Impressions from Bike to Work Day

On Tue, 17 May 2011 09:30:14 -0700, SMS
wrote:

On 5/16/2011 3:09 PM, James wrote:

As well, all those inline skaters who wear knee pads, wrist protectors
and the like. It has become normal to wear some protective gear, like it
or not.

The idea that kids wearing protective gear is indicative of parents not
allowing them to engage in any activity with a risk of injury is ludicrous.

There's a myth promulgated by those seeking publicity, or that have some
other agenda, that parents in the U.S. won't let their kids leave the
house because they're worried about kidnappers, sexual predators, etc..
A few years ago there was a story about a mother that let her nine year
old son ride the New York subway by himself and the media played it up
as if it were an incredible and rare event, while New Yorker's just
laughed about the whole thing since kids have been riding the subway by
themselves since the subway was built. There was a poll done after this
story and 61% of respondents said that there was nothing wrong with
doing this and that kids needed to learn to be independent.


I'm amazed. when I went to school first graders walked to school and
after the first few days did it on their own. Granted I grew up in a
small town but by 3rd grade I would assume that the little tykes could
make it on their own. Even on the subway.

On Tue, 17 May 2011 14:31:38 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

Frank Krygowski wrote:
On May 17, 8:36 am, john B. wrote:
On Mon, 16 May 2011 19:57:53 -0700 (PDT), Frank Krygowski



wrote:
On May 16, 8:46 pm, john B. wrote:
Not to interfere with the main stream of this thread, but are
Americans now actually afraid to ride a bicycle? God, but the wheel
turns, doesn't it? When I was a lad you could usually inveigle your
parents into buying you a bike somewhere around the age of 10 or 12
and then you were on your own. My fondly remembered first bike was
second-hand and had lost its fenders somewhere, which made it, to me,
a "racing bike". We used to make a weekend "long ride" of about 15
miles, or so, with two major "push up" hills and one long downhill
section. Public highway, no helmet, no lycra and no shoes in some
cases. But for long rides we did take the playing card and clothespin
off the front wheel as it was said to make it harder to peddle.
A long way from the free and the brave.
Seriously, a great many are afraid to cycle, and/or are afraid to let
their kids cycle. There are schools that have completely forbidden
kids riding to school. I know an ex-cycling couple who are too afraid
to ride the country roads with their teenage daughter. (I ride by
their house, which is less than a mile away from completely peaceful
roads.) I have had many people express worry about my riding my bike
to work. Very few cyclists will ride the four-lane that I take to do
most of my shopping. And yes, it's very common for people to drive
their car to the health club, park, then do sweaty "spinning" on
stationary bikes.
- Frank Krygowski
Not that I doubt you but it is almost unbelievable. Here are millions
of 3rd world people happily wobbling along on their push-bikes as a
routine means of transportation and Americans are afraid to ride.

It does sound almost unbelievable. But I've watched it happen over
the decades.

Americans have the disadvantage of never having had a bicycling
culture. The closest we came was the "bike boom" of the early 1970s,
but that ended rather quickly, and was, I think, largely concentrated
in the 20-somethings. For most people, bicycling was always
unfamiliar; and unfamiliarity often brings fear.

But I think there's no question the profitable push for plastic hats
had a big effect. As an example: I've given a talk on the safety of
bicycling to, oh, at least six different bicycling and community
groups over the years. It's based on a quiz, as in this article:
http://www.bicyclinglife.com/SafetyS...SafetyQuiz.htm

When I ask "What percentage of American head injury fatalities are due
to bicycling?" a very common answer is 30%. In fact, with one
audience that insisted on answering as a group (rather than
individually, on paper), the whole group was certain the answer was
30%. The correct answer is less than 1%, of course.

Now where could they have gotten the impression that bicycling causes
so many brain injury fatalities?

- Frank Krygowski


Consider the 1890s bicycle boom, which was a bigger
society-shifting phenomenon. The production and
participation numbers and massive variety of product are
overwhelming, even moreso considering a smaller population.

