How to Talk to a Non-Cycling Liberal About Bicycling

Cycling itself is neither liberal nor conservative, and experienced cyclists find they mostly agree on how stuff works on and around bikes, and what to do in various traffic situations. However, non-cycling liberals seem to love to talk about bicycling, even though they (by definition) don’t actually ride bikes themselves.

However, as a matter of fact, cycling is a favored non-cycling liberal theme. Presumably, cycling will save the planet from global climate change. Most non-cycling liberals, however, are conflicted about cycling. Their ignorance leads them to get wrapped up in “us versus them” class warfare, espousing amusing views on transportation cycling, and indulging their overpowering urges towards more government control; the old notion of "better too much than too little." As a result, caution is in order so that you can talk to liberals (or non-liberals) about bicycling truthfully, without appearing on their “fascist enemies of the state” list. This caution should apply to you as a cyclist, whether you are liberal OR conservative.

 LIBERAL CYCLING CONFLICT
The fundamental difficulty non-cycling liberals have about bicycling is that while it is the mode of transportation that needs government intervention less than any other (besides walking), it also conflicts with the principle that government is a solution rather than merely a parasitic problem. As a result of the conflict, they fail to realize their well-intentioned efforts usually fail, while some of their crazy schemes go beyond failure and discourage cycling, or even maim and kill cyclists. One should be very careful about pointing this out, even to liberal cycling advocates (who are rarely ignorant of the problems). Instead, you can take advantage of this conflict to meaningfully communicate with non-cycling liberals about cycling without selling out. Just don’t get the notion that any of them will ever purchase carbon offsets from you when you ride your bike to work. I know this from first-hand experience. Non of my non-cycling liberal coworkers wanted to purchase carbon offsets from me, even to the extent that they all go to park one spot closer to the entry door since I didn't use up a parking spot and I arrived at work earlier than they did - resulting in less co-worker CO2 exhalation walking in from the car.

FEAR AND LOATHING
Liberals start out with a victim mentality. Rather than establishing facts, non-cycling liberals presume that cyclists are helpless to operate their bikes without special protection and intervention, and evil motorists (undoubtedly, fat cat bankers and the rich) are actually trying to kill cyclists. They forget our transportation system is dependent on trucks for delivery of goods (including goods for cyclists), and that private motor vehicles provide incomparable point-to-point transportation for moderate (between ten and two hundred miles) distances. Its why liberals like to drive their hybrid cars around, even while bemoaning the traffic. The cyclist as victim mentality leads them to meddle. Because few liberals really ride bikes themselves, they make things worse, arguing for things like door zone bike lanes, side paths that are crisscrossed by driveways, forgetting to get bike racks installed at destinations, and creating routes that randomly start and stop rather than integrating into any conceivably useful transportation element. Liberal politicians have it easier, since they simply pander to their constituents and bring the pork home. The liberal pols aren’t trying to actually HURT cyclists; they just mostly don’t know any better. The only politicians I have seen that looked comfortable on a bike on the road were Ron Paul (R), Betsy Price (R) and Wendy Davis (D). I'll note that Beto O'Rourke gets a pass here, as the only politician I know who had a parent killed while riding a bike, so he ought to know.

Liberal politicians compound things by making laws for cyclists to follow “for their protection.” Helmet laws, safe passing laws, and even mandatory side path laws (like Oregon) are all liberal artifacts that neglect a fundamental principle: “If you want to discourage an activity, regulate it more and claim it’s dangerous.” That summarizes the liberal approach to cycling. I'm not sure that's better than the "let's regulate people more" faction of the GOP that want to simply ban things they don't like, but it winds up having a similar effect of reducing cycling.

COMMON GROUND
Since you won’t get far by talking to non-cycling liberals about meat and potato things like educating cyclists or enforcing valid traffic laws, how DO you influence non-cycling liberals towards a more realistic view? LOOK FOR THE COMMON GROUND. While you won’t reform a non-cycling lefty by this tactic alone, you can plant some solid principles into their blathering nonsense about saving the planet with bikes.  The five principles below will get your pinko friends nodding in agreement, and maybe some will rub off on them. Small government cycling principles that even liberals can accept include:

