Improving the safety of bicycle commuting is a key concern for the team at ZappaWheels. In this posting, we take a look at LED technologies which are increasing the visibility of riders. The article is courtesy of freelance writer Jenny Holt, who is based in the UK. 

Safety while riding a bicycle is one of the concerns preventing more people from cycling. According to the survey of the European Commission, there are only 4% of UK respondents who cycle daily. This is one of the lowest percentages in the EU 28 although bike ownership or access to it in the UK is high with 42% of people or around 25 million owning a bicycle. Other European countries have cycle rates of 43% in the Netherlands, 30% in Denmark and 20% in Finland.

The growth of bicycle lanes is one of the most significant improvements in bike infrastructure in Chicago. Currently, the city has more than 280 miles of on-street protected, buffered and shared bike lanes. And this number is growing; Cycling Plan 2020 calls for a 645-mile network of biking facilities to be in place by the end of the decade.  

Nationwide, numerous cities have implemented a significant number of on-street bicycle lanes. ​All of this investment and infrastructure is wonderful for biking and bike commuting. And yet, in Chicago we have a significant problem with the usage of the bike lanes.

This month, we are adding a new feature to ZappaWheels: Bike Commuter Profiles. The focus is on bike commuters and their stories. We want to share your story, whether you bike to work all the time, one day a year, or use the bike just to get around, 

Today's story is about Chicago resident, Rebecca Resman. ​Her evolution as a rider is a great example of integrating biking through life: first as a commuter, then advocate, and finally champion of family riding.

Rebecca's story starts when she was working full-time. Back then she was an avid bike commuter, riding to work regularly for over a dozen years. She became an advocate for bike safety issues. In 2010, she lead the efforts to create a Crash Support Hotline while she was an employee of the Active Transportation Alliance. ​But then changes started happening. 

Although it sounds contradictory, the greater the number of people biking the safer the environment. 

This concept of "Safety in Numbers" is not new. It was first observed in 1949 by Rueben Smeed, a British statistician and transport researcher. Using auto traffic data from 20 different countries, he developed Smeed's law which states that an increase in traffic would lead to a decrease in fatalities per vehicle. Since his death in 1976, the data set has been increased and validated in 62 countries. 

The same inverse relationship has also been observed in biking and walking with data from 68 cities in California (Jacobsen). The researcher concluded a motorist is less likely to collide with a person walking and bicycling if more people walk or bicycle. How is this possible and how do different cities compare? 

The majority of Americans would like to ride more often, but data shows that safety is still a primary concern. Are you in this group?

According a national survey of more than 16,000 adults, more than half of Americans (ages 18 and over) would like to bicycle more often and perceive bicycling as a convenient mode of transportation. For those that already ride, a whopping 74% would like to ride more often. (People for Bikes, March 2015). 

So what is holding them back? 

I had a close call with a car this past week. I was crossing Clark street and had pulled up to the intersection to wait for an opening to cross. A car drove up alongside on my left. He got tired of waiting and as I started to cross the street he cut in front of me so close that my front tire touched his rear wheel. I was scared, frustrated and angry -- all at once! We exchanged words but that didn't help. 

After calming down, I wondered, what could I have done differently in this situation? For starters, I could have taken the full lane and never encouraged the driver to cut me off. It would have been a clearer signal to the driver. ​

Every bike commuter I know has at least one story about a driver suddenly pulling in front of them. Knowing your options and best practices for riding are important. Fortunately, Ride Illinois has developed a bike safety quiz to help you in this effort. 

Imagine that you want to use the Divvy bike share but don't have a helmet. Do you take a chance and ride without a helmet, hoping you don't fall or have an accident? With the Kranium bike share helmet that will no longer be ​an issue. This enterprising company has come up with a way to offer low-cost ($5-$8) helmets on-location via a vending machine.

I spoke with Kranium CEO, Robert Miller at the Shared Use Mobility Conference in Chicago. He shared how his company is bringing this lighter, safer, low-cost helmet to market. 

It's already September and the days are getting shorter. Since the summer solstice, we have lost over 2 hours of daylight. In Chicago. You will soon be riding in the dark on part of your commute if that hasn't happened already. This is a good time to assess how well you are equipped to ride in the dark.

A bike commuter almost hit me yesterday morning. As I was crossing the street in River North, the rider, who was on a shared bike, blasted through the red light startling myself and two other pedestrians. He missed us by inches, never bothering to slow down or let anything get in his way. I shook my head and muttered "idiot" to myself.  As bike commuting increases, bad behavior on the bike seems to be everywhere. It's alarming and unsustainable. 

According to the League of American Cyclists, riding to work has increased more than 60% in the past decade. With more riders on the road, more conflict among drivers, cyclists and pedestrians is inevitable. 

I heard on the news this past weekend that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry broke his leg in a bike crash outside of Geneva. His bike apparently hit a curb and he fell. Last fall, U2 lead-singer Bono was involved in a bike accident when attempting to avoid another rider. He sustained multiple fractures. Grim news indeed. Unfortunately, most riders, and non-riders would agree, that accidents are a very real possibility. 

Five years ago, I was commuting home when I was hit by a car door that opened right in front of me. It all happened so fast that I had no time to react and I hit the car-door full speed. The impact crushed my right hand between the door and my handlebars, my right shoulder smashed into the window frame and I flew over the top of my bike. Amazingly, I was able to get up, pick up the bike with my left hand and get to the sidewalk before being hit by a moving car. It was all very scary.