Category Archives: Bike Safety

San Diego bicycle safety best practices and California bike law information for help understanding the rules of the road for bikes.

Six Important Bicycle Safety Tips for Children

Warm San Diego weather will lead to an increase in the number of cyclists on the road this summer. During this time of year, more people take up cycling as a recreational activity. Some of those people are children who are enjoying their summer time off from school. If your child is going to enjoy cycling this summer, then the following tips from Safe Kids Worldwide may help improve his or her safety. Pick the right helmet size. Your child should always wear a helmet while riding a bicycle. According to Safe Kids Worldwide, you should ensure that the helmet is the right size and compliant with the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s standards. A helmet should not rock forward or side-to-side. You can read more about selecting the right helmet size on our website. Choose the right bicycle size. You should bring your child along if you are shopping for…
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What Are Vulnerable Road Users?

We recently published a blog discussing how fatal accidents increased for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists in recent years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published the most recent statistics on these traffic accidents. All three groups are known as “vulnerable road users” or “vulnerable users”. This is a catch-all term to describe people who are not using motor vehicles. Other examples of vulnerable users include people on skateboards, mopeds, farm vehicles or in wheelchairs. Pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and other vulnerable road users have little to no protection when they are involved in accidents. Some states have laws that help protect vulnerable users from harm. California does have some laws that take vulnerable users into account, but there is always room for improvement. The League of American Bicyclists has three recommendations states can use while crafting vulnerable user laws. These recommendations include: Creating a “vulnerable user law”. This law would…
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How Bicycle Safety Advocates Use Ghost Bikes to Memorialize Fallen Cyclists

You may have seen white bicycles attached to street signs, trees, fences or outside of businesses while traveling about Southern California. These “ghost bikes” are placed to let you and others know that a cyclist died at that location. Like tombstones, ghost bikes may also be adorned with flowers, candles, personal photos and other objects left by family and friends. In 2003, a bike mechanic created the first ghost bike after witnessing a fatal bicycle accident in St. Louis, Missouri. After the accident, he painted a bicycle white and placed it where the cyclist had died. The idea has spread to dozens of US cities and foreign countries. Thousands of ghost bike memorials have been placed around the world. Ghost Bikes, an organization that places these bicycles, has chapters in Southern California. Many members of Ghost Bikes have lost loved ones and friends to bicycle accidents. In recent articles published by…
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