Artificial Obstacles

In my personal life, I feel I’m fairly moderate in most things. While some people are level 5 vegans (a Simpsons reference to eating nothing that casts a shadow) and others eat almost exclusively carnivorous, the Mrs. and I fall somewhere in the middle, having a pescetarian diet. I find that it’s enough of a compromise that leaves me neither stricken with guilt nor feeling like I’m missing out on what the world has to offer.

The same goes with my choice of transportation: I certainly prefer a bicycle to anything else, but I do not shun the almighty automobile and its giant carbon footprint. While I admire those who have completely divorced themselves from car culture, I am not among those numbers; even though I do think that cars are over-utilized, it’s nice to have one when you need one.

So, being both a bicyclist and motorist, I feel like I’ve got a pretty good understanding of where both are coming from. When you’re on a bike, you just want to be given enough clearance to feel safe on the road, and when you’re in a car, you just want the bicyclists to stay far enough over to pass them easily. Simple, right?

Yes, unless you’re in Germany. Why? Odds are that that cyclist is using the bike path alongside the road, making both him or her and yourself happy all at the same time. But while the happiness of the bicyclist continues on, your happiness wanes as you slow to a stop alongside the curb and wait for a car coming from the opposite direction to pass you. This is due to something unique to these parts: artificial obstacles. They are structures, placed right in the middle of the road, to reduce the speed of automotive traffic. They range from zig-zags to outcroppings to hourglasses, but they are in almost every town and they all make the task of driving a car here that much more difficult.

Here is a pretty common example. It’s essentially a two-way bottleneck, where only one car can pass through safely at any given time.

Here is the same concept, but instead of an hourglass, a zig-zag is involved. It can be quite a frustrating ordeal if two cars enter at the same time. Notice however, the bike lanes on either side: sometimes it pays to be on a bicycle.

Then there is the solitary outcropping, which in addition to slowing down traffic makes you take extremely wide turns. Again, it is designed so only one car can pass through safely at one time.

So, what’s the point of all of these? Wouldn’t a speed bump or two suffice? (There are plenty of those here as well.) I joke that the Germans find driving on regular roads too boring, so they’ve added obstacles to spice things up a bit. But the main idea, I think, is to force drivers to slow down and pay attention. Which on one hand, is a good idea, but on the other, is pretty frustrating when traffic gets heavy and you have to be somewhere. But in the end, at least for me, it’s just another reason to ride a bicycle instead.

 

- Bicyclist Abroad

Waiting

 It's pretty chilly here in the Mississippi Gulf Coast today, and if I'm cold, I'm fairly certain native Mississippians are in the midst of agonizing throes, burning mattresses for warmth and eating their pets. Really, from watching news coverage you'd think people are experiencing the eleventh biblical plague-- cars are careening into ditches, off of bridges, into each other, and all for no good reason, because everything is closed anyway. Granted, there is quite a bit of ice on the roads, but for whatever reason, Southerners believe that if you accelerate fast enough, you can escape the laws of physics. That's actually how NASCAR was invented.  

Icy road/ POV of slipping and falling on your ass. 

  So, because of this wintry weather or, what locals believe to be God's punishment for Taylor Swift not winning album of the year, every single business and school is shut down. Including the one I flew all the way from Japan to attend. This leaves me with a lot of time on my hands to reflect, catch up on reading, do a thousand pushups, etc. What I will try to do is get the next few blog posts written so that when class eventually resumes and we're playing catch-up (that's a common phrase, but I don't think that catch-up really constitutes play) I can post them with minimal effort, which coincidentally is my favorite type of effort. And when the roads are clear again, and people come down from their pet-eating-induced delirium, I will resume bicycling around and tell you all about it.

- Bicyclist Abroad  Domestic

Winter Cycling: An Unpopular Opinion or: "We're Not Quite There Yet"

For those of us living life in a northern town (ah-hey-ma-ma-ma), or maybe just a normal town that has been Polar Vortexed™, we are in the throes of a mid-January freeze. It's cold out there. Many of you, defiant and free, grab your helmet and give the thermometer the finger on your way out the door-- rather have sub-zero temperatures than a strong headwind! you think to yourself, or rather out loud as you record your extreme cycling feats on your GoPro. I get it, thou art more devout than they who succumb to the temptations of the automobile. But I think this is a lot more complicated than that. Let me explain:

Recently, there's been some anti-bike sentiment coming from politicans, or maybe just more publicity about it than in years past. Everyone knows about Rob Ford, the somehow-still-mayor of Toronto who believes cycling is akin to swimming with sharks, but now the mayor of Watertown has joined the ranks with his statement that people riding bicycles during the winter should be arrested. Granted, both of these individuals are kind of idiots, but a statement from the latter article quoting a detective from the Watertown Police Dept was interesting: 

While he doesn’t agree with the mayor, Detective Donoghue said bicyclists “should not be in the road...It’s one thing if it’s a bright, sunny day; another if the weather is treacherous". 

Further on, he says:

Ice- and snow-covered roads can make it too hazardous — either a vehicle or the bike can easily veer and collide with one another, he said, noting cyclists also can cause traffic accidents involving two oncoming vehicles.

Typical motorist mindset, right? Well, he's not wrong-- his hypothetical scenario is plausible, but it always feels heavy-handed when someone makes a statement about bicycling that isn't pertaining to how awesome it is, or how it will solve all the worlds problems. Whoa, whoa, hold the phone! you're thinking; this is a bike blog, you're supposed to be on our side!

If you'll allow me to wax philosophic for a minute...
I believe there are two major factors in play: intention and outcome. Intention says that I will keep both of my wheels firmly on the road as I ride from home to the post office. Outcome says, Hooray! You made it! Intention then says, I will do the same from the post office back to my home. Outcome says, Nope! You took that turn a little too sharply; have a seat on the road. You see, the more inclement the weather, the more potential distance you have from Intention to Outcome.

"So get studded tires!" the mob shouts. "You were unprepared!"

What I lack in studs, I make up for in bungee-cord-as-arm-sling ingenuity.

What about the intentions of the motorists and snow plows, though? Do I trust their ability to minimize the distance between their intentions and outcomes sending me hurtling into the snow bank? Hell no.

What I'm saying is, if you live in a city that doesn't really experience winter (Portland, you have zero cycling fatalities and zero inches of snow), or a city that definitely does get snow, but also has a robust bicycling infrastructure (Minneapolis, Anchorage, etc.) then congrats, you don't need to worry all that much. But unfortunately, there are a lot of other cities like Watertown above or my hometown of Syracuse, NY where the snow is abundant and the concern given by motorists to other people isn't. There are days when there's just too much snow to be able to keep the streets clear, or when it does get plowed it only exposes the sheets of ice underneath. Cars can barely keep from crashing into each other, let alone even notice they hit someone on a bicycle.

Maybe someday in the future when everyone is enlightened and bike paths wind majestically through the skies of every city, it will be safe to ride all winter long, but until then I will begrudgingly get in a car when then weather calls for it. I know, such a hypocrite, but you can't ride your bicycle into the future if you don't survive the present.

Happy riding!