Re: Some traffic stats

On 3/16/2024 2:32 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 3/16/2024 1:54 PM, Roger Merriman wrote:

AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote:

On 3/14/2024 4:17 PM, Catrike Ryder wrote:

On Thu, 14 Mar 2024 17:06:08 -0400, Frank Krygowski
<frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>

Please. For ~99% of cyclists, bicycling is not a "sport."

>
Nonsense.

>
I'm with Mr Krygowski on that point.
>
Riding to work, grocery, accompanying children to and in a
park and so on would not be described as 'sporting
activities' by the participants or by observers.
>
As in so may fields the 'weekend warrior' cyclists get all
the press but they are still a small subset of 'cyclists'.

>
Hugely dependent on area though, or at least some cities even london
central and mid, yes there are leisure or sporty cyclists, Regent’s Park is
one example folks go there to do laps early morning.
>
But on the whole bikes are being used for utility, the ratio does reverse
back to weekend warriors by outer london and into the Home Counties.
>
This said some weekday warriors are despite appearing to be weekends
warriors ie roadie in lycra will be one of the many who ride in from outer
london particularly from SW/S London who will be for most folks
indistinguishable from folks lapping Richmond Park for example.

 I'm not clear on whether you consider those doing laps as engaging in "sport" or not. I wouldn't count that activity as a sport, unless they were racing each other. ISTM it's parallel to someone walking on a treadmill in their basement. Yes, they are exerting themselves. They are probably hoping to increase their endurance, strength, etc. But if those are sufficient criteria for a "sport" label, an elderly man sitting in his recliner and doing leg extensions might qualify as well.
 I'm just back from a grocery run on the bike. I'm sweaty, in part because I was trying to push a bit while on the uphills, but I'd never call that a "sport" ride.
 Incidentally, on that ride I came quite close to getting hit by a car! A woman came driving _fast_ out of her driveway and apparently looked only to her right, not her left, where I was. I yelled and we both hit the brakes. She stopped about two feet from me. I stood there shaking my head and glaring at her as she looked properly abashed.
 But if she had hit me, it shouldn't count as a bicycling "sport" crash or injury.
 

'Sport' seems an arbitrary demarcation at some point.
But cyclists on the short end of traffic errors is a serious and pervasive matter, sport or no.
https://cwbchicago.com/2024/03/pedicab-driver-struck-stolen-hyundai-north-center-chicago-police-report.html
--
Andrew Muzi
am@yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971