• Worse than Benign Neglect – As a cyclist, you will no doubt know of many situations where government intervention has actively made things worse for cyclists. I am sad to report that even redneck poseurs have used the power of the state to make things worse for cyclists, but liberals are notorious for compounding rule upon rule until the poor cyclists have nothing left to do but throw their hands up. Helmet laws are one such example. I wore a helmet on my commute. If I lived in Seattle, I could not legally ride my bike without a helmet, though I could still ride as long as I wore a broken helmet backwards and unstrapped. Whether helmets are a good idea or not is not the issue here, but whether the case is clear and compelling enough (more important than things like health benefits of cycling to cite just one example) to use the power of the nanny state to mandate people wear one. If more ammo is needed, mention to your non-cycling liberal friend that helmet laws are mostly used by police to further stick it to people of color who happen to be riding a bike. If you really want to confuse things, suggest googling "Seattle Bike Helmet Law." This last item really merits another, futher post. Another example where liberal rules are worse than benign neglect are the periodic cases where you’ll get a liberal principal that bans bikes from his/her school “for the safety of the children.” When you cite these examples, MOST liberals will be nodding in agreement with you. If you need to, you can even cite cases of redneck crazies that want to use government to make cyclists stick to the sidewalk or simply restrict the right access to common public ways that has existed throughout the life of our republic. Such troglodytes are an embarrassment to the whole principle of a small, constitutional government. But that is yet another post entirely. Such scum should simply move somewhere like Russia, where they’ll be happy with authoritarian government.
• Spending on Needed Connections – Another area where you can get your non-cycling liberal friends nodding in agreement is pointing out simple and cheap bicycle and pedestrian connections that make it easier for people to get from place to place without motors. When we were growing up, good walk/bike connections were called “shortcuts.” Due to many years of misguided zoning laws and development that valued the appearance of pastoral purity more than the reality, there are now many places where it is difficult to get around OTHER than by car. While some bike projects are expensive (natural liberal darlings), these are vastly outnumbered by cases where a simple expedient of a bit of critical thought and consideration can improve life for us all. I’m sure you can come up with examples of your own. If you feel REAL DARING, you might mention, in passing, that hundreds of these connectivity improvements can be made for the price of a second-rate recreational multi-use path, or even a door zone bike lane. Shortcuts put real TEETH into the “one mile solution.” One thing you DON’T want to mention – putting AMTRAK out of its misery could fund all the quality bike projects (long and short ones alike) we might imagine and move many more people, while still saving money. Suggesting it’s time for AMTRAK to go will get you shunned - and not just by our current President. Unlike bikes, passenger rail has become entirely a creature of big government. It's sad because I really like trains, and they can make a great complement for a bike commute.
• Government Dictated Car Parking– A side effect of many years of liberal land use development rules and restrictions is the institutionalization of grossly inefficient land use (ironic, considering cities also invariably want higher density). Cities require lots of parking spaces nowadays, and only recently have these wise governmental bodies begun to consider bicycles. When your friend drives you to the mall in his/her Prius, you will have no trouble pointing out how simply and unobtrusively merchants COULD have accommodated bicycles instead of designing to discourage same to comply with government edicts. Your friend might not ever ride a bike, but will nod knowingly, and might begin to see parking in a less ignorant fashion from behind the windshield (trust me, even liberals don’t drive Yugos any more). In reality, bike parking is less a matter of government intervention than teaching people to see what is already available and how it can enhance their customer base. If you give businesses equal credit for bike spaces as for car spaces, you’ll see a lot more bike spaces.
• Discriminatory Laws and Police Teaching – Liberals will generally be receptive to the observation that there are many laws that actively discriminate against cyclists. I could do a whole post series on a small sampling of such. What’s more, while I hate to say it, most liberals will also be receptive to the concept that police are out to get cyclists. In reality, police (and even prosecutors) rarely actively persecute cyclists. Instead, bicycles are a minor element of law enforcement duties, most police drive lots of miles in cars, and cyclists are viewed as adults playing with toys; collectively, this leads to a general ignorance of bicycling law and safe cycling practice. NONE of the officers that testified against Reed Bates had any dedicated bicycle law training and none of them knew the principles of how to safely operate a bicycle in traffic.  You’ll get your liberal friend agreeing with you based on his/her prejudice against law enforcement, but you will not have to fudge the truth to obtain the agreement.
• Smart Cyclists SHOUT OUT – Most liberals will either give you a blank look or recoil in horror at the notion that cyclists should learn to operate bikes safely and within the law (the EDUCATION principle espoused by the Bike League). It simply won’t register that this might be more important than simply adding another door-zone bike lane. Liberals will, however, happily agree that cycling education should be more readily available to people, and that the government is not doing its part in this regard. It is simple truth that schools don’t teach kids safe cycling as a part of PE classes. What’s more, most any liberal will agree that educated cyclists will advocate better. The only thing you’ll need to be very careful of in this regard is in avoiding any suggestion that cyclists are generally anything other than innocent victims, that maybe many people on bikes need the education even more than the average motorist, or that butts on bikes might not be the best idea if those NEW butts are completely clueless. Most of all, you should avoid mentioning that smarter cyclists are much pickier about getting ONLY infrastructure that doesn’t put them in added danger. THAT, my friend, would be good for ALL cyclists.

IN CONCLUSION
It isn’t really hard to talk to a non-cycling liberal about bicycling. Most liberals tend to think of bicycling as a liberal activity, so that’ll work to your advantage, as long as you don’t try to claim cycling isn’t dangerous, or that you can go places even if nobody painted special segregated facilities on the road (sometimes it’s actually easier without that paint).

Only a Fool and No Fool

A few days ago, I was headed north in Ocean Shores and, what to my wondering eyes did I see other than someone on a bike headed against traffic. Now, that is not totally unusual by itself, but the wrong-way dweeb had a dog on a leash running alongside his bike. I thought about yelling out, but then the missive "only a fool argues with a fool" took hold and I simply shook my head in wonderment about whether the guy would fall due to the dog diverting his front wheel, due to the dog darting toward a nearby dear just as oncoming traffic approached, or simply due to some other cause. In any event, it did not seem like a teachable moment. I consoled reflecting on how cycling is fun and safe, even when practiced by someone completely clueless.

