Kansas Cyclist - Kansas Bicycle Guide and Reference

Each year about this time, DeWayne Bryan, executive director of the Pratt Health Foundation, teaches an after-school bicycle safety at Elementary schools in Pratt, a town of about 6500 people in south-central Kansas:

With helmets on and properly adjusted, a review of hand signals and rules of the road, 13 bicyclists followed their leader away from Southwest Elementary School for a one-mile ride after school on Monday.

The sessions are held twice a week through the first week of May. Bryan adjusts the length of the ride to the fitness of the students, with a goal of reaching three miles after a few sessions.

This program teaches students the rules of the road, how to use hand signals, safe riding habits, how to use a bicycle helmet, and the positive benefits of physical activity. “Tickets” are given to students who do not use proper signals on their bikes or who don’t listen to instructions.

Each student who attends at least 80 percent of the sessions gets a free bicycle helmet, and those with no more than three tickets are entered in a drawing for a new bicycle, donated my local merchants.

Since 1996, more than 300 students have participated in the Bicycle Safety & Fitness program.

“Not only does this program encourage physical activity,” Bryan said, “but hopefully, this program helps to decrease the number of head injuries by encouraging the use of helmets, decrease the number of bicycle/car accidents and encourage kids to exercise safely.”

Learn More: Pratt Health Foundation, Pratt Tribune. (Image courtesy of the Pratt Tribune.)

Many of the complaints cyclists hear from motorists seem to revolve around group rides — cyclists not stopping at stop signs, riding more than two abreast, or not showing consideration for motorists queued up behind a large peloton. And in truth, large groups often do seem to bring out the worst behavior, as if there’s a none-too-subtle peer pressure to ride aggressively.

An article in The Oregonian (Bike ride leaders react to perils with awareness) discusses what one Portland-area cycling club has done to improve the safety of their rides:

On Saturday mornings this month, Ohnstad is leading three- and four-hour cycling adventures along scenic back roads throughout the county. He expects 70 to 120 riders to participate in each ride.

Unlike past rides, when any free spirit could join, only those who agree to the club’s new code of conduct will be allowed to accompany the group. Riders must agree to wear a helmet, follow leaders’ hand signals, call out road and traffic hazards and obey traffic laws.

“I’m telling everyone that we have to share responsibility along with drivers for what happens in traffic,” he said. “One way to do that is make our actions on the road predictable to motorized vehicles.”

One weekly group ride I participate in begins each ride with a “safety talk”, in which one or more riders bring up a suggestion or a concern, and the group discusses this for a few minutes before hitting the road. This are occasionally a few awkward moments as poor decisions or dangerous behaviors are bought up, but the overall tone is positive, rather than critical, and the discussions haven’t seemed to chase anyone away.

Now, this is a small group, and this approach may not work for larger rides, but I for one appreciate the sentiment, and often find the discussions valuable.

Do any of your club or group rides include a code of conduct or a safety talk?