#saveacyclist

With the introduction of social media, there came an incredible avenue to deliver the message such as "Please BE KIND to Cyclists".  We're not alone in our plea to promote safe cycling and increase the harmony and tolerance between drivers and cyclists....and #saveacyclist is another message that needs to be heard.

Transportation in itself is risky, with as many as 50,000 driver fatalities every year in the U.S. alone, but cyclists are particularly vulnerable on the streets. Despite existing laws protecting cyclists, and driver education that anyone with a driver’s license has undergone, many still don’t take care to watch out for cyclists on the roads. The tragedy is that so many of these deaths are preventable.
@bikinginla recently posted a great piece on the vulnerability of cyclists, and just how avoidable car vs. bike collisions really are in a blog posted on @KCRW: I Trust You with My Life. No really.

The truth is that collisions are actually hard to have. If you obey the law, pass and turn safely, and pay attention to the road in front of you — and I do the same — it’s virtually impossible to come in contact with one another.

That’s why, if you’ve noticed, I don’t use the word accident to describe a wreck. Because very few accidents actually are. In order to have one, someone has to do something stupid, careless or illegal to cause it.
And that’s why I have trust in you.
Because I can only control what I do on the road. The rest is your hands.
And I’m counting on you to make sure we both get home safely.

Along with too many others, the new year brought news of the deaths of two promising and accomplished cyclists. Carla Stewart of the HTC-Highroad women’s team was hit and killed by a truck while training in South Africa earlier this year. Lewis Balyckyi , a 2008 national youth circuit race champion who would’ve gone on to compete in the 2012 olympics, was killed just miles from his home after a collision with a van.

These deaths prompted cyclist Kathryne Brown, race administrator for the Tour of Britain and Tour Series, to take to Twitter. She started the hashtag #saveacyclist to help raise awareness and hopefully prevent these completely avoidable and unnecessary deaths.

The #saveacyclist tag is a terrific example of how just taking a moment to share your concerns with others online can have a great impact. What started as a simple tweet resonated around the web reaching potentially thousands of others to take note.

If the sum of all these Tweets and Facebook status updates amounts to inspiring X number of drivers to pay just a little more attention and learn what it means to share the road.....mission accomplished.