One Size Fits All

Yesterday before we got lost (on our way home from Delaware), our route took us through some industrial sections of Delaware. We were trying to get to a small town so we could get some shelter from the storm, but it kept playing games with us. One minute the storm went away, and then when we thought it was safe and continued on, it would come back. Below is a picture I took of the industrial section and the ominous cloud of doom. This was taken several hours before the hailstorm began. I like the picture because it seems like all that progress is going up into the clouds. I don’t remember what industry this is, but there were some tankers going by (very nice tankers who slowed down and changed lanes to give us room and not scare us), that had "clean petroleum" painted on their sides. The air seemed clean, but who knows if we’re going to get cancer because of all this crap we breathed in yesterday.

While doing some research, I came across The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) website. From their about page:

The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) is a national clearinghouse for information about health and safety, engineering, advocacy, education, enforcement, access, and mobility for pedestrians (including transit users) and bicyclists. The PBIC serves anyone interested in pedestrian and bicycle issues, including planners, engineers, private citizens, advocates, educators, police enforcement, and the health community.

One of their links had suggestions for addressing community problems encountered when bicycling including one I frequently encounter: motorists who drive too fast and speed limits not properly enforced by law enforcement officials. One of the suggestions offered to remedy that problem was to develop partnerships with law enforcement - a suggestion I cannot recommend highly enough.

I had urged my husband to get involved with the local neighborhood watch committee (because I’m just too exhausted after work to do anything besides collapse). The neighborhood watch committee is composed of a bunch of busy bodies who call in various things: graffitti (because of the broken window theory), suspicious people who loiter too long or too often and anything else that makes the neighborhood unsafe. One of the neighboring watch committees had a cop who patroled the streets with the participants which was an excellent way to get to know not only the work that the poorly paid cops do, but also their motivations (almost always admirable), the laws, their capabilities and most importantly - how to not be afraid of one. It also helps to form a partnership with law enforcement if it helps dispel negative stereotypes of bicyclists. From PBIC:

Many law enforcement officers perceive that the bicyclist is at fault in most cases, because the bicyclist should have been more careful, or due to a misunderstanding about the traffic laws, etc. This is most obvious when it comes to investigating and reporting crashes, but law enforcement officers can also have a similar attitude when it comes to enforcing the law. Without some training, many law enforcement officers believe that the best (or only) way to protect bicyclists is to write bicyclists tickets. This type of unbalanced enforcement may be ineffective or even harmful in promoting a safe bicycling environment.

Training programs that address other ways to enforce bicycle laws and incorporate research findings related to bicycle crashes and effective programs can help change these perceptions and attitudes. Courses on crash investigation can be useful for changing officer’s perceptions about bicyclists. The training should be given to the officers who enforce the traffic laws as well as those who investigate bicycle crashes.

Anyway, I am glad that there is some sort of blueprint on how to deal with problems and obstacles bicyclists face.