My Bike

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about bike safety in the city lately. Recently, a bicyclist in my neighborhood, George Gonzalez, got crushed by a bus just two blocks from my house at a spot that I bike past dozens of times a month. And this morning, I’m reading about a popular blogger named Adam Finley of TV Squad who was killed last week by a bus in Minneapolis. What a bummer. Hearing about this just makes me so mad. Didn’t the bus see him? Wasn’t he riding safely? Even rock stars aren’t immune. Remember Mary Hanson of Stereolab?

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know that I like to post about bikes and biking. I love my bike, it’s a sturdy ride. An old steel-framed Schwinn with a single speed on a freewheel hub. It’s got a weird LiveWrong sticker on the downtube that a previous owner slapped on the frame. He told me it was to raise awareness about bicyclists being hit by cars, but when I google it, all I get were stupid tounge-in-cheek references to another campaign.

I was thinking about covering the sticker over, but instead I am going to declare a new meaning. I want it to be about fighting the senseless carnage of road rage, careless driving and unsafe habits when bikes and cars collide. Literally. Those of us who ride around big cities on a daily basis make our best efforts to be safe (usually). I sure do. Let’s all remember to keep an extra eye out for those two wheelers while driving cars, okay? And I guess I’ll be making sure not to casually cruise through red lights anymore.
Lastly, I hate news like this because it discourages some people from getting in the saddle. We need more bikers, not less. Here are some resources and tips to help your make urban bike riding safer:

BikeSafe.com
Bike Safety Tips on Treehugger.com
Paul Dorn’s Bike Commuting Tips
Urban Cycling Resource Guide

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , ,


Subscribe to comments Comment | Trackback |
Post Tags:

Browse Timeline


  • Getting squeezed by a SEPTA bus is the worst, that's for sure. I wish the drivers would get it. It's like, "Dude! We're on the same team!" But that's not how they think, unfortunately, eh?

  • That's just awful.

    Even though Philly is crowded, the pavement sucks, and bike lanes are few, I haven't had any major scares riding my bike around the city . Oh, no, wait. I had a SEPTA bus insist on passing me on the narrow, car-lined 3rd St. right above Market. I nearly fell over and was burned by exhaust.

  • @ enumclaw - thanks for the tip, pal.

    @ Jen - I hear ya... and Fishtown, esp. ain't safe. I hate riding up and down Girard Ave. It's one of the worst.

    @ Jimmy - I ride without a helmet, too, honestly. I really should, tho. Bad move not to. I might go buy one soon, too.

  • Thanks for this sad post. I ride thru Uni of Penn everyday and do it without a helmet (stupid old school). At a certain hairy turn, half the drivers are on a cell phone with just one hand on the wheel. Tomorrow I start using the helmet.

  • I don't bike because of safety. I can't afford for my laptop to be damaged in a spill. I can't afford to hurt my right arm or hand, or be in a hospital. Especially as a person who works for myself, and moves through the world in a body that's closing in on 40 years old... Riding in Philly is quite risky. I do sometimes, but its not my primary mode of transportation. I use to love to ride everywhere on campus in college - on paths with no cars. Almost no one else biked, but I rode everywhere. Even when the brakes fell off my bike! But now? In city traffic? Forget it!

  • That's all great, and sad, and wonderful buddy, but what I want to know is, when are you joining ULTIMATE BLOGGER 3?!?!?

blog comments powered by Disqus

Creative Commons License

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

This is The Poverty Jet Set. Ride on, space cowboys!
Wordpress theme "Modicus Remix" by Zidalgo.