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<DIV><SPAN class=312515316-06042007><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff>MassBike does
in fact offer classes on how to ride safely in traffic; more than 200 people
signed up last year. We're putting together the spring schedule now, and
revamping our curriculum a bit, but the info will be up soon at <A
href="http://www.massbike.org/skills/classes.htm">http://www.massbike.org/skills/classes.htm</A>.
We also have some tips online at <A
href="http://www.massbike.org/skills/traffic.htm">http://www.massbike.org/skills/traffic.htm</A>.
We've also got a pamphlet online that looks at the law from both a bicyclist and
motorist perspective: <A
href="http://www.massbike.org/info/roadhog.pdf">http://www.massbike.org/info/roadhog.pdf</A>.
One of the goals of the Bicyclist Safety Bill is to make the law even more clear
about how cars should interact with bikes.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=312515316-06042007><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=312515316-06042007><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff>-David</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT
face=Tahoma>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B>
bostoncriticalmass-bounces@bostoncriticalmass.org
[mailto:bostoncriticalmass-bounces@bostoncriticalmass.org]<B>On Behalf Of
</B>Andrew Toomajian<BR><B>Sent:</B> Friday, April 06, 2007 11:31
AM<BR><B>To:</B> Boston Critical Mass<BR><B>Subject:</B> RE: [*BCM*] List of
dangerous streets<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>I think it might be more productive to
focus on "best" routes rather than which streets are dangerous and why.
The SF Bike coalition, for example, makes a map of bike routes through the
city avoiding it's major hills. It would be a great project to do this
for Boston, with the goal of avoiding areas of especially high traffic,
severely pot-holed roads, etc. <BR> <BR>Me and the sweetie were
talking about this last night - does anyone offer classes or guidelines on how
to ride safely in traffic? This might be a great project for MassBike,
and I bet there is grant money for it somewhere. A lot of it boils down
to "when in doubt - take the lane" but I'm sure there could and would be more
to it than that. The sweetie has done a lot less city riding than me so
she ends up asking me for survival tips a lot. I bet a lot of people are
in a similar situation and a well promoted class would help avoid accidents
like this one. <BR> <BR><BR>> <BR>> Maybe Massbike could
compile a list of known, dangerous streets for<BR>> bicyclist to avoid, or
at least be aware of. That would be the best help<BR>> they could give for
now. We have a wealth of knowledge here that needs to<BR>> be dispersed
before another tragedy occurs. I took Massbike's safe biking<BR>> course
but found their insistence that city biking is safe a little<BR>> detached
from reality. Bicycle safety is not as simple or easy as<BR>> following a
few road rules. Not acknowledging this is very irresponsible.<BR>> We don't
need to let another person to find out the hard way which<BR>> streets are
unsafe.<BR>> <BR><BR>
<HR>
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