Moscow bikesharing

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Moscow - which seems like a pretty treacherous city for cyclists - has a bike rental system.  This sign translates roughly to, "Map of parking locations", "Bike rental network of Moscow".

 The rack was well stocked -



but prospective customers might find the twisted metal to be a little off-putting -

Sic Semper Tyrannis

More mysterious CCT signage

It always starts slowly like this. Before you know it they'll be coming for our handlebar-mounted Kindles -

Secrets of winter riding, Part 2 – Control

There are only two tricks to winter riding: Don’t freeze and don’t fall. In Part 1 I explained how to keep from freezing; now for some tips on how to stay upright.

First, however, one observation. If you can find clothing that suits you, you very well may become indifferent to cold. By contrast you will – or should – never become indifferent to snow. It’s possible to ride in the stuff, regularly and successfully, but it’s not ever as safe or as easy as riding on bare pavement. If you want to bike to work over snowy roads or trails, these suggestions will help. But if after trying it a few times you’re still uncomfortable, then don’t do it – wait for the plows to come through!

Moving along. The problem with snow is not so much that it’s slippery but that it’s uneven. Ruts, ridges and hard-packed clumps will all push you off a straight line. As you ride through these spots, your handlebars will twist in your hands, your front wheel will begin to slide, and it’ll feel like you’re going to topple over for sure. But remember Newton. Your bike wants to keep going in the direction that it’s been going; that is, in a straight line. And a wheel wants to spin, not burrow! As soon as your wheel clears the immediate obstacle, it’ll pop back straight and you can keep right on riding. Your aim is simply to allow that happen.

And therein is the essential trick to riding in snow: Let your bike work it out for itself. Loosen your grip. Let the handlebars wobble and twist. Keep pedaling, evenly and steadily, when you feel the front wheel begin to lose its purchase. It feels wrong, but it works out right! (Uh, most of the time – as I said, riding in snow is not as safe as riding on bare pavement.) The feeling of nearly losing control is really disconcerting and it’s hard to suppress the urge to wrestle the bike back into a straight line. But if you fight, you will almost always overcorrect, and wind up on the ground more often than if you just let everything go.

This is one of those lessons that, I think, is best learned through experience. The next snow day that comes along, take an hour or 90 minutes, find a stretch of road that’s not too heavily travelled, and just ride around. Relax your hands, arms and shoulders. Steer in and out of tire tracks, try turning a little harder than seems prudent. Accept that you will fall, and don’t try to stop your bike if it seems to be heading that way. Weirdly, once you accept that you are going to fall, you won’t (as often). And, at 8 mph and onto snow, it’s probably not going to hurt if you do go down. The first time I rode in deepish snow (6-7 inches, on precisely one of these “who cares” excursions), I fell, harmlessly,10 times in 90 minutes before I learned to trust the bike, and its inertia.

Practice helps. The more you ride in the snow, the more comfortable you’ll be with it. (And conversely, less comfortable when you don’t – the first snowy day of each year invariably presents a challenging commute!) Also bear in mind that, staying upright usually comes at the expense of a clean, straight riding line – a sort of Uncertainty Principle for bike riders. So in snow, don’t cut things as closely as you might otherwise, and be particularly vigilant for passing cars.

Finally. All of the foregoing pertains only to snow. None of it works on ice, where you can find yourself on the ground before you can even think the word “Zen”. On 28 degree mornings following a freezing rain, I walk to the Metro – or stay home along with everyone else whose businesses have closed for the day. If you do find yourself on a patch of ice (it happens!), steer as straight and steady a course as you can until you’ve cleared it. Don’t turn, don’t brake, don’t accelerate. Maybe don’t even breathe. And during those tense few moments, relax yourself by remembering that if you fall on ice, you leave a whole lot less of yourself on the ground than if you’d fallen on asphalt!

On bike lanes

I have more to say on the subject (I'm a bit of a bike lane skeptic). In the meantime this video provides an interesting entrée.

