Alvin Tostig wrote:
I never wore a bike helmet until about 1994, and since then I'd feel sort of naked riding without one. But I'll let others make their own choices.
However, what's up with people riding bikes on the "wrong" side of the road? (Riding against vehicle traffic.). It may be related to having some "new" cyclists on the roads these days, but I've had this happen several times recently, even on bike lanes with cyclists riding in the opposite direction to the arrows pointing in the "correct" direction. I haven't had any head on collisions (yet), but I will point out that they need to ride in the same direction as the vehicle traffic. I'm guessing they're remembering the "walk facing traffic" advice they got from their parents, and they're applying this to riding a bike. But these people need to have something said to them, for everyone's benefit, more so than the folks without helmets.
That has an actual name in the road biking community - "Salmoning."
I used to only see it once in a while, usually by men wearing work cloths and riding an old beat up bike, but since the virus I see more and more adults on fairly nice and new bikes doing it and it baffles me. You are riding against traffic, you can not see your stoplight, you can't get in the correct turn lane, and people pulling out of driveways and making right turns on red are not going to be looking for you.
I saw 2 women doing it last night on a not very busy residential street and a cop drove right by them and said nothing. I'm not big on cops stopping people for silly things, and I'm sure she felt that it wasn't worthy of her time, but it is extremely dangerous. A polite warning/general instruction would have certainly been warranted.
"...the street finds its own uses for things"