Dress For Success - Not A Funeral

If you’re going to be riding a bicycle on the roads you need to DRESS FOR SUCCESS. Now I’m not talking about wearing a suit and tie or maybe a nice little pinafore. I’m not even talking cycling-centric clothing. You know the infamous “kit” - 

Noooo. I’m talking about dressing for visibility. All to often I see people on bikes riding around doing their best to blend right in with the background. Hmmm, it’s dark as sin outside. What shall I wear? Oh! I know how about dark pants/shorts, a dark shirt and no lights.  Yeah, that’s the ticket!

You know you’ve seen it – It’s midnight and there’s dude rolling down the road dressed all in black with no reflectors, no lights and a big ass sign that says ‘Kick Me!’

Now Trek and others have been promotion the ABC’s of being seen recently.  Now there’s some quirky bullshit that others push that I can’t abide – little bitty LED lights that act as brake lights or the little turn signals you can put on your bike. Me? If you can’t see my big monkey arm sticking out signaling a turn – well then maybe you shouldn’t be driving. 

Now on the A – B – Cs of being seen

A is for ALWAYS ON. Run some lights – front and back – day and night.  Blinking during the day is good.  Lots of studies out there that speak to the benefits of running lights during the day. You may not agree with lights during the day, but I think we can all agree that lights at night are a must…If not, maybe you shouldn’t be riding at night.

B is for BIO-MOTION.  Bio-motion sounds all sciency and stuff.  Bio-motion – put the bright stuff on your body parts that move. Your eyes and brain are geared to pick-up motion so help that person in the car see you. So put some bright colors on the parts of your body that are in motion – feet, angles, legs. During the day bright colors – at night reflective material.  The running community has little LED lights that will clip right onto the heels of your shoes – very affordable (~$10.00). They will get your attention.

C is for CONTRAST. Wear contrasting colors. Now I’m not talking about dressing like a color-blind guy in dark closet. I’m talking about contrasting with the background. Bright colors, fluorescent colors during the day and at night you need reflective stuff. 

Still here?  When do most people get hit?  AT NIGHT!  As of 24 July, 2017, I know of nine (9) people on bicycles that have been killed in Maryland. Seven of those nine were hit between sunset and sunrise. Give yourself a fighting chance and be seen. 

Roads are for Cars

ROADS ARE FOR CARS!!!!!!!

Roads are for transportation. They might be engineered to carry cars and other heavy vehicles, but fundamentally roads are for transportation.

You really thing the Romans started building roads way back in 312 B.C. because you were going to buy a Tesla in 2017.  Puh-leaze.  *giggles* You're so vain

You're so vain
You probably think this road is about you
You're so vain,
I'll bet you think this road is about you
Don't you?
Don't you?

Now, where was I - Oh yes, roads are for transportation.  The first major Roman road was constructed in 312 B.C....312 B.C.  Holy Smokes!  Dem Thar Romans were smart!

*SCRITCH* Not so fast homie!  They were smart, but the Romans were late comers to the game.

The first simple two-wheeled carts appeared around 3000 B.C. - take your shoes off if it helps you to count back that far.....I'll just wait over here with the cookies and beer.

Otto Know Better

Otto Know Better - you know that guy.

Today I Learned - actually I had my memory refreshed about the infamous Otto Know Better. Good Ole' Otto was a cartoon invented by the industrial Safety People to sort of poke fun at hapless idjits who always get into trouble.

Unfortunately, the Otto industry - I mean Auto industry took Good Ole' Otto and used him for their purposes. You see at the time, people in cars were killing and maiming people by the thousands - Jeez sounds familiar doesn't it. I mean, people in cars only killed ~40,000 people in 2016.

Anyway, the auto industry couldn't have people blaming the drivers (people driving cars)...Nope, can't do that. That would be bad for business. So they did a couple of things.

First they shifted the blame - Otto Know Better to the rescue. Auto "manufacturers, auto clubs, auto dealers - invented caricatures of careless pedestrians because most of the people cars were killing then were pedestrians, not other people in cars."

The Many Faces of Otto (3)

Secondly, they introduced the word "Accident!" It's not operator error - it's an accident! It's not an infrastructure problem - it's an accident!  It's not Timmy speeding, eating a big burger and face-timing - it's an accident!

You see the word accident means it was unavoidable. You can't control it - because it's - an accident!

You know what's not an accident - the shift in the language. Words are important. These aren't accidents. They're crashes. They're negligent crashes for the most part. If you deconstruct any crash you'll find out that somebody was doing something wrong.

