Our friend and regular reader Chris Raczkowski (who posts under the name “Ragged Claws”) was interviewed on one of the local news stations in Mobile, Alabama. Chris sold his car and dedicated himself to using a bicycle for transportation. As a long-time former resident of Mobile, I can say that doing so in that city is no small feat, so “bravo” to Chris for doing this. Bicycling infrastructure is virtually nonexistant, roads are narrow and poorly-maintained and car culture dominates the landscape. Plus, there are a LOT of hills to conquer! But, Chris did an excellent job of illustrating the many benefits of using a bicycle as transportation, and he looks like he’s having a blast doing it.
Check out the story and video – good stuff!
Chris, I see my “talking points” came in handy. Glad you threw in the bit about bike commuting being fun — the best reason to give it a try! Ride on, friend, ride on…
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Great job Chris!
On another note, I’ll say it for you guys: “I told you so!” If gas prices would go up, more people would look to non-car transportation methods. I wonder what’s the stats here in Los Angeles area… I have a feeling that people here are very resistant to changing their ways…
Way to represent! Love the old school left hand signal for the right turn. How did they contact you for the piece? Did they flag you down while riding one day? Did you contact them?
Good positive segment
Hey Iron Man et. al., thanks for the good words. They got a hold of me through my LBS (Cadence in Mobile, and it is a great place). It seems likely that I am the only bicycle commuter that they know of who doesn’t work at the bike store. My sense is that it was a slow news day and someone got a whiff of the national bike to work day promotions going on.
Quick question: is there another way to signal a right turn that I should know of? I just remember the signals from my driver’s education class ten thousand years ago.
My favorite is to just point the direction — right turn with right hand, left turn with left hand. No ambiguity there, especially because motorists vaguely (at best) remember those signals from THEIR driver’s ed classes way back when.
In Missouri it’s written into the DOT law that a cyclist can signal a turn either with the left as you did or pointing with the right. Which leads me to wonder if some states do not allow right hand signals. I doubt highly that a cop would pull over a cyclist for signaling with the right arm, but you never know when a Barney Fife type is around.
Watch out for Patrick Ballard!
Encouraging article. I just started (1st of June)
commuting by bike. I have 8.3 miles through the country in the Goldsboro, NC area. I truely love. I’m doing for my health more so than economics. I turn sixty next monthand have decided I’d rather die in the saddle rather than a nursing home. (Drop 6 lbs this month). Keep riding.