Education is a process, not an act. One of my favorite aspects of writing a column is I get to build off things I've written earlier. Such as finally understanding the seeming paradox that more amateurs without helmets careening on bicycles in city traffic somehow makes the city safer and leads to fewer head injuries.
A friend is feeling unwell, and I recommended she nurse herself back to health with the rich gingery soup from Ajida, a Japanese grill on Wells Street.
As she isn’t able to go out, I gallantly offered to convey the miso udon to her, of course hopping on a Divvy to rush the soothing broth to her place in Greektown.
As there are no Divvy stations immediately around the restaurant, I meant to pick up a cable lock, to secure the bike while I ran inside to collect the carry out. I considered leaving the bike unattended in the street. But I did that once, buying cookies at D’Amato’s Bakery on Grand, and it was a nerve-wracking experience, with one eye on the goodies slowly being placed into a box by the clerk, one eye fixed on the defenseless blue Divvy bike parked in front, poised at any moment to have to bolt out to rescue it.
Never again. Too stressful. But I didn’t get around to buying the lock, so instead I walked to Ajida, accepted our soup, then hot-footed it to Franklin and Madison to grab a bike west to Halsted.
Memo to self: buy cable lock.
In fact, if you have other unsanctioned tricks and unrecommended strategies regarding maximizing the bike share system, let me know and I’ll include them in a future column tentatively titled, “Pimp My Divvy.”
Yes, I wore my helmet. I’m trying to be more scrupulous about that, a) because it’s safer and b) toting the helmet gives me a cachet of cool, if only in my own mind.
Speaking of helmets . . .When last we addressed Divvy helmets, in July, the American Journal of Public Health had printed a study claiming that in cities launching ride-share programs, the percentage of head injuries among bicycle-related injuries went up. I used it as the basis for a general plea for more helmet use and called on the city to do more to promote helmets, which of course had no effect.
This week Andres Salomon, a Seattle bicycle activist, sent me a pair of follow-up letters from the Sept. 11 journal of public health that revisit the issue, pointing out that while the percentage of head injuries has gone up in 10 cities with ride-share programs, totals went down,
The study “misinterpreted the injury data,” Salomon and his colleagues write. “Although the proportion of injuries that were head injuries increased . . . the authors fail to mention that the total number of head injuries declined by 14.4% in bicycle share cities, compared with a decline of only 3.9% in control cities. . . . The total number of nonhead injuries declined even more sharply — by 37.8% in bike share cities, compared with a 6.2% increase in control cities. . . . The data suggests that bicycle share programs were in fact associated with reduction in bicycle injuries, even though none of the programs provided helmets.”
The letter suggests that Vancouver, which is delaying its rideshare program until a system of helmet rental can be established, is endangering bicyclists by doing so, while Dallas, which suspended a helmet law to encourage its program, is helping them.
That seems counterintuitive; how can filling busy city streets with inexperienced, unhelmeted bicyclists, often unused to urban biking, often tourists who might not have ridden a bike in years, somehow cause accidents to go down? What’s happening?
The letters allude to the “potentially protective effect of bicycle share programs” without speculating what those effects might be. It doesn’t take an academic to understand what’s happened in downtown Chicago. Any frequent cyclist can tell you.
“It’s a critical mass,” said Diane Dillon, who regularly rides her bike from West Rogers Park to her job at the Newberry Library on Walton. “The critical mass of cyclists has made everyone, drivers as well as pedestrians, more aware of bicyclists and the need to share the road.”
“The ‘protective effect’ is another way of saying ‘safety in numbers,’ ” Divvy spokesman Elliot Greenberger agreed. “We’ve added thousands of big blue bikes on the street. You bet that means that Chicago is noticing and getting more comfortable with bike riders. With that kind of shift, you typically see motorists, cyclists and pedestrians become more aware.”
Dillon has noticed motorists are less blithe about weaving into bike lanes, cutting off cyclists or laying on the horn needlessly.
“When bike lanes were first introduced, drivers routinely violated the space,” she said. “Now they are cutting people off less and driving more respectfully. I get fewer anxious and annoyed honks — they would see a bicyclist and just honk for the sake of honking. Now they’re more respectful.”
Leave it to you, Neil, to point out the nonobvious!
ReplyDeleteJohn
As a frequent motorist, I would be less contemptuous of bicyclists if they obeyed the traffic laws. Almost none of them do. Cannot tell you how many times I have seen a bicyclist zip through a stop sign -- or even a traffic signal -- nearly causing a crash. Or having one make a left turn in front of my car with no proper hand signals.
ReplyDeleteWhen bicyclists learn to use the streets safely, I'll be OK with them. Until then, I believe they are a menace to themselves and others.
You see this argument a lot, and while that behavior is pretty bad it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. For the most part, that biyclist is endangering himself/herself but nobody else (I don't want to sound flip because there ARE pedestrian accidents, but that's relatively rare). In contrast, people in cars, who almost invariably go over the speed limit let alone even worse "car sins" (talk on their cell phones, drive tired or buzzed, etc.) are in a two-three ton vehicle capable of killing or causing grevious bodily injury with a mere sideswipe. So if a car driver is going to be "contemptuous" of bicyclist for these reasons, they probably should be self-loathing at the same time.
DeleteYou can get really thin cables and a tiny lock at bike stores - they're meant to deter quick-grabs of seat posts but they'll at least prevent the "walk away with divvy" you're talking about and fit easily in a front pants pocket.
ReplyDeleteHere's an anti-bike argument I don't think you've aired. How many years of people's lives have the bike lanes taken away? I don't know who keeps the stats, but I can tell you the Route 22 and 36 bus moves through Dearborn at molasses-like speed since they took out a lane for the bikes (and no, being able to listen to the radio through people's cell phone conversations while on the bus does not retore the lost time). Same thing for the red light cameras - on weekends certain interesections are jammed for three light cycles (especially the six-corner intersections with red light cameras). I'd probably still favor the downtown bike lanes, but like everything else in life, there's no free lunch.
Stop signs are way worse.
DeleteGo down Clark from Montrose to Bryn Mawr, it's a disaster with cars & buses backed up for blocks due to the insane number of completely unnecessary stop signs.
I don't disagree that more bikes on the road, many being ridden by tourists rather than speed demons, may well have resulted in drivers being more aware and even more considerate. "The data suggests that bicycle share programs were in fact associated with reduction in bicycle injuries..." Part of this reduction compared with "control cities," though, might also be because the cities with bike share programs are the cities with the best supportive infrastructure for biking.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, if you're unlucky enough to be one of the riders who's going to be receiving a head injury, having a helmet on is likely to be pretty beneficial, whatever the frequency of head injuries may be among the biking population.
Now the problem with bike lanes are the idiot joggers that use them, often going the wrong way, & the drunks in powered wheelchairs also going the wrong way.
ReplyDeleteAnd before anyone complains about my calling them drunks in powered wheelchairs, I only see that in Uptown & Edgewater on the Kenmore & Winthrop bike lanes, which are neighborhoods that are full of drunks in general, because of all the halfway houses there.
I've even seen the powered chairs on Sheridan Road. I guess those have a death wish.