The Rights and Duties of Cyclists

90 percent of the Bike Hermit’s trips around town are made by bicycle. He doesn’t care if you ride your bike or not. He is not out to change the world or to save the environment. He just enjoys riding his bike and he truly thinks it’s just as quick and infinitely more convenient than driving an automobile. He doesn’t think there should be a “cycling community” any more than there should be a “motoring community”. Sometimes we are cyclists and sometimes we are motorists. The Bike Hermit thinks words can be divisive.

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Notwithstanding the aforesaid, this post is about how to ride a bike. Not how to improve strength or stamina or speed, but how to safely ride a bike to work, to school, to the pub or to the grocery store. I know that the main barrier to people who might consider using a bicycle for some of their short trips is the fear of riding on the same road with cars and trucks and buses. Here are a couple of educational resources to check out:

The League of American Bicyclists has been in existence for well over one hundred years and their mission is;
To promote bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation and work through advocacy and education for a bicycle-friendly America..
Recently, while touring the forums over at bikeforums.net I rolled across this video which shows how a couple of League certified instructors navigate some of the challenges one can expect when using a bicycle in a designed for autos world.

In fact, according to the Boise Street Smart Cycling website;
–those who ride in a predictable and safe way will dramatically reduce their chances of ever experiencing a significant accident!

And while most people are concerned about a collision with a motor vehicle, that doesn’t happen very often – in fact, only 18% of cyclist falls have anything to do with a motor vehicle.
Boise Street Smart Cycling and the Treasure Valley Cycling Alliance provide education and work to raise awareness about the benefits of riding bicycles. In past years we have invited the TVCA to present their Street Smart Cycling course and the response was good. We are considering sponsoring another course in Boise. It will be in the evening of a to be determined date and will last two to three hours. The L.A.B. certified instructors at TVCA do a great job with these classes and even if you have been riding for decades, I almost guarantee you will learn something you can use. We would like to set this up soon and would like to get an idea of the amount of interest. If you have an interest in attending one of these courses, let us know in the comments.