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John Forester

Effective Cycling

Six Different Courses

John Ciccarelli

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Naomi  The Biking Life

 by: Naomi Bloom  5/1/2002

Happy Bike Month!

And while we're on the subject, happy Bike to Work Week (May 13 to 17). And happy Bike to Work Day (Thursday, May 16 in California; Friday, May 17 elsewhere most other states).

For the 46th year, the League of American Bicyclists (LAB) has declared May National Bike Month, with a Bike to Work campaign folded in.

One way the League endeavors -- but doesn't always succeed -- to spread the word about how and why to ride a bike is through its BikeEd program. Based on John Forester's original book, Effective Cycling, BikeEd trains instructors and offers courses that teach bicyclists the most sensible way to ride safely on the road.

In spite of a seemingly complex set of rules, the basic concept of Effective Cycling is pretty simple. Forester sums it up in one sentence:

Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles.

We who ride our bikes as a matter of course already know this. But newbies (and even some more experienced cyclists) don't. And, let's be honest here, we all slip up now and then.

So what better way to mark National Bike Month than to learn and use something new about Effective Cycling?

The logical place to get started would be through BikeEd, which offers six different courses. Come to find out three of them are for kids. Another is a "Motorist Education" class. That leaves two levels of courses for adult cyclists: "Road I" takes nine hours, "Road II" 12 hours.

Don't get me wrong. This is a vast improvement over the weeks of four-hour classroom sessions Effective Cycling instruction used to take. But it's still a big time commitment for those of us who'd rather be out doing double- and triple-digit miles on our bikes.

There's gotta be a better way.

John Ciccarelli and the City of Palo Alto have come up with one alternative. Ciccarelli, an LAB Cycling Instructor (LCI), has been teaching a four-hour, city-sponsored "Street Smarts" class. "In just 4 hours," he claims, you'll "learn how to safely and confidently use your bike for transportation." For free, no less!

Word-of-mouth about John's classes has been quite positive. However, he's brought the principles of Effective Cycling to a grand, smashing total of 300 San Francisco Bay Area cyclists -- if every class was filled. And the last class was offered on May 15. Let's hope there will be more Street Smarts classes elsewhere in the near future.

Meanwhile, where do we turn for helpful Effective Cycling information? LAB has absolutely zero BikeEd classes scheduled anywhere in California. (Check their "National Bicycle Education Program Schedule" and you'll find only five states represented.)

If you'd like to get a BikeEd class going for your club, workplace or city, you can contact your nearest LCI. LAB's Web site offers a rather jumbled list of California instructors. Be warned, however: These are very busy people. Some haven't had time to teach Effective Cycling in years. Others are booked solid. (Just finding an LCI with time to interview for this article proved impossible.)

John Ciccarelli might just be persuaded to set up a "Street Smarts" program for your group. Contact him at info@bicyclesolutions.com.

Or you can be self-reliant. Buy (or borrow from your library) John Forester's Effective Cycling book (6th Edition, MIT Press, 1993; ISBN 0-262-56070-4). Warning #2: This is a tome! Just lifting it will give you an upper body workout.

You can also order, directly from Forester, the materials for his Effective Cycling school courses. There's an Instruction Manual for $15 and a 24-page textbook for $4. Order from Custom Cycle Fitments, 7585 Church St., Lemon Grove, CA 91945-2306.

Cyclist, teach thyself

Finally, you can teach yourself Effective Cycling. That's what I did. I confess that, although Forester's tome sits in my bookcase, I've barely cracked it. I have, however, appropriated as much information as I could from my bike club, which conducts an Academy for beginning and novice cyclists. I've also ridden with Effective Cycling Instructors -- including John Forester himself -- and gleaned their pearls of wisdom. And I keep up to date on new and changing information in LAB publications and on their Web site.

To get you started, here are Forester's five principles of Effective Cycling:

  1. Ride on the right side of the roadway, not on the left and never on the sidewalk.
    In other words, move in the direction traffic is going. This is the most important rule to follow since it underlies our right to the road.
  2. Yield to crossing traffic at superior streets.
    To me this means a cyclist should yield right-of-way in the same manner as a motorist would. For instance, when you approach a four-way stop sign at the same time as a car on a cross-street, right-of-way goes to the one at the intersection first.
  3. Yield to overtaking traffic before changing lanes.
    Don't dart out into traffic to make a left turn or to exit a right-turn-only lane until you're sure it's clear. A rear-view mirror is a big help here. So are hand signals.
  4. Position yourself according to your destination when approaching an intersection.
    If you're continuing straight across the intersection, don't hang in the right-turn lane. Let right-turning cars (and bikes) have access to that lane. It's also not a great idea to rest a foot on the curb, even if there isn't a right-turn lane. Position yourself in the lane or part of the lane that most clearly indicates your intention. And if you're turning, a hand signal wouldn't hurt.
  5. Position yourself according to your speed relative to other traffic between intersections.
    Or, more familiarly, slower traffic keep right. This is especially true riding in a group or on a popular bike route. If you're poking along and a faster car or cyclist overtakes you from the rear, they need to be able to clear you without threatening your safety. If you're a fast rider, you need to be confident that you can pass a slower vehicle, be it a bike or a car. You still need to position yourself so as to let the rider or driver know what you're about to do. Again, hand signals make a big difference.

It's true that these five basic elements can be hard to practice on a busy roadway. So keep in mind that they are just starting points. The key is to apply them to your best ability as often as you possibly can. Just as with becoming a better rider, the more you ride within the guidelines of Effective Cycling, the better you'll get at it. And the more astute your judgment becomes about what to do in most situations.

The rock-bottom guideline is to behave responsibly by communicating in word and action what you're up to. That's the kind of behavior that best expresses the credo standing behind and shoring up Bike Month and Bike to Work Week:

Work to live. Live to eat. Eat to bike. Bike to work.

Pass it on.

Naomi can be reached at naomibloom@earthlink.net



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