An Open Letter To My Awesome Friends Who DON'T Ride Bikes -- part 2

For the benefit of my non-bicycle riding friends, I offer you some thoughts about how we ride our bicycles and why we do some of the things we do.  It’s important to understand that bicycles are considered vehicles under the law, and people who ride bicycles have the same rights and responsibilities as those who drive cars.  Bicycle law has become part of the driver education programs in many states.  So, I’ll start with the law (which may vary from state to state) and conclude with some typical riding conventions that you may find useful to know:

• Bicycles and automobiles are governed by the same laws in the state Vehicle Code.  Both must stop at stop signs and red lights.  They must travel in the appropriate lane for their direction of travel.  Bicycles are entitled to travel on all public roadways (including some highways) except where explicitly prohibited. 

• Bicycles typically are NOT allowed to ride on sidewalks or crosswalks (especially in downtown areas) and it is actually quite unsafe to do so.  Sidewalks and crosswalks are designed for pedestrians with a walking speed of 3-4mph, not a bicycle travelling at 10mph or more.  Cars drivers do not expect to see bicycles here (especially traveling in the opposite direction of traffic).  One of the most common collisions between cars and bicycles involve bicycles on sidewalks.

• Many states have instituted a minimum-distance passing law (ie the 3-foot law).  This means that a car must give a bicycle at least 3 feet of lateral distance when passing.  This also means that, to legally pass a bicycle, a car must move into the next lane (or cross the centerline, depending on the scenario).  As a car driver, this means you need to be acutely aware of oncoming traffic and possibly traffic behind you and should never pass on a blind turn or with a limited line of sight.

• When a car passes a bicycle and there is a significant speed differential between the car and the bicycle, the draft created by the car can make it difficult for the bicycle to hold its line.  A bicycle can be sucked up into the slipstream of a car.  The wind created can cause a bicycle to wobble or fall.  So drivers, please slow down and/or move left when safely passing a bicycle.

• Many traffic lights are timed for cars (not bicycles).  So, if you think a bicycle ran a red light, it’s quite possible that they entered the intersection while the light was still green and it changed as they rode through.  It’s happened to all of us (in cars and on bicycles) so please don’t assume that the bicycle rider ran the light intentionally.

• If you want to let a bicycle rider know that you’re behind her, a soft, quick tap-tap of the horn is much more effective than a long, hard honk.  As bicycle riders, we’re often startled by car horns (they’re pretty loud when the car is right next to us) and this could cause a rider to swerve dangerously or lose control of her bicycle.

• Bicycle riders may not be able to hear you on the road, especially if it’s windy.  This is magnified when a bicycle is riding at high speed.  Please don’t assume we know you’re behind us.  A good rider will glance over his shoulder intermittently to see if there are cars there.

• Bicycles are entitled to take the lane for a variety of reasons.  This means they move from the far-right side of the road into the lane.  This may be the safest place to be.  There may be hazards in the bike lane or shoulder that a bicycle rider can see but that you can’t see in your car.  It may also be the safest place to be at a busy intersection where cars may be turning right.  In California, the law states that a bicycle in the lane should yield right of way if riding slower than the flow of traffic and there are five or more vehicles behind the bicycle.

• On roads without a dedicated bike lane or shoulder, bicycles will ride to the far right of the lane.  The law states that bicycles should ride as far right as is practicable.  This doesn’t mean that a bicycle will ride in the gutter as that may not be the safest place to ride, especially because this may encourage cars to pass when there isn't enough room to do so safely, forcing the bicycle off the road.

• If there are parked cars on a road, a bicycle should ride outside the “door zone.”  This is typically about 2-3 feet to the left of the parked cars.  If you are exiting your car on a busy street, make sure to look back to ensure you’re not opening your car door into the path of an oncoming bicycle.  Look way back, as the bicycle may be moving at a speed that places them at your door quicker than you’d expect.

• On fast descents, a bicycle can safely navigate a twisty road faster than a car. 

