Sunday, May 02, 2010

TS101:Playing In The Street

Saturday I finished leading my first group through the LAB's Traffic Skills 101 course. Saturday culminated in the road test. We spent about an hour in and around the 41st & Minnesota Ave intersection.

Here's a picture:



Basecamp was the IPC, I just love that location. We were able to get comfortable on the residential streets then step up to 10,000 vehicles/day roads east of Minnesota Ave. We then played around the edges of 20,000 & 30,000 v/d roads until the group specifically requested a practice run of the double left turn from 41st on to Minnesota Ave.

On one occasion we waited at a red light that wouldn't change for a very long time as a city transportation planner coincidentally waited behind us in his truck. That experience will come in handy for me in a couple weeks.

Finally the woman who'd never changed a tire before had the opportunity when we returned to basecamp and all the air not coincidentally exited her front tire.

She finished the class rightfully proud and on her evaluation wrote words like "I have been biking for over 45 years and I was surprised on how much I learned and how much confidence I gained managing the streets in Sioux Falls and other areas. It really has made me more confident in riding in the very very busy streets of SF anticipating traffic and taking the lane for my safety."

So there, if I only reach one it will be worth it...and I've reached one. It was worth it.

Steve Clark, Jim Books and I will be leading another Traffic Skills 101 via the South Dakota Bicycle Coalition at the Outdoor Campus May 14 & 15. Contact me to register. mytzpyk@gmail.com

3 comments:

Snakebite said...

IPC? What's that? That's different the IHOP, right?

mytzpyk said...

The school district's headquarters near 38th & Phillips.

Snakebite said...

Oh, so Increasingly Perky Contraband. Now things are coming into alignment.