https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8139...7i16384!8i8192 this part looks especially precarious.

Good luck fitting here on the sidewalk! https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8126...7i16384!8i8192

Unfortunately a lot of the South is like this. I lived two places in Tennessee (Knoxville and Nashville) and it's really tough to ride a road bike in those places since you need to seek refuge on the sidewalk pretty often.

I'd ride a mountain bike so you can jump off and on the sidewalk mid-block as needed. If you have a commuter bike get Kevlar tires. Don't ride a road bike. You're going to be pinned up between traffic and gravel and glass that collects along the curb.

If you get a helmet don't skimp on a cheap one. The ones that are upwards of $100 or over are way better than the cheap ones. They aren't any safer but they're much more comfortable and the aero features of the road helmets keep your head from being pushed sideways during wind gusts. I didn't believe that it made a difference until I broke down and bought a good helmet.

Also, helmets are really useful for mitigating the annoyance of light rain showers and they help keep your head warm during the winter. Don't wear anything with a hood because when you turn your head left and right the hood doesn't move and you're just looking into the hood.

yeah, the southbound side is even worse - i've been on the sidewalk on the northbound (east) side a few times, making a loop. this city is ridiculous, we have a looong way to go, especially in the northern quadrant/buckhead...


@jmecklenborg - definitely the truth on that. i'll look into a better helmet too for sure. any particular brands you recommend?

Actually I don't even know what brands I have (I have one road helmet and one mountain bike helmet). I think one is Gyro.

I'd also pay as much or more attention to your pedals and footwear. I have cages on my commuter bike so I can wear whatever type of shoe, but new people usually don't like them.

Don't wear shoes with a lot of tread (like hiking boots) with flat pedals. They won't grip. This matters A LOT if you have to brake suddenly, aside from more comfortable ordinary riding.

Get pedals with "teeth" on them or pins and wear flat shoes like skateboarding shoes if you don't want to buy dedicated bicycling shoes.

There is a lot of online fussing about saddles and helmets, but I think the pedal/shoe issue is huge.

https://www.evanscycles.com/crank-br...edals-EV274463

I bike in flip flops... it's great until you lose one and have to turn around and go find it...

I wear an old Weber grill I cleaned up and added straps to. I look a bit like Dark Helmet but that's okay.

pics or it didn't happen

Stuttgart


https://i.imgur.com/ezaSdMa.jpg?1

New York City to 'break car culture' and build more than 250 new bike lanes

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...es-car-culture

Federal Panel Seeks Mandatory Helmet Laws

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2019/11/...y-helmet-laws/




https://i1.wp.com/nyc.streetsblog.or...%2C100%2C401px

I will never wear a helmet.

Congress may never pass a law requiring it. The NTSB has powers to investigate accidients and make recommendations, but it does not have the power of the legislative branch of government - it can not make laws.

Infuriating.

"Just stop riding bikes so much and you won't get hurt!"

You are welcome to do what you want but given the importance of a healthy, functioning, brain to just about every single life activity, this is not a choice I will make. Even going 12 - 15 mph, if you fall from four or five feet up and hit your head on pavement, you can cause serious head injuries.

Also, if you get a serious brain injury, I hope you are willing to pay for the medical expenses by yourself and that you don't expect insurance to cover the cost of treatment.

Zero deaths? Have everyone stay home 24/7. What a ridiculous statement. I understand cities making those goals, we know they're not attainable but that absolutely should be our goal. Goals aren't always meant to be reached, their meant to be raced towards.

I made that statement full of emotion. We all know this will hurt bike usage in the US A LOT. What I meant is I would be pissed if they made a law requiring them. Would I wear a helmet as it is? Sure. I wouldn't want to, but I would if I saw fit.

Right now I use my bike to commute to school. Its 9.5 miles round trip and is 95% on my city's urban bike trail. The other 5% are on roads that are 25 mph or less.

If I moved somewhere and had a rougher commute, I would wear one. It's not my current reality though.

^ I'll preface my comment by saying that I have very little tolerance for both the pro and anti helmet Nazis. I generally detest hardliners of most stripes.

That said, as a daily bike commuter here in Chicago for the past 12 years, I have twice been struck by motor vehicles while riding and been thrown to the ground with enough force to put big nasty cracks in the helmets I was wearing on both occasions. Were it not for the helmets cracking, it very likely would have been my skull, with the commensurate serious brain injury to go along with it.

Needless to say, I will wear a helmet while riding in car traffic til the day I die.

I just discovered a small crack in my mountain biking helmet from hitting a branch I was passing under. The things are definitely one-and-done, but even a $125 bike helmet is a lot cheaper than a single doctor's visit.

Mountain biking is WAY more dangerous than riding in cities but nobody talks about it. For starters, you're typically pretty far from medical care even in a county or state park whereas a road bike is almost always easily accessible by an ambulance. So a relatively minor accident can easily turn into a serious situation, especially if you spend the night out in the middle of nowhere.

This is a hard thing to discuss, because people understandably tend to discuss their own opinions about helmet use when discussing mandatory helmet laws. I personally think my own decision to wear a helmet has basically zero relevance to the question of whether it's a good idea for a federal safety agency to propose to make it a federal crime for adults not to wear helmets on bicycles.

As I said, right now my commute is extremely comfortable and calm. Heck, I have only one intersection that has a traffic light on my entire commute. If I were fighting in traffic I am certain I would end up getting a helmet really quick. I just don't want to be forced to get one if I don't want one(like right now).