Yesterday and today, I saw more intelligent actions. Yesterday, I came across a black bear about three blocks from my Ocean Shores house. The bear saw me shortly afterwards and took off, not wanting to tangle with an apex predator on a Schwinn Cruiser. Today, the same thing happened when I encountered a coyote just south of our local IGA Grocery. These two were no fools!

For the record, the bear looked well fed. The coyote not as much, but not emaciated either.

Bicycle Connections

Google Maps Satellite View of Where Patrick Francis O'Rourke was Killed on his Bicycle in 2001

As my loyal reader knows, Beto O'Rourke ("e" as in prounounced in the word "President," not "e"as pronounced in the Canadian word "eh') is from Texas and has announced a run for President. This post, however, is not about Beto. This post is about Beto's dad. 

Most people do not know that Beto's father, Patrick Francis O'Rourke, was an avid cyclist - AND a politician. Pat sent a "payment due" bill to Ronald Reagan's US Government in 1986 for reimbursement to El Paso, and was Jesse Jackson's 1988 Texas Campaign Chair. In his day, in his mostly Latino area, Pat was known as the "Tip O'Neill" of El Paso politics. Like our current President (and Ronald Reagan before him), Pat was a lifelong Democrat that became a Republican - in Pat's case, finding what he considered a better way occurred sometime before 1992. But I digress.

In 2000, Pat O'Rourke made a cross-country trip on his recumbent bicycle from Oregon to New York. Pat blogged about it on the Stanton Street Blog,  which Amy O'Rourke, (Beto's wife) sold in 2017. I was unable to find Pat's original bike posts, and a search on it for "bicycle" revealed nothing. Perhaps my loyal reader can find something. I will update this post if I make a later discovery. My loyal reader might also contact Stanton Street to see if they want to 'fess up and repost.

Unfortunately, Pat's cross-country bike trip is not the end of the story. After Pat got back to El Paso, he continued to ride until one day in early July 2001. On that day; a day like many others, Patrick Francis O'Rourke was riding his bicycle near Artcraft Road and Westside Drive. The intersection is about a block from the New Mexico border on the western outskirts of El Paso. Somewhere nearby, Pat was struck from behind by a motorist and killed. I don't know the crash details (newspapers called it an "accident" - some misnomers just continue on and on), and I will update this post if I find more details later.

The crash in which Pat O'Rourke was killed illustrates something that is not well understood within the cycling advocacy community, but SHOULD be. In my blog, I constantly issue the refrain that "the danger is from ahead" and my refrain is true - in urban areas that have intersections, driveways and other hazards, and even more so in these places when the cyclist is controlling his or her lane in accordance with good practice. However, My refrain is NOT nearly so true on high-speed rural roads, such as that where Pat O'Rourke was killed. Statistically, "from behind" collisions are rare, but they have a very high fatality rate because of the sheer energy with which the cyclist is impacted when hit by a heavy, high speed motor vehicle, or even a protrusion from a motor vehicle such as a side mirror.

Hit-from-behind collisions are more common than in the past because more cyclists take long, country rides - they don't like urban traffic. Shoulder riding on a highway reduces the likelihood of a collision because it can be avoided by the simple expedient of the motorist staying within his or her traffic lane, but all the reflective material on the back of police cars and fire trucks, and all the mirrors cyclists and motorists swear by, do not obviate the fact that any highway shoulder is a dangerous place, even if one arrived there in a heavy motor vehicle. Lots of cycling advocates and traffic engineers have  gotten enamored with the notion of "protected" cycling lanes to reduce "hit from behind" fatalities, but cones, lane dots, rumble strips, any of their variants, or low curbs won't protect a cyclist on a rural highway that is in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Protecting non motorized road users on high speed country roads is something that we, as a society, have not really even BEGUN to come to grips with. Even John Forester relates fearful journeys he made on such roads when traffic got heavy.

Beto doesn't speak about his father much in public, though his father was also a politician. Beto shares the middle name of "Francis" with his father, grandfather, and great grandfather, and his childhood nickname avoided confusion within the family. After Beto's rebellious youth, in which he acted more like George W Bush than any other recent President, he came back home to El Paso and delivered the eulogy at Pat's funeral. Two links to stories involving Pat may be found here and here. Patrick's grave memorial including his obituary may be found here.

From now on, when I hear people try to denigrate Beto by calling him "Robert" or even more, by calling him "Francis," I will inwardly smile at how they are ignorantly honoring his immigrant family, or his cyclist father. From a Facebook image at left, taken from one of the links above, you can see Pat and Beto.

Patrick O'Rourke's life is memorialized here. At that site, you can also trace his ancestry back at least into Ireland. Cycling may be fun and safe - but we should remember that there are unexpected occasions when it is NOT. Be especially careful on high-speed, narrow, country roads where at least SOME motorists do not expect a cyclist or anything else to "suddenly" appear in front of them...

Pay Attention to Motorcyclists

From Youtube

This morning, I saw a motorcycle video that has direct application for how we bicyclists can better operate more defensively (safely) on the road. The video is embedded at the top of this post. While I think the whole video is well worth a watch, it gets down to brass tacks about 2:07 in.

The video, at top, concerned how motorcyclists might operate in order to reduce the liklihood of a motorist up ahead pulling out or making a crossing turn (left turn for us in the US or right turn for our compatriots that operate on the wrong side of the road). I don't know if it might help with following traffic. I suspect not.

