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One year of cycling to work

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Re: One year of cycling to work

#341

Post by v_lisivka »

wbkang wrote: post #136
troncjb wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don't wear a helmet, don't worry about it, it doesn't mitigate that much risk. The exercise benefits of biking do way more to increase your life expectancy than skipping a helmet does to reduce it. This is very, very stupid advice.

I totally agree. "Cyclists without helmets triple their chance of death by head injury" https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2012/10/15/cyclists_without...

Pedestrians without helmets triple their chance of death by head injury. Car drivers without helmets triple their chance of death by head injury. Bather without helmets triple their chance of death by head injury. And so on.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#342

Post by CalRobert »

LarryDarrell wrote: post #252
sulam wrote: post #40

I wish we had the bike culture in the US that exists elsewhere. Twice in my life I have regularly commuted to work a reasonable distance by bike and each time the habit was punctuated by being hit by a car. I feel safer walking than I do on a bike here.

I bike commuted 20 miles round trip in West Michigan for a time. I stopped because I was tired of getting coal-rolled and having fast food soda cups thrown at me from cars. Bike commuting is great if you don't live near rednecks.

Or dbags in bmw's giving you punishment passes. Or people on their phones.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#343

Post by bhandziuk »

edejong wrote: post #310
bhandziuk wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were not wearing a helmet routinely I'd be so paranoid about getting hit/falling/some injury that there would be no health benefits at all. Wearing a helmet is comfortable, relatively in expensive and life saving. There is really no argument to be made to not have one on your head. I can't believe you are needing to even make a pro-helmet case at all here.

Arguments: 1. Wearing makes you less cautious 2. Car drivers think ‘you’re protected’ thus make larger risks 3. Helmets are inconvenient to carry around at your destination 4. It hampers the development of saver bicycle road situations, since ‘the cyclists are already protected’ I’m dutch, driving without a helmet since forever (started at 2 years old). Most serious accidents on the road that I know of are broken col…

Wearing safety gear should never be a crutch to lean on for you to practice unsafe acts. A helmet is there should anything go wrong and you should always be riding as cautiously and defensibly as possible.

If a helmet is inconvenient to carry around then certainly the bag full of clothes, shoes, gloves is also inconvenient but none of that should prevent you from biking.

> It hampers the development of saver bicycle road situations, since ‘the cyclists are already protected’

This honestly sounds like very faulty logic. It's like saying there's no need for stop lights because drivers are wearing seatbelts. They'll be ok.

I've fallen sideways on ice several times. Once hitting my head. I would never want to hit my skull on concrete from a ~5 ft fall because not wearing a helmet is slightly more convenient.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#344

Post by u801e »

troncjb wrote: post #156
sandover wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For this reason, I wear a helmet. But the health benefits of cycling vastly swamp the risk of death, so the helmet gain is only a small marginal difference. The person who is truly taking a risk is the person who doesn't ride a bike because of the perception that it's dangerous, and continues to be sedentary and drive a car to work. This person is literally reducing their life expectancy by years. (See links I posted…

> so the helmet gain is only a small marginal difference This is such, such flawed logic. If you are a cyclist getting hit by a car, the averages and statistics don't matter at all. If you are the cyclist getting hit by a car, the helmet is not a "marginal difference". Your protective gear matters. You need to consider the individual cyclist when you are making sweeping statements about the usage of protective gear.

> If you are a cyclist getting hit by a car, the averages and statistics don't matter at all.

But helmet design standards do. A helmet meeting the CPSC standards isn't designed to protect you in impact with a motor vehicle.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#345

Post by s73v3r_ »

dionidium wrote: post #316
s73v3r_ wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that sentence doesn't make any sense! There is precisely ZERO reason to skip the helmet!

There is ZERO reason not to wear a helmet every time you leave the house. You could trip and fall at any moment! Presumably, you're willing to accept that risk. Biking without a helmet is no doubt riskier than walking without one, but both activities are well within reasonable risk-taking range. You don't need me to tell you why I don't like wearing a helmet when I bike; you already use all those same reasons to avoi…

"There is ZERO reason not to wear a helmet every time you leave the house. You could trip and fall at any moment!"

