A Bicycle Revolution & a CONTEST

Happy Friday! We've told you our bike stories all week and now we're turning the tables. Tell us your bike story for a chance to win a copy of John Forester's Effective Cycling, seventh edition. Share your story in the comments section or on the MIT Press Facebook page and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a copy of the book. Please submit your stories by 5 pm Eastern on Monday, May 21st. 

And now, without further ado, James Lynch, Marketing Associate at the MIT Press, wraps up our Effective Cycling, seventh edition-inspired National Bike to Work Week series.

I’m a daily bike commuter, although perhaps I should say I’m a daily car door avoider. This past week (on bike to work week no less), I witnessed a biker get doored in front of me.  It wasn’t the first time I’ve seen this occur, or, sadly, the last. Thankfully he walked away, but as I helped him up off the pavement and made sure he was okay, I noticed tears in his eyes. “This was only my second day riding a bike,” he muttered.

Bikers live in a dangerous world— a world where giant 1,000-lb creatures are constantly trying to maim and kill you. Forester’s Effective Cycling is a handy guide that helps us navigate these dangerous waters. While the book contains a lot of useful maintenance tips, the more important sections focus on how to properly share the road. Bike lanes are well and good; however, they often don’t avoid the dreaded “door-zone” (our biker friend from my previous paragraph was riding in a lane) and are often littered with obstacles. Forester teaches us to ride safely and to not let ourselves be regulated to the gutters.

I’ll end on a positive note. Every day I notice more and more people picking up the bike and putting down the keys. We are in the midst of a bicycle revolution and as our numbers and visibility grow, so does our safety. It’s important to remember that when all is said and done, biking is really fun!

 

Comments

[Carl]

When we were living in Calgary my wife had an experience when she was driving to work one morning. At the side of the road she saw a cyclist lying in the curb lane. She pulled over and ascertained that he had just been sideswiped by a bus. My wife was not sure how badly he was injured but he seemed very shaken up so she loaded him and his bike into the van and drove him to the emergency room where he got checked over. That seems to me a good example of driver and cyclist sharing the responsibility for cycling safety.

[Jhon Lennon]

Bikers are indeed of great help in promoting a pollution free society. One of the most common problems that is experienced by the bikers is having been injured because of careless driving. I think it must be advised to bikers their responsibilities for them to make a sound and safe transportation.