A tale full of sound and fury; signifying nothing

Two years ago, citing safety concerns, Montgomery County imposed a 15 mph speed limit on the county portion of the Capital Crescent Trail and installed rumble strips on the trail where it crosses Dorset Avenue and Little Falls Parkway at grade. For three or four weeks thereafter, it was not uncommon to see Montgomery County police cruisers conspicuously parked alongside the trail, radar in place, checking for violators.

The rumble strips were taken up after about a year. The speed limit – and the signs stating it – remain in place but enforcement today appears no more substantial than the fading stripes of paint that hint at where the rumble strips once were. Now, two years later, one wonders: What was the point? Are cyclists riding more slowly? Are there fewer accidents? Are pedestrians no longer startled by bicycles speeding past, inches from their elbows?

I confess that on my own almost daily (and always uphill) commute on the CCT I give absolutely no thought to my speed unless the trail is congested, in which case I find a pace to match conditions. It is of course risky extrapolate too freely from one's own experience, but it seems to reinforce the sentiment of several cyclists, expressed when the new rules were instituted, that this "solution" missed the point; that the limit was unrealistically low and that the freer application of common sense and courtesy by all trail users would go further toward enhancing trail safety.

Unsolicited advice: Five top tips for getting along with drivers

You’re slower than cars and harder to see. Sometimes you tie up an entire lane even though physically you occupy only a fraction of it. You are going to get in the way of drivers. Here are a few suggestions on how to keep from annoying them at the same time.

The best general advice is, ironically, simply to conduct yourself like a good driver. Try, within your ability, to become part of and remain within the flow of traffic. So, first – you already know this, but it can’t be omitted – ride predictably. Unpredictable riders agitate drivers. (Not to mention that they are more likely to get hit.) In Washington’s miserable commuter traffic, drivers are already burdened with enough anxiety and frustration. Don’t add to it.

Second. Ride confidently and purposefully. A fearful rider is an unpredictable rider, which is bad. (See above.) You have the right to be on the road; ride as though you believe it. And ride purposefully; don’t dither. Nobody likes ditherers.

Third. You are entitled to make drivers to wait for a bit behind you, to slow to let you into space, or to change lanes to pass you – that’s what “sharing the road” means. But never do anything to force a driver into an abrupt change of speed or direction. It’s discourteous and dangerous. When I drove a taxi, I devised a rule for good hacking: Never give your passengers, or other drivers, reason to reflect upon Newton’s Laws of Motion. You haven’t got passengers but the rule’s good for you too.

In addition to doing your best to become part of the flow, be polite. Really polite. Here you have an advantage. The humans beings piloting cars and trucks vanish within their large and impersonal machines. But you on your bike are visibly, perceptibly, a person. Remind drivers of this, in thoughtful and considerate ways, and you’ll defuse a lot of potential resentment. So:

Fourth. When someone gives you a break, acknowledge it. A wave, a nod – something they’ll see. Maybe they gave you a bit of room at a light so you could ease past them on the curb side. Or slowed to let you into their lane so you could ride around a parked car. Or waved you through at a stop sign. Whatever – say thanks and make sure they see it.

Fifth and finally. When you screw up, apologize. Yeah, it’s hard, but suck it up. Be a mensch. Once or twice I’ve actually turned around and chased down a driver whom I’d wronged. In both instances they greeted me ready to continue the fight, but upon hearing me admit that I’d been wrong, quickly calmed down, allowed that everyone makes mistakes, told me to be the hell more careful and wished me well.

This last bit of advice is, I think, pretty idiosyncratic (I’ve never seen anyone else recommend it) and I suppose that it needs to be applied judiciously (a soft answer doesn’t invariably turn away wrath) but apologies are powerful things and I’m willing to bet that both of those drivers went home and told their wives or girlfriends about the remarkable encounter they’d had that day with a bicyclist. It’s a neat trick to use a mistake to make a good impression, and uncommonly satisfying.

