interesting debunking of the 10 biggest questions people have about cycling… 10 common questions.
Author Archives: Hong Kong Cycling Alliance
10 common questions about cycling – debunked
April 13th, 2012 | Posted by in bike safety | general cycling | touring - (0 Comments)The Health Impact of Mandatory Bicycle Helmet Laws
April 11th, 2012 | Posted by in general cycling | helmets | law - (0 Comments)Another new study out again finds that mandatory helmet use has a negative impact on public health. We are lucky that common sense has won on this subject, but I hope that other countries around the world will be able to question again their own mandatory helmet laws and fully understand the consequences.
This article seeks to answer the question whether mandatory bicycle helmet laws deliver a net societal health benefit. The question is addressed using a simple model. The model recognizes a single health benefit—reduced head injuries—and a single health cost—increased morbidity due to foregone exercise from reduced cycling. Using estimates suggested in the literature on the effectiveness of helmets, the health benefits of cycling, head injury rates, and reductions in cycling leads to the following conclusions. In jurisdictions where cycling is safe, a helmet law is likely to have a large unintended negative health impact. In jurisdictions where cycling is relatively unsafe, helmets will do little to make it safer and a helmet law, under relatively extreme assumptions, may make a small positive contribution to net societal health. The model serves to focus the mandatory bicycle helmet law debate on overall health.
More Cycling: Good for Everyone — Not Just Cyclists
April 5th, 2012 | Posted by in advocacy | cycle tracks | environmental | transport - (0 Comments)Extracted from the excellent Streetsblog website.
Next time you’re just minding your own business, riding your bike, and someone drives by and shouts something at you, perhaps the best reply is to smile, wave, and say “you’re welcome.”
As Jay Walljasper at Shareable Cities reminds us today, more bicycling is good news for everyone — not just cyclists:
Even if you will never ride a bike in your life, you still see benefits from increased levels of biking. More bicyclists mean less congestion in the streets and less need for expensive road projects that divert government money from other important problems. Off-road paths, bike lanes, sidewalks and other bike and ped improvements cost a fraction of what it takes to widen streets and highways. It’s proven that bicycling and walking increase people’s health and reduce obesity, which will translate into huge cost savings for government and a boost for our economy.
Policies that are good for bicyclists actually benefit everyone on the streets. Good conditions for bicycling also create good conditions for pedestrians. And what makes the streets safer for bikes, also makes them safer for motorists.
Higher gas prices (which have topped four bucks for the third time in four years) means more Americans are looking for other ways to get around. Bikes offer people more choices in transportation. This is especially true for people whose communities are not well served by mass transportation or where distances are too far to walk to work or shopping.
Kinda ironic that these are the activities that get targeted as “money wasters” by most governments around the world.
STAY BACK behind dangerous lorries
March 27th, 2012 | Posted by in advocacy | bike safety | transport | Transport Department - (0 Comments)This is extracted from a recent post on the excellent London Cycling Campaign website.
A short, sharp message from Transport for London headlines their latest PR campaign warning about the danger of HGV lorries.
Thousands of handlebar leaflets are being put on bikes all over London and there will be posters re-enforcing the message.
The posters give a very quick warning to all cyclists. Beware of all lorries, staying behind is the safest option.
Being hit by a large lorry is thankfully rare but always serious and more likely to be fatal than any other crash. If there is a junction nearby, don’t try to overtake as lorries turn quickly, cutting across your path.
TfL’s website gives more safety tips:
Cycle sensibly and assertively to help yourself stay safe, especially at traffic lights and junctions.
- Recognise that lorry drivers may not be able to see you
- Never cycle up the left side of a lorry stopped at a junction
- Look out for lorries turning left from beside or behind you
- Don’t stop too close to the front of a stopped lorry and stay away from the lorry’s front near side. If a lorry comes up behind you, move forward enough to ensure you are in the driver’s field of vision
- Take up a visible position at lights or advanced stop lines: three metres out in front and not by the left kerb or very close to the lorry
- Behind a lorry is often the safest place to be. When you need to overtake a large lorry, do so on the right-hand side, so that the driver can see you
TfL links to London Cycling Campaign’s advice for staying out of the lorry risk zone.
They also link to our Safer Cycling Code and the See Me, Save Me campaign for reducing lorry danger.
Lorry Drivers also targeted
Transport for London is keen to point out that it is also targeting lorry drivers. – The HK Government does not even target car drivers, but it would be a great and necessary step for them to also target lorry drivers.
There are press campaigns in the truckers’ magazines, as well as a webpage for drivers.
They will be putting on information events at channel ports and lorry service areas, aimed at drivers heading for London. – This kind of informational event is perfectly possible on Hong Kong also, around the container ports and at the road crossings from mainland china.
Rethinking the Automobile (with Mark Gorton) on Vimeo
March 9th, 2012 | Posted by in advocacy | general cycling - (0 Comments)It’s a bit long, but worth watching if you want to imagine what Hong Kong streets could be like..!
Why are cyclists angry?
March 8th, 2012 | Posted by in bike safety | general cycling | transport - (0 Comments)There’s a great article in the Sydney Morning Herald on what makes cyclists angry on the roads.. it applies very well to our roads in Hong Kong… so, Why are cyclists angry?.
How cities are coping with climate change…
March 3rd, 2012 | Posted by in environmental - (0 Comments)From the This Big City blog:
Hong Kong, and it’s 1940’s attitude to cyclists
March 2nd, 2012 | Posted by in bike safety - (0 Comments)This is a true bicycle safety manual from 1940, which is interesting in itself, but what’s even more amazing is that the attitude of the Hong Kong Government to cyclists is exactly as described in this out-of-date booklet.
Why do they think that it is OK to always blame the cyclist for the collision, and to just accept that any injuries were their fault…?
Subscribe to the website
-
Copyright © 2024 All rights reserved.
Designed by 
