Aurora Firefighter on His Bike Killed by Sunblind Driver

Reported by the Denver Post on March 16

An Aurora firefighter died today after his bicycle was hit by a pickup truck this morning.

Firefighter Jason Murphy was riding his bicycle to work at 7:30 a.m. when he was struck in the 18200 block of East Quincy Avenue.

According to a news release from Aurora Police, witnesses saw Murphy using the marked crosswalk and signal lights at the intersection near Summit Elementary School.

Witnesses also reported the pickup truck was not speeding, traveling about 30 mph in the 40 mph roadway.

The driver of the Dodge Ram pickup that struck Murphy, William Nale, 49, said he was blinded by the morning sunlight and did not see Murphy or the traffic signal.

Aurora Fire crews responded, treated Murphy on the scene and transported him to the hospital with serious injuries.

Murphy passed away later in the emergency room.

CSU student Michael Mcnulty produced a video this week addressing this issue.  It's worth a viewing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCyhMrBnJXA 

Read Aloud Bicycle Books for Kids

A great way to get kids thinking about safe cycling is to read children's books aloud to them.  I've done this in bike clubs after school and in PE classes.  The younger kids, especially, enjoy this.  One book per class can bring lots of safe cycling topics into your teaching.  

Robot on a bike!

There are scores of bicycle books available to teach younger children safe cycling messages.   Your school library will have many of them.  By the time you get to 4^th and 5^th graders, there are fewer books available.  But most older elementary school children have the opportunity to read aloud to younger children.  This gives you one of the first opportunities to have children mentoring children by talking about the safe cycling behavior described in the examples presented below. 

Below is a list of  14 bicycle story books for k – 3^rd graders.  The safety messages in those books are pointed out under “Lesson” after each book description.  You can probably pick up any children’s bicycle book and apply safety lessons yourself once you have read through a few of these books.

Key messages include:  perform an ABC Quick Check on your bike; learning to ride takes practice, persistence, and patience; bicycling knows no age or gender barriers; control your speed; watch for hazards; wear a helmet; follow the rules and the law; bicycling is fun; bicycling allows you to explore; bikes can be fixed over and over;  you can learn how to fix a bike (visit your Bike Co-op to learn); etc.

K – 3^rd Grade books

Franklin rides a Bike by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark (Scholastic Inc., 1997)  Also available on DVD and in Spanish:  Franklin Monta en Bicicleta

                Part of the popular Franklin the turtle series, Franklin is faced with a common dilemma of not being able to ride a bike without training wheels.  Franklin’s friends ride but he can’t.   He gets frustrated and learns about persistence, patience and practice as he finally takes his training wheels off and learns to balance. 

Lessons:  That learning anything takes effort; magic doesn’t help; persistence, patience and practice is the best solution; Training wheels don’t help learn to balance;  learn a proper start; learn to balance without pedals; fall to the right – put your right foot down;  fall to the left - . . .

A Bicycle for Rosaura by Daniel Barbot, illustrated by Morella Fuenmayor(Harcourt Brace & Co. 1990)

                First published in Spanish (also available in Spanish)

Rosaura, a pet chicken, wants a bicycle for her birthday.  Her owner, Amelia finds a “special” mechanic to build her one - a fixed gear bicycle with no brakes. 

Lessons:  Bicycles for special needs;  Rosaura’s bike has no brakes, an opportunity to talk about the need to perform an ABC Quick Check on your bicycle (see ABC Quick Check) and what the law says about

brakes;  Rosaura wears no helmet so use your stop sign or helmet stickers to make that point with children.

Froggy Rides a Bike; by Jonathan London, Illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz (Puffin Books, 2006) Also available in Spanish: Froggy Monta en Bicicleta.

Froggy dreams of riding and flying on his new bike the day he is scheduled to go to the bike shop to buy a new bike.  He and his father go through the exercise of picking out the right bike.  Froggy falls, totters, and falls again but finally, through practice learns to ride his bike.

