Why I Cycle (and a bit about Safety)

Why I Cycle

I was cycling home last night from Australian Technology Park where I checked out the lovely Finders Keepers markets.

I thought it was such a lovely opportunity to cycle commute - despite the weather being quite rainy in the morning.

By the time I finished work, the roads were quite dry and it was a lovely evening.

It was so quick to cycle to Fratelli Fresh on Mitchell Rd.  (Which by the way, is a much different vibe to the one in the city on Bridge St.. Not so corporate - more families / wider age range.  Much nicer I think.)

(google maps)

(www.broadsheet.com.au)

Anyway, on my way home at around 10pm, I realised why I cycle.

I cycle because, I dislike public transport.

This blog post pretty much sums it up - 

http://beckysaysthings.com/2014/04/01/becky-says-things-about-commuting/

I love cycling over public transport because:

1. It leaves from my doorstep to exactly where I need to be.
2. I can depart whenever I want without waiting for a vehicle that may or may not be coming soon.
3. I don't have to deal with the awkwardness around being near random people.
4. I don't have to sit on / touch dirty seats & handrails.
5. I am in control of the speed and route at which I travel.
6. I am engaged and interested during my commute.
7. I see much more than the inside of a large motor vehicle.  So many cats and dogs and cool buildings and people!!
8. I get exercise while I'm doing it.

Also for driving:

• I don't have to spend 20 minutes or $20 on parking.

Safety

While I was cycling home - I was thinking, this is amazing, I am travelling home independently very late at night.

I would never do this if I had to catch public transport!

That is because I feel like it's unsafe.

Cycling is a little safer because I can go straight from door to door (without having to stand and wait in a dark / unknown area).

However, as I usually select cycling routes that are a bit more quiet, off the main streets, if something were to happen to me, I'm not sure what I would do.

For example, if a group of people were to come up to me and want something from me for some reason, I would have no way to get out of that situation.

I could ride away, but my commuter bike is quite slow and if it was me against a group, I'm not sure if I could out-cycle a fit person.

Also, if I had a fall or something on a quiet street, perhaps there wouldn't be anyone around to help me.

So I was considering getting an ICE Dot.

ICE stands for In Case of Emergency.

In the event of a crash sensor, a signal will be sent to the app on your smartphone (via bluetooth) that will send a message to the US servers which will contact your specified emergency contacts by the specified methods with a specified message.

Video demonstration here:

Cycling Tips review:

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2013/12/icedot-crash-sensor-review/

From these articles, the sensor seems to be set off by anything stronger than dropping your helmet from a 20cm height.

The gps seems to be accurate to 100m (tested outside).

The Local Bike Shop said that the ICE dot can be attached to all helmets, it's just a matter of working out where it can fit on your helmet.

As I don't really do any offroad / outside city rides - especially not alone - this would probably suit my purposes as I would always have mobile reception / enough battery for data & gps.

It's $179 + $10 annual subscription.

Which I think is a reasonable amount to pay for safety.

Unfortunately, I have a Samsung 4 and ICEdot are still ironing out bluetooth issues with Samsung, so I will wait a little bit and see if they can work that out.  (It seems compatible with iphones - ios7 - and other android 4.3)

Perhaps in the meantime, I will install one of those partner tracking apps instead.  :)

Pimp My Ride

I've decided that instead of buying a third bike, I might just pimp up my commuter so that it's a bit prettier.

Reminder of what my bike currently looks like:

I was considering pink and/or white polka dots.

I think white polka dots might be the way to go.  It feels classic but still pretty and something different.  

Flair.  :p

Some inspiration for pimping my ride:

(image via le-21eme.com/)

(image via echointhecity.files.wordpress.com)

(image via www.yesandyes.org/)

(image via snail-bait.blogspot.com.au)

(image via www.bluoz.com)

WEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

So exciting!!

Wet Bottoms, Headlight, Bobbin Fear, San Fran Commuters

Amazing 3D art from Shinaro Ohata

So it's Autumn already!

I've been continuing the cycling to work despite the rain and I love it.

Cycling home gives me something to look forward to with the current monotony of work.  It's quiet at the moment which means a bit monotonous and I'm better with the hectic crazy pace, so I'm finding it quite tiring.

My waterproof jacket is really good, but I kind of wish it was better looking.  Oh well.  It works.
The weather is still too hot to wear the sleeves though.  I think in Winter, I'll really only need a Kathmandu thermal underneath.

I still have to work out what to do about my legs getting wet though.  I still haven't decided on a coat solution or a wrap or waterproof pants.

