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Cycling Thread Retread
October 26, 2010 - 2:50pm
No charges in deaths of 3 Quebec cyclists
Good thing they were wearing helmets.
Quote:
The three women cyclists, all from Montreal's South Shore suburbs, were practising for a triathlon along Highway 112 when they were hit from behind leaving a trail of bicycle helmets, water bottles and twisted bike frames along the side of the highway.
Good thing they were wearing helmets.
Someone wrote, "Wow ... be careful out there cyclists ... take care now .." in the comments section following the story. I suppose the writer means well, but a cyclist can take all the care in the world, yet an inattentive motorist can still turn you into a grease spot on the pavement.
I was cut off by impatient drivers twice within 2-4 minutes and two blocks this morning. Some bridges are out, so drivers are a little squirrely these days. The snowfall wasn't helping either.
another reason we need a major investment in bike lanes and infrastructure in this country. There are so many people who won't bike because of how unsafe it is, especially outside of the summer months when road conditions get worse.
part of it is driver negligence, people get frustrated and make rash decisions when bikes are forced into a traffic system designed for fast moving cars. some people just don't know how to drive around bikes, and some people don't know how to bike around cars.
and cities generally have no idea how to build proper bike lanes/pathways. here in winnipeg, they are making some pretty bad decisions on where/how to build bike lanes since there is not enough citizen participation in the process.
I don't know if I'd call it "negligence." Sometimes it seems as if drivers literally cannot see cyclists on the roads. They see the obvious stuff like cars and trucks, but bikes don't seem to register.
I don't know how many times a motorist has turned right in front of me or cut me off as if I wasn't there. I don't think they were being malicious or anything, they just have a perception problem.
Geez, it's like riding on a rink out there today.
Thanks to both of you (milo and Al Q) for starting this thread. I think it is a very important one. I live in Ward 37, right along Victoria Park and because the car lanes are so narrow riding the bike on the road is not an option for me. I do not trust drivers and I have been in cars with far too many drivers who deliberately cut off cyclists,. curse at them and have no respect for others on the road. I usually ride my bike on the sidewalk, stop and walk when I see people walking on the sidewalk, and avoid the road at all times. When I get yelled at (and this has only happened once) I tell them I am not risking my life by riding on the road.
How can we get more bike lanes built in the burbs? Lots of people bike but far too many are afraid to do so. We need to great a massive bike culture movement. We know Rob Ford isn't going to help us, even though he is supposed to represent everyone (hahahaha - sure).
al, I'm not sure of your transportation situation (do you have other alternatives?) but I'm looking askance at your posts. I live near UVic in Victoria, in a neighbourhood that is home to increasing amounts of students. As the days are getting shorter, I regularly see (presumably intelligent) students riding their bikes at night wearing dark clothes, and without lights. Stupid, stupid, IMHO. As a fairly frequent cyclist, I accept that there are inherent risks to riding my bike on roads alongside car traffic - risks that are mitigated somewhat by helmets, bright clothing, lights etc.. But riding on a snowy slippery day seems, to me, to add another risk that really isn't controllable. Like the nocturnal students, wouldn't you at least want to try to even the odds against you somewhat?
Good idea. I'll write my MP and encourage her to ban winter.
MAybe you should encourage her to run for PM, she'd pro'lly get elected by a landslide!
As I said, I have no idea of your transport situation.
Carry on....
For all you cyclist who think sidewalks are a safer route, guess again; not even pedestrians are out of danger.
Collision kills Saskatoon womanSome guy barrelled out of the parking lot, probably looking over his left shoulder at oncoming traffic, not in front of his vehicle (I see this all the time), and so didn't see the person on the sidewalk. Mme. Qa'bong came home that day and told me she saw cop cars all over 8th Street and a body covered by a white sheet lying in the middle of the road. I walked down that very sidewalk, across that same approach a couple of days ago.
When I lived in Toronto '77 - '80, I was always amazed to see cyclists riding in traffic in the winter. To me, that is just incredibly dangerous, because - especially at low speed - it's difficult to maintain your balance on two wheels, and you now have to cope with a slippery surface not to mention the vehicle traffic around you. And, with caliper brakes especially, those rubber brake pads are almost always wet, making them useless. I just don't get why folks want to cycle in these conditions. I'm a cyclist, but you'd never see me out there in traffic in the winter.
My secret is coaster brakes, but I don't recall ever having trouble with hand brakes. Balance isn't really a problem either, and the only time there's any danger of wiping out is during turns, so I slow right down for them. I haven't piled my bike in over a year!
I think foot brakes are better too actually, if only because your body is putting its energy down into your feet and onto the back wheel, rather than forward into your hands.
Plus, my wierdest accident in which the front brake went into the spokes and I wound up on my back, with the bike in the air.
But I am actually glad you revived this thread, because the same day the last one died I found this online:
http://boingboing.net/2010/12/18/magnetic-yellow-card.html
I miss my old single speed CCM bike with a coaster brake.
