Joining the Chorus of Ignorance
For decades competent and trained cyclists have had to deal with the occasional ignorant motorist who hollers out some variation on “Get off the damn road ya idjyit, yer gonna get yerself killed!”
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For decades competent and trained cyclists have had to deal with the occasional ignorant motorist who hollers out some variation on “Get off the damn road ya idjyit, yer gonna get yerself killed!”
Vulnerability and risk. Statistics and ethics. Solutions or fixes. Top-down interventions or individual actions. These are the core issues in the long-running bike-lane (or cycle track)-versus-integration argument.
Thanks to the tireless volunteer work of John Allen, Tom Cook, Robert Seidler, and of course Keri Caffrey, we now can share this video from the I Am Traffic Colloquium. In this presentation, Keri lays out our take on the core bicycling-related problems we see in our traffic culture, the ill-advised “fixes” that many are […]
The “I Am Traffic” Bicycle Education Colloquium was held in February, 2013. The Agenda Saturday, February 239:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Links below lead to more information including videos of most sessions. Introductions Achieving a Vision: Keri Caffrey puts cyclist education and training into the broader context of how communities can genuinely support cyclists Journeys From Home: Roger & […]
The barriers to bicycling are perceived more-so than real, so helping people to see the possibilities is a key strategy. People are influenced and encouraged in different ways and through different channels, including the social realm, economics, urban planning and engineering, and the practical aspects of the bicycle itself and its accessories.
A common criticism of cyclist education is simply that “it doesn’t work.” Presented with such a statement, I suppose we first have to ask, “work at what?”
Co-founder, CyclingSavvy
Executive Director, American Bicycling Education Association
Through two decades of bicycling, I observed many close calls and conflicts as an individual transportation cyclist as well as a recreational group rider. Studying the behavior of both cyclists and motorists, I became convinced that the greatest challenge facing American bicycling is lack of education, coupled with the destructive belief system Americans have developed about our roads.
It has become my mission to correct this problem and empower individual bicyclists to ride with the confidence and skills to reach any destination by bike. I believe we can transform our traffic culture, through education and social marketing, into one which recognizes that roads are for all people, not just the ones driving cars.