I just found out about the Agu rain jacket with cycling specific front panel: from tweeting #WomenTalkBikes - Janet LaFleur (One Woman, Many Bikes) - a great blog I came across in my googling of commuting clothes for women - sent me a link to her rain jacket post.

Sometimes, being in Sydney, you are not sure what to make of Northern Hemisphere commuter cyclists' blog posts about bad weather gear.  A lot of them seem to cycle in snow and immense rain and I feel like we're lucky in Sydney, it's quite tropical and not really at all as cold as most places that people cycle.

Although, what I really want is the Georgia In Dublin leggits and rain wrap....

I found a blog post that confirmed the rain wrap worked with a cross bar...

I think this solution will work well for me as my winter outfit mostly consists of shift dresses, tights and boots.

But I am still thinking about it.

Lights

As we travel towards the end of Daylight Savings, I bought a headlight.

Last week when cycling in the rain, I didn't want to admit it, but it was really hard to see in the rain.  On top of the water on my glasses, and the darkness, and my weak front light being dispersed all over the place due to the water, it was ok, but not ideal.

(image via photobucket.com/user/esparza90/)

No, it wasn't that bad.

The suburban streets were ok, but there's 2 streets on the way that are quite quiet and it was difficult to gauge the road surface.

I decided to get a stronger headlight.  My current Moon Comet one is only 100 lumens.

So I decided to get the Serfas 250 lumen headlight.

It was the same price as the Moon version and more lumens, a bit clunkier for the bigger battery (to last longer) - but because I'm not fussed about weight, I thought I'd go for the hardier one.

(Serfas TSL-S250 usb rechargeable)

Once my husband showed me how to clip it on the handlebars - it wasn't intuitive to me... - it was great - it was very effective at lighting up the road in front of me.

My husband bought himself a set as he is about to start off road riding.

Bobbin Head

So I made my husband take me on a driving recon of the Bobbin Head ride.

The first uphill was long and not too steep.

However, the second uphill was super steep but quite short.  By the time I got my phone out to facebook an OMFG photo, the uphill had ended.

It's a bit scary.

People often say, just drop down to the lowest gear and spin.

Not sure how much "spinning" I'll be doing.

I've immediately started resistance training (even on my tiny commute), as I think I will pretty much be "stomping" up those slopes!

P.S.  Amazing bike commuter photo series!

An amazing photo series from San Fran about various cyclists here:

Eileen Lloyd, 64, occupational health and safety

Commute = 160km

All Women's Liv Giant Ride, Car Back!, #WomenTalkBikes

On Saturday, I went on a women's only ride this morning run by Liv / Giant.  The Saturday morning CBD road ride for this month.

It was very enjoyable.  The group was encouraged to introduce ourself to each other - so it made for a very friendly ride.  There were 2 ride leaders, but the ride was mostly led from the front.

The pace was good - 22 km / h average which was comfortable.

Distance was about 35 km which was good, however, felt a bit longer because of the 7am start (later than most rides) and we had a flat at the beginning.  But it meant that we were still out on the road after 9am so the sun was out and quite warm.

We were quite a large group so a little unruly on the road (not exactly a tight bunch) but we stayed together pretty well.

On the way back we split up into 2 groups - hills vs no hills.

I went on the hills group as I am already familiar with Mons & Torrington.

I ended up going on the back of the group.  From the MC rides, I am used to there being someone at the back calling "Car Back!" so I kind of did that on the way back.

CAR BACK! 

= "I am communicating there is a car back but I will leave it for the ride leader to make the call about changing lanes / going single file" 

(I initially thought it meant "get out of the way immediately everyone, there is a car behind us!".)

As this ride is only once a month, I guess it's hard to create a routine and have regular riders to help control the group.  (Like what MC do).  

I spoke to my husband and he said there are actually other clubs such as SUvelo (Sydney Uni Cycling Club) are actually much more tight and organised on the road - one rectangular group (equidistant from each other) and rotate leaders consistently, etc.

In computer games, I often play medic / support roles, so I think it's quite natural for me to be the last rider and look after the group from the back.  However, I haven't received structured guidance on how to do this role, so I hope I am helping rather than hindering!

Hey Ladies!

We only got 2 "ladies" comments from passers by.

1. "Good morning *ladies*!"
2. After taking a photo for us, "how about one from the back?"

Which to be honest was better than I expected.