Helmets

I’ve never had much patience for helmet scolds – those self-appointed stewards of safety who, e.g., write into newspapers or magazines chastizing them for running a photograph of someone on (or nearby) a bicycle without a helmet; or who fix you with a condemnatory glare if you should venture out for a ride around the neighborhood with a cloth Campagnolo hat on your head. Yes, helmets reduce the risk of head injuries in an accident. A helmet might even save your life. By all means, wear one. I do, (almost) invariably. But spare me the self-righteousness and disapprobation if I choose not to. Bike riding isn’t significantly more dangerous than any number of things we undertake every day without special protection; going without a helmet on a bike is simply not the foolhardy, unthinking act that some would make it out to be. It’s just a choice.

(Seven hundred cycling deaths each year in the U.S. compared to 33,000+ in autos and 4,500+ for pedestrians. Injuries similarly skewed, away from cyclists. I wonder how many lives would be saved every year, or how many closed head injuries mitigated, by helmet use by everyone at all times? As they say - "if it saves one life, it's worth it".)

Helmets may help, but your best insurance against serious injury is unwavering attentiveness, the constant awareness of your surroundings and everything that moves in and out of them. The great majority of bicycle injuries and deaths result from auto collisions, and avoiding those one-sided encounters altogether is a more effective way to stay safe than relying on some thin piece of styrofoam once you’re headed toward the ground. (Which is why I direct my scorn toward cyclists with iPods, who, unlike bareheaded riders, are actually increasing their odds of a crash.)

iPods

. . . are great. But people who listen to them while riding their bikes are idiots.

Close calls and crashes: Deadly danger at the hands of the Bush twins

I’ve gone to the ground unexpectedly only two or three times in my bicycle commuting career. This is the only occasion that has a decent story to go with it.

One pleasant afternoon in June 2002 I was heading out Pennsylvania Avenue toward Georgetown to connect up with the Capital Crescent Trail and head home. I had just ridden onto Washington Circle near the George Washington University campus and was working my way around it in the empty outermost lane when I was overtaken by a convertible in the middle lane that had entered the circle behind me. As the car came abreast of me, it began to move right, into my lane, forcing me toward the curb.

This pissed me off. The circle was practically empty and I couldn’t imagine how the driver, approaching me from behind in a traffic circle and in an open convertible, could have been looking anywhere but right at me as she prepared to change lanes. I had two choices. I could simply feather my brakes, let the car pass me, and surrender the lane. The other was to take the driver to task for her obliviousness and for threatening to crush me. I chose the latter.

The car was only a couple of inches from my left knee so it was easy to slap the trunk with the flat of my hand. (Experience had taught me that this makes a good bit of noise and gets the driver’s attention, and doesn’t hurt you or the car.) But a problem immediately emerged. I had run out of riding room on the right. Instinct made me steer left to keep from crashing and before I knew it I was leaning hard against the car with only my outstretched arm keeping me from falling onto it entirely. But the car was still moving faster than me, and in an instant it was past me altogether. The moment I lost contact with it I fell into the empty space and thud! was on the pavement. Luckily I landed mostly on the meaty back part of my left leg and even though I’d been going a good 13 or 14 mph, I knew right away that I wasn’t seriously hurt. I picked myself up started to walk the bike (likewise not seriously damaged) to the curb.

The driver was a cute blonde of college age. Her passenger was a matching brunette. The blonde had heard the thump of my hand, looked in her mirror just in time to see me go down, and stopped immediately. (To her credit. She did not, however, bother to get out.) For a moment she thought she’d actually hit me but as I shook myself off, I explained what had happened and admonished her to pay closer attention on the road. She apologized, promised up and down that she would, then sped off. As she pulled away I noticed her Texas license plates and thought, “tourist!”

Only after the adrenaline had worn off did I put it all together. A young blonde and young brunette from Texas, headed into Georgetown at happy hour. And less than a mile from the White House to boot. Who else but Jenna and Barbara? It's true that Secret Service was nowhere to be seen. But Jenna was notorious for ditching her protectors by speeding off in her car. See here. The only thing that has ever caused me to doubt my conclusion is that these two girls were hopelessly self-absorbed, immature and irresponsible; the daughters of a sitting President would certainly have had more dignity and self-possession than that.