Lessons:  Wear a helmet;  learning to balanc;  choosing the right kind of bike among all the sizes, colors and prices; bicycle equipment (bell, horn, talk about lights).

Dora Rides to Bike Park, by Kara McMahon, Illustrated by Dave Aikins (Simon and Schuster, 2007)  Based on the TV series, Dora the Explorer. 

                The little kids like this book a lot because it has a built in bell you can let them ring.  Dora rides to the bike park picking up all her friends along the way.  Sprinkled with Spanish words, everyone can feel like they are going with Dora.

Lessons:  Everone wears a helmet,  elbow and knee pads (make the point that if you don’t fall you may not need all the pads – just the helmet);  bicycling is fun

Sally Jean, the Bicycle Queen, by Cari Best, illustrated by Christine Davenier (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006). 

                The book takes Sally Jean through several childhood years on bikes: on her mother’s bike seat, a trike, a bike with training wheels, then learning to ride, and outgrowing her bike so that the seat and handlebars both needed raising.  As Sally Jean outgrew her bike she was faced with the problem of finding a properly fitting bicycle.  And she was faced with the problem of finding the money to buy one.  The solution came when a friendly junk collector helped find the parts for her to build her own bike.  Sally Jean starts her own Bike Co-op, teaching friends and neighbors how to fix their own bikes. 

Lessons:  Passion, thrill, freedom and independence of learning to ride, to fix bikes, and to help others do the same.  Girls can do this too (in what is often a male dominated world of bike mechanics!)  The Bike Co-op theme is strong here, of people helping people discover a passion.

Duck on a Bike by David Shannon (Scholastic, Inc. 2002).

                Flashbacks to Animal Farm, duck comes up with the great idea to try riding a bike.  Success brought envy from all the other barnyard animals until an entire group of kids comes through to visit.  When they park their bikes in the farmyard all the animals get to try a clandestine ride.

Lessons:  Anyone can ride a bike, it just takes practice.  And bike riding is fun!  Wear a helmet:  when the group of kids come through two of nine kids don’t wear a helmet.  Use your Stop sign stickers or helmet stickers to enforce the value of wearing a helmet.

The White Bicycle by Rob Lewis (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1988)

                Ravi’s mother cleaned out the garage and convinced him to discard his “rusty and dirty” bicycle.  As the story unfolds, Ravi’s bike goes to the dump where someone rescues it, uses it and abandons it.  The bike goes through a number of riders until it arrives at Joe’s junk shop.  Joe cleans it, fixes it an puts it in his shop for sale.  Ravi sees the bike and asks his mom to buy it for him.  She does and Ravi is very happy since it is “a lot like his old one!”

Lessons:  Used bikes are fun;  bikes can be fixed; everyone can use a bike for transportation; visit the Bike Co-op!

The Bike Lesson by Stan and Jan Berenstain (Beginner Books, Random House, 1964)

                Part of the immensely successful and controversial Berenstain series of books about bears.  Arrogant (and idiot) Papa bear demonstrates all the wrong moves on a bike while child bear can’t wait to try out his new bike.   The book is funny, as papa bear crashes time and again for doing all the wrong things.

Lessons:  Nobody wears a helmet; lesson one, how to get on a bike;  lesson two is how to stop; watch where you are going (and anticipate hazards); watch road signs and watch for debris on the road; don’t ride through a puddle if you can’t see the bottom of it (learning about hidden potholes); control your speed going down hill;  know how to brake; pick your route carefully; keep to the right; riding with no hands; riding two on a bike (illegal in Colorado).  This book has it all.

Tillie the Terrible Swede (How One Woman, A Sewing Needle, and a Bicycle Changed History) by Sue Stauffacher, illustrated by Sarah McMenemy (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011)

                This is the story of a bicycling young woman who fought social norms to ride and race in the 1890s.  The story ends with Tillie taking on a new hobby, driving her automobile.  The book is based on the real historic character, Tillie Anderson, a young Swedish immigrant working in a tailor shop who first discovered the wonders of the bicycle and began to race in the 1890s. 

