Cyclist to Pedestrian and Back Again

One neat trick I often see cyclists perform is the instant transformation from cyclist to pedestrian. This often happens when a cyclist reaches a red light and then turns left into the pedestrian crossing area in order to get to the other side of the street. If cyclists dismount and walk their bikes across the street, I don’t see a problem. But I more commonly see them remain on their bikes as they turn into the pedestrian area.

This is a dangerous manoeuvre. Pedestrians are not expecting cyclists to do it; nor are drivers. I’ve seen cyclists swerve into walkways at a fair clip, then weave among the startled pedestrians. There is a good chance of running into someone this way. And what of the driver at the intersection who is about to turn right? This driver will expect a cyclist to stop, not abruptly cut into the car’s path.

Another sudden cyclist-to-pedestrian-and-back transformation occurs when cyclists approach red lights at three-way intersections. If the sidewalk is on their right, some cyclists will jump to the sidewalk, bike past the intersection, and then jump back to the road. I imagine this must be very irritating to the drivers (and cyclists) who are patiently waiting for the light to change. I think cyclists, if they are not going to wait for a green light, should not bother with the pretense of biking onto the sidewalk. No one buys their bogus cover act of “Hey, look! Suddenly I’m a pedestrian—and suddenly I’m not!” They might as well just own what they are doing and bike through the red light.

Cyclists in Toronto still have a reputation for ignoring traffic rules. Pedestrians and drivers alike regularly complain about this. I feel the situation has improved in recent years, but cyclists’ reputation for road-warrior like behaviour is still well deserved.

Transporting Children on Bikes

Riding a bicycle in the city can be a dangerous activity. Not hugely dangerous, but definitely somewhat dangerous. There is no doubt about it. You have to be smart and cautious to avoid being a statistic. But cyclists, for the most part, are only risking themselves. In a typical collision, the cyclist may be badly injured or killed and the bike wrecked, but the driver will usually be uninjured while the car ends up with only a few dents or scratches.

Every once in a while, though, I’ll see cyclists risking not only their own lives, but their children’s too.

The other day as I walked down Woodbine Road in Toronto, I saw a woman and her young child bomb by on a bike. It’s hard to say how old the child was because the bike flashed by me at such high speed. The child was behind the woman, held in a rear-mounted child seat. Woodbine is a major, four-lane road. At the time of day when the woman and her child passed me, traffic is fairly light on this road and, therefore, cars and trucks sometimes travel at fairly high speed. Moments after the bike went by I saw a truck rocket by at what must have been 60 kmh or more. This truck would have passed the woman and her child moments later, very likely in the same lane.

Believe me, I’m all for people using their bikes in town, but I feel that if you want to take your kid with you, either on a bike seat or in a trailer, you really should keep to bike paths and side streets. If you have to cross a major street, dismount and briefly become a pedestrian.

I do have to point out that what I am saying in this post is based on a gut reaction. I was unable to find any numbers for crashes, injuries, or deaths involving children riding in bike seats. An article in The Boston Globe dated May 24, 2014, says: “Statistics about the dangers of biking with children are hard to find. No health or safety agency has information broken down that way.”

I also wondered which of the two methods of transporting young children on bikes was safer. Every source I found said that trailers were safer than rear- or front-mounted child seats. Please note, though, that it is very important to have a high-flying orange flag attached to a trailer to make it more visible to drivers.

An article posted by Parachute reported, “bike trailers are considered somewhat safer because children are lower to the ground and have less of a distance to fall in a crash.”

ConsumersReports.org had this to say: “trailers can tip over if you turn abruptly or turn when one wheel is going over a bump.” But they went on to say that bicycle trailers provide “some protection to passengers since kids are seated, strapped in, and usually enclosed in a zippered compartment. Trailers have a rigid frame enclosed in durable fabric, which offers some protection for young passengers if the unit rolls over”

The American Academy of Pediatrics says that “preferably, children should ride in a bicycle-towed child trailer.”

Please consult the web pages I mentioned for detailed safety instructions on using bike trailers.

January Cycling in Toronto

On a couple of recent bike rides, I was pleased to note that there seemed to be noticeably more cyclists braving the January cold than I remember from previous Januaries. I counted perhaps a dozen people on bikes during both of my 12 km round trips, downtown and back. I guess this still isn’t a large number, considering all the cars on the roads, but it strikes me that more cyclists are continuing to use their bikes through the winter this year.

This is a hopeful sign. After all, it has been pushing -10 degrees Celsius these days, and yesterday there was a stiff wind in my face for the downtownward part of my journey. Enough cold and wind to ensure in other years that the roads would be almost completely cyclist free. Perhaps cycling in the winter is becoming more normalized?

Still, a nurse at the hospital where I was visiting a patient exclaimed, “You’re brave to be out riding today!” A commonly voiced sentiment still these days. I always explain that the secret to staying warm is wearing extra layers of clothing—double socks, t-shirt under winter shirt and sweater, long johns, etc. Ideally, cycling in the winter would be considered no more unusual than skiing is in the winter.

While I was glad to see an increase in the number of cyclists out this January, I was disheartened today to see an example of cyclist behaviour that I hope is going away: I watched a man ride straight through a red light, this after only briefly slowing down to check for cross traffic. I can only imagine how irritated the drivers stopped at the intersection must have been. Certainly I was irritated. Why must these selfish cyclists continue to give cycling in the city a bad name?

