporting 10,000 pedestrians struck by motor vehicles every year, the number of peds hit by cyclists is rather low (at about five per cent of all ped injuries), but the number is low "because of our safety investments. We still have to drive it down further and will continue to work with NYPD to enforce the law for everyone on the road and install bike lanes to separate vehicles from cyclists and cyclists from pedestrians. These make streets safer for everyone ..."

I think this is the first time I've heard someone with the NYC transportation department say that bike lanes help protect pedestrians. Will this become part of the new mantra for bicycle infrastructure? Build bike lanes to protect pedestrians...

 

 

When King Street hummed with bicycles

A couple of threads were tied together today when I read a post on the Vintage CCM bicycles blog about the bustling bicycle-building culture in late-1800s Kitchener (then known as Berlin).

The post tied in with the book I picked up at a remainder table at Wordsworth Books in Waterloo: The Lost Cyclist, by David Herlihy. It's the tale of Frank Lenz, who attempted a solo bicycle ride around the world during the height of the late 19th-century bicycle craze.

At about the same time that Lenz was riding his "safety" bicycle beside the rice paddies of China, Arthur Pequegnaut was repairing bicycles in his jewelry shop in Berlin. By 1897, he had switched over completely to bicycle-making, with two models: the Berlin (his own design) and the Racycle, a U.S. design.

You can see a photo of the Berlin here, on the Canada Science and Technology Museum website.

The Lost Cyclist is an engaging read, despite knowing how Lenz's trip will end (badly). The late 1800s was the time before motor cars, when the railway was still the major dependable regional and continental connection, with roads just being hard-packed dirt byways with minimal maintenance and connectivity (hmm, sounds like our bike lanes today).

It wasn't just Chinese villagers who were dumbstruck (or who turned violent) at the sight of a "foreign devil" riding these otherworldly machines. The book recounts how the appearance of an "ordinary" (big front wheel, small rear wheel) or a "safety" (both wheels the same size) could excite and perplex residents of small town America when they appeared.

Perplex because bicycles were part of the godless new technology, along with telegraphs and telephones (if God had wanted man to move faster than a horse, he would have given us wings). Excite because the future-thinkers saw bicycles as "the coming thing," and urban areas of any size could boast a club of "wheelmen," sometimes even including female riders. Early global cyclists had to be prepared to scare off bandits, convince isolated villagers that they were no threat to the heavenly order and prevent eager observers from manhandling their mechanical mounts or removing the odd "souvenir."

The Lost Cyclist is a fascinating read, for the tales of the global cycling adventurers, and for the picture it paints of a pre-motoring North America.

I imagine King Street, humming with Berlin bicycles from Pequegnaut's shop, likely scaring the horses.