Riding facing traffic

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Wasn't there some kind of fad in the 1970s or 1980s where "conventional wisdom" said you had to
ride FACING the flow of traffic? When did that start up, and how long did it last? Was it some
government fact sheet or magazine article that said to do this?

I always rode WITH the traffic as we all do nowadays, but when I was 12 (early 1980s) I remember
some kid in the neighborhood riding up to me and trying to reason with me that I was on the wrong
side of the road and I ought to be on the left side.

I guess I can see the value of riding into traffic... seeing what's bumbling toward you, but the
closure rate makes it kind of hairy.

So does crossing intersections and driveways; the cars aren't expecting anything faster than a
person walking to be coming from that direction.

--
David Kerber An optimist says "Good morning, Lord." While a pessimist says "Good Lord,
it's morning".

Remove the ns_ from the address before e-mailing.

(Powdered Toast Man) said:

when I was 12 (early 1980s) I remember some kid in the neighborhood riding up to me and trying to
reason with me that I was on the wrong side of the road and I ought to be on the left side.

Most people hear about WALKING opposing traffic, and since bicycles are just pedestrians with
wheels, the logical conclusion is that cyclists should also ride opposing traffic.

RFM
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Mon, 30 Jun 2003 17:53:53 +0000 (UTC), <[email hidden]>, Fritz M

+ said:

and since bicycles are just pedestrians with wheels,

Wrong newsgroup. Try <alt.stale.troll>
--
zk

I still see people riding bicycles on the wrong side of the street today. I'm much more wary of
them than the cars coming up behind me. The cars coming up behind at least have some conventional
rules they are supposed to follow, but I have no idea what the person riding against traffic is
going to do.

"Powdered Toast Man" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Wasn't there some kind of fad in the 1970s or 1980s where "conventional wisdom" said you had to
ride FACING the flow of traffic? When did that start up, and how long did it last? Was it some
government fact sheet or magazine article that said to do this?

I always rode WITH the traffic as we all do nowadays, but when I was 12 (early 1980s) I remember
some kid in the neighborhood riding up to me and trying to reason with me that I was on the wrong
side of the road and I ought to be on the left side.

I guess I can see the value of riding into traffic... seeing what's bumbling toward you, but the
closure rate makes it kind of hairy.

PTM

"Powdered Toast Man" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I guess I can see the value of riding into traffic... seeing what's bumbling toward you, but the
closure rate makes it kind of hairy.

There's nothing to discuss. Riding against traffic on a public road is illegal pretty much
everywhere. Always has been.

RichC

"Rich Clark" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

There's nothing to discuss. Riding against traffic on a public road is illegal pretty much
everywhere. Always has been.

It is *also* far more dangerous. If it were illegal but safer would be a different story.

Pete

the idea was you could see the cars coming at you, as opposed to having your back turned to traffic
behind you on your side of the street

or maybe it was just a protest thing hahahaha

another english invasion?

imagine the possibilities...

"Powdered Toast Man" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Wasn't there some kind of fad in the 1970s or 1980s where "conventional wisdom" said you had to
ride FACING the flow of traffic? When did that start up, and how long did it last? Was it some
government fact sheet or magazine article that said to do this?

I always rode WITH the traffic as we all do nowadays, but when I was 12 (early 1980s) I remember
some kid in the neighborhood riding up to me and trying to reason with me that I was on the wrong
side of the road and I ought to be on the left side.

I guess I can see the value of riding into traffic... seeing what's bumbling toward you, but the
closure rate makes it kind of hairy.

PTM

Quoted message said:

Wasn't there some kind of fad in the 1970s or 1980s where "conventional wisdom" said you had to
ride FACING the flow of traffic? When did that start up, and how long did it last? Was it some
government fact sheet or magazine article that said to do this?

I always rode WITH the traffic as we all do nowadays, but when I was 12 (early 1980s) I remember
some kid in the neighborhood riding up to me and trying to reason with me that I was on the wrong
side of the road and I ought to be on the left side.

That's a good question, and I have been trying to answer it for years, without success.

The fad was widespread, almost universal, when I first went to the USA in 1963, and seems to have
spread to Canada and Mexico as well. However, as far as I can tell it was never state law anywhere.
Whether there were any local ordinances, I don't know. If there were, they would have contradicted
state law, and so been illegal.

John Forester, who grew up in London, and emigrated with his family to the USA in the late 1930s,
did not hear of it in Berkeley, Calif. as a teenager. He thinks, spceculates, really, that the idea
may have originated in the midwest, in the 1950s.

I think that for the idea to have spread across a whole continent it must have been written down
somewhere. I doubt that would have been among the "road safety" establishment, police and AAA and
such, but might have been among stuff intended for schools. School bike safety zealots always seem
to be able to hold only one idea in their heads, usually wrong. In about 1960 the idea was, "ride on
the wrong side of the road". In about 1975 it was flags, horizontal or vertical, attached to your
bike, or a red triangle pinned to your bottom. No need to say what it is now.

When bike magazines appeared, in the 1970s, they campaigned against against wrong side riding. I
remember, when "Bicycling" was a good magazine, that John Schubert had a very good article about it.

However, the wrong way idea is still quite widespread, and seems to produce a bike accident pattern
quite a bit different from Europe's

Jeremy Parker

effi said:

the idea was you could see the cars coming at you, as opposed to having your back turned to traffic
behind you on your side of the street

Exactly why walkers & runners go against traffic. But a bicycle is a vehicle, so it has to follow
rules for vehicles.

