Northeast Ohio cyclists and drivers share the road

Bicycle safety involves many moving parts, the most vulnerable of which being the people on bikes, traveling without all the protection built into motor vehicles.

Whether it’s a car, truck, van, 18-wheeler or even a motorcycle, when automobiles and cyclists collide, the results are likely more violent and more often fatal for the ones on the bicycles.

And, while most avid cyclists understand and use best practices for staying safe on Northeast Ohio’s roadways, one area law enforcement official said it’s a good idea for both cyclists and drivers to remind themselves how to share the road with care around each other.

“The responsibility is on both of them — the bicyclist and the driver,” said Geauga County Sheriff/Hambden Township Fire Chief Scott Hildenbrand, adding that, fortunately, “we don’t have a lot of bicycle accidents.”

He said cyclists, being the more vulnerable of the two, need to exercise an acute level of attention to all that’s going on around them, use the proper safety equipment and attire and follow the applicable laws.

“Bicyclists should be aware of all that’s going on around them,” he said. “A bicyclist should wear a properly fitting helmet and some kind of bright color — something that’s going to stand out along the roadway. One problem is, if they wear gray or black or another subdued color, that kind of blends in with the road and others can’t see them as clearly or as far up ahead.”

He said that, for the driver’s part, being in a hurry and/or distracted is a bad combination when cars and cyclists are sharing the road.

“One problem is that everyone’s in such a hurry,” he said. “Drivers need to obey posted speed limits, be aware of what’s in front, behind and aside of them.”

Rob Ponti, who owns and operates the Bicycle Hub bike shop, which recently made a move from Mentor to Kirtland, agrees with Hildenbrand about cyclists wearing helmets and appropriate, brightly colored apparel, along with employing other safety equipment and awareness.

“Obviously, wearing a helmet (is important). That’s common sense to some, but not necessarily to others,” Ponti said. “Lights — even cars have daytime running lights these days and reflectors don’t work unless it’s dark outside. So lights are a must, even during the day.”

Ponti elaborated, saying that reflectors only work when hit with light at just the right angle and, by the time that happens, it could be too late to help.

“Some of the lights now available you can see from two or three miles away,” Ponti said. “That might seem pretty far. But when a car’s going 30, 40, 50 miles per hour it can hit you pretty quick.”

Back to the helmet-wearing issue, Ponti said it’s a piece of equipment that can literally mean the difference between life and death, even for folks just taking a spin around the block.

He shared a story from a few years back, in which a cyclist had just finished tuning up his bike and getting it ready for his riding season.

“He got finished and took it around the block,” Ponti said. “Fortunately he had a helmet on because he hit a crack in the road, fell over and cracked his helmet on the curb. I remember him saying: “If I hadn’t had a helmet on, I would’ve cracked my head and probably bled out before help arrived.”

He said another cyclist relayed a story about riding in a rural area when a car side-swiped him, sending him into a utility pole. Again, if that cyclist wasn’t wearing a helmet, it could’ve spelled death for him.

“Both on-road and off-road, a helmet is definitely a must,” Ponti said, adding that equipment alone isn’t enough to keep cyclists safe. Responsibility also rests on bike-riders’ shoulders in terms of obeying all applicable road-use laws and keeping extra alert, including attempting to anticipate motor vehicle drivers’ next moves.

“(Riding a bicycle) is just like driving a car. Some (cyclists and drivers) are better than others,” Ponti said. “So you just have to be aware of your surroundings. I mean, (riding a bike is) not like driving a car. It’s not like every car out there is trying to hit you. But you definitely need to be more aware of them than maybe sometimes they are of you. I always pay attention to drivers’ body language, figuring I might be able to anticipate their next move. I mean, I see some people just pull out of driveways and not look and change lanes without looking.”

Ponti said that’s why he always studies drivers’ actions constantly as he approaches motor vehicles.

“You just need to exercise a lot of safety and common sense as your riding alongside and around cars because you’re so much more exposed on a bike. That makes those things so much more important,” he said.

One avid cyclist who learned the hard way is Scottish transplant Stephen Daniels, who lives in Willoughby and said he logs about 20 miles per day throughout the week and does at least one 50-mile trip on most weekends when the weather’s favorable.

