Bicycle Safety - So What's the Big Deal Anyway?
Given my love of physics, I often ponder concepts such as momentum and inertia. So, as a biker and an amateur physicist, I understand the 'gravity' of the situation when a 2-ton automobile going 50 mph 'interacts' with a 200 pound bike+biker going 7 mph uphill (hey, I'm pedaling as fast as I can!). Not a pretty sight. Even simple mishaps when a bicyclist is going slowly -- like hitting the curb, losing control, and landing off to the side of the road -- can be life threatening.
Bike riding is very important to me. It is my number one form of exercise and relaxation. However, it is also serious stuff. I'm out there exposed to all kinds of danger, the most obvious of which are those roaming 2-ton marauders we call cars, staffed by human beings who seem to forget their humanity when they hear the roar of the engine as they press down on the accelerator a half inch or so. The idea of slowing down just a few miles per hour to accommodate a fellow human being who happens to be his own engine is apparently asking a great deal of them. Otherwise, they wouldn't be so quick to vent their frustration, right? (Oh, how I love a good blast of a car's horn early in the morning.) To defend myself I have a helmet, quick reactions, and my wits. Geez, talk about a lack of ammunition! But I understand their point of view. After all, I drive a car as well and know all too well that impatient feeling of a stop light costing me 45 seconds of my life. I can empathize about how a bicyclist in front of me requires me to impatiently slow down just a tad until I'm sure it's safe to pass.
My own relationship with biking has two distinct phases. The first was as a kid on the Southside of Pittsburgh. I still remember like it was yesterday the moment my dad let go of me on my first bike on Berg Street and I magically "got it". From then on, like most kids, my bike was a central part of my life. Then, I entered high school and suddenly riding a bike immediately became 'uncool' and I dropped it like a hot pierogi (sorry, Pittsburgh metaphor there). Then, I grew up, got a Ph.D. and looked in the mirror one day and said to myself: "Homer!". I realized that although I used to have the physique that helped me to be named to the 1976 All-City Baseball Team for Pittsburgh Public Schools (gee, talk about 'glory days'), time had come to exercise my body as much as my brain. (Learning statistics doesn't burn as many calories as it seems). So, I bought a bike. Thus began my second phase of biking as a newly hired Assistant Professor of Educational Technology at Texas A&M University. My understanding of bicycle safety picked up where it left off when I was about 13, combined, of course, with my knowledge and experience of driving a car. I knew things like helmets were recommended and were generally good ideas, but it just didn't seem like it was necessary. After all, I was just going around the block for the first few weeks. Slowly, I began to venture away from my safe neighborhood onto roads that I needed to take to actually get somewhere, like my office on the TAMU campus -- about 6 miles from my home. (Strange, when I first moved to Texas, it seemed liked the flattest place on earth. But as soon as I bought a bike, the mountains soon arose.) I persevered, began biking to work most everyday, and even lost some weight. Most of all, I began to really enjoy riding my bike. Still, I am embarrassed by one critical fact.
Generating a List of Bicycle Safety Rules
Of all the bicycle safety rules that one might suggest, the most important is the simplest and most straightforward: WEAR A HELMET! But I never wore a helmet as a kid (no one did). And those hot Texas summers (and winters) made wearing a helmet so uncomfortable. (Recite the last sentence with the best whining tone you can think of -- practice it on friends.) So, I'm embarrassed to admit that I did not wear a helmet for the first year after I started biking as an adult. But the physics of the situation is so overwhelming that I find it hard to believe my thinking at the time (cut to the visual of a head striking concrete, kinda like a watermelon being hit by a baseball bat). I also displayed poor choices in my biking apparel. I did not even think about how I was dressed. I usually just wore blue jeans or shorts and a t-shirt. Actually, I would characterize my thinking at that time as very stupid, awfully lucky, and somewhat selfish. (Hey, there are people relying on me everyday; there's no room for stupidity in this equation.)
My "quick list" of bicycle safety rules, based on riding a bike as my main mode of transportation since 1988, is the following:
Of course, I wondered if my quickee list, gained from the "school of hard knocks", is consistent with professional advice, or even from everyday opinion. So, I did an Internet search and found several excellent web sites:
http://www.safekids.org/NBIKE.HTML
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/bicycle/pwbisafe.htm
I also conducted a brief discussion of bicycle safety with current participants enrolled in the Studio experience at UGA. Interestingly, all of these sources tell a consistent story. Most of the suggestions were variations off of my list (such as the need to have proper reflectors and lights for night riding).
How to Embed Bicycle Safety into this Game?
Wearing a helmet. Nothing could be more straightforward than choosing to wear a helmet. Of course, it is one thing to check a box in a computer game and actually strapping on the helmet before climbing aboard one's bike. I have a couple of ideas. First, I envision a little activity where players need to find their helmet before a ride. I have a tendency to put my helmet in not-so-obvious places when I get home, only to get a bit frustrated the next morning when I am trying to find it the next morning. The idea is to "hide" the helmet at the start of the ride so as to create the temptation to just "skip it". I also see the need to plant statements that pop up after little accidents, such as "You just crashed on the side of the road. Too bad you weren't wearing your helmet. Instead of giving you a few scrapes and a 15-minute delay, you are now in a coma in the intensive-care unit of the local hospital (you hit your head against a tree stump when you crashed)." Or maybe something like "You crashed, suffered a severe head injury and died. Your family and friends are bereft. Not only are you dead and gone (think of all the interesting things you might have done), but you have caused a lot of good people incredible pain and suffering, not to mention making your spouse wonder how to make it financially now that you are gone. If you were wearing a helmet, you'd be home from the hospital in about a day with a stern warning from the doctor to be more careful. Not wearing a helmet was very selfish of you." Of course, the use of straightforward ridicule is rarely touted as an effective and appropriate instructional strategy!
Be visible to automobiles. This is very important, but involves both passive and active systems. For example, a bicycle that already has the proper reflectors does not require any action on the part of the rider. However,wearing the proper clothing (such as an orange reflective vest) and clothing with bright colors, is a choice the rider makes. Again, I'm unable to get very creative in how I might embed this rule into the game, other than having the player make some choices at the start of the game.
Obey traffic laws. This rule can easily be embedded into the "video game" feel of the game. If the player fails to ride with traffic on the right side of the road and instead veers to the left, they may get hit by an oncoming, randomly timed car. Of course, if one is biking in a town that does not have bike lanes (like most places in Georgia), then it gets more complicated. The biker must share the road with motorists. Although Nowhere Road is not that heavily traveled, it is quite narrow and curvy. Even a well-intentioned motorist rounding a turn may not have time to avoid a biker who is pedaling in the middle, instead of the right side, of the right lane. Add the challenge of having to avoid loose dogs who like to chase bikers on country roads and you have a dangerous mix. I would like my game to help educate home owners of the need to restrain their pets properly. All this can be easily be added to the game.
There are some other safety tips that are very important, especially for the serious bicyclist who tends to ride for long distances in hot and humid places (like Texas and Georgia). For example, it's important to drink lots of water at frequent intervals. Riding a bike in hot weather isn't as uncomfortable as it seems to non-bikers. As long as you keep moving, you generate your own breeze and, consequently, your body's own "air conditioning" -- sweat -- is effective. But the biker, like a runner, is at great risk of dehydration if these fluids are not replaced. My idea is to have a "thirst gauge" that the player needs to monitor. The player would need to keep this in the proper range to avoid dehydration.