Lessons:  An inspiration to young women, this would be good for older children.  The idea is that anyone, not just men, can ride bicycles and race.  Tillie and her bridegroom marry and exit the church by bike.

Mrs. Peachtree’s Bicycle by Erica Silverman, illustrated by Ellen Beier (Simon & Schuster, 1996)

                Mrs. Peactree was tired of walking to do her shopping until one day she saw a trick bicycle rider at the circus.  It struck her that she could learn to ride a bicycle.  In buying a bike, though, the salesman tried to sell her a tricycle.  She insisted on a two-wheeler but then was frustrated when bicycling didn’t come automatically.  “Ladies can’t wheel,” said the milkman, “It takes too much concentration.”  That made Mrs. Peachtree even more determined to learn to ride a bike.  She learned and even got a ticket for going to fast.

Lesson:  Learning to ride a bicycle isn’t automatic.  It takes practice.  The idea that women or girls can’t learn to ride is nonsense.  There are rules about speed and where you can or can’t ride. 

Supergrandpa by David M. Schwartz, illustrated by Bert Dodson (Mulberry, William Morrow & Co. Paperback, 1991).

                This is based on a true story of a sixty-six year old grandfather in Sweden who was not allowed to enter a 1000 mile bike race in 1951 because of his age.  So he became a folk hero by entering clandestinely, riding through the night, and completing the ride at the same time as the other riders.

Lessons:  That even older people can ride bicycles and race them too.  The ability to ride a bicycle depends on your skill and training, not your age or gender. 

Curious George Rides a Bike by H.A. Rey (Houghton Mifflin, 1952 and 1993)

                One of the series of Curious George books this classic takes the monkey George on a fun adventure to the circus.  George’s owner/friend gives him a bike one day and advises him “be careful” . . . “and keep close to the house while I am gone.”  George’s first name, of course is “curious” so he couldn’t stay close to the house.  He helps a paper boy deliver papers but forgets what he is doing and goes exploring.  He eventually finds the circus where he is engaged as a trick monkey who rides a bike and, because he is a monkey and can climb trees, he rescues a lost bear cub who climbed the tree and can’t get down.  At the end of the story George finds his way home.

Lessons:  George doesn’t wear a helmet so be sure and ask children what’s missing and have a helmet sticker available to put on George.  Talk about trick riding and how it is fun but dangerous.  Talk about how much fun it is to go exploring by bicycle but how you have to pay attention to where you are going.

(And tell mommy and daddy where you are going when you go riding around the block.)

The Bear’s Bicycle by Emilie Warren McLeod, illustrated by David McPhail (Little, Brown and Company, 1975).

                A little boy takes his teddy bear riding every afternoon.  The bicycle rider is a very careful cyclist.  He does an ABC Quick Check on his bike before he rides.  He is careful coming out of his driveway and he signals.  He walks his bike across the street.   The bear, though is not always so careful.  The boy watches for car doors, the bear does not.  The boy watches for hazards, like debris and dogs, bear does not.  The boy keeps to the right and warns pedestrians of his approach.  He goes downhill carefully and stops at stop signs.   At the end of the afternoon he wipes his feet before entering the house.

Lessons:  Bear is the little boy’s alter ego, trying to learn all of the safe cycling behaviors described above, just as the little boy learned them as he began to ride. 

Anatole by Eve Titus, illustrations by Pul Galdone (first published by McGraw Hill, 1956; Alfred A. Knopf books for young readers, 2006)

                Anatole, the mouse, lived just outside Paris in a small mouse village.  Every evening he and the other mice fathers pedaled their bikes into Paris to find food for the family.  They used lights at night, of course.  One evening, after feeling guilty for stealing food all the time, Anatole snuck into the cheese factory where he voluntarily left notes on the quality of all the different cheeses.  Eventually, Anatole became the most trusted cheese taster in the world and the cheese factory depended on his advice.  Anatole was happy that he did not have to steal cheese, but he earned it by working as a taster.