• Bicycle riders should signal their intention, just like cars.  This means using a hand signal when stopping or turning.  However, it’s sometimes unsafe to take a hand off the bar to signal, especially at high speed, through corners, or if the road surface is very bumpy.  Typically, a rider will signal for a brief time but then put her hand back on the bar, so if you don’t see us signal, it doesn’t mean that we didn’t.

• Bicycle riders should ride in the appropriate lane for their direction of travel.  This means that a bicycle should not be in a right-turn lane if he's not turning right.  It also means that it’s necessary for a bicycle to merge to the left if there’s a dedicated left turn lane.  Both of these maneuvers can be a bit tricky to an inexperienced bicycle rider.  Please be patient as they learn and gain confidence.

• Many vehicles, especially taller cars and trucks, have a blind spot on the right of the vehicle.  This puts bicycles at risk if they’re on the right side of the vehicle.  As a driver, make sure you look right before turning or merging right.  Also make sure to look as far behind you as possible, as a bicycle may advance rather quickly, especially at an intersection.  As a bicycle rider, we should not put ourself to the right of a vehicle that might be turning right.  Instead, merge to the left of the vehicle, into the lane, to avoid the infamous “right hook.”

• Bicycles can go very fast.  On a flat road, a bicycle may travel at a speed of 10-20mph.  On a downhill, a bicycle can travel at speeds in excess of 30, 40, or even 50mph.  Please keep this in mind as you pull out into a road or turn left from opposing traffic in front of a bicycle.  The “left cross” is another common type of collision, especially dangerous when a bicycle is traveling at a high rate of speed.*

• When interacting with bicycles on the road, please follow the conventions established for right of way.  If you’re at an intersection, don’t give the right of way to a bicycle just because you’re being nice.  It’s unsafe for a bicycle to take the right of way from you because other road users may not be aware of what you’ve done (and you may not be aware of other road users).  So, when you wave us through an intersection and we don’t do it, please don’t be offended.  We appreciate the gesture but it can be unsafe for us to do it.

Please feel free to share this list with your friends!  This list is not comprehensive and I welcome any additions you'd like to share in the comments section of this blog.

You'll find the first part of this series here:

http://velogirlscoaching.blogspot.com/2013/09/an-open-letter-to-my-awesome-friends.html

*I’ve been writing this post in my head for the past week.  After putting the words down on paper, so to speak, I learned of the death of a bicycle rider on Skyline Boulevard in Woodside on Wednesday, due to a collision with a van turning left in front of her. My thoughts are with the family and friends of Joy Covey.

An Open Letter To My Awesome Friends Who DON’T Ride Bikes -- part 1

A quick scan of my Facebook friends list will reveal that I have a lot of friends who ride bikes.  But I also have a lot of friends who don’t ride bikes.  My newsfeed includes lots of bike updates but also theatre updates from the 15 years I spent working in professional theatre and higher education, with a large concentration of my theatre friends living in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, and other metropolitan areas.  Interestingly, these are all areas where there are also large populations of people who ride bikes.

From time to time, one of my non-bike friends will post about bikes.  Typically it’s a rant, often expressing frustration at the erratic behavior of bikes, riding dangerously, or slowing down their drive because they’re “in the way” on the roads we share.  I often respond, trying to be rational and educational, not emotional, and hoping to enlighten these non-bike friends (and their friends who may or may not ride bikes) about the world of cycling.  The response is typically positive.  Hopefully, I’m able to help my friends understand bikes a bit more and to be safer drivers with respect to sharing the road.

When I started riding a bicycle in 1999, I became a much better car driver.  I saw the road in a new way.  For the first time in my life I SAW bikes on the road.  So, dear friends, let me share some thoughts with you, because I know all my friends are AWESOME and want to be the best darn drivers they can be!

Since I can get a bit verbose, I’m going to start with my most important take-away.  Simply put, we are not BIKES, but rather we are PEOPLE who ride bikes.  We are mothers and wives, sisters and daughters.  We might be your co-worker or your best friend.  Someone LOVES us and would be very sad if we didn’t return home from our bicycle ride.  And when we throw a leg over the bicycle, we are VULNERABLE.  Our safety depends on our ability to co-exist with other road users.  When a collision between an automobile and a bicycle occurs, the bicycle NEVER WINS.  Oftentimes, these collisions result in injury and sometimes death, as well as damage to our little tiny bicycles caused by your big huge car.

