Obama becomes first president to walk down a bike lane on Inauguration Day. (via peterfeld)
Was thinking this very thing as we watched the parade. Thanks, ARRA!
“Some day I will be in a horrible accident. Today is not that day.”
Aka: I will be damned if one of my readers dies in a bike accident. Not on my watch.
Yesterday when I was getting a late lunch at my fave local spot, the guy behind the counter — who knows I bike to work everyday — told me a woman cyclist in her 60s was killed by a commercial dump truck on Friday afternoon at 23rd and Madison. The intersection is blocks from my office. I bike it frequently. After obsessively googling the accident, I took a moment to pause, reflect, and remember my macabre bike riding mantra.
According to onlookers, she was not wearing a helmet, but it probably wouldn’t have helped her. She was clipped as the truck pulled out and she rolled under his tires. He was apparently completely unaware it had happened until onlookers shouted at him to stop.
It is just devastating for her loved ones, and a sobering moment for all my fellow urban bikers — who, in my opinion, are largely cavalier about their safety. I see terrible habits every single day.
What can we take from this?
1. Remember, once again, that bike-riding — and walking! — in New York City, and every American city, is a dangerous endeavor. Drivers generally have much stronger legal protection than bikers or pedestrians — and they certainly have stronger physical protection, in the form of thousands of pounds of steel. Hence my mantra, which is intended to focus your attention on the reality and risks of the task. In other words: put away your fucking cell phone. And slow down. Don’t recklessly pass. Don’t run every light. You will get there.
2. Commercial trucks — specifically dump trucks — are involved in a LOT of fatal accidents. When you see one, beware. Slow down. Be very careful when passing them. Assume they are not even bothering to look for you, and act accordingly.
3. Wear bright or light colors at all times of day, and especially during the darker winter months. I am grateful to my kelly green coat, because not only is it chic as fuck, it’s really functional on the road. It’s definitely hard to miss. So many commuters wear their usual NYC black. Not ok. I can barely see you! (And if I, as a fellow biker, can’t see you, you can bet the drivers cannot.) Always add a ridiculous safety orange vest (which I wear on top of my coat … I look amazing, let me tell ya).
On a related note, I don’t think lights are as important as wearing bright clothes and reflective vests. I can often miss a biker with a measly little white or red light. You’ve gotta go all-in.
Those are my reminders to myself. Take ‘em on your own terms, and stay safe, friends.
I know I’m supposed to be impressed by this Portland mom-of-six (of course she’s from Portland) but all I can think is birth control. (via)
Just found this: Cyclists Change the Face of Growing Hudson Square
(Hi guys!)
Green buildings consultant Nora Sherman, who commutes on her beat-up Trek from the East Village to her office in Hudson Square, noted the high-end Italian racing bikes she sees outside the offices of WNYC Radio and other creative companies on Varick Street.
“I’m always a little embarrassed about my sad little bike next to all the road bikes and Brooks leather saddles,” Sherman, 30, said Wednesday morning as she chained her Trek to a street sign.
It’s true, my bike is not pretty but it gets the job DONE.
PS: I insisted on holding my helmet in the picture.
Naomi Watts doesn’t wear a helmet while biking in NYC even though she knows she’ll be chased by paparazzi.
Naomi, you really need to read this article. (I haven’t stopped thinking about it.)
When you get on a bike in NYC, you are in essence giving up your rights (according to the NYPD, drivers can break the law and kill you with impunity — they just can’t break two laws and kill you — and bikers who get in accidents with pedestrians “will now be treated and recorded the same as when a motor vehicle hits a pedestrian,” which puts the biker at fault). The onus is on you not to be involved in an accident, even if the driver or pedestrian is acting like a blatant ass.
The one right you really have as a biker is the right to wear a helmet. If you, god forbid, get in an accident when you’re not wearing a helmet, the NYPD may treat it as an indication that you were at fault. (They’ve done it before.)
I really don’t know why I care so much about people not wearing helmets — I mean, they’re your brains — but I do.
If you run a stop sign and kill a cyclist in NYC, you will not be charged with a crime.
I repeat: If you run a stop sign and kill a cyclist in NYC, you will not be charged with a crime.
In order to make an arrest, the NYPD said a motorist must break two traffic laws for the crash to rise to the level of criminal.
“Speeding alone will not produce criminality” the department said in a statement. “Passing a stop sign only will not provide for criminal charges. They will result in a speeding summons and a stop sign summons only, but together we have established a criminal charge of Criminally Negligent Homicide or higher.”
Via Few Fatal Vehicle-Bike Crashes Lead to Arrest, Data Shows — eye-opening, terrifying, required reading for every NYC cyclist.
Related: if you do not wear a helmet every time you ride a bike in the city, you’re an idiot. In one case the police decided not to investigate a driver who killed a cyclist in part because she wasn’t wearing a helmet (they also took the driver’s word when he said she ran a red light). Her family later successfully sued the driver in civil court. They got $200,000. Their daughter’s still dead. Wear. A. Helmet.
Finally! A cute-girl-on-a-bike shot where she’s actually wearing a helmet.
However — it looks much too loose. If you pretend to sneeze and the helmet moves at all, you need to tighten it. I had a really nasty bike accident when I was nine and the doc said that a properly-fitting helmet saved me from major damage. (Thanks, parents!)
(via streetsmarts)
(Source: thepursuitaesthetic)
I mean, really. Could she be more French?
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