I keep reading about people that brake sharply and tell stories about “flying over the handlebars.” I just don’t understand this. Braking sharply I understand — over the handlebars, I don’t. For older people that remember steel rims, the idea of being able to stop that fast would be ludicrous. Steel rims, especially when wet,...
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Thanks to Florida HB 971, we now have a “Mandatory Use” , when present, bike lane (BL) statute becoming active Wednesday, September 1, 2010.  Although the wording has officially changed, de facto BL use (F.S. 316.2065 (5)(a) is already on the books and such wording amounts to nothing more than doublespeak! While some BL’s may...
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Over 7,000 pedestrian crash reports studied. NY Times has an article which highlights unexpected results. Taxis, it turns out, are not a careering menace: cabs, along with buses and trucks, accounted for far fewer pedestrian accidents in Manhattan than did private automobiles. Jaywalkers were involved in fewer collisions than their law-abiding counterparts...
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In hot pursuit! About two weeks after Retired Admiral Collins was hit while cycling in a crosswalk before dawn, the Tampa police stage a raid on downtown Tampa. The motorist, a 2nd year OB/GYN resident on her way to work at a hospital wasn’t cited. No details yet as to whether Collins had lights. Ironically, a...
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…in the mainstream cycling advocacy community. From MSNBC: Early in the article, about Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s bike crash: The mayor, who said little on the topic during five years in office, is campaigning to make streets safer for cyclists after a parked cab abruptly pulled out across a bike lane, causing him to shatter an...
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Bob Sutterfield has written an excellent letter to his local paper about the problem of motorists passing into oncoming traffic. This is the only regular problem I have with car drivers. I rarely experience close passing. Harassment comes from significantly less than 1% of drivers I encounter. I almost never have conflicts or scary...
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Bike/Walk Central Florida is collecting stories from Central Florida bicyclists who have had close encounters of the bad kind with “bollards,” those wacky, tacky, uh-oh… smacky posts used to keep cars off of trails. Based on feedback we have received from area cyclists, we are planning to work with Orange and Seminole counties to...
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The left cross is the crash type we bicyclists have most in common with motorcyclists. The techniques for preventing it are the same as those taught in motorcycle school. Of course, it’s much easier to learn in motorcycle school because there is no baggage of taboo or fear surrounding operating a motorcycle away from...
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From the NY Post March 18, 2010: A Bronx cyclist was killed in a freak accident yesterday when the driver of a parked car opened his door and knocked her into the path of a city bus, authorities said. The 57-year-old woman, identified as Megan Charlop, from The Bronx, was riding on Crotona...
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Fishing for ideas. We can cast blame where ever we like . . . But now it is time to make lemonade from lemons. I was thinking about this and something else that has been weighing heavily on my mind and wonder if they can’t be combined . . . What’s been bothering me lately is...
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