No Impact Man (thread hijacked by cycling)

[aquadump]

I watched this documentary last night. I agree with the comments on the ERE movies post.
More specifically, his final message of getting involved in one's community is the biggest impact he feels we can make. I also enjoyed how the documentary focused on the family's social pressures of going against the normal. That's one thing that many established counter-culture experts seem to lack, because they are so established. I think any time I make changes it is as hard if not harder for my friends and family to accept. Right now specifically, I have dropped aspects of my social life. While it is not intentional, I would just rather play frisbee than go to a restaurant.
I didn't enjoy No Impact Man's wife or his gardener friend. The wife seemed to have an M.O. for another child even it wasn't in alignment with No Impact, and she seemed somewhat excited to go back to consuming. Maybe I am being too hard on her. I didn't like the gardener's pessimism on the wife's work (magazine company), yet he hypocritically had a room full to the brim with crap like phone books.
Overall, I think it is worthy of watching but not epic.

[AlexOliver]

I liked his idea- do the most radical everything, see what works, and keep those at the end of the year. For instance, he started using the washing machine again. I think electricity too. To see what's environmentalists can reasonably expect people to give up.
I think the wife had her own goals. They might not have lined up with No Impact but when do your goals line up completely with your spouse's?
The gardener reminded me of my grandfather so I liked him. I don't know if it's hypocritical of him to have stuff. Phone books, for instance, are free, and can be used to make compost (maybe he has a box of worms?).

[runrunruneateateat]

I hadn't wanted to see No Impact Man but decided to give it a shot after reading the posts here and seeing that it's "watch it now" on Netflix. I actually liked it a lot. I think some people here have been too hard on the wife--she gave up TP for goodness sake, and she lived without electricity for 6 months. Those two things are pretty extreme and show her willingness to support her husband's goals, even if her's don't always allign with his.
The documentary has inspired me to try riding my bike to work. I've always been intimidated to ride my bike in Manhattan (I ride it all over Brooklyn, where I live) but if his wife could do it and grow to love it then it makes me confident that I could too. I think my fear is based on the fact that I've seen 3 bicyclists get hit by cars in the 5 years I've lived in New York. I hope that by using bike lanes and being careful I can minimize my chances of getting in an accident. My boyfriend is going to do a test-ride with me this weekend and hopefully Monday will be my first bicycle commute! My work just started a new policy where we can park bicycles in the basement so things seem to be coming together nicely.

[George the original one]

> I think my fear is based on the fact

> that I've seen 3 bicyclists get hit

> by cars in the 5 years I've lived in

> New York.
That's a very low accident rate. I saw that many bicycle-car accidents in Amsterdam in one day! Fortunately in Amsterdam the speeds are low... not so in places like Geneva or Paris (at least one accident per day when I visited).
Portland averages one or two bicycle deaths per year. Over half the time, it's the cyclist's fault because they're not obeying stop signs and traffic lights (a couple years ago, one ran a red light in front of a City dump truck... game over!). Occasionally a drunk driver or roadrage driver just runs them down.

[NYC ERE]

@runeat: i use a bike as my exclusive transportation in NYC. we'll have to talk about that at the meetup--i primarily stay away from shared roads, meaning roads with cars on them, and unless i'm forced to ride elsewhere, i just commute on the hudson river parkway. having come from San Francisco a few years ago, i suggest that New York feels a bit more dangerous...

[runrunruneateateat]

@George: I suppose it is surprising that I haven't seen more accidents given how many bicyclists I pass every day. The number of bike lanes seems to be increasing every year here but I do wish they'd make a big push to make NYC more bicycle-friendly.
@NYC ERE: It'd be great to get some bicycling tips from you; thanks for offering. I'm pretty excited about bicycle commuting and all of its benefits: cutting my transportation expenses, adding in extra exercise, decreasing my carbon footprint, and not having to rely on public transportation. As long as I don't get nailed by a bus, I'll be all set!

[jacob]

I've noticed people on bikes doing many things they wouldn't dream of doing in their cars. The most deadly include
1) Riding in the wrong way of the street. (This one makes me the most angry.)

2) Running stop signs.

3) Running red lights.

4) Riding on the sidewalks (I'll accept this one if the cycling is really slow i.e. jogging speed and the bicyclists look very attentive. Being on the sidewalk is a great way to suffer death by right-hook.)

5) No lights after dark.
I bet these guys make up a lot of the accident stats. I think they're also the cause of a lot of the tension between drivers and cyclists.

[Matthew]

@Jacob
#1 What about people riding in the country? I often think it makes sense to ride opposite of traffic when you are riding into the sunset or wearing head phones. If you ride with traffic drivers are blinded. Riding against traffic lets the sun make you visible to traffic.

[jacob]

Riding against 55mph traffic increases closing speeds from 35 to 75mph. Not only does that hurt a lot more, it also halves reaction speeds. This is why bikes ride with traffic.
Headphones are a no-no/illegal. You wouldn't/shouldn't do it in a car either. There's also a reason for that.