This accident is often called the "SMIDSY,' (Sorry Mate, I Didn't See You). The counter to this was termed the "SIAM" (SMIDSY Identification and Avoidance Maneuver." While cyclists ususally ride slower than motorcyclists, most of the other items in the video apply. I've experienced SMIDSY situations myself, such as one related here. The video does not address the greater probability of experiencing a SMIDSY in the dark. It DOES touch on high vis vests, noting that they might add to biker camaflage by breaking up the biker's outline. I'm not sure breaking up the outline really hurts visibility, but it's a point I'd never considered before.

At bottom is another video, focused purely on the SIAM - which the videographer calls the "SMIDSY Weave." The relevant maneuver starts just twenty seconds after the start of the video. It was made in the US so the sightlines are more what I'm used to seeing. It DOES help if we pay attention to motorcyclists!

Battle of Cars

Readers that have ever perused the comments on pretty much any news article about bicycles has seen sentiments similar to “in the battle between cars and bikes, the cars always win.” Presumably, that gives some superior right to the road to those cars. Actually, more accurately, it gives superior rights to the operators of those cars. These commenters clearly have not thought things through very thoroughly, since in any battle between a car and an 18 wheeler, the car is always going to lose, just as it would if going into battle against an M1A1 Abrams Tank. Mostly, they forget that the roads are for all users. Not merely the fast (like Jaguars) or big (like giant trucks).

Moss Shadow of the Dear Departed Post Office Bike Rack

Earlier this week, I saw the outcome of a battle between a Toyota Camry and the Ocean Shores Post Office. The Camry, after jumping the curb and colliding with the slow-moving building, clearly was the loser, though the Post Office suffered significant damage as well. The BIG losers, as is sometimes the case when motorists lose control, are cyclists. You see, before hitting the post office, the Toyota completely obliterated the bike rack in front of the post office. It was not a very good bike rack – the wheel bender type. Had it been a solid “wave” rack, it might have saved the PO from thousands in damage. I have never used the rack, instead either parking my bike in the lobby, wheeling it inside, or simply parking it next to the entrance. I’ve never seen anybody else use the rack either. As an aside, while I didn’t meet the Camry owner, the car had a handicap placard. I was told that the driver had no license or insurance, though I have no way to confirm that. Tell THAT to commenters that want to require cyclists to get licenses and insurance even though they represent only a tiny danger to other road users.

                                                                                          

View of How Far the Toyota Made it Into the Post Office

Still, as I left the PO, I was unable to resist commenting – “I’m sure glad I didn’t have my bike parked at THAT rack!” The next morning, when I came back to take photos for this post, I also noticed a bit of motorist humor had been added to the carnage in the form of a note, complete with a smiley.

Proof that Even Motorists Have a Sense of Humor!

PS: The thought just occurred to me that when the Toyota as starting up, the safest place to be riding a bike was in the parking lot, right BEHIND the Toyota. Rantwick's mom would not be pleased...

Beyond Advocacy

I've often said on this blog that I am "NOT AN ADVOCATE." That's because many, if not most, advocates strike me as people with their hands held out for money that may or may not make things any better at all for cyclists. LAB is merely one of many in this regard.

Still, there are lots of things that each or any of us can do to make things better for cyclists in big or small ways. Good words about new bike racks is one thing I noted here. The bike racks in question were not optimal, but they WORK and are a lot better than anything any of their competitors provide. Similarly, not too long ago I got told that McDonalds did not allow cyclists to go through their drive-through line. The first time I went through, I had no problems. The second time, I was told I could NOT be served "for your safety". BS - if it is dangerous to have a drive through, the business in question should not have one. I have not noticed stories about carnage in McDonalds drive through lines, though I HAVE seen stories about SUVs driving up on sidewalks. In the receipt I got (after going inside), I took the opportunity to indicate that I did not appreciate them groundlessly shutting out cyclists. I got a personal phone call from the franchise owner and, probably because I requested one, a follow-up email.

In many cycling forums, you hear a lot of "advocates" whining that McDonalds is opposed to cyclists. I have NEVER seen any of these whiners get an "official" response. You can see what I got below. IMO, this is beyond advocacy, and it didn't cost the taxpayer a single penny.

Daily Uncommon Courage

Ebola Virus, from Wikipedia

Pretty much everywhere on the news lately is that Ebola has emerged in the DFW Metroplex. Somewhat lost amongst all the coverage are the stories of courage. That courage comes from the nurses who are the ones on the very front of things. Nurses are on the front line, every day. It's always been that way. If you live, thank a nurse.

 

Nurses are the ones who form the first and most visible caregivers for anybody who has to receive any sort of serious healthcare. Less well known is that nurses also seem to become the first “people to blame” when things get out of hand. In the case of the Ebola case in Dallas, the first thing we heard was a “breach of protocol” when we heard that a “hospital worker” (AKA nurse) contracted the disease. It was MUCH later when it leaked out that there really was no effective protocol in place, and that there was no effective equipment in place for several days after an active Ebola patient came for care. The nurses and other staff were constantly exposed to fluids from the patient, for at least a couple of days. Confirmation that this was the case came when the CDC approved air travel for a nurse that had been exposed. Now, even the hospital claims that CDC protocol changed quite a few times. Well, duh. A month later, we're finally actually GETTING a protocol in place.

 

There is a lot of hysteria going about now. Schools with no real danger are closing. Politicians are pontificating. The airline is disinfecting a plane. News programs are feeding the frenzy - panic, as always, feeds journalism. In the meantime, nurses continue to do their jobs and, really, mostly go beyond the call of duty. Daily uncommon courage. The two nurses that cared for the Ebola patient and now have Ebola KNEW they were in serious danger before they cared for the patient. They KNEW they didn’t have all equipment that might have reduced their risk. However, they had a patient in need and they cared for him anyway. It’s what nurses do. I’d be proud to be half as brave. If we are lucky, they’ll be the only two infected. However, I’m totally sure that many other nurses went into harm’s way as well. Mostly, we’ll never know their names unless they contract Ebola. Let's pray that few more are taken.

 

Let's keep things straight:

• NO nurse violated any established patient care protocol that anybody has documented
• NO nurse traveled in violation of what the CDC approved
• NO nurse spoke as a member of hospital, government, or other sort of management
• NO nurse union was present at any of the actual events that we're now hearing about in news reports
• NO member of management, nurse union, or government has gotten infected
• Nobody that urged the public not to overreact has gotten infected, not even "Judge" Jenkins
• Hysteria and groundless fear don't help anyone

Full disclosure: my wife is a RN that used to be in critical/intensive care, and was later in hospice care. She got left exposed by two hospitals, and we were fortunate she never got blamed or dead due to those actions. Her experience is no exception. It is a common situation, since hospital management would prefer that the blame not fall on themselves, nor the doctors that drive their tenure. As I stated, amongst nurses, courage is common daily. Keep that in mind if you ever get sick. Salutations are in order…

 

The Nurse Speaking had her PPE AFTER the Caregivers that Contracted Ebola Showed Symptoms. What about THOSE Who Cared for the First Patient?

New Mexico Quickly

Looking at Texas From New Mexico. Glenrio's Seen Better Days

Recently, we made a little road trip and spent time in New Mexico on the route. We mostly avoided freeways, except for a stretch where I-40 provides good access to remnants of Historic Route 66. Always a sneaky one, I suggested that we pass through Los Alamos, site of the legendary blog “LosAlamos Bikes.” Unfortunately, thunderstorms were passing through the area and so my wife vetoed the detour.

Back Before the Interstate, You Might Have Stopped Here Before Crossing into New Mexico

Going from Texas, the tour begins with the border town of Glenrio. One might have stopped at a café or purchased gas on the Texas side of the border. The motel closest to the border was seen as the “Last Motel in Texas” if you were looking from the Texas side or as the “First Motel in Texas” if you were standing on the New Mexico side of the border. Apparently, all the gas stations were on the Texas side of the border because Texas gas taxes were lower. On the other hand, all the liquor was on the New Mexico side because it was a “dry” county on the Texas side. I was also somewhat surprised to hear about the “Glenrio Historic District” from the NPS website. One wonders how you have a historic district in an unincorporated town that has two inhabited houses and a dog.

 

San Jon Gas Station's been Long Closed Based on the Size of the Tree

Anyway, in New Mexico as you head west is the little town of San Jon. As you can see, some of these places have been declining for many years. The tree at the gas station was growing out of where they used to have a gas pump mounted. San Jon has held on better than Glenrio, with 300 souls remaining after the freeway bypassed it.

 

Tucumcari's Got Lots of "Still Open" Route 66 Architecture

Further west is “Greater Tucumcari.” Tucumcari was and still is one of the larger towns in eastern New Mexico. It was a rail stop, still is a county seat, and there are lots of “Route 66” sights. Still, the city has visibly declined in the last decade. When we moved to Texas, we stayed at the “Payless Inn.” It was not too wonderful a place, but “Tripadvisor” and “Yelp” and various other sites were not available on the road in those days before smart phones. As you can see, the motel never fulfilled its promise to reinvent itself as the Taaj, and it recently burned to the ground. What’s more, we saw two other buildings in Tucumcari that also burned down.

 

Motel We Stayed at on the Outskirts of Tucumari - It was Bad Then, but Worse Now

We also stopped in Las Vegas. Nope, we weren’t hoping to visit some “History Channel” reality show, but Las Vegas is an underrated place that has a much nicer central plaza than “Sundance Square” in Fort Worth. It has real history, as a(probably of several) place where Kearney proclaimed that New Mexico would henceforth be part of the USA. There used to be a water tower in the plaza where three outlaws were hanged/shot by vigilantes, but I didn't see it, so it is probably gone. It is a mostly well preserved and enjoyable piece of the “old west.” Las Vegas is fairly poor, based on the number of pawn shops and a continuing slow decline in population. For those that aren't really excited about seeing where outlaws got hanged, Las Vegas is also the locale where the motorcyclists met Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider, and it was INVADED in the original Red Dawn movie (I guess New Mexico looks more like Colorado than Colorado)!

