I'm proud to say the 1,600th post on Bicycle Stories since Feb. 4, 2008 is also one of its best. It comes courtesy of Bicycle Stories Mom, who offers a shocking idea to keep bicyclists safe. This is her email to me tonight after reading the litany of recent posts about Tampa Bay bicyclists who have either been killed or injured on the roads around here.
Thanks Mom. This is her loving, heartfelt and shocking verbatim missive:
It's beyond awful, pitiful, heartbreaking, and just plain shameful at this point that bicyclists are being hurt and killed in a non war zone.
Where are the elected officials as sons, husbands, daughters, wives, fathers are being killed by a person using a car as a weapon.
If if were one of their family members something would be done mighty quickly.
You have to take all this data to higher officials, even Obama, because bicyclists can't go on the road fearing for their lives and family members worried.
A temporary solution might be to have an electrical device that gives off a shock when a vehicle is too close or in the wrong place. These drivers could be intoxicated, sleeping, texting, on the phone or just not paying attention. Many are rude and discourteous.
It's a situation that needs immediate attention. You can't be a one man team advocating for all bicyclists. You need fellow advocates in numbers. That's the only way it will work.
Please bicycle defensively and stay safe.
2 comments:
-rear view mirror
-reflective vest (at dawn, dusk, night)
2 inexpensive, non-cumbersome items that will make everyone a safer rider. To take it a step further, you cannot be as safe a rider as is possible w/out these. And we all owe it to ourselves, loved ones, and motorists to be the safest riders we can possibly be.
I'm with Chip on this. I've ridden many many years and all of it with a helmet-mounted rear view mirror - I wouldn't get on my bike without it. I can't count the times I've taken quick evasive action because of what I've seen coming up behind me - without having to first turn my head to look, which takes valuable time and can redirect my line of travel just that small, potentially-critical bit.
Next step for me is to improve in the 'reflective' department.
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