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What's a worse sin for a bicyclist? Riding without helmet, without lights, riding on the sidewalk with consideration, riding on the sidewalk like it's a street lane?
I hear people get upset about helmetless and sidewalk riding, but for me it's the lights. Helmet just affects you and probably doesn't help much if you get hit by a car. I'd say it doesn't hurt, except if you're poor the $100 of a good helmet may well have higher benefit used elsewhere, and there's evidence drivers are more careful around helmetless riders -- better to not be hit than to be hit with a helmet. And I'm all for sidewalk riding given the right attitude and circumstances.
OTOH dark bicyclists piss me off as a fellow rider or as a pedestrian, and I assume as a driver too. And riding on a sidewalk carelessly, yeah that risks hitting people and stressing them out as you zoom past.
Tonight's actual near accidents as I biked to TJ involved:
* an SUV coming within 2 feet of turning into pedestrians at a crosswalk, who had a walk signal; driver was completely at fault.
* a truck, and the car behind it, that barreled through a redlight I'd summoned at another crosswalk.
* me, on a bike path, suddenly riding over I don't know what, but felt like a pile of rocks or worse. I had a light, but it didn't help.
I ended up chatting with a guy who had a "heavy moped"; I'd vented about the bad traffic (see above) and he complained about cars nearly clipping him if he tried to keep to the right, said it was worse than when he was on a bicycle. (Moped is thicker, granted; I took it for a full motorcycle.)
I'd been thinking that my front light batteries were lasting a long time, and also that the light seemed maybe dimmer. I'd been waiting for some final dropoff, but finally decided to try new batteries. Woo, amazing brightness again! But now what do I do with three partially drained batteries?
I hear people get upset about helmetless and sidewalk riding, but for me it's the lights. Helmet just affects you and probably doesn't help much if you get hit by a car. I'd say it doesn't hurt, except if you're poor the $100 of a good helmet may well have higher benefit used elsewhere, and there's evidence drivers are more careful around helmetless riders -- better to not be hit than to be hit with a helmet. And I'm all for sidewalk riding given the right attitude and circumstances.
OTOH dark bicyclists piss me off as a fellow rider or as a pedestrian, and I assume as a driver too. And riding on a sidewalk carelessly, yeah that risks hitting people and stressing them out as you zoom past.
Tonight's actual near accidents as I biked to TJ involved:
* an SUV coming within 2 feet of turning into pedestrians at a crosswalk, who had a walk signal; driver was completely at fault.
* a truck, and the car behind it, that barreled through a redlight I'd summoned at another crosswalk.
* me, on a bike path, suddenly riding over I don't know what, but felt like a pile of rocks or worse. I had a light, but it didn't help.
I ended up chatting with a guy who had a "heavy moped"; I'd vented about the bad traffic (see above) and he complained about cars nearly clipping him if he tried to keep to the right, said it was worse than when he was on a bicycle. (Moped is thicker, granted; I took it for a full motorcycle.)
I'd been thinking that my front light batteries were lasting a long time, and also that the light seemed maybe dimmer. I'd been waiting for some final dropoff, but finally decided to try new batteries. Woo, amazing brightness again! But now what do I do with three partially drained batteries?