Lessons:  The more Anatole rides every evening, the more he needs to wear a helmet.  Use lights at night.  It is fun and healthy to ride your bike to go to work (or school). 

               

Gracie Goat’s Big Bike Race by Erin Mirabella, illustrated by Lisa Horstman (Velo Press, 2007)

                Gracie Goat’s friends created a bicycle racing team to enter a bike race.  But Gracie didn’t know how to ride a bike.  She was so embarrassed to tell her friends she didn’t know how to ride that she signed up for the race anyway.  Gracie’s grandmother helped her to get over all her worries and to develop self-confidence to learn how to ride.  Gracie practiced and crashed and learned a lot.  But she entered the race and finished it!

Lessons:   You can overcome your fears if you put your mind to it.  Everything new takes time and practice.  The book ends with pictures of different kinds of bicycling competitions:  BMX, Mountain Biking, Track Cycling, and Road Cycling.  There is also a brief lesson on the importance of drinking water when you ride a bicycle.

Bicycle Program Priorities for 536 Fort Collins Citizens, January 2012

When asked to identify the bicycle programs that they would like to see funded in Fort Collins during the 2013-2014 budget cycle 536 respondents to the Bicycle Program Priorities survey ranked existing programs as shown below.

Scroll down to the next post to click through to view the entire survey results.

Bicycle Program Priorities in Fort Collins

Results for the Bicycle Priorities Survey are available at this link:     http://tinyurl.com/FoCoBikeSurvey

Survey results also allow you to click through to view an "other" comments made by respondents.

Motorist in Roundabout Comments on Cyclist Losing a Shoe

A kind letter to the editor of the Coloradoan on October 22nd expresses the opinion that there may be a better or safer route for bikes through the roundabout at Vine Dr. and Taft Hill Road.

Roundabout at Taft Hill and Vine Drive (looking west on Vine).  Note how the bike lanes disappear so that cyclists are forced to decide either to take the lane as a motorist or to go onto the sidewalk as a pedestrian.

The week after we took students through here the County put up this sign to make it clear that cyclists have two choices on how to handle this. The Larimer County website has further instructions on how to negotiate a roundabout.  

To the Editor:
I am the motorist that Rick Price noted in his Monday column. I am also the motorist who was paying enough attention to wait while a boy, who had lost his shoe, stopped in the middle of the traffic circle and got off his bike to pick it up. I know that roundabout well. Cars zip around it. When it was built, I was pleased to see that it had been designed to let the bike lanes on Vine and Taft Hill flow out of the circle, around the edge on a "sidewalk" and then back on to the bike lane. If the volunteers leading the students had scouted the route, they would have noticed this safety feature and encouraged young riders - who might not think to just leave the shoe and keep moving - to use it. It might be true that the boy had a right to be in the roundabout, but there was a safer, bike-friendly alternative available.

All that said, I am glad that Rick lends his voice and knowledge to the promotion of bicycle safety in Fort Collins.

Jane Albritton

Taking 337 Middle School Students Bicycling through a Roundabout

First published in the Coloradoan October 17, 2011

By Rick Price, Ph.D.

I began writing my Smart Cycling column in January of 2010 after several people advised me that College Avenue in Old Town “isn’t a bike lane.”  One City employee actually explained to me two years ago that it was illegal for me to ride my bike on College Avenue even though, in reality, College is open to bicyclists except from Laurel to Harmony.  Other bicycling “dos and don’ts” need clarifying as well, for both motorists and cyclists.  This column is an attempt to help clear up some of the ongoing confusion. 

Two weeks ago Bike Co-op volunteers took three hundred thirty seven Lincoln Middle School students on bicycle rides through Old Town in groups ranging in size from ten to twenty-five.  Our ride included the roundabout at Vine Drive and Taft Hill Road, a ride through City Park and the shared lane arrows on Mountain Avenue. The only real problem we had was when one student lost a shoe in the middle of the roundabout and was advised by a motorist the he “should be on the sidewalk!”  The student had every right to be in the roundabout, although I advised him to keep his shoes on next time.

