Bike and Build

I’m sure most of my readers here will be familiar with Habitat for Humanity, a charity organization that builds affordable housing with the aid of volunteers.

Did you also know that there is another organization called “Bike and Build” that organizes coast to coast bike rides across America? A map of all the 2010 routes is shown below.  

The purpose of Bike and Build is twofold. To raise money for organizations like Habitat for Humanity, and also during the ride across country, the cyclists take a break from riding from time to time; to actually lend a hand, in the form of offering their labor to help build homes.

I learned about Bike and Build from local cyclist Stephen Risse, who works for the City of Charleston Civic Design Center. They were co-sponsors of a Bicycle Lecture Series held earlier this year.

It was Stephen who initially contacted me last February, and as a result I spoke to a group of about eighty local people, mostly cyclists.

Stephen Risse is participating in one of this year’s Bike and Build rides from Boston, MA to Santa Barbara, CA.

Thirty-two riders will leave Boston at the end of next week on June 20th, traveling through Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

The group then crosses the Mississippi River in St Louis, MO (Stephen’s home town.)

Through Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, then New Mexico, Arizona, and California. The group will arrive in Santa Barbara on August 24th having covered 3,703 miles. There will be a total of 10 days when the riders stop on route to spend each entire day helping to build homes. 

Stephen will be riding a carbon fiber bike with a frame that he designed and built; pictures here.

He also has a blog at TheMountainsMayKIllMe.com, and Stephen will be updating this during his ride.

This sounds like a wonderful adventure for young people to participate, and at the same time is raising money for a worthwhile cause.

You can go here to make a small donation to Bike and Build in Stephen’s name. I have already done this, and I hope you can do the same. It is great to hear of young cyclists doing something positive, they deserve our encouragement 

                       

Fog lines and rumble strips

Savannah Highway (Hwy 17.) is the main road south out of Charleston, South Carolina.

It is a divided highway, (A dual carriageway in the UK.) with two wide traffic lanes on either side. It has a continuous fog line painted on the left, with a shoulder almost three feet wide.

“Share the Road” signs are posted and one would think with so much space, this would be a safe place to ride a bike, but you would be wrong. Traffic flows by at around 65 mph; freeway speeds.

Have you ever noticed how a large number of drivers habitually hug the right-hand edge of the road? It doesn’t seem to matter how wide the road is, if there is a shoulder they will drive with their inside wheels over the fog line.

If they are tailgating the vehicle in front of them, they will not see a cyclist until the moment of impact.

This almost happened to me the last time I rode this stretch of road. Traffic was very heavy and I was buzzing along on the shoulder, enjoying the tow that the back draft of passing traffic was giving me.

Suddenly there was a squealing of tires behind me and a Cadillac Sedan came by missing me by inches. Out of control, and fishtailing all over the road, and ended up sliding sideways across into the far lane.

With so much traffic it is a wonder there was not a major pile up, and had this been an SUV it would have rolled over for sure. However, the driver regained control and continued on without stopping.

It was obvious to me what had happened. This driver was over the fog line, and had seen me at the last second, over corrected and temporarily lost control.

I never rode this stretch of Hwy, 17 again, and in case you are wondering why I rode it at all, it was to get to Main Road leading onto John’s Island where there are some very nice quiet country roads.

After this incident I rode the West Ashley Greenway, which is a dirt bike trail. Alternatively, if rain had made the trail too muddy to ride, I would ride Bee’s Ferry Road, a two lane highway with a shoulder. Traffic speeds are slower, so slightly less dangerous than Savannah Highway. 

One of the nicer roads to ride on John’s Island is Chisholm Road. It leaves Main Road, just after crossing the Stono River; it makes a ten mile loop the joins up with Main Road again. It is a road that goes nowhere and so gets very little traffic.

The only people who drive this road are the residents of homes on Chisholm, and they are used to seeing cyclists along that stretch. Much of this road had a decent shoulder, at least 18 inches wide in places.

When I recently rode there, I noticed they had re-striped the fog line, and used some special process that made a little raised bump every 12 inches or so. In other words, the white fog line had been turned into a rumble strip.

Initially I thought, “What a great idea,” keep those people who hug the edge of the road, off the shoulder.

Then I noticed all the debris from the road had been swept by passing traffic onto the shoulder.

Dirt, dead leaves, etc; and in places the grass was beginning to grow over onto the shoulder. The affect was Chisholm Road had become narrower.

No doubt rumble strips keep the local “Good ‘ol Boys” on the straight and narrow, and rubber side down while driving home late at night.

