| Re: Sierra Club -- cycling is scary
Frank Krygowski wrote:
> dgk wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > I once, when young and foolish, hitched along an interstate. The
wind
> > caused by passing trucks could blow a biker right off the shoulder.
> > You really have to be nuts, or drunk, to try that.
>
> False.
>
> There are many areas in the western US where the Interstates are the
> only way to get between towns. I've ridden hundreds of miles of such
> Interstate with no problems beyond having to watch for trash on the
> shoulder.
>
> And FWIW, the data I've seen shows that Interstate highway cycling is
at
> least as safe as regular cycling. That is, very safe indeed.
>
>
> --
> --------------------+
> Frank Krygowski [To reply, remove rodent and vegetable dot com,
> replace with cc.ysu dot edu]
Yep! out here in the west there are actualy organized rides that use
major highway shoulders. And it is true that is sometimes the only
route without a detour of hundreds of miles. But there are the issues
of debris on the shoulder, very fast and high mass trucks, etc that
must be considered. And it usually is a poor decision to use the
shoulder when a frontage road in good condition is 15 yards away and
riding on such a highway in pitch black darkeness w/o lights is a bit
reckless (and illegal)
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