Not even close to the same thing. By being that absurd, you clearly are not wanting to engage in good faith.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#346

Post by lmm »

parthdesai wrote: post #251
lmm wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of my commute is along more cycle-friendly routes (not separate paths, but quiet roads) but I've got a "last mile" at both ends (from home onto the route and from the route to work) that runs across quite busy main roads, since ultimately I live on one of those.

Just walk the bike for that portion of your commute?

Could do, but the stop-start vehicle traffic is still faster than walking.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#347

Post by poooogles »

alsetmusic wrote: post #178
sandover wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't ride in the door zone. Don't let cars make you ride in the door zone. Take the car lane instead. I've gone 15,000 miles safely in dense urban environments because I am heads-up about the 2 main threats: intersections, and the door zone.

> Don't ride in the door zone. Don't let cars make you ride in the door zone. Take the car lane instead. Please don’t do this. During the time that I commuted on a bicycle, it was very frustrating when other cyclists didn’t follow the rules of the road (zipping through stop signs is another example). It causes resentment in drivers. This leads to aggressive behavior towards cyclists.

>Please don’t do this.

Please do. Being doored isn't something you want to have happen to you; and can have pretty life changing results if you're unlucky.

If you're in a car and you can't pass if someones riding out of the door zone then you probably don't have room to pass anyway.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#348

Post by Tomte »

majewsky wrote: post #200
ilovecars2 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is NOT OK to go through red lights, whether in a car, on a bike or on foot. The rules are the rules and we should all abide them. It happens all the time in London where bikes go through red lights and weave through pedestrians (sometimes at speed) who are crossing the road. Pedestrians are even worse - and often walk or run across red lights and almost get hit from a bus, car or bike. It’s madness!

> It is NOT OK to go through red lights, whether in a car, on a bike or on foot. Actually, it depends. Just last week, I learned that it is perfectly legal to jaywalk in Germany, IF it does not interrupt flowing traffic or endanger anyone. Also, you must take the shortest path (orthogonal to the lanes) when crossing a road. (§25 Abs. 3 StVO) I jaywalk all the time. It's just ridiculous to wait at a red light when the…

No, it isn‘t legal to ignore a red light. How did you get that idea?

Re: One year of cycling to work

#349

Post by kazinator »

Tomte wrote: post #348
majewsky wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is NOT OK to go through red lights, whether in a car, on a bike or on foot. Actually, it depends. Just last week, I learned that it is perfectly legal to jaywalk in Germany, IF it does not interrupt flowing traffic or endanger anyone. Also, you must take the shortest path (orthogonal to the lanes) when crossing a road. (§25 Abs. 3 StVO) I jaywalk all the time. It's just ridiculous to wait at a red light when the…

No, it isn‘t legal to ignore a red light. How did you get that idea?

"Going through" a red light is not the same as "ignoring".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop

Treating a red light as a stop sign is different from behaving as if it's not there.

In many provinces of Canada, motorists can turn right on a red light after coming to a full stop.

Re: One year of cycling to work

#350

Post by SlowBro »

I don't like bike commuting. I have biked 2 miles/3.2km each way to the office for the past 16 years, at least twice a week and usually all five days. I still don't like it. Maybe I'm just a fat, lazy son of a gun? Maybe I don't have an enjoyable bike?

The commute is pretty, safe, flat, and quiet. Birds, ponds, and trees, with very few cars and no hills. The weather here is tolerable and I don't sweat enough to require a shower. The only close calls I had were at the beginning when I wasn't being careful. (There is a small section mixed with heavy traffic.)

Every time I get to the office I'm glad the ride is over, and every time I must leave to go home I don't look forward to the ride. I don't arrive invigorated, and in fact the opposite. I've lost and gained weight seemingly unrelated to the number of miles ridden.

I've had several bikes in that time but none of them really seem to "fit", nor are they very fast. I want a nice silky commuter with fenders and panniers and thin wheels but that's always pretty far out of reach from budget, and I'm not 100% convinced it will make a big difference anyway. So I stick to a Craigslist special with a backpack, with upgrades to the ride as I get money.

I remember enjoying biking so much as a kid. I would ride all over the place, and hardly a year has passed since childhood that I don't put on a lot of miles on two wheels. But now as an adult it's just drudgery. Don't know why.

And it's not just the commute I don't like. Also tried to do some trails and longer rides for fun, but it turned into the same drudgery quickly.

I don't know what else I can do. But I'll continue to soldier on with the ride.

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