Many people believe that bikes should be on the sidewalk or at least as far to the right as possible on the roadway.  This is actually wrong, since bicyclists have a responsibility to be visible and to ride on the road where they feel “safe.”  Many people still think it is ok to bicycle against traffic so they can see cars coming toward them.  This practice is both dangerous and illegal.  The erroneous ideas about where cyclists should ride come from our rural roots where we learned that cyclists were merely “pedestrians on wheels.”

Several people have commented to me that they see bicyclists signaling right turns incorrectly with their right hand extended.  This is actually legal for cyclists as an alternative to raising their left hand.

Another behavior that you might see that is illegal or inappropriate is bicycles “splitting the lane” by sneaking up along the right hand curb along a line of cars at an intersection.  This is both illegal and dangerous since cyclists can be cut off by a right turning vehicle in this position.  Boulder allows cyclists to do this as long as they stop just behind the front-most vehicle, in full view of the second vehicle.  We should think about adopting this rule in Fort Collins. 

There is still a lot of confusion out there as we mature as a bicycle friendly community.  What about those bicyclists not stopping at stop signs or lights?  Many of us wish we had the “Idaho stop law” which, since 1982 has permitted cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs and since 2006 has allowed cyclists to treat red lights as stop signs.  But that will be a while in the coming to Fort Collins and is a topic for another time.

Rainy Day Bike Education Activities for Middle School Students

What to do on a rainy day when you've got a classroom full of rowdy 7th and 8th graders who should be out on their bikes!?

1)  Rules of the Road:
Show this YouTube video of a bike/ped crash in NYC:  http://platinumbikeplan.blogspot.com/2010/11/bicycle-safety-new-york-style-how-wrong.html 
Then talk about why we have rules.

2)  Another good video, although longer, is the 1963 film "One Got Fat."  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQgAMkMmsfg

It is 15 minutes long but pretty entertaining.

3) Of course - if you have enough tires and can either demonstrate or use a YouTube video you can show how to change a tube or patch a tire.

Try to let students who have done this before lead and demonstrate.  Get them to talk about each step they go through.

There are lots of YouTube videos on this.
Here's one on changing a road bike tire:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5K-DXt9djA&feature=related

Here's another on a hybrid bike:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oFXewhx3BE

Teaching Young Children How to Ride a Bicycle

After publishing the following Smart Cycling column in the Fort Collins Coloradoan in July I recieved the following testimonial from the mother of a six year old in Fort Collins:

"I just wanted to thank you for your very informative column in the Coloradoan this summer about how to teach your child to ride a bike!

My daughter received her first bike at age 3 from Santa and the first time she fell off, she refused to get back on for 3 years....Last year she started to ride it again to school with her training wheels on and was laughed at by some of her school mates. I could see how this made her feel sad(she cried) and she was determined to try and ride without her training wheels. This was her goal for the summer but once again, she was scared to try. Last week, we took her pedals off and lowered her seat and she learned to get her balance gliding around our cul de sac for 2 days and then she asked her dad to put the pedals back on and she zoomed off like a pro! You should have seen the look of pride on her face for having accomplished this! She's eager to ride her bike every day now! Thank you so much!"

An Italian child learns to ride among the pigeons in old town Bergamo (Bergamo Alta).

 
The original column is here:
 
Parents teach their kids to balance and ride a bike but they often forget to teach them how to stop. As you might imagine, that can be a problem. Rules of the road are another important element that kids need to learn and one that parents don’t always teach.


Two weeks ago I wrote about teaching small children to ride by taking the pedals off their bike. Then I went camping in Italy’s Dolomite Mountains where we had a bungalow near the playground. I watched with amazement as a tiny German girl zipped around the playground on her perfectly fitted mountain bike. She had perfect technique, knew when to stand on the pedals to go up an incline, and hesitated only briefly when her father suggested she take the plunge down a steep incline.