“I usually go from Willoughby to Headlands and back — about 20 miles — on weekdays after work, when it stays lighter later,” he said May 6 as he was heading west on Lakeshore Boulevard just east of Hopkins Road.

Daniels said one literal run-in with a car with a distracted driver behind the wheel on Lakeshore Boulevard in Willowick not only gave him “a bit of a scare.” It also reinforced how important it is to pay attention to drivers as he out riding.

“Yeah, I got knocked off my bike on Lakeshore in Willowick, over by the library,” he said. “The guy was on his phone. He was stopped. But then, pulling away from the stop sign, he was looking out his left window and not what at was in front of him, which was me.”

Daniels said although it was a slow-speed crash, it knocked him into traffic where, fortunately, other drivers were able to avoid hitting him.

“Now, when I see somebody coming toward me, I always try to make eye contact,” he said. “If I don’t, I stop.”

He said that, as far as driver-cyclist relations have gone in his experience, “most people are fairly respectable. I’d say half of them give you that three-foot margin passed into law last year.”

Speaking of laws, cyclists’ rights, pro-bicycling legislation and progress toward making Northeast Ohio a safer place to pedal, numerous activist groups have sprung up around the region over the last decade or so.

Take Bike Euclid, for example, which is a local chapter of Bike Cleveland, “a member supported bicycle advocacy organization serving Greater Cleveland,” its website states.

Bike Euclid President Kath Sonnhalter said the transportation infrastructure was not built with cyclists and other human-powered transportation modes in mind and groups like hers are advocating change.

“Our current infrastructure, as it has been designed and built over the last half century, gives priority to the safe and efficient use of the automobile and as a result pedestrians and bicyclists may encounter unsafe conditions. In order to support people using active forms of transportation, such as bicycling and walking, the infrastructure needs to change,” she writes. “A major shift in thinking has occurred over the last decade, and that is to give equal priority to all users of the public rights of way, thereby making streets safe for all. This shift is evident in the growing number of infrastructure improvement projects in our region. Examples range from sharrows to protected bike lanes, and planning projects such as the (Cuyahoga) County Greenway Plan.”

Sonnhalter said more and more people are taking to area roadways on bicycles, as evidenced by an ongoing League of American Bicyclist study derived from U.S. Census Bureau statistics.

For example, she said that the organization “has found a 10 percent increase of people commuting to work by bike from 2011 to 2013, and a 62 percent increase from 2000 to 2013.”

She also cites a 2014 report by the League of American Bicyclists, which reports: “Census Bureau released its newest report on commuting in America, heralding a 60 percent increase in bike commuting in America over the past decade.”

“I feel it is important to note that we are a community where many residents own cruisers, their childhood bikes — bikes that they used for their paper routes,” Sonnhalter writes. “On any given summer evening you will see people pedaling up and down the street. If you ask them if they consider themselves a cyclist, they will say no. Yet this is the very population who would immediately make use of improvements to our bike transportation infrastructure: to get to the library, to the grocery store, to a friend’s house and to the park.”

She continues that, “in the fall of 2016, in order to guide them to the realization that they are indeed cyclists, we created and distributed ‘Euclid — A Bike Friendly Community Survey.”

“A couple of things we learned from the survey (include) that 72.7 percent of respondents said: ‘I would bicycle more often if it felt safer and more comfortable.’ And, when asked what could be done to improve their feelings of safety and comfort, 66.3 percent said: ‘More bike lanes that are physically separate.’ These concerns are addressed by the recently completed and unanimously adopted (Feb. 5, 2018) Euclid Master Plan.”

Cuyahoga County is by no means the only Northeast Ohio area actively pursuing a safer situation for cyclists. Efforts in Lake and Geauga counties and throughout their communities have been making infrastructure improvements with bicycles in mind.

Sonnhalter also added that “Bike Euclid considers our advocacy to include physical and mental health safety. Bicycling not only improve a persons physical health, active transportation choices can also improve mental health. I know many people who cycle as an important part of their drug and alcohol recovery program. So Bike Euclid sees our advocacy to expand the network of safe protected bike routes as our one small way of addressing the opioid crisis.”

The organization invites cyclists of all ages and experience levels to participate in the annual Ride of Silence “in honor of those who have been injured or killed while riding a bicycle on our public roadways.”

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