Safety Issues

Walking and riding public transit can be much safer than driving a car. So can riding a bicycle in low-traffic areas, or any cycling done by experienced, careful, well equipped cyclists. Collisions involving cars vs. pedestrians or cyclists can be terrifying. I have witnessed my share. Keep in mind that many injured walkers and bikers are very young or very old, not careful, not trained, or generally inexperienced with traffic. You can choose to travel safely. This Andy Singer cartoon notwithstanding, you don't need a lot of gear to be safe!

Walking

Walking is a healthy exercise almost everyone can do and a great form of transportation. But many communities are not designed well for walking. Urban planners and walking advocacy groups such as NCBW and WalkSacramento are tackling the many technical pedestrian safety issues that need to be addressed by their communities. Are one way streets safer for walkers because it is easier to determine when it is safe for them to cross, or do they encourage freeway-style driving that endangers walkers and cyclists? If you find this long term, big-picture stuff interesting, check out the technical manual for my state, Caltrans' pedestrian/bikeway guidelines, which offers good illustrations and definitions of design problems and solutions.

This site, however, focuses on personal solutions. Yes, more cool superhero gear to buy. Bikers aren't the only ones who get to gear up. Here are my general recommendations for walking gear. Improve your visibility to drivers with reflective tape or clothing (available at most bike and hardware stores) and with a personal flasher. I have a small clip-on yellow light which I got at REI. You can clip it on a purse or backpack strap or on your collar or waistband. If you clip on your flasher, it needs to be visible to drivers that you find the most threatening. This is usually on your traffic side, but on long blocks with many driveways, the side away from traffic may pose the most dangers. For city walking, you can choose to save the battery by turning the flasher on only when crossing busy streets. I also have a no-battery pull-powered flasher that flashes different patterns for about the time it takes to cross a wide street. Mine was probably intended to be a badge reel, which proves that you can carry just about any tacky thing that flashes or glows to make yourself more visible at night. Flashers and other clever gear are offered at most fitness-gear Web sites.

The car has become the carapace, the protective and aggressive shell, of urban and suburban man.—Marshall McLuhan

Take walking safety at least as seriously as driving safety. Obey traffic laws. Pay attention to your surroundings. Look out for speeding drivers, sidewalk hazards, potential criminals, and other dangers. Find out about pedestrian safety for kids or general pedestrian safety and about recommended safe walking routes in your local area. Your local pedestrian group and government sites may track the most dangerous locations for walking, but I find these statistics more disheartening than helpful.

If you are planning a walk in an unfamiliar area and like playing with technology, try using Google (TM) Earth or other online photo-based mapping system before you walk. These sites can display sidewalk and street details, such as those annoying freeway crossing or bridge access issues, that are not offered on most paper maps or on sites like Mapquest. Maps designed for cyclists or tourists are also great for walkers. When I choose how to walk somewhere, I may choose a less direct but pleasanter, safer route. I dislike dicey situations like crossing through rapidly turning cars because they are harder to predict than cars going straight through an intersection. I also dislike walking on really long blocks. Having a good walking route is especially important in your own neighborhood because we can all become complacent when moving about in familiar areas. That is one reason car collisions tend to happen near drivers' homes.

Keep a charged cell phone for emergencies. I have a limited minutes, contract-free plan. I have never used my cell to dial 911, but I have solved some other dilemmas with a cell phone call. In addition, safety agencies now recommend you program your cell phone with an ICE (In Case of Emergency) contact number. When I walk without my purse, I carry a little bit of cash and some old or extra personal ID and health insurance cards in my fanny pack. The cards serve as a free, simple substitute for a purchased runner's/cyclist's ID.

I also carry pepper spray, but I took a class in how to use mace for personal defense, as well as some general self-defense training. Simply carrying a weapon like pepper spray or a taser in a pocket or purse does not make you a safer walker. Walk as if you know where you're going, even if you don't, and do things like taking out your keys so it looks like you're almost to your destination. A lightweight flashlight and good shoes with traction are also important for safe walking. I love my little handheld GPS and occasionally use it for city walking, but you have to learn how to use these well or they are pointless.

