A Little Help For Those Who Want to Ride a Bike

May 14th, 2008 · 3 Comments

Beverly Hills Cop What are the benefits or riding? Amongst other things:

Less pollution - Every gallon of gasoline we burn creates about 20 pounds of climate change-causing CO2.
Shaping up - Casual biking burns about 173 calories per hour.
Saving your money - A typical U.S. family spends nearly $8,000 per year operating a car, while a bike might cost $50 for an annual tune-up.

How do I ride safe?

Ride with the flow of traffic.
Ride 4 feet away from parked cars. Stay away from the doorzone!
Be visible! Don’t ride in-and-out in between parked cars. Ride a straight line to indicate your intentions to others.
Stay on the Street and ride like you would drive.
Signal when turning.
Follow all traffic signs and signals and all rules of the road.
If you have kids who are under 18, get them a helmet. They have to wear it, it’s the law.
Have white lights on front and red lights on the back of your bike. You want to be visible if you ride in the dark.
Take the lane if you can’t share it with a car safely (e.g. you are in the doorzone.) They will change lanes to pass you and you have the right to the road.

Here is a fantastic instructional video from our friend Dan Gutierrez to show you how to ride our streets safe and legal:

And here is the SFPD’s video to show you that the law is on your side:

If you are planning to take your bike on the bus, here is how to use that bike rack on the front of the bus:

http://www.laist.com/2007/06/02/dear_laist_bike.php

And last but not least, print out a copy of the Cyclist’s Bill of Rights and share it with cyclists and non-cyclists alike. The more you spread the word and the more you ride, the safer our streets will become.

Tags: Alternative Transportation · Bikes · Cycling · Law · Safety

3 responses so far ↓

1 Miss Havisham // May 14, 2008 at 12:29 pm

Just in time for Bike Week in Pasadena.
2 Narinda // May 19, 2008 at 2:56 pm

It’s hard to gather up the nerve to actually occupy a lane, even if it’s lawful– something I need to work on.

I feel so much healthier and happier since biking and mass-transit-ing everywhere that I probably won’t renew my insurance and registration when the time comes. It is a lot easier to park a bike than a car in this town (though it is still difficult at times, what with the lack of bike racks in some areas).
3 Righteous Metal Broad // Jun 17, 2008 at 11:57 pm

Like Narinda, I am tentative about taking an entire lane when riding in the street. Recently there was a Metro-LACBC meeting here in Van Nuys and my team rode on and around surveying Van Nuys Blvd and nearly immediatly after starting our ride, a big black car came right up on the side of me and honked their horn.

We did get a lot of good info to give Metro and hopefully we’ll get some “sharrows” but we’ve got a lot more work to do.

Every night I ride 4 miles out of the way to take the Metro Orange Line’s bicycle path because I just don’t feel safe riding out on the streets. Sure, the extra 4 miles is doing good (I commute 17-18 miles a day for work), but I shouldn’t have to feel like riding out of my way to find a safe path home.

I just want to do whatever I can to help educate the general population out there about bicycle safety. Many people do not have access to the internet so are not able to research like we are. Enci, let me know if there are any more events and meetings and I’ll see what I can do to help.

Just the other night I saw a guy riding a bike without a head or tail light. Not only that, but he was riding on the busway, not on the bicycle path, but on the busway! And those express buses go fast…