#WomenTalkBikes

So from Facebook I heard about this discussion in LA:

Henny Alamillo, Voluneer Coordinator of Cyclavia; 

Daniella Alcedo, founder and current chair of the Pomona Valley Bicycle Coalition; 

Melissa Balmer, editor of Pedal Love and director of Women on Bikes California; 

Lauren Grabowski, bicycle and pedestrian planner for the UCLA Prevention Research Center; 

Jennifer Klaunser, Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition; 

Hyeran Lee, Advocacy Chair of the UCLA Bicycle Coalition; 

Susannah Lowber, creator of She Wolf Attack Team (SWAT); 

Andrea Denike, creator of Bodacious Bike Babes; 

Cynthia Rose, Director and co-founder of Santa Monica Spoke; 

Siobhan, Braking the Limit blogger; 

Maria Sipin, Pedal Love blogger; 

Laura Torres, with Multicultural Communities for Mobility; 

Nona Vernado, the force behind LA Bike Trains and creator of The Bird Wheel.

Copy of mp3 recording here.  I found the first half interesting but tuned out a bit during the call-in section as it was quite LA-centric.

Some highlights:

What made you take up commuting?

• Health / Fitness - Trying to fit a workout into one's normal routine.
• Environment - Earth Day / No Car Day
• Social - Commuting with someone else.

Safety for bike commuting

• Get to know the neighbourhood - wave at other cyclists, people on the street, people on their porch.  Cyclists are fun, happy people, no need to fear us or worry about us.
• Play the woman card - wearing pink, wearing a dress, smiling.  Even though you get sexist comments, the motorists slow down!  (Not always though!)

How to achieve equity for cyclists?

• Communicate the law - knowing the law related to cyclists.  Why aren't these rules included in driving tests?  
• Visibility - Portland is nicer to everyone because there are pedestrians, cyclists, dogs everywhere.  They're proud of their biking infrastructure.
• Communication with other people on the road - eye contact, saying hi to people at red lights, being friendly (smiling, acknowledgement).  Let them know that we know they're there, it's a team effort, we're all on the road together and we all want to work together.
• Communication with people we know - let them have space to "vent" about cyclists, but let them understand that you are a cyclist and that the people they are "venting" about includes you and you are on the road doing your best.

My tweet made it on the show!

"I've been looking for non aggressive ways to communicate with aggressive drivers."

Although, the group didn't really come up with anything immensely useful.. 

• Make "kissy" face back at them.  :p
• Write messages on marshmallows and throw them through the driver's window!  :p
• Pedal Love have been trying to brainstorm - get more allies out there.  There are guys asking what can they do to support women? 
• Educating families / schools - teaching children how to bike safely, navigate on roads.  Have the kids bring home the messages to the adults.  Cyclists aren't just strangers, they're your friends / families.

How to get more women into racing?

• Outreach and encourage women to race.  Host womens racing clinics.  
• It's ok to get hurt - it's no big deal - you can get hurt anywhere.
• Social aspect - cycling community
• Freedom, enjoyment, joy - experience and share this with others.

How to share this freedom / enjoyment / joy with others?

• Take people to cycling events (eg. CicLAvia)
• Reach out to inner circle.  So people know at least 1 cyclist and the experiences.
• Combining love of cycling with love of something else - eg. nature.  Do a tiny portion of cycling on street, but mostly in nature / on the beach.
• Sphere of influence - when someone says "I'm thinking of getting a bike" - take your chance to share your excitement - when you get excited for them, they're hooked, they get excited too!

Other notes

• Empowerment of women cycling and independently getting around will lead to empowerment in other avenues.
• Bicycle advocacy - remember the fun aspect
• Remain open minded about why people want to ride a bike.
• It's ok to push the Style & Fashion angle.  It's about fun and joy.  Sometimes in advocacy we can be heavy handed / too focussed on athleticism - sometimes it's ok to ride a couple of blocks, sometimes people want to ride the pretty bikes.
• It's difficult to educate a transient group (cyclists include lots of travellers / tourists) in relation to residents, etc.
• To make a change, we don't have to have the same voice, but we have to be speaking to each other.
• "Crashes / collisions" rather than referring to them as "accidents".
• Wear whatever make you feel comfortable and happy.  Dress for your mood.
• Give tips to others, but acknowledge it is a journey of discovery and tips depend on how you want to ride, when you want to ride.  There is not one solution for everyone.

Things you can't live without in your bag

• Chapstick
• License / emergency contact information
• Phone inside a plastic bag (to protect it from sweat)
• Baby powder
• Cucumber makeup wipes
• Buff = neck scarf for biking that saves you in any situation

Buff=neck scarf for biking that saves you in any situation #womentalkbikes pic.twitter.com/oC3wYMaXy6
— Spokes Gal (@brakingthelimit) February 5, 2014

Last note

I met up with my parents last night and my mum said, "How are your cats?  Are they still alive?  You never talk about them any more, it's all about cycling!"