Biking

Bikes and bike gear are improving all the time. I cannot keep up with it all and I am not much of a biker, so I will recommend some resources. The page How Not to Get Hit by Cars, the book The Art of Urban Cycling: Lessons from the Street (Robert Hurst, Falcon: 2004), and your local schools, government agencies, and bike shops are good sources for safety instruction. I also believe learning how to drive a car or at least keeping up with changes in driving regulations is helpful for cyclists, even those who never drive. Unlike walkers, bicyclists are full participants in the traffic-scape. Cyclists are entitled to use the roadways and required to obey the traffic laws. Scofflaw bikers almost justify the rude antibike behavior from drivers that threatens even the careful cyclists. I must take a page from one of my favorites, Miss Manners, to remind drivers and cyclers alike that every act of courtesy, even in the midst of jerkdom, makes modern living a little easier. In my ideal world, everyone would be a cyclist at some time in their lives and no one would need to be reminded to "share the road" with bike riders. There are after all no road signs telling us to share the streets with other car users, although I sometimes think my city could use some.

Cyclists need to carry the same personal gear as walkers and runners, along with bike lights, a repair kit, and a helmet. Bike horns and bells are somewhat controversial. Personally, I live in an area where cyclists can legally bike on some sidewalks, so I appreciate hearing a bell when a cyclist is about to pass me, but of course, not every walker can hear a bell and walkers may not know or care what the bell means. Bike horns can be too loud, enough to damage young cyclists' hearing. Speaking of kids, there are bike-trailers designed for carrying children. I suspect kids are safer in bike trailers than in many cars, but I do not know enough about the topic to recommend any gear. See the Busgrrrl Hauling page for general tips and gear for safely carrying stuff on your bike. Bike lanes are another controversial subject, so I will sidestep the issue of whether they really make cycling safer. The best bikeways are dedicated bike/walk routes separated completely from cars, like those in Montreal, The American River Parkway in Sacramento, or the British towpaths, but these are rare treasures. They offer safe, healthy commute routes to everyone. Just watch out for those flying Lance Armstrong wannabees!

Public Transit

Or, how I learned to stop worrying so much about getting stranded and love the ride.

There are three components of transit safety: planning your trip so you get where you need to go without getting stranded or having to wait in a dangerous area, getting on and off transit safely, and riding safely. The last two skills are pretty much a question of common sense and courtesy, but this San Diego Transit site offers some good tips. Check your local transit agency's schedule book and Web site. Mine offer "How to ride" content. Before riding a real train like Amtrak, talk to an experienced rider or check out books such as All Aboard! (Prima Publishing 1998) by Jim Loomis. There are a lot of useful things to know about how these systems work before you board. In Busgrrrl-topia, they would teach all these skills in elementary school in conjunction with biking and walking safety under the subject Skills for the 21st Century long before the students start driver training or get indocrinated by games that glorify reckless driving (they actually give extra points for hitting pedestrians!).

Reading a transit schedule

The first thing you need to know when planning a trip on transit is how to interpret and use a timetable. This is not always so obvious. It is generally better to start backwards when planning a trip, i.e. find the best time and stop for arriving at your destination then figure how to get there. This method should help you avoid starting out on an impossible mission, as sometimes connections just won't get you where you need to go.

Sample schedule: Bus 23

To Downtown		To Mall
4th&Jefferson	4th&Townsend	Townsend&2nd Ave	Townsend&Cleveland
10:30 AM	10:50 AM	11:08 AM	11:19 AM
11:01 AM	11:21 AM	11:39 AM	11:50 AM

I developed this sample schedule for an accessible design class. If you are sighted, imagine having to understand and rely on an Internet-based schedule if you were blind. (Try listening to this accessible schedule with JAWS© or other screen reader software if you are curious.) For those of us who can see, it is tempting to rush through transit planning because it seems like it should be simple.