When I spoke to her father about her skills I learned that she was four years old and has three years experience on bikes. Just the day before she had completed a forty-mile ride around the Sella Mountain Massif on her tag-along behind her father. That ride included four mountain passes and about six thousand feet of vertical climbing. Dad was exhausted but daughter was the most active kid on the playground.

So I asked how she developed her skills. He explained that when she was 18 months old she learned to balance on a “balance bike.” The name in German is “laufrad,” literally a “walk-bike.” Then at two and a half she switched to a bike with pedals and there was no holding her back. (Father was also proud to say that she had skied sixty-five days last winter!)

Balance bikes are a great alternative to removing the pedals from a small bike to teach kids how to balance. If you buy a balance bike, though, try and find one with a hand brake that works. If kids learn to use that before moving on to a bike with pedals, they will be that much farther along in learning how to stop. Alternatively, they will use their feet to stop which is ok, but not the best solution.

Once you do move your child to a real bicycle with pedals, teach them how to get on safely and to begin pedaling with their right foot in a power position. This is essential as you don’t want them to think that they always need to be able to touch the ground with two feet.

Kids who learn to ride at an early age will discover a freedom and independence that may drive mother crazy. So it is important that along with handling skills, they learn basic rules of the road, including, keeping to the right on the sidewalk, stopping at the edge of the road and at driveways, and stopping as well as “going.” Take them often to the park, including parks with BMX dirt tracks and lots of multi-use trails as in Spring Creek Community Park.

Parents Should Set Example for Kids in Wearing Helmets

 First published in the Fort Collins Coloradoan

April 18, 2011

by Rick Price, Ph.D.

If you are one of those parents that I see on the bike path who makes the kids wear a helmet while you pedal without one, this column is for you.  Oh yes, and you school teachers who bicycle to school without a helmet? It’s for you, too.  Kids imitate the adults around them.   If you don’t wear a helmet that tells your kids that helmets aren’t important.  

                                          Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France, July 22, 2004. 

                                          (Photo by Rick Price)

Kids are six and a half times more likely to crash their bike than an experienced adult.  Maybe parents know this.  And they may also know that almost half of children 14 and under hospitalized for bicycle-related injuries are diagnosed with a brain injury.  But do they know that by not wearing a helmet themselves they are effectively discouraging their middle school age kid from using a helmet?  In fact, only 11% of kids between the age of 11 and 14 wear a helmet. 

I believe that wearing a helmet is the last one of four things you should do and teach your kids to do in order to be a safe cyclist.  The first three things are 1) follow the rules of the road; 2) be predictable; and 3) be visible.   

In the fifty-six years or so that I’ve been riding a bicycle I can remember seven falls as an adult.  I’ve never hit my head seriously, but I’ve had a helmet on every time I’ve fallen.  I tell kids that I ride enough that I expect to fall again, despite my experience.  And with my goal of riding until I’m 90 I can’t really afford a brain injury. 

Macho, usually male, 4^th graders often tell me:  “I don’t wear a helmet; I never fall off my bike.”  I suspect that these 4^th graders are merely repeating something that they’ve heard an older male relative say. 

At one elementary school last month we invited one fourth grader into several of the PE classes to show us the scars on his face from a fall.  He had a new helmet at home that he got at a school bike rodeo.  But he didn’t have it on the day he hit a patch of gravel and took a spill.  He broke a tooth and visited the hospital but fortunately did no serious damage.

A few statistics help to make the point that kids should wear bike helmets:  1) helmets reduce the risk of a head injury by 85 percent and brain injury by 88 percent; 2) nationally only 41 percent of child bicyclists use a helmet; 3) 80% of bicycle-related fatalities among kids 14 and under are caused by unsafe bicycle behavior including riding into the street without stopping, swerving into traffic, running stop signs, and riding against the flow of traffic.

Of course, if we could just eliminate the crashes we wouldn’t need to wear helmets.  But we’re not there yet.  Please wear your helmet as an example for our kid’s if for nothing else.

