(NBR) National Ride Your Bike To Work Day This Friday

[pcbikedude]

It's not bike as in scooter or mc. Bicycle! Anyone else planning on doing participating?

[Skootz Kabootz]

I work from home but I do have a ride planned! I guess for me it's national ride your scooter away from work day

[Keys]

Not workin' that day, but I'll ride just for kicks anyway. Gotta clean the house, though...Gail is back from her sister's on Sunday...

--Keys

[jmkjr72]

ummm yeah 25 miles to work at the shortest route
and i have to be home early to prep for a boy scout camping trip i dont think so it wont even be a scoot to work day

[TVB]

It's not bike as in scooter or mc. Bicycle! Anyone else planning on doing participating?

I would, except that: a) my doctor would yell at me if I went to work that soon after neck surgery, and b) my doctor would yell and scream at me for getting on a bicycle that soon after neck surgery.

[pcbikedude]

I need to shake this cold I have or else it will be a struggle getting up those 3 hills. Just one massive hill and 2 smaller ones. But the best thing, it mostly downhill coming home.

[jprestonian]

Um... isn't National Ride To Work Day June 20th?
.

[KABarash]

It's not bike as in scooter or mc. Bicycle! Anyone else planning on doing participating?

Sorry not me..... Too many hills for "This Old Man"
However, I will ride the scoot.

[BigBenlor]

Since there is no "Scooter yourself to work day", thats how I will be celebrating. Scootering to work is the best part of work

[Mulliganal]

I ride my road bike to work a few times a week so I'm already down for the ride.

[TVB]

Since there is no "Scooter yourself to work day"...

Sure there is. It's called a "weekday".

[Skootz Kabootz]

Oh, it's "bike" to work day. Meh. That involves physical labor, sweat and such. I though it was "ride" to work day. That's much more fun.

However that said, maybe on Friday I'll pump up the tires of my bike which after being my sole transportation for the 6 months prior to getting my scooter, has not been ridden even once since.

[Raiderfn31]

Well guys its the last Friday we CAN ride our bikes to work. May 21st, 6 P.M.,a major earthquake will destroy the world as we know it. THANK GOD me and many people on this forum have prepared for zombies. We may last awhile.

[Smiley13]

I ride everyday. Because I don't own a car. but I will make sure to ride farther that day. LOL!!!
Smiley

[Stormswift]

Oh, it's "bike" to work day. Meh. That involves physical labor, sweat and such. I though it was "ride" to work day. That's much more fun.

However that said, maybe on Friday I'll pump up the tires of my bike which after being my sole transportation for the 6 months prior to getting my scooter, has not been ridden even once since.

I thought Mayan calendar was aiming for December 21st. I though I had a whole riding season ahead

[peabody99]

I am ashamed to say the last time I rode my bike was about 3 days before I got my scooter in 2006. I feel awful, but truthfully I was never comfortable with riding it in the city-I always felt like I was going to get hit by a car or hit a pedestrian. I still have it though...Now where I live, the hills are too steep for the bike, its a vintage (1976) Schwinn breeze with about 3 gears and it weighs a ton. Maybe I should move to the beach where it is flatter

[Raiderfn31]

I am scared to get hit with a car on my little 50cc scoot! A bike on a road with cars is just plain dangerous. I respect a persons right to ride them, but there is no way I would ride or let my kid ride on a road. A young girl was hit and killed will riding with here family a few years back here and I never forgot it. Bike lanes would be nice I guess, but with the economy Im not holding my breath here in NC.

[TVB]

Well guys its the last Friday we CAN ride our bikes to work. May 21st, 6 P.M.,a major earthquake will destroy the world as we know it.

Wait, I was under the impression that this event was going to be purely supernatural in nature, taking the Godly to Heaven and leaving the rest behind. If that's the case, I'm sure there will be plenty of MB members left who can ride their bikes/scooters/whatever to work the following Friday as well.

[Raiderfn31]

Well guys its the last Friday we CAN ride our bikes to work. May 21st, 6 P.M.,a major earthquake will destroy the world as we know it.

Wait, I was under the impression that this event was going to be purely supernatural in nature, taking the Godly to Heaven and leaving the rest behind. If that's the case, I'm sure there will be plenty of MB members left who can ride their bikes/scooters/whatever to work the following Friday as well.

[weirdsong1]

Wait...who still owns a bicycle?

[Mulliganal]

Wait...who still owns a bicycle?

I'll never give up my road bikes.

[TVB]

I am scared to get hit with a car on my little 50cc scoot! A bike on a road with cars is just plain dangerous. I respect a persons right to ride them, but there is no way I would ride or let my kid ride on a road. A young girl was hit and killed will riding with here family a few years back here and I never forgot it. Bike lanes would be nice I guess, but with the economy Im not holding my breath here in NC.

I won't deny that riding a bicycle in the road is dangerous, but there are factors that make it safer compared to riding one on the sidewalk, or even compared to riding a 50cc scooter.

Perhaps most importantly, cagers understand bicycles; they've seen them a thousand times before and they know what to expect and how to deal with them, so they don't freak out so much. Bicycles also have more maneuverability than a scooter (e.g. if you have some idiot cager tailgating you, you can just swerve into the next driveway). And of course they don't go as fast: a bicyclist has more time to react to things that get in their way, and the injuries you sustain in a 15mph crash will be less severe than in a 30mph crash, and much less than a 60mph crash.

