Shek's Footprint

The nail that stands out gets hammered the most.

Calling a much slower instrument a vehicle and placing it on the road with much larger vehicles only with a thin shear blanket of a law is lazy. I am of the opinion that the definition of bicycles as vehicles is flawed. If the law and motorist’s courtesy is all that sufficiently protects a cyclist on a road, then let’s remove sidewalks and place the pedestrians on the road as well. They can use the shoulder and save bucket loads of money on concrete sidewalks.

Projecting a vehicular cyclist logic forward, cars, motorcycles, buses, trucks, tractor-trailers, bicycles, wheel chair bound disabled people, pedestrians etc. will all be called ‘widgets’ and all widgets will share the road with each other. Why should pedestrians be separated from the road to make it easier for vehicles to travel safely? Why support vehicular superiority? Vehicular Cyclists do not aggressively support Shared Space (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space), making their arguments hypocritic and selfish.

Living in any sprawled area with no infrastructure but the blind principles of John Forrester makes life friction-full. Yells and honks start becoming an itch that wouldn’t cease so much that you would wish to cut off your limb to ease the pain. Initially, optimism and gumption help overcome the constant reminder that you as a bicyclist are unwanted and unwelcome on the road. The hammering does not stop, not till a large organization (Eg. a government) recognizes it and makes plans to stop it. Such efforts are usually graced with positive and constructive outcomes as seen in the cities of Portland OR, Davis CA and New York City NY.

I have decided to stop getting hammered. I am buying a motorcycle and moving to a bicycle-friendly neighborhood further away from work. I am moving from the top of a pile of bicycle commuters to the bottom of the pile of motor-vehicle commuters. In my efforts to latch on to a higher dynamic quality, namely car-free bicycle commuting, I am degenerating to an activity of lower quality, namely motorcycle ownership for commuting. I have kept gas bills, insurance and depreciation on the motorcycle to a frugal low of $100 a month, which used to be my taxi fare budget.

Lastly, the people who continue to bicycle commute here, Jonathan, Jose, Rebekah and the couple others who I haven’t met, are bigger people than I am. They are true heroes.

About 500 yards down the 800 yard long two lane section of Deerwood Park Blvd, 1 min and 15 seconds into it, a black sub compact that was patiently following me started to honk. The other lane was fairly busy, there was no room to pass. The traffic light was red, therefore, even if I was not on the road, they would have no where to go.

When I was stopped for the first time, the passenger, male, leaned out of the window and asked me fairly politely with a hint of frustration to stay on the side of the road. I turned around and explained that the lane is less than fourteen feet wide making it unsafe for me to stay on the side. To this, the passenger asked me why I don’t wear a helmet! This was a rhetorical question on the passenger’s behalf because he quickly returned to his usual perch and rolled the windows up as I was saying, “It is not the law”.

The inherent problem with the motorist’s abrasive culture against bicyclists is that few take time to research the law and its inherent flaws. I wish they would like to stop for a conversation and let me explain that I don’t wear a helmet not only because it is not the law. I would start by the epic video of Jens Voigt crashing at high speeds during Stage 16 of the 2009 Tour de France, wearing a helmet but sustaining injuries on his face, not a scratch on his helmet. Further, I would talk about the two crashes during last month’s Women’s ride where the first one walked off without head injuries while the second one had a swollen ankle and no head injuries.

Thereafter, I would point to this study http://bhsi.org/walkerstudy.htm where a cyclist gets extra room and consideration when not wearing a helmet. Though this study was done in the UK, it holds true for USA because the cycling culture and its popularity are similar in both countries. Moreover, I have personally experienced the change in attitude of the motorists in terms of passing clearance once I ditched my helmet.

What I do is bicycling for transportation. Most times I ride under 12 miles per hour. At that speed a fall will mostly result from being hit by a 3000 pound or heavier vehicle, at which point a helmet is vastly insufficient.

From Ken Keifer’s research on this matter,

bicycle head injuries constitute only about from 1.02% to 1.54% of the US total serious head injuries and from .56% to .87% of the head injury deaths. The largest group of head injuries, by the way, are among motorists. Therefore, bicycling is not dangerous, nor is it a leading cause of head injury.

The passenger in the car had already made up his mind that I was illegally blocking his path. After our brief conversation, he had assumed that I am a hypocrite who is spinning his own tales of safety. I find that inference bigotry because he isn’t the one on the same road as rush hour motorists pedaling along. It is foolish to pass judgment on an activity that you are not participating in and therefore can not comprehend.

I have a fan club. Well, the fan club is actually a hate club and it has only one member. Having waited till 8:30 PM to avoid traffic, I was riding my bike back from the grocery store at 9:15 PM. Most of the ride is on this service road (see picture below).

As you can see by the footprint of the blue sedan, the road is barely 8 feet wide. This is the southbound lane and has over twelve driveways entering or leaving it, making the already dangerous sidewalk riding even more scary. In the northbound lane on my return journey, Xtracycle fully laden with grocery bags, I had stopped at the traffic light. From the traffic turning left across the intersection from me, a car while turning into Southside Blvd, rolled down their window and yelled, "Use the sidewalk. I see you every time …". I wasn’t even in his direction of traffic.

I have repeatedly managed to anger somebody while just riding my bike. I have been promoted from a ‘murderer’ status to that of a ‘serial killer’!

Having done recent discussions on Carbon Trace and Commute Orlando about harassment to bicyclists, I have come to the following conclusions: