Today, the
Los Alamos Bike blog featured a link to a set of videos from the League of American Bicyclists. I've watched the videos and although the majority of the videos are good stuff, overall it's a bit of a mixed bag. I think the following videos show practices that all cyclists should find useful:
http://www.bikeleague.org/content/lane-changing-0
http://www.bikeleague.org/content/intersection-positioning
http://www.bikeleague.org/content/traffic-laws
http://www.bikeleague.org/content/where-should-i-ride
However, in my opinion, three of the videos encourage questionable cycling practices.
1.
http://www.bikeleague.org/content/bike-lanes
The video titled 'Bike Lanes' shows cyclists riding in the door zone and gives the impression that riding in a door zone bike lane is okay, but it isn't. Many bike lanes are of substandard width and the entire lane is often in the door zone. I think such bike lanes should be ignored and cyclists should ride well into the general traffic lane, operating as if the bike lane does not exist. The video skirts this issue instead of giving clear advice to avoid using such lanes.
Note that every bike lane in the video was either a door zone lane, or filled with debris, or the video showed the approach to an intersection where LAB should have advised cyclists to merge left into the general traffic lane to avoid right hooks. Instead, the video advises cyclists to "keep an eye out for drivers approaching from your left" (by which they mean the left rear) - not exactly helpful, as I'm sure many cyclists do this and still get hit. Since motorists often approach from the left rear and then turn without signaling, looking out for them won't exactly help. The right answer is to either ignore the bike lane completely and treat it as a shoulder, or (if we must use it), simply merge into the general traffic lane whenever there's any potential hazard.
In my view, at no point in the video should any of the cyclists have been in those bike lanes. The final scene in the video shows a cyclist merging out of a door zone bike lane for about 3ft, then unsteadily merging back into it - LAB needs to find some competent cyclists, and they need to be sending a clear message AGAINST the very kinds of lanes they feature in this video.
2.
http://www.bikeleague.org/content/riding-sidewalk
Regarding the video 'Riding on the Sidewalk' - I think the League is far too easygoing. If sidewalk cycling is dangerous - and I agree with LAB that it is - then the League should be absolutely against it. Bicycles are not built to operate at pedestrian speeds and doing so makes them far less stable, which means they need wide, empty and unobstructed pathways, which is precisely what sidewalks don't offer. In my opinion, simply sticking to riding the bike on the road is the safest way. My philosophy is this: if my bicycle is being operated on the sidewalk, I'm walking next to it.
3.
http://www.bikeleague.org/content/sharing-trail
Then there's the 'Sharing the Trail' video - yuck! In my opinion, a cycling organization should not be mixing itself up in the issue of multi-use trails. I think such trails cannot possibly be used safely by cyclists (for some of the same reasons I mentioned above in reference to sidewalks), and while I do use them when I can't easily avoid it, I wish they would either go away, or be made for pedestrians only, or made wider and for cyclists only. I think it's folly to try to make narrow trails work for both pedestrians and vehicles.
Sorry I can't find the links to make the videos show up here - I will do so when I can figure out how.