As for riding in the street vs. the sidewalk, most of the time the street is safer. For one thing, there are no pedestrians in it. Second, it's designed for wheeled vehicles, so it isn't made of 4-foot blocks of cement which might not be aligned with each other, cut-outs slanted at angles, sometimes with bumps for pedestrian traction, etc. Most of all, cagers will not see you if you're riding on the sidewalk. Ever. If they're looking at the sidewalk at all as they prepare to turn, they're looking for pedestrians at the corner, not for a bicycle approaching from behind them. Of course there are exceptions when it's safer to retreat from heavy traffic onto the sidewalk, but as a rule, bikes belong on the street.

Making things safer for bicycles can cost some money, but not as much as you might assume. There's an initiative that's getting some traction around here, called "complete streets". What they're doing is converting existing streets to be safer by doing nothing more than repainting the lines differently when it comes time to do that. Instead of just a yellow line down the middle of a two-lane street, with unmarked parking on either side, or a street with no parking but a center lane for left turns, they end up with this (probably not quite to scale):

Cagers still get a lane of traffic in each direction, bicyclists get their own lanes, and parking cagers get a safer buffer to get in and out of their cages. Bicyclists still have to watch out for opening car doors, but that's no worse than it was before. Without a left turn lane traffic sometimes slows down a bit, but that's not such a bad thing. They did this to my street last year, and I like it.

[pcbikedude]

Wait...who still owns a bicycle?

Bikes are coming on strong here in SoCal this year. First, it is great exercise and second gas prices.

However, just like scooters noobs, the bicycle noobs have some very bad habits about obeying traffic laws. I see quite a few running red lights and becoming obstacles for cagers.

[Raiderfn31]

Complete streets sound awesome. I would pay an extra 1 cent gas tax for it. make that a 2 cent!

[yeauxkneauxit]

I will 20 miles 1 way! Yeaux knea at

[ericalm]

I could ride my bike to the train station, hop on the subway, then ride from the second station to work. Does that count?

[Quo Vadimus]

Wait...who still owns a bicycle?

How do you think I get to work when there's snow and ice on the roads?

[Raiderfn31]

Wait...who still owns a bicycle?

I'll never give up my road bikes.

Dont have a bicycle but WOW I want one now! That one as a matter of fact!

[BuddyLicious]

Expanding on what member TVB posted I found that adding the orange safety flags to my bike has really enhanced my visibility.On my first ride after adding the flags I watched in my mirror to see if there was any difference in the cage drivers behavior.I kid you not the amount of time it took for them to notice me was cut in half or better,also they give me more space between us.I also noticed while riding on the downside of hills cagers would notice me much sooner and react by slowing down more quickly.

FYI- It's my understanding that adding bright lighting to the sides of your bicycle is the single most important safety addition to your bike,after front and rear lights.Studies have concluded bikers are almost invisible while crossing intersections where the cars are to the right and left of the bicyclist.

[ericalm]

I have light-up pedals! No batteries required.



Also have LED arm/leg band:


I don't wear all the serious biking gear when I ride, but I look like a clown anyways…

[michelle_7728]

Nope. I'll scoot, if anything.

[Hwarang]

Weather didn't cooperate. I can neither scoot nor bike today. Looks like the weekend art crawl is also going to be wet. Too bad, it's best on scoot.

[TVB]

FYI- It's my understanding that adding bright lighting to the sides of your bicycle is the single most important safety addition to your bike,after front and rear lights.Studies have concluded bikers are almost invisible while crossing intersections where the cars are to the right and left of the bicyclist.

If you ride a bicycle any time near sunrise/sunset (or at night) put lights on your bike. Why a headlight and tail light aren't standard equipment on every bicycle is beyond my understanding. Reflectors are better than nothing, but not by much. When the light is dim, drivers only look for lights.

[Mulliganal]

FYI- It's my understanding that adding bright lighting to the sides of your bicycle is the single most important safety addition to your bike,after front and rear lights.Studies have concluded bikers are almost invisible while crossing intersections where the cars are to the right and left of the bicyclist.

If you ride a bicycle any time near sunrise/sunset (or at night) put lights on your bike. Why a headlight and tail light aren't standard equipment on every bicycle is beyond my understanding. Reflectors are better than nothing, but not by much. When the light is dim, drivers only look for lights.

I use two of these on the back, one near the seat and on on my backpack. These are great lights, people can see you a block away.



I use a Niterider on the front of my bikes.



I also wear a lot of reflective stuff.

[ericalm]

FYI- It's my understanding that adding bright lighting to the sides of your bicycle is the single most important safety addition to your bike,after front and rear lights.Studies have concluded bikers are almost invisible while crossing intersections where the cars are to the right and left of the bicyclist.

If you ride a bicycle any time near sunrise/sunset (or at night) put lights on your bike. Why a headlight and tail light aren't standard equipment on every bicycle is beyond my understanding. Reflectors are better than nothing, but not by much. When the light is dim, drivers only look for lights.

Lights (at night) are required by law here, but many people violate.