During my trips downtown, I have been stopping off at the apartment complex where the patient I am visiting lives. This complex is huge: it comprises three large buildings, each of about thirty stories. As far as I can tell, there are no bike racks provided at all for the entire complex. I recognize that many tenants would prefer to keep their bikes in their apartments, to avoid having their bikes stolen, but surely such a large number of tenants should be provided with at least a few bike racks.

Winter's Return

On November 11, Toronto was unseasonably warm. Temperatures climbed to 17 degrees. I biked downtown that day, and while I was on my way it occurred to me that it might be months before the next time I cycled without having to wear hat and gloves.

Now, ten days later, I definitely have to bundle up when I ride. Toronto recently had its first snowfall of the season, and it is more wintry out.

I don’t enjoy the cold when I ride in the winter, but what I like even less is all the salt on the roads. The salt and slush sprays up on my bike, making it filthy after only a short time. Just a few centimetres of snow fell the other day, but after my ride yesterday I had to clean a significant amount of salt from my bike.



You sometimes have no choice but to go through the slush.



A danger when snow and slush are near the curb is that cyclists will ride farther out in traffic to avoid the slush.



Only one brief ride caused this salt to be deposited on my bike. After I took this picture, I cleaned the bike as well as I could with a wet rag.

I will doubtless have to reapply chain oil soon. Without being frequently lubricated during the winter, a bike’s chain will seize up due to salt and rust in no time.

New Pedals

Recently, I found an inexpensive way to dramatically improve my ride. I replaced my pedals.

I can’t remember what brand my previous pedals were, but I wasn’t very happy with them. They had two problems: they were too slippery and they were too narrow.

My old pedals were made of a hard nylon that did not sufficiently grip my shoes. My feet would sometimes slip off, usually when I was climbing a hill. Needless to say, this was an annoying problem. A bit dangerous, too. It was more likely to occur when the pedals were wet.

I particularly noticed the narrowness of the pedals when I was really digging in to climb a hill. My feet are a little on the wide side, so when I pushed on the pedals with extra force, the outer edge of my feet would curl over the edge of the pedal. This drove me crazy. I didn’t like the sensation at all.

My replacements are Evo “Freefall” pedals. They are made of metal and have a cleated surface that firmly grips my shoes. There is zero slippage. I haven’t rode in the rain with them, but I’d be surprised if my feet slipped on them even in the rain.

The pedals are 10 cm wide, a width that supports the whole of my foot, with no curling over. They are wider than most pedals; I would definitely recommend wide pedals to everyone, even those whose feet aren’t particularly wide.

I’ve only had them on my bike for a day (two rides), but so far they’re working out well.

Driver's Perspective

I much prefer to cycle to my destination in the city, but occasionally I have to carry more than is possible on my bike and am forced to drive. During these trips, I always find it instructive getting the driver’s perspective of using the roads.

When I am driving behind a cyclist who is going slower than I am, as is usually the case, my reaction is that I want to pass the cyclist as soon as possible. Cyclists should always be aware of this. Drivers want to pass you, and they want to do it right away. And some of them will resort to less than ideally safe practices when they do it. It’s amazing how often a cyclist’s life and body are treated with reckless disregard so that a driver can save a few seconds.

The lesson for cyclists here is that they need to cycle in as straight a line as possible and at a steady speed. The driver who is trying to imitate Gilles Villeneuve while passing you is assuming that your speed and trajectory will not vary. You may be hit if you don’t move as the driver expects you to.

Right turns are one of my least favourite driving manoeuvres, especially at busy intersections. Drivers have to observe and process a remarkably large amount of information in a very short amount of time while deciding when to make a right. They are often a bit stressed while doing this. If you are cycling up fast behind a car that is signalling right, don’t assume the driver will see you. If you go past on the right, you may be hit. Always assume the driver doesn’t see you in these instances, and act accordingly.

Cyclists who put themselves in the driver's position will be much safer.

Sneaking Ahead

Lately, the concept that bikes are vehicles, and so should behave as such, is seeming to sink in with more and more of my fellow cyclists: I see an ever-increasing percentage of them signalling turns and stops; fewer red lights are being run; and incidents of other types of rule-flouting behaviour are also becoming rarer. Still, I do occasionally see, for example, cyclists riding against the direction of traffic on major roads or weaving wildly around cars as though they were part of a circus act. And the odd cyclist will still brazenly ride through a red light.

But on the whole, cyclist behaviour on city streets is much improved nowadays.

A bit of a throwback to the days of rampant red-light running, though, is what might be described as the red-light sneak. This is when a cyclist is temporarily stopped at a red light but then starts to slowly ease through the intersection after the red light has been showing for a while. Drivers, and most cyclists, know that you can’t proceed until the light has actually turned green. But some cyclists seem to think it is okay for them to run a red light because the light will be turning green soon and because they aren’t speeding through the intersection. It is as though they are thinking that because they are moving slowly, running a red light doesn’t count as a traffic-rule violation. I mean, hey, the light was about to change, wasn’t it?

An awful lot of bad blood still exists between drivers and cyclists. This sort of red-light running doesn’t help matters.