Looking and the Look

Looking allows us to make quick decisions about where and when it is safe to move amidst the flow of traffic.  However, we also make ‘looks’ that are for more that just seeing. Our looks and eye contact have a humanising effect on our interactions in traffic.  If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself! Just this morning as I was riding to work and I needed to move into the centre of the lane to negotiate a narrow pinch point ahead of me.  I could hear that a car was close behind so I turned my head back and looked straight at the driver. As soon as we made eye contact, he slowed down to allow me to merge into the centre of the lane. It’s just like having magic powers.

So why do our eyes make such a difference? Well, we rarely hear of pedestrian rage. If we inadvertently bump into each other in the office, we generally apologise to defuse the situation as was touched on in the recent VicRoads Road User or Abuser campaign.  Alternatively, in situations where we are less recognisable (e.g. through tinted windows, wearing dark sunglasses, or on anonymous online forums), we can sometimes do and say things that we wouldn’t do if we were to meet the same people face-to-face. Psychologists call this ‘the transformative power of anonymity’. However, by making meaningful looks and seeking eye contact, we can reduce this anonymity and be more skilled in communicating with traffic. Our eyes may not have magic powers like the X-Men, but they are powerful tools for safe and effective cycling.

You can ring your bell

Cycle around most Australian cities and you’ll often see very few road bikes have bells on them. Many shops don’t install bells on road bikes and owners take them off anyway. It’s somewhat understandable given that road cyclists (mostly) ride on roads away from pedestrians and a bell is of little use if you’re trying to alert a car driver. Many riders think they don’t need a bell because their voice constitutes an ‘audible warning device’. However, the Bicycle Network advises that legally this is not the case.

So why don’t many road cyclists have bells on their bikes?  I think it’s mostly about tradition and aesthetics. Professional riders don’t have bells when racing, so why should the people who seek to emulate them? A bicycle bell can look like a cheap children’s toy. Placing a honka hooter on a $10’000 Pinarello is the motoring equivalent of a tow-bar on a Ferrari.

So why is it still useful to have a bell on a road bike? Well, other than being a legal requirement, it’s a friendly way to say hello to people and it’s a useful device for communicating with pedestrians. It enables me to influence the way pedestrians behave. The last time I was riding down Pitt Street in the City, a 30 something lady was about to step off the footpath and cross the road at an angle with her back to me. There were no cars around and she hadn’t seen me. I rang my bell and instead of frightening her I got a slightly self-deprecating smile. She knew I’d caught her mistake and stopped just in time. Riding through Moore Park on the way to Centennial there are always people out walking in the early morning- often not keeping to the left of the pathway. I start ringing 50m away until I see them look. They invariably move over and let me through. I say ‘thanks’ and that way no-one can accuse me of being a ‘lycra lout’. True, there are some zombies with headphones blaring that can’t be spared a little fright despite me trying to maintain a good margin and slowing down when passing. However, most people hear the bell and it’s proved too useful for me to take off. My bell is the size of a 20c coin. It’s black just like my handlebars and it takes only seconds to remove when I race on weekends.

Having a bell on my road bike hasn’t lessened my desire to compete or be taken seriously, but it has allowed me to have better interactions with pedestrians on the occasions when I use shared paths.

Practice makes perfect

The focus of BikeWise’s education programs is to teach people to be able to ride safely and effectively. To achieve this, you need to have some confidence with basic bicycle maintenance.  The most common type of mechanical mishap is a punctured tube and tyre. Not being able fix a puncture can ruin your enjoyment of cycling. Although there are many excellent books and online guides to bicycle maintenance, BikeWise believe that these skills are best taught through hands-on instruction where you can demonstrate the skills and techniques you have learned using your own bicycle. With a little bit of practice, fixing a flat tyre becomes second nature. Like any manual skill, our hands and fingers take time to develop technique. An experienced bike mechanic will have changed thousands of tubes in the course of their work and can even do it blindfolded.

Every Wednesday at 6pm and Saturday at 10am, BikeWise runs the City of Sydney’s FREE Bike Maintenance Course for Beginners at the CARES Facility in Sydney Park, St Peters. If you’re interested developing your bicycle maintenance skills, simply register through this LINK and come along to one of the upcoming courses.

BikeWise speaks at the Australian Cycling Conference

Held in Adelaide, the Australian Cycle Conference is a chance for researchers, policy makers and transport planners to get together and share their experiences, research and ideas.

This year Jo presented her research looking at how cyclists and pedestrians can get along.  Her paper stood out amongst many of the presentations through her use of a qualitative research practice in which understanding and conversations is the focus. Jo sought to identify how cooperative behaviour on shared paths could be encouraged by effectively engaging with one specific group of cyclists i.e. sports and training cyclists. A series of focus groups with club and non-affiliated training cyclists formed the basis of the study. Her key finding was that club and training cyclists identify differently and do not necessarily relate to or associate with ‘other types’ of cyclists (e.g. commuters), thus communications which reference ‘other cyclists’ are rarely effective.   To develop more effective communications, cycling policy makers need to have more understanding of training cyclists’ motivations and concerns.  For example, training cyclists frequently cite problems with driver behaviour, poor road surfaces, and the absence of places to train as their main concerns. This research suggests that policy makers need to develop an empathetic understanding of sports-oriented cyclists in order to have effective and enabling engagement with this group of riders.