• Aggressive Driving
• Driving Distracted
• Driving Drunk
• Driving High
• Face-timing on the cellphone
• Failure to yield
• Following too closely
• Giving yourself a haircut whilst driving (Yes - I really saw this)
• Not pulling over for the police or fire truck
• Not Slowing Down - Moving Over for Police/Fire on the Shoulder
• Reading a book while driving
• Reading the newspaper while driving
• Right on Red and not coming to a complete and legal stop
• Rolling through that stop sign
• Sexual relations while driving
• Speeding
• Stepping into the road without looking
• Tailgating
• Texting and driving
• Texting while riding (motorcycle or bicycle)
• Texting while walking in the road
• Too fast for conditions
• Yakking on the cellphone

Sources:

(1) http://www.npr.org/2016/05/25/479502043/when-cars-collide-safety-advocates-say-its-no-accident

(2) http://fortune.com/2017/02/15/traffic-deadliest-year/

(3) https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/the-invention-of-jaywalking-was-a-massive-shaming-campa-858926923

(4) “Street Rivals: Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street.” Technology and Culture 48 (April 2007), 331-359.

Accidents - Except They're Not...

There's been a push recently to refer to accidents as crashes...some people think it's some hippie/dippy thing...except it's not.

Except it's not a recent thing. My grandmother, a wonderful woman from the mountains of North Carolina sat me down ~35 years ago and explained what an accident was -and was not - after I did something mmmm less than smart -- that it's a chance event, something that's bound to happen; it's inevitable; it's not something that could ever be completely prevented -- and that's has stuck with me over the years.

Referring to something as an "accident" linguistically (big word of the day) absolves someone of their responsibility in the incident - so we need to own our responsibility when we screw shit up.

Lost in the Noise

I was talking to my community manager a few weeks ago about an ongoing problem that was recently fixed.  It wasn’t a complicated problem, but it took two years to fix it? Two years…mainly because the problem got lost in the background noise.  

That’s what got me thinking about all the things that get lost in the background noise on my rides. I’m talking about those problems that you see, but don’t really register because it’s been a problem for so long. Or those problems that just blend into the background because it’s the new normal.

When’s the last time you really looked at the road infrastructure as you went zipping by and really looked at it? More importantly, when the last time you looked at it, registered it and then did something about it?  

Now calm down, I’m not bashing anyone here. Hell, I’m only writing about this because I’m guilty of letting things get lost in the noise. Something like riding down the Odenton Road Shared-Use Path and cussing about the foliage encroaching on the trail – and just cussing.  Anne Arundel County has a nice 311 App for Smartphones – how easy would it be for me to stop and report the problem for correction.

Now beyond that – take a look at the state of the infrastructure.

-          Are there potholes? Report it via the 311 App.

-          Crash debris from last night’s car crash left in the road? Report it via 311 App.

-          Death dealing storm water drain gates? Report it via 311 App.

Now look at the signs and warning signs on the road. Look at the traffic calming devices (chokers, pedestrian islands, flexi-pole baffles, etc). How many of those have been hit by someone driving a car? Look at the tire scrubs.  Light poles that have been hit and snapped off? Fire hydrants? The flexi-poles have been hit and broken off.

Heck I was riding down Dairy Farm Road a few years back and came across a woman in a mini-van that hit the traffic calming device at the bottom of the hill dead-center and was now stuck on top of it – high-centered is a beautiful thing. .

You can even look at those dedicated trails to see this type of damage. If you frequent the WB&A Trail in Odenton – check out the tunnel that goes under Old Waugh Chapel Road. You’ll notice that the left side of the tunnel has a slight bend as you approach from the north.  What caused that? Why a drunk driver about three years ago hit the guard rail on Old Waugh Chapel Road and came down the hill there, impacting the metal culvert that forms the tunnel. 

The six-foot high fence that prevents riders/walkers from exiting the WB&A trail onto Waugh Chapel Road?  That’s new-ish.  It was taken out a few years back by someone in a car.  Who does that? Seriously…

Now that we’ve wandered through the wilderness, take a second and see what you’re losing in the background noise.  What are you seeing, but not recognizing? And what can you do to fix the problem.

Someone Driving A Car Ran You Over and It's Your Fault

Someone Driving A Car Ran You Over and It's Your Fault <sarcasm>

Yeah, you know that's true. A person on a bike gets hit by a person driving a car and all of a sudden people are clamoring with ways to blame the person on the bike...
- Was he/she wearing a helmet?
- Were they all the way to the right?
- Why were they riding at night?
- Did they have a front light?
- Did they have a rear light or reflector?
- Were they wearing their safety underwear?

On and On and On.  Never mind that it was a hit-and-run. Never mind that the person driving was drunk, or high, or sleepy, aggressive, ran a red light, was speeding, intentionally ran the person the bike over....never mind any of that crap.  It's your fault because you committed the capital offense of riding a bike on a public roadway built for transportation.

So when a person on a bike gets hit - step back from the fray and throw the Bullshit flag on the knee-jerk blame game play. How about we figure out what really happened first? We owe that to the person on the bicycle AND the person in the car.