 

Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas - Across the Street from the Plaza

Well Maintained Las Vegas Main Drag - with Someone Going Through a Trash Can - Probably NOT a Former Dodge City Gang Member

The “Star” of New Mexico for tourism (at least in summer when there's no skiing at Taos) is Santa Fe. Santa Fe is the capitol of New Mexico and has about twice the population of Olympia in Washington State. For those that are not familiar with its history, it was well established when the Dutch first stepped foot on Manhattan Island and when the Pilgrims came to New England. I found the St Francis railroad crossings to be VERY interesting and worse than Khal portrayed them on his blog. The first time I encountered the distance between the “place to stop” and the actual intersection, we were confused and had a discussion about whether we were properly stopped or if there might be another place to stop that we hadn’t been informed about. Railroad crossings at shallow angles are rare enough that I can’t say I’m totally surprised that people on bikes get whacked or trapped. I imagine motorist collisions are not rare either.

 

Some Crossings Aren't Good for ANY Road (or Trail Users) - Images from Google Maps

 

 

Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe - it is NOT near St Francis Drive!

We Stayed in a Very Nice Old Motel that Starred in a 1989 Documentary that Still Draws German Tourists

Motoring along further we went through the “four corners” area, saw the majesty of Shiprock (and the little town named same, and enjoyed the beauty of southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado.

Shiprock in Northwestern New Mexico

 

Out of New Mexico and into Utah

 

May Musings on Fearmongering

Sometimes it disturbs me when groups use unwarranted fear to push cycling improvements whether those are warranted or not. Mostly this involves stoking fear of automobiles. As if the automobiles were at fault rather than poor or deranged drivers. Absent impaired (physically or psychologically) motorists, this is mostly not justified for even minimally educated cyclists. I could name dozens of sites that play on this fear, including one that quotes the LAB President, though I don't know if they got the context right.

However, I should NOT claim that cycling is particularly safe and a LITTLE fear may be appropriate. Since I started this blog I have made three cycling-related trips to emergency rooms. None of those trips involved motorists or any sort of second vehicle. The first was a pulmonary embolism due to deep vein thrombosis. The second was a fall into a ditch that was dug while I was on a one-week vacation. The third happened this year on the last day of February. Put simply, I fell over in the driveway. Upon stopping, my foot got stuck in the toe clip. While that sounds minor, it kept me off my bike until I used "Bike to Work" day as an excuse to take a short ride. I followed up with an encore the next day. It hurts to ride and I'm reluctant to ride any place an emergency maneuver could be required. Like in traffic where there are things like traffic lights and stop signs and situations where one might need to get off the bike using both hands.

Since then I've been taking advantage of my pre-Obamacare COBRA healthcare. To make a long story short, I dislocated my left shoulder, badly cracking the humerus at the upper joint in the process. For reasons I do not yet know, I've lost strength in my left hand. That has an added negative effect of making me reluctant to take a motorcycling course I've signed up for (hard to operate the clutch when your left hand isn't working). It also makes it hard to work the front brake on a bike. That is the important brake.

Monday I go to another doctor. Looks like I'll not be back to Ocean Shores until late July at the earliest. I think this time, things will take a while to heal. At least I didn't have to STAY in the hospital this third time.Sigh, I guess I'm not a teenager that's made of rubber anymore...

Recent Replacement for this Toe Clip Trapped my Foot

 

Kermit Goes AWAY

The Start of the Adventure - a Failed Toe Clip Strap

Honestly, there’s not usually a lot of drama to cycling around Ocean Shores. The roads are so massively overbuilt that it is a “traffic jam” when a cyclist sees more than two cars at a single moment. There might not be much in the way of sidewalks for pedestrians, but as noted here, sidewalks are illegal for cyclists to go on anyway as I discovered recently – even cyclists that are not beyond training wheels in their appreciation of how to deal with traffic. Checking city records, the only cyclist injury was one in 1982 where a child fell while attempting to follow the city “extreme right” mandate. Like a lot of cyclists, I experience some trepidation whenever I see a police SUV, but again, like most, the police are not targeting cyclists the way they do in New York City and my blood pressure soon drops.

Still, there ARE a few dramatic moments around Ocean Shores. Yesterday and today, I experienced aggressive motorist honking, FREEZING conditions, and the temporary loss of Kermit, my own honking companion. All this was prompted by the failure of a bicycle component. The story follows:

First off, you can see how my toe clip strap failed. It did yeoman duty over 40 years, but the leather finally gave up the ghost. A new one is on order from Amazon (there being NO local bike shops) and my trip to the PO Box led to the SECOND moment of drama.

Kermit's GONE!!!!

You see, Kermit went away. For those “not in the know,” Kermit is my little frog squeaky that gives a bit of whimsy to my bike. Kermit has various moods, ranging from happy to “Rantwick Mad.” Kermit disappeared somewhere after I stopped at the IGA for the daily grocery additions. After a moment of indecision about whether to abandon Kermit to its fate or to go back, I did the right thing, retraced my route, and discovered Kermit back on Chance a La Mer near the IGA. Later, I was to discover Kermit had been hit by a motorist, but all in good time.



Kermit's Recovered - and Smiley

I took advantage after the Kermit recovery of taking a couple of “Kermit’s Missing” shots, which is when I witnessed the motorist honking. Momma Deer was in the road, waiting for her growing fawn when a motorist came along and felt the need to honk at her. She stood her ground, looking back, then moved a bit forward and the motorist then made a full lane change and passed. Soon, baby came bounding along and they both left the roadway. Based on news reports, a dozen or more deer have been hit by motorists recently, so a honking episode is not as offensive as it might initially appear.