No helmets. Same end.


Not to mention the fact that high wheelers were a bit dangerous to
ride.

john B. wrote:
On Tue, 17 May 2011 14:31:38 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

Frank Krygowski wrote:
On May 17, 8:36 am, john B. wrote:
On Mon, 16 May 2011 19:57:53 -0700 (PDT), Frank Krygowski



wrote:
On May 16, 8:46 pm, john B. wrote:
Not to interfere with the main stream of this thread, but are
Americans now actually afraid to ride a bicycle? God, but the wheel
turns, doesn't it? When I was a lad you could usually inveigle your
parents into buying you a bike somewhere around the age of 10 or 12
and then you were on your own. My fondly remembered first bike was
second-hand and had lost its fenders somewhere, which made it, to me,
a "racing bike". We used to make a weekend "long ride" of about 15
miles, or so, with two major "push up" hills and one long downhill
section. Public highway, no helmet, no lycra and no shoes in some
cases. But for long rides we did take the playing card and clothespin
off the front wheel as it was said to make it harder to peddle.
A long way from the free and the brave.
Seriously, a great many are afraid to cycle, and/or are afraid to let
their kids cycle. There are schools that have completely forbidden
kids riding to school. I know an ex-cycling couple who are too afraid
to ride the country roads with their teenage daughter. (I ride by
their house, which is less than a mile away from completely peaceful
roads.) I have had many people express worry about my riding my bike
to work. Very few cyclists will ride the four-lane that I take to do
most of my shopping. And yes, it's very common for people to drive
their car to the health club, park, then do sweaty "spinning" on
stationary bikes.
- Frank Krygowski
Not that I doubt you but it is almost unbelievable. Here are millions
of 3rd world people happily wobbling along on their push-bikes as a
routine means of transportation and Americans are afraid to ride.
It does sound almost unbelievable. But I've watched it happen over
the decades.

Americans have the disadvantage of never having had a bicycling
culture. The closest we came was the "bike boom" of the early 1970s,
but that ended rather quickly, and was, I think, largely concentrated
in the 20-somethings. For most people, bicycling was always
unfamiliar; and unfamiliarity often brings fear.

But I think there's no question the profitable push for plastic hats
had a big effect. As an example: I've given a talk on the safety of
bicycling to, oh, at least six different bicycling and community
groups over the years. It's based on a quiz, as in this article:
http://www.bicyclinglife.com/SafetyS...SafetyQuiz.htm

When I ask "What percentage of American head injury fatalities are due
to bicycling?" a very common answer is 30%. In fact, with one
audience that insisted on answering as a group (rather than
individually, on paper), the whole group was certain the answer was
30%. The correct answer is less than 1%, of course.

Now where could they have gotten the impression that bicycling causes
so many brain injury fatalities?

- Frank Krygowski

Consider the 1890s bicycle boom, which was a bigger
society-shifting phenomenon. The production and
participation numbers and massive variety of product are
overwhelming, even moreso considering a smaller population.

No helmets. Same end.


Not to mention the fact that high wheelers were a bit dangerous to
ride.


We agree, hence the post-1885 popularity of bicycles.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On 5/17/2011 9:35 PM, AMuzi wrote:
john B. wrote:
On Tue, 17 May 2011 14:31:38 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

[...]
Consider the 1890s bicycle boom, which was a bigger society-shifting
phenomenon. The production and participation numbers and massive
variety of product are overwhelming, even moreso considering a
smaller population.

No helmets. Same end.


Not to mention the fact that high wheelers were a bit dangerous to
ride.


We agree, hence the post-1885 popularity of bicycles.


Indeed, the lower the better.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731,-83.985007
I am a vehicular cyclist.

On 18/05/2011 00:52, Tºm Shermªn™ °_° wrote:
On 5/17/2011 9:20 AM, Jay Beattie wrote:
On May 17, 12:27 am, Tºm Shermªn™ °_°""twshermanREMOVE\"@THI
$southslope.net" wrote:
On 5/16/2011 4:29 PM, Jay Beattie wrote:
[...]

