Wrong Side of the Road

If I'd been there, I would have told the red-shirt man, "yea, well you're not wearing a helmet," in my typically wise-ass style.

Seriously, I've probably had more comments/complaints from runners and cyclists, and to a much lesser extent, motorists, about being on the wrong side of the road. If it's a busy place like Central Park, it's almost constant. I suppose having a "Course Measurement" sign attached to the bike might help.

Pete and Jim:
Of course I have similar problems when I am riding a course. A much bigger problem for me though is when I am stopped at the side of the road, because people think I am in trouble and stop their cars and bicycles to help as many as a dozen times a measurement. One motorist did not stop but called for a police car! Another was convinced I was pulling her leg when I told her what I was doing and that I would never be stopped where I was unless I was really in distress. I am seriously thinking of errecting a sign when I am stopped.

Do measurers typically wear vests saying "Race Measurement in Progress" or identify themselves in other ways that might let the public know why they're riding the way they are? I measured on some fairly heavily travelled streets, and although it was very early in the morning, I was somewhat uncomfortable cutting across "S" curves knowing I was "blind" to oncoming traffic. I considered asking the local police district to assign an officer to escort me. Also, I got some strange looks from other bikers and runners when I made some unexpected, but necessary for measurement, moves. In the end it was really no problem. The only thing I might do differently in the future is to advise potential authorities ahead of time, so if they receive comments, they can explain. Actually, the police probably would have been willing to escort me; they weren't too busy on an early Saturday morning and they would eventually be supplying personnel to be on the route on race day for the race I was measuring.

I reversed a race tshirt and applied large iron on letters to the back (obtained at a craft store) stating: RACE MSRG-THX.

I have found cars, bikers and walkers to be less threatening that appoach from behind or a sudden understanding of those that I pass. I still don't have a solution for head-on. A large enough sign to be read in time from the front would create excessive drag. The best that I can come up with is the wearing of a noticeable vest. Of course stopping until the conflict is gone before again proceeding, defuses much of the problem.

I have found screaming at someone to get the h--l out of my way along with the mention of the race sponsor or charity to be anti-productive and a threat to my health and welfare.

Reading the comments about measuring, I'm surprised more measurers aren't killed. We never measure here on a road aganist the traffic without an escort up ahead and on major roads we have a police escort. On the bike trails, I have a reflective vest left over from a race that says "Race Official" and with care (that's really the critical part) don't have many problems. But timing is everything. Very busy bike trails have to be measured at quiet times.

The measurement offset is a measurer’s good friend. Sometimes it is necessary to ride a course with traffic instead of against. Of course we all use offsets to maneuver around parked cars. Yet, an offset to move the bike across the road, while freezing the front wheel, is really very helpful to avoid those heavier and unsafe traffic situations. The measured distance is always the same, but without the fear of oncoming traffic. Have found that too many offsets are a little tricky when using Neville’s cyclocomputer measuring.

COPING WITH MEDIANS

The Flora London Marathon has four roundabouts along the course. As minor changes to the course occur almost every year, these roundabouts can be run either clockwise or counterclockwise to adjust the overall distance. This allows the start and finish to remain in approximately the same places.

Two roundabouts are located in the Canary Wharf section of the course. Runners pass Canada Square and run along Churchill Place, staying to the left of the median and running around the Cartier Circle roundabout clockwise. As they enter Trafalgar way they move through a gap in the median into the right hand lanes, and run around the Billingsgate roundabout in the counterclockwise direction, returning to the left hand side after the roundabout. Prestons Road roundabout is run clockwise, and runners then have the whole road to a reference point in Poplar High Street.

Measurement of this portion of the course presents safety problems. Most of the way the route is in the left hand lanes, running with traffic. Part of the route is against traffic, between Cartier Circle and Billingsgate roundabout.

Hugh Jones, who measured the course, guided the pre-race validation measurement this year. To keep things safe we rode from Canada Square to Poplar High Street, but did not measure continuously. We measured in the direction of traffic at all times. This allowed us to avoid riding directly into the teeth of traffic on the wrong side of a divided highway. It added a bit of extra distance to be ridden, but preserved a safe ride.



We measured red going out, yellow coming back.

Kevin:
I am curious as to why you apparantly find offsets with electronic counters more difficult than those with the Jones. Freezing the electronic display and wheeling the bike across the road seems to me easier than carrying the bike while keeping the front brake activated.

How does freezing the counter preserve the reading on the rim? It saves thinking by freezing the wheel. Nothing to write down or remember.

Neville, my comment about offsets using your cyclocomputer to measure was merely speaking to my own hesitation in using it. The method works fine, the operator I am not completely confident in yet.

Getting familiar with stopping the bike past the zero spoke and then moving it back,
re-align again to zero, and move forward a bit to re-start the measurement. In contrast, the Jones method had become very much second nature to simply freeze the front wheel and move the bike. Moving the bike doesn’t really involve too much thought or heavy lifting on my part, but trying to remember a not yet familiar procedure is.

Also discovered recently that smoking a cigar and drinking a few bourbons while measuring does really help the matter much. Next time out, no more cigars, I promise.

Kevin:
I originally proposed the method for offsets you mention because zero is a pretty easy number to remember, but you are right that it may take a while to become intuitive. On reflection about what you said, I have now decided that the number one is not too much more difficullt to remember and this would lead to a more intuitive method. I would recommend stopping the rim at a reading of 0.10 and then freezing the meter. On the other side of the road I would set the rim again at 0.10, unfreeze the meter, and ride off.

If you desired to follow a road mark across the road, as Pete implied you would have to write down or remember the rim reading on the mark.

Of course the crude Jones technique works for electronic counters too, and I must confess I use it sometimes when going around parked cars.

Pete:
Am I right that on your validation ride an electronic counter would have been advantageous in that you could have frozen the meter between measured sections? At the end, your meter would have displayed the total distance. Depending on when you did the yellow section, you could have ended at the end of the yellow or the red section.

In theory, with all the resetting possibilities, I could measure an entire course, perhaps going in different directions on different sections, and never have to write anything down except start and finish.

This may appeal to some, but I would not feel very good about my data when I sat down to analyze it later. If a course is to be measured from reference point to reference point, I want to know the measured distances between those points.

If someone sent me data from a course measurement done in this way, and explained that they had frozen their counter, say, 17 times enroute, I'd have strong misgivings. Too much can go wrong when things are not recorded.

quote:

Originally posted by Kevin P. Lucas:
Neville, my comment about offsets using your cyclocomputer to measure was merely speaking to my own hesitation in using it. The method works fine, the operator I am not completely confident in yet.

Getting familiar with stopping the bike past the zero spoke and then moving it back,
re-align again to zero, and move forward a bit to re-start the measurement. In contrast, the Jones method had become very much second nature to simply freeze the front wheel and move the bike. Moving the bike doesn’t really involve too much thought or heavy lifting on my part, but trying to remember a not yet familiar procedure is.

Also discovered recently that smoking a cigar and drinking a few bourbons while measuring really doesn't help the matter much. Next time out, no more cigars, I promise.