Momma Deer Waits For Her Faun as a Motorist Honks

After all this adventure, I got home and discovered even more. As seen below, it looks like Kermit was run over by the tires of a motorist. It isn’t possible to tell if it was a Nissan Rogue motorist attempting to relive fantasies shown in NFL commercials or some other, but Kermit seemed little the worse for wear. Personally, it is the closest call I’ve experienced since here.

Kermit After Getting Hit by a Motorist. Looks Like he's gonna Recover

This morning, it was freezing. That may not appear amazing to my loyal reader from points east of Ocean Shores, but it WAS the first time I’ve seen ice since I came back from North Texas.

Freeze at Ocean Shores Golf Course

 

Ace Hardware adds Proof that OS is Cold - Brrr! GO SEAHAWKS!

 

SWSS is Different Here



This SWSS Candidate Really IS a Deer!

Cycling writing tends to have its very on jargon that is mysterious to those not “in the know.” One example is the term “SWSS.” Most often it stands for “Single Witness Suicide Swerve” in which a crash occurs where the only survivor – a motorist, states that the cyclist mysteriously swerved in front of that motorist. Of course, the motorist is normally “unhurt” and when the crash also occurs in conjunction with fleeing from the scene, the motorist sometimes claims to have thought he or she “hit a deer.”

Well, that thought carries more credibility in Ocean Shores, where deer are more common than cats and dogs combined. Kermit warns them as I barrel along. I’ve seen what happens when a deer runs into a vehicle. 1967 Jaguar E Type Coupe and the deer hit the A post pillar on the driver's side. Nasty…

Cycling Drops in North Texas

The House from "Nightmare on Pecan Street" - Halloween 2012

I read a lot of cheery stories around the USA how cycling is UP, UP, UP. Well, looking back to just three years ago, I can tell you that really isn't true, at least in North Texas. THIS house led me to the horrific discovery.

For those that are not even more observant than Sherlock Holmes, I made a post about the above house, located on Pecan Street in Bedford as Halloween approached in 2009.  The post is HERE. The photo below was from that post. This year's display is completely different at this house than it was three years ago. Somehow, these people (if that is what they really are) put up a bigger and new display every year.

Pecan Street House in 2009

But I digress from the subject. You see, in that very same post, I included a search using Google Trends in which I discovered that the search term VAMPIRE is ten times as popular as the search term CYCLIST. That was bad enough, but Texas ranked number seven in how popular vampires were, while it was not too high in ranking cyclists.

After looking at this, I decided to see how things had changed. And they've changed a LOT. Unfortunately, for my loyal local reader, the news is not good. The diagram below shows the same search today. Texas has moved from number six in Vampire share to first in the ENTIRE USA. Texas may not be known as a cycling Mecca, but it appears to have become the "Vampire State." Next you know, they'll be building the "Vampire State Building" in downtown Dallas as the husks of poor deceased cyclists are blown about in the wind; all the blood sucked from their poor bodies.

Yup, things are NOT looking good for cycling around here. In a faint attempt to cheer y'all up, I'll part by saying "Ride Happy Clear Across Texas," though I'm not sure if that has any conceivable relevance to this post.

Watch for Tricky People on Bikes

Approaching Bellaire Elementary from the North. Today's Subject Passed Through the Intersection About Where the Middle Car Is
Nowadays, There's a Traffic Signal Instead of the Stop Signs. At Least He had a Green for THIS Intersection

In any given situation, the safety of someone on a bike depends on his or her actions and the actions of other road users. This morning, on my commute to work, there was a guy on a bike going southbound down Bellaire a bit north of Bellaire Elementary School. He was hugging the right edge where the gutter pan meets the traffic lanes. Before long, he sort of wandered across the street, more or less in the middle of the left turn lane as he went into the intersection at Bellaire. He proceeded to ride down the street; now headed south in the northbound lane. After a couple of blocks, he zipped up onto the sidewalk, still headed against traffic. He rode along the sidewalk at about 18MPH; almost as fast as I was going on the road. It was fascinating to watch his driveway/intersection crossing technique –keep the head straight and keep going. Any motorist, however diligent, coming from one of the side streets, would have had no chance to avoid him. Any pedestrian approaching from the side would have gotten smacked. After a couple of more blocks I was far enough ahead that the show came to an end. Not long after, I arrived at the red light at Highway 10.

The Red Light at Highway 10. Back When it was Dark When I Got There
Today's Scofflaw Was ANOTHER Guy on a Bike. He Crossed on the Left Sidewalk
and Swerved Through the Highway Traffic

For an encore, while I was waiting for the light to change, along comes “clueless wrong-way sidewalk rocket guy,” who shot through the red light off of his wrong-way sidewalk, across three lanes of traffic and a left turn lane, threading through oncoming westbound motorists on Highway 10 that were naively expecting that their green light meant “GO” instead of “watch for a person running the red on a bike.” Though I knew it was NOT a teachable moment, I couldn’t help myself and yelled “it’s a red light!” in his direction. I admit it, sometimes I forget you’re supposed to watch for people on bikes, not yell at them. This guy then proceeded to ride eastbound along for the better part of a half mile on the left side of the left lane of a highway with a 50MPH speed limit before swerving across three traffic lanes in order to hop onto a sidewalk off to the side of the road. Lots of eastbound motorists got to watch this tricky guy. They all avoided him – THIS time. Cycling really IS safe!