Who cares -- we're talking about riding and not the relative
dangers
of walking and bicycling. The fact is that most people around here
ride in some real crappy
conditions:http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsdportland/3126212655/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/monquee/60729799/ I go through
puddles
up to my axles and often don't know what the hell is down there.
People can take prophylactic measures -- wear helmets, put on
big fat
tires, use pontoons,etc. -- without being dorks or unreasonably
"afraid." Hey, after landing on my head a few times, I'm
justifiably
afraid and do take precautions.[...]

fuel -- flames

Yet you ride a type of bicycle that will dump you on your head or
shoulder quite easily?

Yes, but it keeps me above wheel spray and the fender wells of large
trucks, and it doesn't weigh so much that I would never ride it. --
Jay Beattie.

Seat height of about 57 cm (22½-inch) and built up weight of less
than 9 kg ( 20 lbs) with light (but not stupid-light) components:
http://challengebikes.com/index.php?language=en&selection=superlights-seiransl-en.

Tsk. Obviously you should point to a completely unsuitable machine
and use that to blindly characterise everything with the same
general layout.

For example...
"I'm looking for an upright bike that folds up neatly to stow on a
train, unfolds in a few seconds and has places to stow a laptop and
a change of clothes while I ride through town"

The correct answer is /not/ "try a Brompton or similar" but "those
Trek Madones cost thousands and the train company won't even think
about letting me on at peak times with it, and the luggage space
stops at a 'phone and a pack of gum, who would buy those stupid
upright bikes anyway!"

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

On 5/29/2011 3:20 PM, Peter Clinch wrote:
On 18/05/2011 00:52, T�m Sherm�n� �_� wrote:
On 5/17/2011 9:20 AM, Jay Beattie wrote:
On May 17, 12:27 am, Tºm Shermªn™ °_°""twshermanREMOVE\"@THI
$southslope.net" wrote:
On 5/16/2011 4:29 PM, Jay Beattie wrote:
[...]

Who cares -- we're talking about riding and not the relative
dangers
of walking and bicycling. The fact is that most people around here
ride in some real crappy
conditions:http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsdportland/3126212655/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/monquee/60729799/ I go through
puddles
up to my axles and often don't know what the hell is down there.
People can take prophylactic measures -- wear helmets, put on
big fat
tires, use pontoons,etc. -- without being dorks or unreasonably
"afraid." Hey, after landing on my head a few times, I'm
justifiably
afraid and do take precautions.[...]

fuel -- flames

Yet you ride a type of bicycle that will dump you on your head or
shoulder quite easily?

Yes, but it keeps me above wheel spray and the fender wells of large
trucks, and it doesn't weigh so much that I would never ride it. --
Jay Beattie.

Seat height of about 57 cm (22½-inch) and built up weight of less
than 9 kg ( 20 lbs) with light (but not stupid-light) components:
http://challengebikes.com/index.php?language=en&selection=superlights-seiransl-en.


Tsk. Obviously you should point to a completely unsuitable machine and
use that to blindly characterise everything with the same general layout.

For example...
"I'm looking for an upright bike that folds up neatly to stow on a
train, unfolds in a few seconds and has places to stow a laptop and a
change of clothes while I ride through town"

I wish I owned a bike like that.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/19704682@N08/4482962084/in/set-72157623625852391/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19704682@N08/3640075056/in/set-72157619857116687/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19704682@N08/3601429403/in/set-72157619269876565

The correct answer is /not/ "try a Brompton or similar" but "those Trek
Madones cost thousands and the train company won't even think about
letting me on at peak times with it, and the luggage space stops at a
'phone and a pack of gum, who would buy those stupid upright bikes anyway!"

The correct spelling is "Trek MadOne".

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731,-83.985007
I am a vehicular cyclist.