Comments on: Kaiser Permanente: Cycling = Healthy

By: Captain Kickstand

Captain Kickstand — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:25:52 +0000

I don’t live or ride regularly in NYC, but discouraging people from riding against traffic is less about having the room for two-way traffic; rather, it’s more about the fact that a driver or another cyclist doesn’t have time to react to an oncoming vehicle. One of the scariest things for me as a driver is seeing a cyclist coming at me past the car in front of me in the lane, especially if I’m preparing to turn right or pull into a parking space.

City streets could probably be redesigned to allow two-way bike traffic but until they are, it’s better to stay on the right.

By: Urbanis

Urbanis — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:46:01 +0000

I prefer to ride on the road with traffic whenever possible, but there have been a few situations in the outer boroughs and in suburban wastelands where the car traffic was so fast and heavy and the sidewalks so big and empty that it made sense to claim the sidewalk temporarily as a separated bike path for safety reasons. If I ever encounter an occasional pedestrian in those circumstances, I always make sure to slow down and yield to their movements and positions.

I have much bigger concerns about cyclists riding the wrong way down one-way streets because it makes the traffic flow much less predictable for everyone involved–pedestrians, cyclists riding in the correct direction, and automobiles. In short, it can be very dangerous, even though it seems a ubiquitous practice in this city.

By: German Guy

German Guy — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:21:09 +0000

if this cycling “the wrong way” is such a big problem in nyc, then you ought to consider redesigning your streets. nyc’s streets were, for the most part, converted to one-way operation between the ’50s and the ’70s specifically to accommodate speedy, high-volume motor vehicle travel. bikes don’t take up very much space. there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to provide cyclists with two-way travel on virtually every nyc street. you don’t, after all, ask pedestrians to only travel one-way. cyclists can easily be provided similar accommodations, particularly on nyc’s broad avenues.

By: Jeffrey Hymen

Jeffrey Hymen — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:32:45 +0000

Maybe KP was just keepin’ it real. This morning, I was waiting to turn my car — yes, I was driving a gasoline-powered vehicle — from Grand Army Plaza on to counter-clockwise flowing Plaza Street when the cyclist that had come the wrong way up Plaza, and wasn’t a skillful enough rider to post up, decided that it was just too uncool or whatever to come to a complete stop and put her foot down, and so instead just sort of drifted through the intersection oblivious to the fact that I was turning, safely and fully with the right-of-way. That’s today’s example. I, no doubt, could post again tomorrow but I think I’ve made my point. I’m glad that more people are riding bicycles in New York City. Now let’s all work on learning how to do it well.

By: Rich Wilson

Rich Wilson — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 05:27:55 +0000

I was disturbed by the fact that some of those cyclists appear to be riding on the wrong side of the road (as well as on the sidewalk). I found a contact on the KP website and let them know, and got a call back saying they would pass it on to their marketing division.

By: Lance

Lance — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:26:31 +0000

This newly formed healthcare company, Emblem Health is also putting cycling in the forefront of their new ad campaign:

http://www.emblemhealth.com/video/cyclist_rev_0008_30.mov

By: gluggg

gluggg — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 03:45:04 +0000

You think they would have contacted the League of American Bicyclists before they spent all the money to make this ad. Cheez do cyclists not have a voice? Bikes on sidewalks cheeeezzzz

By: Andy B from Jersey

Andy B from Jersey — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 21:41:11 +0000

Yeah but what’s worse, for nearly half the commercial they show people ridding on the wrong side of the road against the flow of traffic (all the cars are parked facing in the opposite direction)! Otherwise excellent but they should have been more careful with this.

Like most everything bike/ped, it’s in the details!