I’m the first to agree that there are some very BAD bicycle riders out there.  There are riders who IGNORE the law, who behave erratically, and take undue risks.  There are also riders who DON’T KNOW the law and don’t know how to be safe, predictable riders.  But there are also riders who are considerate, follow the law, and respect other road users.  So please, when you get angry with ONE rider, don’t transfer that anger to ALL riders.

When you rant on Facebook or other public forums, you’re sending a message to all who might be in your audience that bicycles are not okay.  When you make an off-handed comment, perhaps trying to be funny, that “you should hit him and teach him a lesson,” you’re encouraging violence and (heaven forbid you ever accidentally hit a cyclist), setting yourself up for criminal charges (yes, twitter feeds and FB posts have been used to incriminate drivers who have hit bicyclists).  And when you post your displeasure with bicycles, you’re encouraging others to share your anger.  You’re making it okay for us to HATE.  You might be condoning violence.  You might be responsible for one of your friends to road rage against a bicycle in the future. 

And just like SOME riders are bad, there are many car drivers who are bad:  law-breakers, distracted drivers, aggressive drivers, etc.  Heck, there are SOME bad people in every social situation.  Maybe you have a co-worker who snaps his gum all day long.  But does that mean that ALL your co-workers are annoying?  Or that girl on the bus who wears too much perfume?  That doesn’t mean that ALL girls who ride the bus are inconsiderate.  So yes, there are definitely SOME people who ride bicycles irresponsibly, but that doesn’t mean that ALL people who ride bicycles do so.

The number of people who ride bicycles is steadily increasing in the United States.  In addition to riding for recreation, more and more folks are using a bicycle for transportation: commuting to work, running errands, forgoing the car for a short trip.  And many municipalities are creating safe infrastructure for bicycles and cars to co-exist on city streets, as well as educating both car drivers and bicycle riders how to co-exist safely.  Bicycles are here to stay, so it would benefit all of us if we approached our road use with patience and an understanding of how bicycle riders approach co-existing with you in your car.

Tomorrow, part 2 of this post will cover lots of great information about how we ride our bicycles (legally), common riding conventions, and how you, as a driver, can learn how to co-exist with bicycles in your daily driving.

getting there by bike

I've long been a bike commuter. it began with my desire to get more training time in way back in the winter/spring of 2000. I was training for my first California AIDS Ride and felt that my weekend long rides + weekday spin classes just weren't doing it for me. at the time I was working in San Francisco and living in San Mateo. each way, the commute was about 22 miles. interestingly enough, I found that the total time commitment to commute by bicycle was similar to the total time commitment of commuting by car or taking the train. yeah, car traffic was pretty crazy + unpredictable back in the day.

so I started commuting to work. my decision to do so was pretty impromptu. I decided one Saturday morning to try riding to San Francisco from home, checking out a possible commute route and timing myself. so I bought a set of bike lights, declared myself a bike commuter, and, two days later, I jumped in.

my first commute was a great adventure. I had no plan. I didn't really have the right equipment. I had too much stuff to carry and didn't have a good way to carry it. I had nowhere to park my fancy new road bike. and once I arrived at work, I didn't have anywhere to shower or prepare for the day. I remember walking to the nearest gym (where my employer had a deal for us), proudly stating that I was preparing for the CA AIDS Ride, and expecting them to let me shower for free. the desk clerk felt sorry for me (or maybe I just stunk) and let me shower -- that one time. after that, she informed me, it would be $10/day. when I got back to my desk, I emailed our Team Schwab cycling club list to find out where there was a shower on-site. unfortunately, there was nothing in any of the buildings near me except one secret, private shower that had been built for the CEO of the company. he had moved offices and no one was using it, but my contact suggested I could sneak in + out and no one would notice. and that's what I did for months.

my commute home was equally as adventuresome. less than a mile from my office, I nearly killed myself trying to avoid a muni bus. I ended up with my front wheel in a muni track and took an embarrassing tumble onto Market Street. I got a flat tire 3 miles from home and didn't know how to change it so I rode home on it. but I survived and was ready to try again.