[Matthew]

I understand the physics, but I have not witness the drivers being any quicker with their reactions while they are staring in the sun and talking on their cells:)

[KevinW]

@jacob

The "Effective Cycling" book presents statistics that support your claim. The bottom line is that the vast majority of serious accidents happen to cyclists who are breaking traffic laws in dangerous ways. Some of them are children who should've been trained and/or supervised better, and the rest are adults who should've known better. Of the accidents, nearly all fatalities are head injuries to cyclists without helmets. The accident and fatality rates fall dramatically when you control for experienced, adult riders.
So, you can make cycling safe for yourself by learning traffic rules, following them diligently, and wearing a helmet.
This page discusses the topic at great length:

http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/health/risks.htm

[AlexOliver]

Near my house, it would be impossible to ride on the right side of the road if you have to turn left out of the neighborhood. It's too busy/no traffic lights/etc.

[jacob]

Oh boy, this thread has been totally hijacked ...
I wear a helmet if I expect to go faster than 15mph. Faster than that and I can't land well. I might not even land well at 10mph but it's a risk I take.
Once I was going straight next to the sidewalk at 18mph and tugged in. A 6 year old boy on his way to school saw a friend on the other side of the street and stepped right out in front of me without looking. He stops the handlebars (and the bike) with his forehead. I fly right over the handlebars and land on my helmet rolling it out. The helmet cracked and I got a slightly sprained finger. He got some nice bruises right across his face. Everybody was alright though (lots of crying though .. no it wasn't me, I was brave ). His first words when he saw his mother was "I'm glad it wasn't a car."

[NYC ERE]

I break pretty much all the rules mentioned here. I listen to my iPod all the way to work and back (40 mins each way), but I'm on a bike-only road for 80% of the trip. no helmet lately--feels so good. Red lights = optional. NYPD is blind to cyclists. The commute is ~9 miles each way, so I guess my average speed is ~ 14 mph.

[runrunruneateateat]

My neighbor who is an avid cyclist and all-around awesome, intelligent person (he takes my compost from me for his garden; how great is that?) just got in an accident a couple weeks ago. He was riding on Second Ave. in Manhattan--in a bike lane, no less--when a person opened their car door without checking for cyclists first. He was thrown from his bike and the left side of his arm and his left leg got really bad road rash. It was a tough break but at least he said four people stopped to help him. I saw him out on his bike the other day, though, so I guess it hasn't discouraged him. I definitely think about him when I'm riding now and try to pay attention to the parked cars next to the bike lane.

[Melissa]

I am lucky enough to live quite close to work so riding my bike doesn't take much longer than driving. The road however is a 45 mph that is usually flowing at 55, and no bike lanes. I usually ride on the sidewalk to stay away from the traffic. The sidewallk here is really great, wide & smooth shaded in the afternoon, and virtually unused by pedestrians! It was a great idea for the city to put it in, theres even benches off to the sides in a few places, but being on the edge of town the majority of people who can afford the string of McMansions I ride past would never think of walking anywhere, especially to work. Now that school is back in session, I ride past plenty of middle and high schoolers that look at me like I'm crazy. They get picked up by the bus that takes them a few miles down the road. What happened to riding to school?

[Maus]

@runrunruneateateat

I had a similar collision years ago in Berkeley, flew off the bike and over the door about 15 feet. I must have been going about 25 m.p.h. No broken bones or loss of consciousness, but I was badly shaken. It was my second major bike versus car collision, and I eventually gave up the bike because I just couldn't get back in the saddle so to speak. That has proved unfortunate because walkability is usually highly correlated with density and noise. To avoid that I've had to settle for a very short car commute that would probably be entirely reasonable on a bicycle. As Jacob noted in his quote from Dune, fear is the little death that has killed this probability for me.

[S]

@Melissa Those high schoolers might be staring at you because it's illegal. A lot of states / cities have laws against riding on the sidewalk due to the danger to pedestrians and decreased visibility of cyclists resulting in accidents with cars at corners. Unfortunately, few people are aware of this until they get a ticket. Chicago, for instance, has tons of signs but most cities don't have anything posted even though it's the law. I ride my bike in the road (carefully!) with cars going 55, but it does take a while to get comfortable with it.

[jacob]

Getting hit by an opening door is called "dooring". I always maintain 1 door + 1 inches to the cars. If I can't I slow down significantly and look to see if anyone is sitting in the driver seat.
The thing about drivers is that they mainly look for other cars which are further out on the road. They will not turn their head enough out of habit.
I usually get "tripped" by cars from sideways pulling out in front of me because I go much faster than they're used to. What I do then is to tug in on the handlebars. This makes me look fast.
Sometimes I wish I carried a lance though.

[NYC ERE]

re: dooring, this happened to me twice--once in Berkeley, once in SF. @Maus that sounds like a scary dooring; i never flew that far; i can understand your aversion to coming back to cycling.
the key, in my opinion, to avoiding dooring, is:
* when there's a bike lane, ride on the outside line

* when there isn't a bike lane, ride in the very center of the car lane

* ride on bike-only roads wherever possible -- this ties back to ERE Berlin, btw, because Germany (and the Netherlands) have thousands of miles of bike-only roads.
re: sidewalk riding vs. 55mph cars--take the sidewalk, for God's sake! yeah, it's illegal, but better to live a long life than share incompatible infrastructure with tons of rolling steel.