[SDCBC] Pet peeve: cyclists have "no choice" but to be unsafe/crazy

[Serge Issakov]

Tom,

Good point.  I've often wondered about this and have conducted my own
experiments, both riding my Dad's beach cruiser and riding around town on my
mountain bike in street clothes, tennis shoes and no helmet.   I've also
forced myself to ride in a sharing position in narrow lanes while dressed in
full cycling clothes on a racing bike.  In fact, I do that inadvertently
from time to time - and I inevitably get reminded to move left by an
uncomfortably close pass.

Anyway, my own biased and very limited results are that by far cyclist
behavior is a much bigger factor in how I am treated than how I'm dressed or
the type of bike I'm riding.  But, a more formal study would be interesting.
I suspect that if the sample is large enough you might find some improved
treatment if you "look" serious (behavior held constant), but a huge
difference would be found when the cyclist behaves like he or she knows what
she is doing ("look" held constant).  The latter is also confirmed by the
fact that simply acknowledging motorists behind you seems to put them at
ease.  It's almost like conveying to them "yeah, I know you're there and I'm
still not moving" helps them realize that you must know what you're doing.

Serge


On Feb 19, 2008 3:46 PM, Tom Lettington <tlettington at san.rr.com> wrote:

> Serge,
>
> One variable not discussed is the cyclists "seriousness" factor.  By
> this, I mean the difference between a rider on a bike giving the
> appearance of a "road worthy machine" pedaling steadily in a straight
> line at a speed of 12-18 MPH vs a beach cruiser toodling along at 5-8
> MPH. I'm not pre-judging how different the data would be, but it
> would be interesting to see.  When we teach road skills to a wide
> variation of cyclists, not all are going to look like you do when
> they "take the lane".  I suspect cyclists in the later category would
> incite more road rage in motorists who believe bicycles don't belong
> in the roadway and thus would likely result in more close brush
> "lesson teaching" behavior.  I also suspect the data sample size
> would need to be quite a bit larger to show this.
>



-- 
NOTE: Any opinions expressed above are mine and not necessarily shared by
any organization in which I am involved.
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