Friday, July 16, 2010

The Perils of Road Cycling

CNN recently posted a video titled Road Cycling: Too Dangerous. It combines disquieting statistics with two cathartic anecdotes about the perils of cycling and all too frequent negligence of drivers. The video drives home the importance of driver awareness and of local governments to provide a safe place for bike/motorist coexistence.

I would like to note that, in the video, a silent ride is held in memory of those cyclists who have been killed on the road. Disturbingly, one of the cyclists shown on this ride is shown not wearing a helmet. This is irritating, because, after all, the onus of keeping cyclists safe is on both the motorists and the cyclists. It seems that as citizens, we should advocate for more bike lanes; as drivers, we should be more courteous and cautious; and as cyclists, we should take more ownership of our own safety (e.g., riding single file, wearing helmets).

 A picture from my crash in 2007


Happy (Safe) Riding...

1 comment:

Susan said...

I was just telling Newt the other day that I would like to get involved with some volunteer or advocacy group to make it safer to ride one's bike and to encourage more folks to ride their bikes. Need to do some research.