Ruger9

"Powdered Toast Man" wrote

Quoted message said:

Wasn't there some kind of fad in the 1970s or 1980s where "conventional wisdom" said you had to
ride FACING the flow of traffic? When did that start up, and how long did it last? Was it some
government fact sheet or magazine article that said to do this?

I can remember my mother telling me that she had been taught as a child (this would be 1930s, 1940s)
to ride on the left side of the road, facing traffic. Seems the "bicyclist as pedestrian) attitude
was pretty well entrenched back then.
--
mark

I used to only ride WITH traffic & abide y the laws, but since being hit twice, I now ride all over
the place (LOL)

I'll even go on the sidewalk if nobody is around, but I've had Police pull me over to give me a $95
ticket for riding on a public sidewalk.

whatever, I'm NOT going to be a target on my bike anymore. I continue to ride where ever I wish &
won't be hit by traffic 🙂

antipaul.proboards18.comantipaul.proboards18.comOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

another english invasion?

eh, no. Over here we cycle on the left, as we drive on the left. So we go in the direction of
the traffic.

Cheers, helen s

~~~~~~~~~~
This is sent from a redundant email Mail sent to it is dumped My correct one can be gleaned from
h$**$*$el$**e$n$**$d$**$o$*$t**$$s$**$im$mo$ns*@a$**o$l.c$$*o$*m*$ by getting rid of the
overdependence on money and fame
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(Hunrobe) said:

I got the impression that his tongue was tucked firmly in his cheek.

I guess I was a little too subtle. I was meaning to convey the attitude that most non-cyclists have
about cyclists.

RFM
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[email hidden] (the last man on Earth) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I used to only ride WITH traffic & abide y the laws, but since being hit twice, I now ride all
over the place (LOL)

I'll even go on the sidewalk if nobody is around, but I've had Police pull me over to give me a
$95 ticket for riding on a public sidewalk.

whatever, I'm NOT going to be a target on my bike anymore. I continue to ride where ever I wish &
won't be hit by traffic 🙂

antipaul.proboards18.comantipaul.proboards18.comOpen ↗

I read somewhere (can't find a reference) that something like 70% of bike accidents occur on
sidewalks. Since far fewer than 70% of the riders are on the sidewalk, that makes them more
dangerous than the roads.

100% of the people I have known that have been in car-bike accidents (4 incidents) the "cyclist" was
on the sidewalk.

Cars cross lanes without looking for bikes. They cross sidewalks without looking for anything.

Weaving on and off the sidewalk is even more dangerous, because once a car sees you there, he will
assume you are going to stay there.

Austin

and if you do so over here in the usa, you are on THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD thus the english
invasion humor...lighten up ol' chap lol

hahahaha

"wafflyDIRTYcatLITTERhcsBOX" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

another english invasion?

eh, no. Over here we cycle on the left, as we drive on the left. So we go

in

Quoted message said:

the direction of the traffic.

Cheers, helen s

~~~~~~~~~~
This is sent from a redundant email Mail sent to it is dumped My correct one can be gleaned from
h$**$*$el$**e$n$**$d$**$o$*$t**$$s$**$im$mo$ns*@a$**o$l.c$$*o$*m*$ by getting rid of the
overdependence on money and fame
~~~~~~~~~~

"the last man on Earth" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I used to only ride WITH traffic & abide y the laws, but since being hit twice, I now ride all
over the place (LOL)

I'll even go on the sidewalk if nobody is around, but I've had Police pull me over to give me a
$95 ticket for riding on a public sidewalk.

whatever, I'm NOT going to be a target on my bike anymore. I continue to ride where ever I wish

why not? so many cars do now anyway hahahaha

Quoted message said:

& won't be hit by traffic 🙂

antipaul.proboards18.comantipaul.proboards18.comOpen ↗

"effi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

and if you do so over here in the usa, you are on THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD

Oh really. we never knew.

[email hidden] (Actually34) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Yeah, but I suspect a lot of those side accidents involve small kids who get injured when riding
on sidewalks.

Nope. Small children on sidewalks tend to act the same as pedestrians. They move at pedestrian speed
and so are within the vision of motorists crossing the sidewalk. (In fact, I would make an exception
to riding on the street for small childern for this, and other reasons.)

A bike travelling at a "lazy" 15 MPH is so far outside the motorists view (while on the sidewalk)
that it will not be seen, but may well be hit (or hit the motor vehicle).

Quoted message said:

In Indianapolis, it is legal to ride on sidewalks. In many instances it is much safer than riding
on a congested roadway with curbs.

I have never seen a situation where it was safer to be on the sidewalk than the road (except perhaps
where the sidewalk was _empty_ and road traffic was over 50 MPH.

Congestion is not a reason to ride on the sidewalk, because when the roads are congested with
traffic, the sidewalks are generally congested with pedestrians.

Quoted message said:

I do it with discretion.

David

I never do it (though I used to many years ago). Like I said, _every_ car-bike accident I have
ever witnessed or had a personal connection to, the bicyclist was on the sidewalk. None were
small children.

Austin

Jeremy Parker said:

School bike safety zealots always seem to be able to hold only one idea in their heads, usually
wrong. In about 1960 the idea was, "ride on the wrong side of the road". In about 1975 it was
flags, horizontal or vertical, attached to your bike, or a red triangle pinned to your bottom. No
need to say what it is now.

Sidewalk riding? I once got a lecture from a safety-patrol girl about how I was setting a bad
example for the little kids by riding on the street. I suppose I should have given her a
counter-lecture on the probable effects of a 220-pound man on a bicycle smashing into a pedestrian.

--
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and
patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse."
-- J.S. Mill