The bicycle is a legal vehicle. This may vary from state to state but in general it is recognized as such since it was used for transportation before the motorized vehicle was adopted. Riding a bicycle was a huge step forward for human transportation. It certainly has unique benefits that are not found in most modes of transportation. The key is to recognize the potential of this vehicle type and be prepared to use it once we finally figure out that we cannot afford to subsidize motorized vehicle infrastructure and our building patterns that match those vehicle type.
If we truly paid for the infrastructure the built environment would be drastically different and not resemble such a mono culture. Certainly we would have cars, trucks and other roadway transports but there would be less dependence upon one or the other. Our built environments in the form of the city, county, subdivision and state would be vastly different. Small iterative developments would flourish and most would be much smaller scales that are human scaled - ideal for the bicycle.
Bicycles are available in many forms now. The Cargo bicycle is a fascinating type of bicycle that allows the user to transport large items often delegated to the SUV. You now have massive choices when picking a cargo type bicycle. I use my cargo bicycle ( a conversion on re-purposed old Trek MTB) , the Xtracycle free-radical and some add-ons have made this thing the grocery getter extraordinaire- also check out the Yuba. I can easily slap on a Yepp child seat or the two older kids can jump on the back on a padded seat complete with foot bars. The saddle bags make transporting those groceries painless wiht the quick cinch straps. The use cases are endless when you throw in towing capability.
There are many other bicycle types available from trusted brands such as Surly or Salsa to name two, there are many more to choose from that I will list in a separate post.
I will save many of those details for another day and post. Suffice to say the bicycle combined with new tech and rack systems is a functional legal vehicle capable of replacing a motor vehicle. The biggest challenge for the average Joe is safety, comfort factor (are the roads nearby crazy?), then distance. Some routes just are not favorable. I advocate private roads, in this scenario some roads may not allow bicycles. This is fine, many roads today under the subsidized model also do not "allow" bicycles due to design and user action expectations.
For some reason most motorists think they own the road and that speed limits are minimums. While some roads make total sense to be able to drive at 55+ MPH, most do not. The amount of pedestrians and cyclists would be far greater if the roadways did not encourage high speeds by design. We often measure things like crashes, deaths and injuries. These are certainly not the only metrics that should be tracked- we do so because they are the common items used in relation to LOS (level of service). Based on motorist interactions in public it is apparent that many vehicle operators behave as if they are guaranteed a minimum speed that does not involve the safety of others. How a motorist disassociates a pedestrian or other vehicle operator as a fellow human is interesting but very concerning. The behavior often exhibited is narcissistic and concerning. The anger and lack of empathy of motorists is very strange, I constantly try to understand the disconnect. How to inform and educate the masses is something I am constantly pondering, a reason I am writing this information and preparing the how to videos.
Today we are analyzing a route I took through a Viera Florida traffic circle (roundabout) and the nearby roadways. Follow along as I ride up to and through the traffic circle. I am narrating the route as i watch a previous recorded ride I captured on my Cycliq fly camera system.
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I am planning to add the rear camera system in the near future which will allow for additional ride analysis that deals more with motorist behavior as they pass, how close they get and if they drive with anger or aggression. Today (not in this video) I observed multiple incidents where a driver passed me only to very shortly (in camera range) turn off the road, making a right or left turn. This means they could have easily waited a few seconds, this is dominance behavior, or i think it is. I should inquire with psychologists on this thesis.
My Anatomy of the Ride, a how to series analysis starts now. Here is my video intro to the series.
Anatomy of the ride
How to ride a bicycle through a traffic circle.
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