Videos Wanted: Make Your Own Bike Etiquette PSA
Biking Rules, the new campaign organized by Transportation Alternatives, is sponsoring a video and photo PSA competition. Submissions are now being accepted for two categories in the competition: "Why Biking Rules!" and "The Biking Rules Street Code."
The Biking Rules campaign outlines several ways to lead by example when riding your bicycle. So, with a little inspiration from an old Bike Snob NYC post, I made this PSA addressing one of the street codes called "Ride Right" -- meaning, ride in the direction of traffic. It is simply safer for everyone on the street.
Take a look and then go out and make an even fancier PSA. If watching mine is not inspiring enough, it looks like you can win up to $4000, a bike and some other goodies. For contest details and submission information, visit BikingRules.org/PSA.
Sorry, re: "fall in line with car-ism": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX7hghHyqZA
I am all for counterflow bikelanes and pushing for infrastructure that breaks down having to follow streets designed for cars but...as things stand now I find it incredibly annoying/dangerous to ride down a busy street in NYC and be pushed out into speeding traffic because someone is too lazy to go to the next block.
"Lazy"? Nice. Of course the problem is TA, and I hope someone can incorporate a question about alternatives to monoflow into their videos.
Those "bike salmon" certainly do pass the buck of bad design onto more law-abiding people, but perhaps in the long run they are actually doing all of us a great service... kind of like a more individual Critical Mass?
I used to do salmon biking (before I realized it was wrong) as a matter of personal safety.
I bike in suburban NW Harris County (outside of Houston), and it can be quite dangerous for bikers out here. Cars go super fast in some areas of the road, and there's no bike lane to rely on. If I had to bike WITH the traffic flow, it would mean I'd have to turn my head around a lot to check if a car is coming so I can veer more closer towards the curb. However, it's just as unsafe to have to keep twisting your head back instead of keeping your eyes forward. Thus, I felt the need to do salmon biking.
Nowadays, I follow the traffic law and go WITH the traffic, however it is very daunting and unsafe. I'm campaigning for an extension of bike lanes around the area (much to the disgust of many car users here) but it looks like it will never pass.
Salmon put themselves in danger (and other riders) by doing what they do. Although there may be 1 or 2% of cases that being a salmon is an alright situation, there are times that I want to strangle wrong way riders, especially if there is a perfectly fine alternative provided by the city.
OOh, My favorite annoyance is bikers who ride on super busy streets when there are plenty of neighborhood streets near by. I just want to scream out the window, "DUDE, IF DOZENS OF CARS ARE BUZZING PAST YOU EVERY MINUTE AT 55+ THEN YOU NEED TO FIND ANOTHER ROUTE!"
*SHHHH Stop yelling!*
Sorry, I didn't know this blog was a library, sheesh.