This is my new bike:
Urf. It was -22 or something, and I had to go chugging up the street on the Idlywyld "freeway" this morning as the sidewalks haven't been ploughed. The four lanes are pretty narrow, although a driver with any sense can go wide around someone on a bike. Nevertheless, I had to endure shouts of "Get off the road" by multiple motorists (Where, pray, was I to go, the meridian?), and enjoy the unique experience of having semi-trailers almost brush my left elbow.
Then I had to sneak my bike up to my office without commissionaires or other building officials seeing me.
It would be nice if attitudes around here would approach those of the late-20th century.
I went out for a walk last night in the -28 to -30 air, and it seemed rather cold. It was -31 or so this morning when I hopped on the bike, but I didn't feel chilly except a bit at the start. After a couple of blocks I warmed up nicely. I wore identical clothing for both the ride and the walk.
In a way, I dread the warm temperatures (it's supposed to go up past -10 all next week) in the forecast.
Something there is about Idylwyld that doesn't love a cyclist.
I was thinking how pleasant the ride was on my way home from work yesterday. It was up to -15, the soft warm air was caressing my cheeks, the pedals were turning with ease, and the city had cleaned the sidewalk so the ride down Idylwyld was nice and smooth.
As I hit the road where I turn left off the "freeway," I had a green light, but the cars to my right (I was on the left sidewalk) wanted to turn left, too. I therefore went halfway into the lane, put my foot down and waited for them to turn. A couple of cars went by, then a half-ton stopped and the driver waved for me to go. In retrospect, his wasn't a friendly wave.
I turned left and proceeded down the road (not the sidewalk - I do that only on bridges or on the freeway). The halfton passed me, and as he went by the driver gunned his engine, spinning his tires, in an attempt to throw road debris all over me. Luckily nothing hit me, but geez, what a dork.
Ice Cycle takes place tomorrow.
http://www.icecycle.ca/
Luckily, it's supposed to be around be around -23, so the weather is co-operating. It was above freezing here a couple of days ago.
My kid, who rides his bike to school every day and is just about as hard-core as it comes, says he won't participate because he has nothing to prove.
Hmmm, it's -28 now. Could this affect the turnout today?
I can't help thinking that photo was staged. Probably plowed the snow by hand, then staged the bike photo. Or is it real? Can't imagine the cyclist could do anything in either deeper snow or on a snow-packed slippery surface.
The angle of the blade is a giveaway. It has no angle.
Ice Cycle seems to have been a success. It was -26, yet there were 218 of us out there, according to what I heard.
Film at 11.
I don't know if I aged a lot over the weekend, but I was pretty bagged when I got to work this morning. I actually needed recovery time, when usually the ride perks me up and gets my blood flowing. I guess the -35 (with rumours of a wind chill of -43) took a lot out of me. Still, I didn't have to worry about starting a frozen automobile.
Well the design in the photo doese look a little more advanced than this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzi6QethfcY&feature=related
whole story on photo: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/11/firefly-workshops-pedal-powered...
see other designs:
http://www-bdnew.fnal.gov/pbar/organizationalchart/peterson/snowplow_fil...
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/bicycle-powered-snowplow.php
From that first link: "Totally useless with larger snow falls, but the light ones make snow removal fun." I don't even bother clearing the snow until it's too deep for that bicycle plow.
Over the course of the past week we went from -35 to +3. Imagine a 38 degree difference in temperatures in July.
Anyway, cycling conditions went from chilly and exhausting to wet and sloppy. I'm not sure which I prefer. The warm conditions meant my splash pants were all wet, and gravel kept grinding away on my chain, while trying to pedal a frozen crank is pretty wearing.
A nice median winter cycling temperature is in the -15 to -10 range.
Bike paths reduce injuries: study
I really enjoyed this video about an everyday cyclist in Vancouver: http://tinyurl.com/VancouverCyclist
Being "part of the city", not "apart from the city"...
Today is Bike to Work Day in Winnipeg. I'm not working today, but I will be out later to enjoy.
I thought these HEMA (Dutch) spoke lights were very cool indeed. Will have to get friends there to buy a set for me - I can't volunteer to work there these days because of my VERY elderly cat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaAO5LTNY5Q&feature=youtu.be
Cyclist fined $1,000 for crossing on red light
It's in French - can't find English report so far.
Basically, Québec Superior Court rejected a lower-court ruling that Art. 327 of the highway safety code - which provides for fines from $1000 to $3000 for driving which endangers the safety or lives of persons - could only be applied to motor vehicles.
The accused had crossed diagonally on a red light. I'm not sure which light was red, come to think of it! One of them might have been green. Maybe with a mathematician expert witness, s/he could have got off?
More seriously, what do people think about this? There's a link in the Devoir article to the full court decision. In French.