However, they do little to help the cyclist on a Sunday morning ride. Roads like Savannah Highway could really use rumble strips, to keep the motorized traffic off the shoulder making it safer for bicycles. As yet it doesn’t have them.

However, the shoulder would then need to be swept on a regular basis to keep it clear. On country roads like Chisholm where it would be cost prohibitive to sweep, no rumble strip would be better and let the passing traffic keep the shoulder swept clean.

Just a thought

                     

Bigotry

If you find the above cartoon funny, you might be a bigot.

Think about it, would you repeat the joke if the caption read, “I once saw a Black Man run into a Jew, and didn’t know who not to help.” Most decent people wouldn’t, it would be socially unacceptable.

Those old enough to remember back to the 1950s and before. Racial jokes were accepted and it made those at the brunt of these jokes somehow less than human. To some it even made it okay to go out and beat up, or murder members of these minorities.

This dehumanizing meant these minorities were not seen as people with families who loved them, somebody’s father, mother, or child. Often referred to as “They,” or “Them,” which put a less than human face on a person, than it would by saying “Him” or “Her.”

“They” as a group were always judged by the worst behavior in that group. "You can’t trust them; they will rob you blind, given half a chance."

So too are cyclist as a group judged by the worst standard of behavior. “They always run red lights;" or are even blamed for their very existence. "They shouldn't even be on the road."

And when a cyclist puts on Lycra, it becomes his different color skin, and it too becomes fair game for ridicule. "Those stupid skin tight clothes they wear, those ridiculous shoes, and helmets."

I will admit if a cyclist strays more than ten feet from his bike he does look a little strange, but then so too would a guy walking down Main Street in a wet suit and flippers.

It is now against the law to discriminate against a person on the grounds their race, or sexual preference, etc. Because of these laws, such discrimination becomes socially unacceptable. It is a shame when society has to enact a law to force people to do what common decency should tell them what is morally wrong.

Strangely the above cartoon takes a cheap shot at two groups of people whose only crime is that they delay a person for a moment. The person collecting money for a charity that makes you stop and dig in your pocket for change. And the cyclist who may delay you momentarily, preventing you from getting to the next red light a little quicker.

Back before the 1950s a person of different race or color, could be harassed just for being out in public. In some instances cyclists get the exact same treatment today. Has our society advanced at all?

Do we have to keep passing laws to stop people from discriminating against this group or that? It is sad when otherwise responsible and upright citizens behave in this way.

The people, who draw cartoons like this, and the newspapers and magazines that publish them, justify the discrimination and need to stop. Not because cyclists as a group are too sensitive to take it, (Actually our Lycra skin is pretty thick.) but because it dehumanizes people who for whatever reason, choose to ride a bicycle.

And when you dehumanize a group of people, it makes it okay to honk at and harass, to even buzz real close and put the cyclist’s life in danger. To a very small minority it makes it alright to deliberately injure or kill a cyclist.

Some may think "Bigotry" is too strong a term, but is there any difference in hurling abuse at a man because of his race, than doing the same because another is riding a bicycle?

Some may shoot down this argument by saying a man can't help being black, but cycling is a choice. Religion is also a choice, and like religion riding a bike is my right. I have been racing and riding bikes since I was a teen; it has been a life time passion for me, I am not about to quit.

I should not have to endure harrassment and abuse because I exercise my right to do something as simple as ride a bicycle

From this story here

And this one

Right where he should be

The cyclist in the above picture is riding right where he should be. I'm sure the driver of the dark colored SUV behind him doesn't think so. He probably thinks he should be another 18 inches to the right where the asphalt meets the cement gutter.

If the cyclist was riding there in all probability this driver would pass in the same lane and just about squeeze the cyclist off the road. You can see where the SUV's wheels are in relation to the edge of the asphalt on one side and the white line on the other that there is not enough room to safely pass a cyclist within the lane.

The term is called "taking the lane," which is precisly what this cyclist is doing. Any newcomer to cycling needs to learn this strategy as quickly as possible. Maybe you have decided to commute to work on a bicycle; either for economical reasons or for your health, or both.

Assert your place on the road. You are not cycling in traffic, you are part of traffic and your bicycle is a vehicle like all the other vehicles on the road. Also I should point out, subject to the same rules and laws pertaining to public highways.

You don't have to be an ass to be assertive, but at the same time you should not be expected to compromise your own safety by trying not to inconvenience others.

Returning to the above picture you can see it is only a very slight inconvenience for the passing driver to signal and move over to the other lane as the truck is doing. Let's say traffic is heavy and both lanes are full so the driver behind can't move over. Then he must wait behind the cyclist until he can move over.