Now that we have a Safety Program, Let's Get Rolling

by Rick Price, Ph.D.
First published in the Fort Collins Coloradoan March 7, 2011

City Council adopted the new Bicycle Safety Education Plan on Tuesday, paving the way for a bicycle program where before we had just a plan.

That plan for the past 15 years was to build bicycle infrastructure. We've done a great job at that and continue to do so. The plan included encouragement initiatives like Bike to Work Day, Winter Bike to Work, Light up the Night, Commuter Incentives, Bike Library and others. There was very little education in the plan, though, besides pamphlets, a website and marketing initiatives tied to our encouragement efforts. And there was even less enforcement in the plan, as our police really didn't know where to begin to reign in the scofflaws.
I am hopeful that we are on the edge of a big change.
What happened in the process of writing the Bicycle Safety Education Plan is that we saw transportation planners talking with traffic engineers, educators and law enforcement officers about how to make this a safer bicycle community. They began asking questions about where and why bike/car crashes happen and how we can prevent them through engineering solutions, serious educational outreach and enforcement with an eye to educating all road users. This important change lays the groundwork for the development of a city bicycle program.
In its 2005 report, "Blueprint for Better Bicycling: 40 Ways to Get There," Portland's Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) identified several categories of cyclists. That report has been getting a lot of traction. We should make use of it as we roll out our new bicycle program.
BTA noted that 33 percent of people won't pedal, period. Either they are too young and their mother won't let them, or they are too old, too busy or just not interested. Another 1 percent are wild-eyed cyclists who will ride any time and 7 percent are "enthused and confident" (that's me and many of you, I presume). The important number here, though, is the remaining 59 percent of the population described as "interested" but "concerned." Call them a huge pool of potential bicycle riders.
If you talk with this group in Fort Collins, you will find people who express concerns such as "I don't know what to do when the bike lane finishes," or "I'm uncomfortable with the traffic in Fort Collins," or even, "it is simply not safe to bicycle in this town."
Portland addressed similar concerns by developing bicycle boulevards - think of them as bicycle thoroughfares - on neighborhood streets. They also hold frequent special bicycle events during which they close streets to automobiles to let residents experience riding without fear of cars and to help them create new mental maps of how to get around the community. And they adopted innovative techniques to slow traffic, educate motorists and bicyclists and promote bicycling.
Education is a big part of this new direction. Let me know if you or your business would like to help.

Should we Train Fort Collins Police in the Principles of Vehicular Cycling?

First Published in the Fort Collins Coloradoan Feb. 7, 2011

My favorite story of the law and bicyclists in Fort Collins is of the time 1½ years ago, when a Fort Collins police officer stopped the then-National Collegiate Cycling champion and issued a warning for what the officer thought was an illegal left turn.

The national champion, experienced bicycle commuter and experienced bike handler was headed to work on North College Avenue, turning north from the right-most left turn lane on Cherry Street. The officer handed him a pre-printed form from www.Colobikelaw.com. The form explained how a cyclist should make a left turn by keeping to the far right, crossing with the light and repositioning himself on the far right side of the intersection to await the through light.

The officer didn't realize that the form he handed out mentioned two other legal left turn options available to the cyclist, one of which includes the use of the left turn lane, the choice of this expert cyclist.
The option identified by the police officer is the technique that we teach 12-year-olds, inexperienced cyclists or anyone in a busy intersection. At Cherry Street and College Avenue, there are two left-turn lanes, and experienced cyclists should use the right-most left-turn lane, which leads them right to the bike lane as they complete the turn.

Other oft-repeated anecdotes among cyclists are those involving officers responding to minor bike-car crashes in which the officer asks the cyclist, "Would you like me to file a report?" The correct answer to this question in all cases is, "Yes, absolutely." But this is a question that shouldn't even be asked in a bicycle community like ours.

