Show #218 – November 1, 2014

Guests: Keri Caffrey, Mark Friis, Ron Gurth – A Discussion of NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show

Happy November! Welcome back to The Outspoken Cyclist Show!

Our show “covers” another show this week. On Thursday, October 30th, NPR’s Diane Rehm Show offered up a one-hour segment about cycling; specifically, “Sharing the Road: Adapting to a New Culture of Cycling”. With 5 invited guests from 5 different areas covering transportation, Highway Safety, and even a dissenting voice on allowing cyclists to ride the streets in San Francisco, the show covered statistics, complaints, safety, and legislation.

My question was – did it accomplish what it set out to do and, if not, what was missing? So, to that end, I invited a trio of guests to comment on Diane Rehm’s show and to offer up what was good, bad, ugly, or ???

My first guest is one of my favorite cycling advocates and the founder of Cycling Savvy – the instructional program out of Orlando that is training other trainers to teach riders not only how to be safe on the road, but to become confident predictable cyclists. Keri Caffrey is one of the smartest people I know and has her finger on the pulse of just about every aspect of bicycling advocacy.

Then, we’ll head on out to Redlands, California to speak with Mark Friis, Executive Director of the Inland Empire Biking Alliance. Mark has some interesting counterpoints to some of Keri’s comments as well as some dissenting words about the way we train children to ride today. Much of our conversation though mirrors Keri’s thoughts about the effectiveness of the DR Show.

Finally, we go back down to Florida to catch up with retiree Ron Gurth. Ron is a Cycling Savvy Instructor (CSI), a League Cycling Instructor (LCI), and because of some recent actions taken – or more to the point NOT taken – by the League of American Bicyclists has recently withdrawn his support and membership from the organization. Besides being an avid single ride, Ron and his wife ride a tandem – another topic that makes some of the issues raised on the Rehm show questionable.

Sit back and enjoy!