Terry Peloton

Tag: bicycle safety

  • A-B-C FOR CYCLING SAFETY.

    fluroescent gear for cycling visibility

    A-B-C – Always On, Bio-Motion, Contrast

    Here’s a quick rundown of the best strategies for standing out, being seen, and staying safe by making yourself more visible on your bike.

    A – Always On

    It might be surprising, but most cycling crashes happen in the daytime – about 80% of accidents involving cars and bikes. It’s well-proven that daytime running lights improve safety for motor vehicles – and it works for cyclists too. Make yourself more visible with always-on lighting, both front and rear. Choose LED lights for their efficiency, and opt for multiple points of light, the more the better. Bright steady lights are great for illuminating your path for your own benefit in the dark, as well as catching attention anytime. Slow flashes or strobe effects are especially good for commanding awareness from drivers, day and night.

    B – Bio-Motion

    Research shows that reflective material worn at the major joints of the body increases recognition of pedestrians in the dark by motorists. The biggest improvement of recognition though, comes with highlights worn on the ankles, especially when the pedestrian is walking. The findings apply to cyclists too: reflective or fluorescent accents on the lower legs increase your visibility and recognizability to drivers more than anything else you can do. Here’s the research.

    Take a look at the Terry Psychlo Tight, developed around this idea.

    C – Contrast

    The key to being visible is to stand out against your surroundings. At night that means lighting yourself up against the dark with reflective material. In the daytime it means switching to bright colors that contrast with roads, buildings, and greenery. Fluorescent colors do that job best.

    Check out our selection of the best in reflective and high-visibility gear.

     

    Remember your A-B-Cs for better visibility on your bike, day and night (and don’t forget a good helmet, properly adjusted!).

    Be safe out there!

  • DUTCH REACH – DOORED NO MORE.

    The Dutch Reach – An Effective Safety Measure For Urban Cyclists.

    If you ride in urban areas you already know about the number one threat to cyclists on city streets – dooring: the all too common collision when a driver opens their door without looking, into the path of a cyclist.

    cycling dooring hazard

    Even at relatively low speeds, a suddenly opened car door in your path can be impossible to avoid. Throw in passing traffic and higher speeds, and these crashes become highly dangerous, even fatal.

    In fact, not only cyclists are at risk. Doorings also happen when oncoming vehicles hit opened doors, and drivers themselves can incur some hefty costs from repairs and liability.

    Constantly monitoring for drivers and movements as you ride past parked cars is just part of the game for urban cyclists, but two problems make it hard for cyclists to avoid these collisions through their own watchfulness: if there is any traffic passing the cyclist, it is unsafe to move further out into the road to avoid an opened door; in most cases they would have to be riding at impractically low speeds to be able stop in time.

    The answer of course is for drivers to look before opening the door. Easy to say, obviously doesn’t happen often enough in practice.

    The Dutch Reach is a simple solution has proven very effective in places where it is used.

    Dutch Reach info graphic from the Boston Globe
    Dutch Reach info graphic from the Boston Globe

    This is a small change in how the driver exits their vehicle. Instead of opening the door with the hand closest, the driver reaches the other hand across the body to pull the door handle. This forces them to twist their upper body so that they are in a better position to see, and the move triggers the habit of looking back for oncoming cyclists.

    It can be hard for long-time drivers to change their habits, even simple ones like this. One trick is to tie a ribbon on the door handle as a reminder to use the Reach. The greatest impact (no pun) comes from teaching new drivers to use the move from day one, so it becomes automatic.

    Thankfully, there’s growing awareness of the problem and the easy solution, thanks to the efforts of people at dutchreach.org and others. Their grass roots advocacy has brought some good media exposure for the message, like this New York Times article.

    As cyclists we can start using the Dutch Reach whenever we drive, and teach it to all the drivers we know.

    dutch reach in use to avoid dooring cyclistIf you’re inclined to be more active, work on convincing your local driver education authorities to include it in the curriculum. It’s already taught and even required widely in Europe, and this is happening in more and more places in the U.S.

    Future generations of urban cyclists will thank you, but you may benefit directly yourself!
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  • THE HORN(IT) TO END ALL HORNS.

    Meet the world’s loudest bike horn. More like something out of a video game, the Hornit sounds like you’re not only alerting but vaporizing the “problem” up ahead. The video makes me laugh every time I watch it.

    Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 2.19.34 PM

    Bike safety’s no laughing matter, though. As they rightfully point out, 80% of all bike accidents happen during daylight hours and 75% occur at intersections, so…we’re working on bringing these to a Terry catalog near you.