Once more on the bike

This is the fifth day in a row I've had some reason to go to Ohio State's campus, dangerous behavior for a boy from Michigan (who nevertheless is now faculty at OSU).

The three weekend days I was attending my monthly MPH classes.  Yesterday, I was teaching my class of 11 first year medical students.  Today, I was off to the Connor Senn symposium on sudden cardiac death in athletes.  The content of today's events is definitely worthy of a blog post, most especially because I need to get back to the topic of my April 28th post and revisit the pros and cons of screening athletes with EKGs.  That promises to be a lengthy post, and I'll have to wait until the weekend to find the time to do that.

It was a wet bike ride into town in the morning, followed by a cool and dry ride back home in the afternoon, after a day well spent.  The symposium was great.

On my mind tonight are once again issues of bike safety.  I discussed the importance of wearing bike helmets, especially for youth cyclists, in my last post.  I hope you have been able to visit the folks at Put a Lid on it, who do such a great job about helmet advocacy.

With rates of overweight and obesity increasing, and no end in sight, I have become a big fan of making our built environment more conducive to keeping people active.  It would be great if more kids could walk or bike commute to school.  It would be great, too, if more of us 'grown ups' could adopt an active commute.

One of the issues that folks frequently bring up is safety.  Many of us probably know, unfortunately, friends or family who may have been hit by cars while riding on their bikes.  All of us likely have at least read or heard such stories happening to strangers.  I can sympathize.  To date, I've never had a serious accident on the bike, but I'm not infrequently disturbed by drivers' behaviors as they pass me, or some times cut me off.  This is despite the fact that the roads are meant to be shared.

On some recent bike rides I've collected some photos of signage on the roads around town.

Well, that's a fine sentiment.  I'm surely happy to share the road with the cars, and really appreciate it when the courtesy is reciprocated.

This is more cryptic.  I wonder how many drivers, of cars or bikes, know what this means.  It translates to 'share the road,' and is more or less the equivalent of the sign above. It's yet another way of reminding cars to be aware that two-wheelers are on the road.

I particularly want to share this one, as it represents a sore spot in the life of bicyclists and pedestrians around Nationwide Children's Hospital, where I work.  It might be hard to read the sign; it says, 'yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.'  It's a traffic offense with a fine, but it's honored more in the breach than in the observance.  When I try to cross Parsons Ave. on foot or on bike, it is a rare car that yields.  Recently, there were two young women trying to cross and no car would yield to them their legal right until I biked into the cross walk and more or less sat in the middle of the road, forcing the issue.

I hope the police spend some time by this crosswalk, and ones like it throughout Columbus.  We have to make our roads safer for everyone, drivers, bikers, and pedestrians.  It is not only the right thing to do to reduce injury, but it can incentivize people to get out there and stay active.  The more we can commute to work and school, the healthier we will become.

There are medical studies aplenty to show that.  One recent such study will be the subject of the next post.