Local Article on Bike Safety

Do you get the West Bloomfield Beacon?  We got ours yesterday and it had a big article on bike safety. Bravo for that.

For the most part, the article is full of basic common sense things on bike safety - if you are on the road ride with traffic, not against it. Watch traffic. And so on.

One area where I thought they missed the ball was on helmets. The article should have been much more forceful that everyone should wear a bike helmet. It doesn't matter how long you've been riding or how short of a distance you may be going. Wear a bike helmet. I know someone who is alive today because of his helmet. You never know when you might fall - the car who runs a stop sign could just as easily be in your neighborhood as it could be 30 miles away from your neighborhood.

To further my irritation, the Beacon had a photo of a family crossing a major road (I think Orchard Lake) and none of them were wearing a helmet.

By the way, I often see families biking together.  I'll see the kids wearing helmets (unlike the Beacon photo) but the parents are not wearing a helmet. This is not a good message to give to your children.

Last comment: the article correctly points out that a biker is supposed to get off their bike and walk the bike across the street. I readily admit I don't do that. I try to observe all stop signs and I definitely come to a stop at a red light. But if I've got a green light and the walk signal, I'm riding across the street. Arrest me on that one.