It is possible the lanes will widen further on down the road; then the cyclist can opt to move over a little and drivers can pass safely within the same lane.

Car drivers need to realize that in heavy traffic you are going to be delayed anyway, and if you squeeze past the cyclist you place a human life at risk, and for what? You will be stopped again at the next light. Remember there are no fender-benders if you hit a cyclist. Bones break and people bleed.

By taking the lane the cyclist is also making himself highly visable. The most common car/bicycle accident is caused by drivers approaching from the opposite direction and and not seeing the cyclist, they make a left turn in front of them.

If the cyclist is on the extreme edge of the road and in the gutter, chances are there will be a car along side, or just in front of him hiding him from the view of the turning motorist.

By being in the position of the above cyclist, the turning driver can see him, and chances are there will be another car following closely behind the cyclist so the oncoming diver will not even consider turning at that moment.

The second most common accident is the "Right Hook." (Left Hook in the UK.) This is where the motor vehicle passes the cyclist then immediately turns right; the cyclist either runs into the side of the car, or in in a worse case the vehicle runs over the cyclist. This is less likely to happen if the cyclist is a little distance out from the curb.

By avoiding just these two most common accidents you make your cycling experience safer and more enjoyable; you can do so by taking the lane. Let me point out however, that taking the lane should never be abused and used just because you can.

If you can see traffic a hundred yards or so ahead of you then you are not really delaying anyone, you are simply making yourself visable by having that space in front of you.

Motorists need to realize there are going to be more and more cyclists sharing the road with them, and for every cyclist that means one less car which in the long run will ease conjestion.

Footnote: The excelent photo that illustrates this point so well is from Mighk Wilson's blog

Mixed Signals

More and more states are passing new laws to protect cyclists. In most cases part of the package gives the cyclist the option of signaling a right turn with either their left or right arm. I have not heard any protest from cyclists over this until now.

On a Portland, Oregon blog named Two Five Fix, was this quote:

Please stop pressing the issue to pass the right-hand right-turn turn signal! There are three standardized hand signals that have been in place for years. By changing the rules for cyclist, you are saying "we get special treatment" and causing more us-them mentality. Motorists can't signal a right hand turn with their right hand so why should cyclists? Maybe we can start using blue lights on the back of our bikes too?

When I came to the United States thirty years ago, I accepted the rules, laws and customs of this country. I would ride my bike on the opposite side of the road, I would even refer to “chips” as French Fries and eat them with ketchup instead of vinegar, but I would be damned if I would signal a right turn with my left arm.

It seemed ludicrous to me to signal my intention to turn right by pointing my left forearm towards the sky.

The driver of a motor vehicle can only signal with one arm, and for those who drive on the right it is the left arm.

But people on bicycles, or for that matter motorcycles, mopeds, or scooters have their whole body exposed and both arms can be clearly seen.

So when I arrived on these shores in 1979, I continued to do as I had done all my life, and signaled a right turn with my right arm. To do any different may have been the law, but to me went against all common sense and logic.

I am not 100% sure, but I believe in almost every country in the world, cyclists and motorcyclists use their left arm to signal left, and their right to signal right; America is the exception.

Even to this day I am still caught offgaurd driving behind a motorcyclist on the freeway, when he raises his left left arm with clenched fist, like some militant biker power salute, then suddenly swerves right into the next lane. I am left to wonder, doesn't pointing in the direction you intend to go register in the human brain a split second faster.

Anyway, I have for the last thirty years; riding my bike on the roads of these United States always signaled a right turn with my right arm, pointing to the right. I may have been breaking the law, but there has never been any confusion as to the direction I intended to go.

However, it became a rebellion that no one noticed or even cared about; I was never locked up, or threatened with deportation. In thirty years no one has ever question why I chose to signal that way; not law enforcement, motorist, or cyclist.

The writer of the above comment is concerned that motorists will see different hand signals for cyclists as “special treatment.” It is my opinion that the motoring public could care less about hand signals. When do you last see a motor vehicle driver give one? Heck, many are too lazy to lift one finger to operate the mechanical turn signals.

I believe hand signals for motorists are obsolete. The average American motorist steers with his left hand, if he suddenly had to signal with it, he would be totally flummoxed. The right hand holds the cell phone, the coffee cup, or is used to communicate displeasure with other road users.

Be grateful that many states are giving cyclists the option to signal either way, with the left or right arm. Those used to indicating a right turn with their left arm their entire life, can continue to do so and do not have to learn a new procedure. And foreign nonconformists like me finally become law abiding citizens.