1) Amazon link to Cyclecraft North American (NA). Only one comment addresses the NA version (below), the rest are about the current and earlier UK versions.

2) “New North American Edition is outstanding” by Serge Issakov (La Jolla, CA United States)

Everyone who rides a bike on North American roads needs to read this book.

The whole book is excellent, but the best part is about road positioning, which Franklin calls “probably the most important [of all cycling skills]” (p. 92). Here are some key citations.

“…positioning is one of the most important traffic skills for a cyclist to acquire, yet is precisely here that most cyclists perform badly. Many cyclists fail to position themselves properly because of their fear of traffic, yet ironically, it is this very fear that probably puts them most at risk.” (p. 91)

“An important rule of road sharing is that no one should unnecessarily impede the passage of anyone else. However, you are quite justified in restricting the movements of other vehicles where this is important for your own safety, and you should not hesitate to do so when necessary.”

Franklin has developed the concept of the “primary riding position” which is “in the center of the rightmost line of traffic for the direction in which you wish to travel.” Why is this the primary position? Because, “here you will be well within the zone of maximum surveillance of both following drivers and those who might cross your path, and you will have the best two-way visibility of side roads and other features along the road. The road surface will usually be flatter here …”. Earlier on the same page he explains the basis: “Motorists primarily give attention to that part of the highway where is risk to themselves: they are not nearly so good at noticing anything outside their path. This zone of maximum surveillance is often very narrow, especially at higher speeds – it does not extend to much … For you to be safest as a cyclist, you must normally ride within this zone of maximum surveillance, not outside it.” (p 93).

Franklin also introduces the “secondary riding position” which is “about 3 feet to the right of the line of traffic”, but recommends using it only when riding there could help others, “so long as your own safety is not thereby impaired.” (p. 94). The reason this book is so important to read is because it explains so well why the secondary riding position compromises safety much more, and much more often, than most bicyclists seem to realize.

Reading this book, and applying what you learn to your own riding, can probably even make a very experienced bicyclist much safer.

I point this out because I read the UK 2007, TSO 2nd edition last fall and earlier editions of this book where published by Unwin Paperbacks in 1988.

I have one minor quibble not with the book but the review, comparing Effective Cycling to Cyclecraft. Effective Cycling is an “opus” beyond basic cycling skills, i.e. Cycling in Society, Federal Safety Standards for Bicycles, Bikeway Controversy, etc …. Until recently it was primary text for LAB program to teach or certify cycling instructors which offer Smart Cycling, see Keri above. Effective Cycling was not ideal as general text but was the best for North American cyclists had until John S. Allen “Bicycling Street Smarts: Riding Confidently, Legally and Safely” came out in 1988. Allen’s Street Smarts is compact booklet which distills Forester principle point of Effective Cycling: “Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles.”

Cyclecraft, North America (NA) is an excellent guide for which fills the gap between Effective Cycling and Bicycling Street Smarts. On the author’s acknowledgments page (iv) he cited the help of LAB Smart Cycling, CCA CAN-BIKE active instructors to adapt Cyclecraft to reflect local [North America] conditions and paid especial thanks to John S. Allen and Allan Dunlop, “who took much trouble to comment in detail on the draft manuscript.”

Cyclecraft NA buy it for the long winter night reads.

Unskilled motorists and unskilled people on bikes are the primary attackers in the comments, and I’d expect that resolving that lack of education is the root.

Perhaps the solution is not to try to replace the word “vehicular,” but just drop it. Bicycles have always been vehicles, and people have always used them in a vehicular manner. Only in recent decades (say, the last half of the 20th century) have some been trying to shoehorn cycling into the pedestrian mode.

If we should refer to any “type” of cycling, perhaps it should be “pedestrian cycling.”

Basically the league certifies instructors and then sells them the (marginal) materials. The instructor is then responsible for marketing, managing sign-ups, collecting money, ordering booklets, making sure he has liability insurance, finding a classroom, finding a parking lot, planning a test route, teaching the class for 10 hours (which is a frightfully unbalanced 7 hours in the classroom and 3 on the bike), then testing the students, grading the tests, sending the certificates. One instructor can’t handle more than 5 or 6 students on the bikes. The course has been priced self-consciously low… with the belief that no one wants to take it. The fee barely covers the cost of the stuff you have to buy from LAB. So basically, the instructor ends up volunteering all that time to do the admin and teach. The enthusiasm for that nonsense drains pretty fast. And that’s why it’s so hard to find classes.

Larger cities have bricks & mortar cycling organizations which provide the admin, so it’s easier to find ongoing courses.

ALL of that is going to change in Orlando in this coming year. More on that, soon.

For details, see:

http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/canbike/

Yes, that’s the same CAN-BIKE referenced on the cover of “Cyclecraft.” Perhaps something similar can be started by the City of Orlando.