The Bike Blog

According to an article from the Islington Tribune, 21 cyclists were been killed in accidents involving lorries in London between January 99 and May 2004, 85% of which were women.

Velorution suggest that this odd statistic is because women tend not to ride as aggressively as men, and therefore are more prone to being forced to the side of the road or hit by lorries. Whatever the reason, they are spot on with this;

But we are aware that as a society we cannot and should not expect everyone to reach quickly a high degree of confidence on the road. It is the duty of traffic authorities to protect vulnerable people from the violence and intimidation of bullies on wheels.

I’ve recently started writing for Treehugger, and my first post, on how pollution affects cyclists, is up now. Head on over and have a read.

Give Cyclists Room is a campaign to make drivers more aware of cyclists. If motorists were more aware, then the number of accidents and near-misses could be reduced, and cycling in the city would be a far more attractive proposition.

We are cyclists and citizens. We have the same right to be on the road as anyone else. The single greatest cause of accidents and near-misses is when other vehicles fail to give us sufficient ROAD-ROOM, whether it be when overtaking us too fast or too close, or underestimating our speed, then cutting across us at junctions.

Radical, ‘motorists are evil’, rants are innacurate, and don’t help anyone, but this campaign is a sensible and practical attempt to simply make drivers more aware of just how intimidating it can be to be forced towards the pavement by a car.

Cyclists and drivers are, of course, not mutually exclusive groups. If you’re a cyclist who also drives, then get one of these in the window.

A news broadcast about recent biker fatalities shocked people who knew the victim being described - because he wasn’t dead.

There’s a plaque on Shore Road where bicyclist Ivan Morales was struck by an SUV nearly a year ago. After being hurled more than 30 feet in the air, his helmet split in half. So did his skull. The NYPD and news reports said he was dead.

It seems that he was in such a bad state, that everyone had assumed he had died. Amazingly though, he survived and went back to his life, unaware of the plaque.

This raises some important issues about whether or not bike injury statistics are being correctly reported. Surely there must be crashes that aren’t recorded?

Fixie bikes have always intrigued me; no brakes, no gears and no coasting. But can you stop as quickly on a fixie as you can with a braked bike?

A bike messenger in Oregon is being taken to court because, by law, you must be able to “skid the braked wheel on dry level pavement”. A video response showing the rider doing just this has been put up on YouTube.

A no-brake fixie probably can’t stop as quickly as a braked bike in good condition, but messengers are more aware and skilled than other riders. A messenger without brakes can stop a lot quicker than a bored commuter with dull brakes, who isn’t paying attention to the road anyway.

In the UK the law says that both wheels must be braked, so it shouldn’t be an issue. Despite this, most of the messengers I see in London have fixies with one or no brakes.

This video apparently shows Dave Watson jumping over the Peloton in the Tour de France, near the summit of Col du Galibier.

The crowd and racers were lucky not to get pelted with rocks, and he was lucky to be in one piece after the fall.

If you’re going to do something like this in front of hundreds of people and video cameras, then don’t crash - you look stupid, and it hurts.