You need to learn how to cross-check two schedules for connecting between them or for planning a backup strategy. For want of a better term, I call this schedule triangulation. You have to find an arrival time at each transfer point that will give you enough time to meet the next transit run. Putting a little effort into planning will often let you avoid waiting a long time on some unpleasant corner. Transit systems sometimes have planned easy connections, but not every trip will have an easy transfer. Taking a slightly different trip or walking part of the way can sometimes eliminate long waits or iffy connections. In addition to triangulation skills, it is helpful to be able to interpolate arrivals between listed bus stops, also sometimes called timepoints. If for example you know that you are at an unlisted stop located one-third of the travel time/distance between Bus 23's 4th & Jefferson and 4th & Townsend stops on the sample schedule, you can expect the bus to arrive at the first stop's time plus one-third of the travel time to the second stop, or about 10:36 for the first trip listed.

With all my intrepid transit wanderings, I have made pretty much every mistake possible. I have never been seriously stranded anywhere, but I have learned some hard lessons. My Los Angeles and Albuquerque/Santa Fe trips were especially didactic/traumatic.

Busgrrrl's Big List of Transit Tips

• Confirm which route you're boarding and the destination point; don't trust the signs
• Don't take walking directions from transit drivers too seriously
• Regular riders are often the best source of transit information, but get at least two opinions
• Try to plan regular trips so that you have a choice of two or more transit routes
• Online trip-planning systems give inefficient or boring routes, so also check a route map
• Human trip planners assume you don't want to walk, so also check maps to save time
• When you leave the bus, ask the driver where the return/pickup bus stop is
• Sit near the front of the railcar/bus and near a window if you're unfamiliar with a route
• On an unfamiliar route, follow along on your route map/city map so you always know where you are
• On infrequent routes, avoid returning on the last trip of the day
• The maps on bus schedules are never to scale or complete; look for a true map to supplement schedules or for walking
• Rail lines often have very short door-open periods so be ready to move; you can't block the doors open as you can on an elevator
• On trips to fun places, relax by setting a return-time reminder alarm on your watch or cell phone
• Rail lines often have some cars like snack bars that do not open at all stops, so move to a regular car before your destination
• Be nice to drivers because they are more helpful to people they know
• Earlier, shorter, and express routes are likely to be on time
• Bikes-on-transit policies vary across routes, equipment types, cars, and times of day; folded bikes may be allowed in all situations
• Carry cab fare and phone numbers or at least extra transit fare money
• In unfamiliar cities, buy a one-day or three-day pass if available; this helps avoid stranding or delays due to lack of fare change
• Know your system's route numbering conventions, if any
• Get to the stop a little earlier than the schedule requires
• Don't wait until the last minute to check transit Web sites since they are often slow or buggy; those with slow Web connections may find them unusable
• Light rail trains often split off cars into two routes, so you may need to board a particular car
• When planning a long or strenuous day, allow a lot more time for your return trip to transit
• Underline or highlight your trip on the schedule to avoid reading the wrong rows or columns
• On most systems, assume they will be out of schedules on the bus/train and bring your own
• Check the transit Web site or ask human trip planners for arrival times because they usually have unpublished times for stops that don't fit on the printed schedules
• Memorize or carry your transit information phone number
• Keep your eyes and ears open when using a new system; some have unusual rider-friendly policies like picking up passengers between stops when it is safe or holding up other buses for transferring passengers, but the transit book/site won't tell you this
• Check publication dates and replace printed schedules frequently
• It's OK to ask trip planners for a less dicey, less isolated transfer point; if you're nervous about a stop, reroute yourself through a major transfer point
• Many transit systems now offer real-time arrival info to cell phone users
• For really important trips like to the airport, start out much earlier than you think you need to
• Look around popular stops when traveling; there may be amenities such as a nice hangout spot nearby for those times when you've just missed your connection
• Enjoy the scenery, talk to other passengers, or bring something to do because transit time can be productive and fun

Even a superhero would not follow all of these guidelines all of the time. We all get complacent at times.