I quickly learned that I couldn't carry so much stuff on the bike. I started emailing files home instead of carrying paper (yes, this was pre-access-at-home days). I left three pairs of shoes at the office (brown, black, and blue pumps -- I was set for every occasion) as well as a warm winter coat. I stored a complete set of toiletries (including towel, wash cloth, blow dryer, and curling iron) at my office. go ahead, laugh about the curling iron, I dare you! and I tried a bunch of different bag systems, finally settling on an oversized lumbar pack from REI to carry just my clothes, wallet, and palm pilot.

as you can see, it took some planning. and preparation. and a few attempts before I had a seamless commute.

I continued to commute for the next year (while I was still working in SF). somedays I would ride to work and take the train home. somedays I would ride both ways. somedays I would add on some extra mileage just for fun!

and while my original goal was to increase my training time, what I learned was that there was a HUGE emotional/mental benefit to bike commuting as well. when I arrived at the office, I had already achieved something great. I was able to check something off my list before work even began. and I found I had more energy and less stress than if I had been sitting in my car, stuck in traffic, for 60-90 minutes.

since that time, I've continued to commute and errand by bike. I actually went car-free for two years -- a big accomplishment living on the peninsula (during a time when CalTrain discontinued weekend service). I transitioned to a cyclocross bike with mounted racks and panniers and eventually to a touring bike. I still have a five-mile rule: if a trip is within five miles, I dont take my car. there were some definite lifestyle changes involved in these decisions, but overall, I'm thrilled with the fact that I choose to live as car-lite as possible.

commuting and erranding by bike is a great way to save money, contribute to our environment, reduce stress, and stay in shape. but it can seem like a daunting lifestyle change. Velo Girls would like to help you learn how to make this change. one of our members, Torea Rodriguez, took my May Bike Month Challenge, and has forever changed her life. on Wednesday, December 1st, she's going to share her experience with you.

join us at Mike's Bikes in Palo Alto for our 2011 Velo Girls membership kick-off, where Torea will be our featured presenter, discussing the ins + outs of transportational cycling -- 6:00pm - 7:30pm.

you'll find details of this and all our rides + events at http://www.velogirls.com/calendar.php

I think I'll buy a lottery ticket now!

I'm always singing the virtues of the pre-ride bike check. There's a good reason for this -- you could avoid disaster. Yesterday, I barely avoided it (and I hadn't checked my bike). I hope my experience will provide a good reminder for everyone.

Gnat and I went out to play cyclocross today. I've rolled around on my cross bike exactly once prior this season. We headed over to the bay and rolled up and down a bunch of steep, loose, off-camber drops. We rode down to The Shells and jumped the jumps over and over again. All told, about 2 hours of rolling around.



Everytime I stood on the bike, I heard a strange little clunky noise, but just thought it was creaking under effort after such a long retirement. Riding home on the road, I stood on a short steep hill and noticed that my bike felt "loose" under my weight and effort. Since it's a break-away bike, I looked at the joints (all tight). Again, standing, I felt like the bike was going to fall apart under me.

I got home and checked the bike (should have done this before the ride). The QR on the rear wheel was closed, but almost completely loose. I'm sure that when I threw my cross tires on the wheels, I probably just put them back on while the bike was on the stand and didn't tighten down the QR.

I was very lucky today. This could've been an expensive disaster. I could've broken off the rear derailleur. I could've lost the wheel altogether while we were jumping. The chain could've locked up and launched me from the bike.

Moral of the story, check your bike. Check your QRs to make sure that they're closed and tight. Check your bolts occasionally to make sure they're tight. Check your tires. Check your saddle rails. Take a few minutes before or after each ride to check the machine that you trust with your safety.

I'm feeling pretty lucky -- maybe I'll go out and buy a lottery ticket now.

