Journal of a mature, non-Olympic woman in the process of converting to cycling as a method of daily transportation. Dealing with weather and assorted perils; exploring equipment, psychological fortitude, and diet; experiencing our surroundings on a smaller, closer scale; saving gas & boycotting the car industry.
The link below has got to be the best ad out there for bike safety awareness. It's a commercial that is running in the UK right now.
posted by kate gawf @ 10:42 PM
5 comments
"She's no spring chicken," my mother would disclose mercilessly about women in their thirties trying to impersonate youth. Now, I'm even past the no-spring-chicken age. So don't think you have to be 12 to start riding a bike everywhere. I'm working out all the pesky details for you in case you want to do this yourself. But even if you never do it, you'll still know what it's like because I'm going to shrink you down to the size of a little rubber elf and glue you onto my handlebars. No changing your mind, no matter how much you beg me. So don't even start this unless you're sure you have the guts. PS: My other bike is a broom.
Other blogs about biking:
5 Comments:
Wow! That's terrific.
Absolutely staggering! I've emailed this to
everyone I know (not necessarily a huge number
of people, so don't get excited). Notice that
once you notice you can't not notice?
What does this say about proactive cycle safety?
Thanks for a good one!
As a driver AND a biker, I can attest to the fact that even when a driver is watching very carefully for bikes, BIKES ARE HARD TO SEE. Please, bikers, be careful. Not all car drivers are evil and, honest, not all of us really want to hit you. (too much paperwork.)
jennifer
Jennifer: Bikes are DAMN hard to see. I couldn't agree more, since I too am a frequent car driver. I live in fear that I'll hit one.
From your comment I realize that my post title is not quite right. It should be addressed equally to Bike-heads! That slogan around Portland now -- See and Be Seen? It includes everyone. Bicyclists have to work on being seen better and drivers have to work on seeing.
If anybody doesn't believe me, watch the video.
What the video suggests (at least to me) is that it isn't any good just TELLING car drivers to look out for bikes.
They're too busy looking out for other cars.
Anything that belongs to the background
(isn't a car) is less likely to be noticed. (If
the mwb in the video had been white, you'd have noticed him, right?) What this suggests to me, I'm sorry to say, is that all that dodging in and out and round stuff that bikes do so well is probably a bad idea: the closer you can stick to car-type behaviour, the better. This is NOT a biker speaking so I'd be interested in biker reaction to this. (Nothing against bikes, just never cycled much as a kid and too old to take to it safely now.)
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