biking in L.A. Archives

How the blogger lights up his ride

Sobering read in the L.A. Times. As more and more bicyclists take to the roads in Southern California, accidents will only increase. Hit and run drivers are cowards, for sure, and also criminals. Though the story points out, they are often hard to track because not much evidence exists of their crime.

While I loathe these drivers and the death and destruction they cause, I do have to say that there are things cyclists can do to minimize the possibility of an accident, whether hit and run or not.

These include:

Obeying road rules – including stop signs and lights. While inconvenient, the worst thing you can do to a motorist (IMHO) is surprise him or her. Your behavior must be predictable, like that of the other car drivers. That’s the only thing that makes our roads not a total free-for-all.
Not obeying the law when to do so would put your life in danger – let’s be honest, there’s too many cars in L.A. and not all roads are safe for cyclists. There are streets I will not ride down as they are basically unsafe at any speed for a cyclist – for instance, Sunset Boulevard during rush hours where the parking lane is used for traffic and other streets like this. In those cases, if I must go down that street, I ride on the sidewalk, slowly, being very wary of pedestrians and driveways.
Lights and reflectors – you see in the photo how I operate at night. That might be a little extreme, but I know I’m seen by drivers. I always get a wide berth at night, and I’m sure that’s because of the lights. Otherwise, drivers really don’t see you.
Don’t be in such a hurry, and never take chances, ’cause between a bike and car, the winner is always going to be the car. No, I’m no longer a daredevil — at all, and maybe that’s something that comes with age. If so, I’m grateful. I’m not going to get into a confrontation with a car, because I know the outcome won’t be good for me, even if I’m in the right. This may go against instinct, but it’s useful as a survival tactic.

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I hope that as more cyclists take to the roads and people drive less, we’ll really find ways to safely coexist — like separated lanes for bikes and cars, what a concept! That I’d love to see. In the meantime, let’s be safer cyclists and prosecute those criminal drivers on our streets.

LA TIMES Story on Bike Sharing/Advocacy

Everyone on the road breaks the law – right, drivers, bicyclists, even pedestrians, right?

Why is the default “person with the rights” always the motorist? Why should it be that way?

The Blogger, with chariot at night.

I feel like an idiot not going through red lights when there’s nothing coming. If I were a pedestrian, I’d cross. Of course. But bicyclists are supposed to follow the rules of the road.

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So, I most often just stand there like a statue until the light changes. Exceptions: middle of the night when there’s no traffic. Rain (and we know how often that happens. . . ). Being chased by a crazy mofo’ type of whatever persuasion (usually does not happen to me at my age – silver hair and all that, but you never know).

If you asked me whether I thought bicyclists SHOULD BE allowed to go through red lights, I think I’d say no. Even though it would obviously benefit me on a bike in regards to trip timing, there’s a significant downside and it’s this: Riders need to be predictable to drivers. Since most of us in L.A. do both, from time to time (ride and drive) we know you can’t base any kind of driving philosophy on another moving object’s unpredictable behavior, I mean, that’s just nuts.

Drivers don’t like us already. Pedestrians, not much either (sometimes we must take to the sidewalks just to remain alive). So I’d say let’s not push it.

Instead, what I’d love to see is something like other cities have (well, like Berlin, anyway, cause I saw it there), which is dedicated and separated bicycle paths with their own signals, etc., built right into the infrastructure.

L.A. really does have so much potential there as a great biking town: mostly flat (that mountain range that bisects the city notwithstanding), great weather – warm and mostly dry, a well-developed road system.

Hopefully with more activism of the type describe in the linked article, we’ll get there sooner. Even if we have to wait for stoplights.