Check your Neck!

September is Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month.

* Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine cancer. Thyroid cancer is a cancerous tumor or growth located within the thyroid gland (the front of your neck).

* Thyroid cancer is one of the few cancers that has increased in incidence rates over recent years. It occurs in all age groups from children through seniors.

* The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be about 37,200 new cases of thyroid cancer in the U.S. in 2009. Of these new cases, about 27,200 will occur in women and about 10,000 will occur in men. About 1,630 people (940 women and 690 men) will die of thyroid cancer in 2009.

* Many patients, especially in the early stages of thyroid cancer, do not experience symptoms. However, as the cancer develops, symptoms can include a lump or nodule in the front of the neck, hoarseness or difficulty speaking, swollen lymph nodes, difficulty swallowing or breathing, and pain in the throat or neck.

* There are several types of thyroid cancer: papillary, follicular, medullary, anaplastic, and variants.


Check your neck! Follow the link to learn how to do this at home, or ask your doctor to do it for you at your next exam.

iPhone app preview -- mybikeinfo

mybikeinfo iPhone app

I can't wait to delve into this one. I've hesitated to pay too much attention to most "bicycle" apps for the iPhone because they seem to have limited value, but this one looks very interesting (and worth the $1.99 to download).

As a bike fit professional, I know the importance of keeping records of all my bikes. When travelling, you want to make sure you can set up your bike just the way you have it while you're home. If renting or borrowing a bike, you want to try to match your current geometry and fit as closely as possible. This info is super-handy if you're planning to purchase a new bike, too! In the past, that probably meant carrying around a little piece of paper with your measurements on it.

This app allows you to enter all that important information right on your iPhone. At first glance, it's super thorough -- probably more thorough than the average cyclist needs (or can figure out for herself). But as a bike fitter, I'm drooling at the possibilities of how I can incorporate this app in my practice. You can even add really important information like serial numbers and purchasing information -- all necessary if your bike finds its way into the hands of someone else (like a bike thief). There's even a section for you to keep maintenance records so you know when to replace your chain! And (with a little help from a friend) you can record your vital body measurements.

As a bonus, the developers have added an RSS news feed with some of the bigger cycling new sites (and you can add your favorites to customize the feed).

The proceeds from this app benefit the Prostate Cancer Awareness Project.

check your neck

September is Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month.

Go ahead, check your neck -- it just takes a minute!

What to look for:

• lumps or fullness in the neck
• swollen lymph nodes
• difficult swallowing, breathing, or speaking (or a change in your voice).

LOOK KEO Pedal Recall

Look Keo Pedals manufactured in 2004 and 2005 are being recalled.

Details here: http://www.lookcycle-usa.com/keoupgrade/index.html

are all your ducks in a row?

it's a new year. time to take care of business -- check the batteries in your smoke detector, change the furnace filter, and update your emergency contact information.

what's that you ask? yes, update your emergency contact information.

this hits home for me this year because ever since my mother died, my emergency contact had been my sister, Susan. well, Susan recently moved to Fiji, so I had to think long and hard about who I could depend on if I were in an emergency situation.

here's a little advice I've learned over the years.

family is usually a good choice for an emergency contact. even if they don't like you, they'll usually take care of you if you're injured or ill.

boyfriends or girlfriends are never good choices -- they come and go.

so in my case, with no family, I chose my best friend.

make sure to ask the person you'd like to be your contact if they would do it. I recall sitting in the ER with a young lady who had crashed on a ride I was leading. she didn't have her health insurance card or a credit card so I ended up paying for her visit and her prescriptions. then, her contact was a random on-line dating guy she'd met once in person six months prior -- probably not the best choice!

then, be very clear with them what you expect. you could even give them medical records, prescription information, and your health care proxy. if you have a pet at home, make sure they know how to take care of it.

in addition to carrying your health insurance info, meds info, credit card, etc with you when you ride (on your body, not your bike), I recommend the no-brainer solution -- Road ID. get one. today. throw it on your shoe or keep it with your helmet. and never leave home alone!