One popular explanation for “safety in numbers” promoted by Jacobsen and many advocates is that motorists watch for bikes better when there are more bikes. I’d like to propose an alternate reason since I don’t see how ANY amount of added motorist diligence would help this tricky bike guy. Isn’t it more likely that with added bikes on the road, people on bikes have more opportunities to observe and simply ride less dangerously? Wouldn’t that result in lower crash rates? Motorists are trained NOT to run into things they see. That’s true whether that object is a bike, a parked car, a pedestrian, or even stuff floating in the wind. West of Amarillo, I was amazed to see motorists swerving all over the road to avoid running into tumbleweeds blowing across the highway. I suppose it is POSSIBLE that they were watching for tumbleweeds because there WERE a lot of them blowing across the road, but I doubt it. Avoidance training runs deep and it kicked in for the Motorists on Highway 10 this morning. Simply put, if the fraction of bikes shooting through intersections going the wrong way drops dramatically, the fraction of people killed doing such things will also drop. Maybe if people doing dim bulb stuff get yelled at by many more cyclists, they'll catch on.

Heading North, This Morning, the Guy on the Bike Would Have Been Headed Straight Towards Me

Certainly my loyal reader can think of other reasons for improved safety with added numbers – “with more bikes, traffic engineers stop ignoring bikes” is a personal favorite, but reduced DANGEROUS behavior seems more reasonable than others getting better at anticipating and avoiding that DANGEROUS behavior.

My Track This Morning, With Bellaire off to my Right. Rocket Guy was Headed the Same Way Two Lanes Over to the Left

Helmetlessly Hurting

Yesterday, I wasn't wearing my helmet. I knew that not wearing it exposed me to the risk of a brain injury. I, too, have read the newspaper scare comments about cyclists eating (or is it drinking?) through a straw and (insert your favorite troll comment here). I've even hit my head before. As is usual in such cases, the event was totally unexpected, though foreseeable to any dispassionate observer. To modify a phrase to better suit the collision in question: "When an engineer and a filing cabinet collide, the cabinet always wins." Though, in my own defense, the cabinet suffered a dent and thus did not get away totally unscathed. When I donned my helmet for the ride home, I felt that cabinet's pain all the way home. Ditto for the commute today. Luckily for where I work, it did not QUITE rise to the status of a recordable incident. Darn that Safety Pyramid!

Encore Last Post of the Old Era and More



Rim Strip Better Than Velox

I really did not plan to do this. What, you might wonder, is "this?" Well I would LIKE to talk about the direction I'm going to take this discussion, and how I've noticed that the vast majority of the 722 posts I made before today have a lot of cycling educational content and how I'm going to be looking for volunteer help to pull this all together into a step-by-step way to transform people from being "people on bikes" to the higher condition of "cyclist."

But all that will have to wait a little bit. You see, unlike my usual routine of fun and safe riding to work, this morning was, well, not any of those things. It was, however, memorable. As I told my wife when I called - "I don't think I got hurt." I didn't know at that point how much further things would go.

Everything started pretty normally. After a mile, I turned on to the half mile of bike path that is on my commute. It is poorly designed, but I still view it as a pleasant interlude, because it is more pastoral than the rest of my route. This morning, on that bike path, suddenly I was flung 15 or so feet off to the left of the trail and my elbows were on the handlebars as I tracked through the grass. For a brief moment, I thought I might go over the bars. Luck and good bike handling skills got things back under control and back on the path. With TWO flat tires. Even a cyclocross bike handles poorly with both tires flat. Looking back, I saw no obvious cause for the incident. I hoofed it home. I had a spare tube but that wasn't going to get me back on track with what were most likely pinch flats - on tires that had over 100psi in them beforehand. Sure enough, I saw a large brown rock in the path that my mind had probably registered as a leaf. Lesson learned the hard way. Actually, it was a lesson learned once again since I'd fallen on that same trail during the 25 feet of it I ride on the way home. On Valentine's Day.

February 14, About Five Minutes Before My LAST Bad Path Encouter

Well, I made it back home and didn't even notice my wonderful wife's futile attempts to find out if I was in shock or whatever. Maybe a little bit of shock. After all, it isn't every day that you simultaneously almost get thrown off your bike and get two flat tires.

Upon my return, I diligently set about reducing any familial sympathy by grumping at anybody around. I also replaced the offending tubes. In my hurry, I pinched one of the tubes, raising my flat total to three. Two front flats and one rear.

One nice aspect of all this was it was fully light by the time I set out again. What's more, I swooped by that brown "rock that looked like a leaf" with fierce abandon. I even started go get a little cocky and snapped a photo of the scene where "green Escort boy" felt it necessary to yell at me as I waited for a stoplight.

What, Exactly, Does "Teal Escort Guy" Expect Me to do at This Intersection?

Well, it wasn't over yet. While I waited at the light, I heard a sickening "bang" and my rear tire lost its air. Apparently, that tube had gotten pinched just enough to get me about three miles before giving up the ghost. Score at this point was two front flats and two rear flats.

At this point, I was out of spare tubes and out of time to get to work. While I don't often give up, four flats in one morning got me to call my wonderful wife for a ride. I admit it. I'm weak.

Fourth Flat. I Give UP!