Since 2007, the San Francisco Police Department has used a 10-minute training video to instruct police officers on the rights and responsibilities of bicyclists. Produced in cooperation with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, the video informs officers that cyclists should avoid the "door zone" near parked cars and that cyclists should take and "own the lane" on narrow streets. The video further clarifies that bikes belong in traffic, not on the sidewalk. The film explains that officers are required to file an incident report when cyclists report aggression by a motorist or any time a bike-car crash results in injury or property damage. Officers should not dissuade a cyclist from making such a report.

Pueblo and Longmont have done, or are doing, similar trainings. League Cycling instructors in Fort Collins could conduct trainings with Fort Collins Police Services. It would take just 20 minutes to show officers the film, "Bikes Belong In Traffic - SFPD Training Video," available on www.youtube.com, followed by a brief question and answer session. That should be enough to address recent revisions to Colorado Bicycle Law, dispel "safe" bicycling myths, explain what to expect from safe cyclists and identify dangerous bicycling behaviors in Fort Collins.

When can we start?

What is Your Smart Cycling IQ?

First published in the Fort Collins Coloradoan December 20, 2010

The Bike Co-op’s “train-the-trainer” program will train sixty or more community members in the basics of smart cycling in the next several months.  Why don’t you join us?  Determine your Smart Cyclist IQ by taking this quiz (answers are near the bottom). 

1) If you pass a pedestrian while bicycling on a sidewalk or trail you should:  a) yield; b) emit an audible signal before you pass; c) moderate your speed; d) all of the above.

2) The most important measurement in fitting a standard diamond-frame bicycle to a rider is: a) rider weight; b) wheel diameter; c) crank length; d) stand-over height. 

3) Colorado law requires that cyclists ride as far right as:  a) possible; b) practicable; c) they feel safe; d) none of the above.

4) How many feet in advance should a cyclist signal his or her intention to turn right? a) 20; b) 40; c) 80; d) 100.

5) A properly fitted helmet should be worn: a) tilted back to protect the back of the head; b) level, covering the forehead, with the chin strap loose; c) tilted back to protect the back of the head, with the chin strap tight; d) level covering the forehead, with both the ear straps and the chin strap tight.

6) What gear combination is easiest to pedal up a steep hill?  a) small chainring and large rear cog; b) Large chainring and large rear cog; c) small chainring and small rear cog; d) large chainring and small rear cog.

7) Optimum cadence for long-distance cycling is from: a) 25 – 50 rpm; b) 50 – 75 rpm; c) 75 – 95 rpm; d) 100 –125 rpm

8)  What is the minimum width, in feet, of a car lane that can be safely shared by a bicycle and an automobile side by side? a) 20; b) 12; c) 14; d) 18.

9) Which of the following statements is true?  Bicyclists are considered pedestrians when they a) choose to ride against traffic; b) ride their bike on a sidewalk or trail; c) are crossing the street in a pedestrian crosswalk; d) are walking their bike.

10) A white front light on a bicycle should be visible for how many feet ahead?  a) 100;

b) 300; c) 500; d) 700.

Answers:  1) d; 2) d; 3) c; 4) d; 5) d; 6) a; 7) c; 8) c; 9) d; 10) c.

If you missed only one or two questions you should consider helping the Bike Co-op teach this material.  Smart cycling is more than knowing the answer to these questions, though.  Join us for hands on practice to learn bike handling skills in Fort Collins traffic in January or February.  One Saturday class and the free online course at www.BikeEd.org will make you a smart cyclist and qualify you to help with our Youth Skills Bicycling 123 program.  For more information and to sign up for a class visit http://www.signupgenius.com/go/traffic4.

Avoiding the Door Zone: How Far to Ride Away from Parked Cars

 This video features Preston Tyree, Education Director at the League of American Bicyclists, at Colorado State University demonstrating how far we need to ride from parked cars. 

The Cyclists Eye View

This is a good video for adults, high schoolers and even middle school kids.  The League of American Bicyclists packages this film on its DVD for League Cycling Instructors and I've used it in teaching brief introductory classes to Drivers Ed Instructors on "how to drive around bicyclists."

Produced by the Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition and the City of Long Beach, Featuring League Cycling Instructor, Chris Quint from Long Beach.