Cycling Safety - Would You Use This? (Page 2)

I agree that this sends entirely the wrong message. Further, I fully expect that the type of driver who is already annoyed about having to share the road with cyclists is going to go from annoyed to downright angry when having to deal with escort cars. Legal or not doesn't matter.

Yeah, "we can't keep up with demand" is true.  I really don't see how this business idea scales to any size, especially involving "free to the cyclists".  Escorted group rides, maybe, but not the one or two riders I see all over the Seattle area every Saturday and Sunday.  I can't see having an advertising wrapped car following any real percentage of them.

Thus there will be a lot of cyclists wanted free escorted rides (the top end of the funnel) and only a few drivers available (little end of the funnel).  So you'd have to start scheduling group rides on weekends.  And that may work for some people, and may not.  But having a business that has escorted group rides is not the same business as on-demand vehicle escort service. 

Any time you get N cyclists wanting free escorts and have N-1 drivers available, that Nth cyclist is going to lose out.  Swagon becomes hit-or-miss, first caller wins service, kind of like Uber which is not free.

The other problem is that my rides are a mix of roads, bike lanes, shoulders, multi-use-paths, "no vehicles allowed", cut-through-the-park, etc.  No cars can follow me on my route.  So I have to change my route to be escorted. Yuck.

This is my point.  Stuart when you're going on your long Saturday training ride in the country, you're going to use up a Swagon driver for several hours or you're going to be going with the pre-arranged group.  There aren't enough drivers for everyone who wants to keep themselves safe via a free service.

Free-for-the-users, paid-by-the-advertisers works for Google.  This isn't that.

From what I read on their website, providing nutrition was part of the 'premium' membership. 

Mark

I am trying to imagine a situation where I might use this and I am not coming up with much.

1. Big group ride 40-60 riders: It is hard to keep a group this big together anyway. We did a century last weekend with around 50 guys and by mile 35 it was pretty well blown up into different groups. I suppose the sag portion could work in this situation, but as far as the escort service goes it really wouldn't work. Also a big group like that is already hard enough for a car to pass, adding an escort car will only make it worse and anger drivers further.

2. Weekly LBS rides. Usually 10-30 people. I could see a sag being helpful here as an escort. We tend to stick together a little better in these smaller rides so an escort would be nice. But I can't get past the fact that it will make drivers more angry than they already are when they see us. We typically wear the kit of our LBS on these rides, when I wear the kit I tend to behave a little better (slower to issue the "bird") because I want to be a good example of a cyclist and I don't want to stir up animosity toward my fellow cyclists or my LBS, no matter how correct I am or how much right I have to the road. I envision angry calls to the LBS from people who had to go around an escort vehicle on one of our rides.

3. Long solo rides for IM training. I could see it being useful here mostly for the escort portion. I have been spoiled with lots of group riding lately, makes me feel even more vulnerable when I am out by myself. I took a riding buddy with me on most of my centuries while training for my IM this year. The company was nice but also he could call my wife if I got nailed by a car. 

The problem I see is no one wants to drive around for 6 hours at 18mph following a cyclist. Another problem is I kind of enjoy the solitude of a long ride, I would feel rushed and/or pushed by having a car 20 feet behind me. Also I am thinking if I was the driver I would be pretty dang bored by hour 3, so out comes the cell phone... games, pandora, texting, etc. all 20-30 feet behind a cyclist. Destroys the idea of an escort car if the escort driver gets distracted and runs over the cyclist. 

I appreciate the ambition and the idea, it does sound nice to have a car buffer between me and the other cars on the road. I am just not sure the logistics work and if they do I am not sure it is worth the added angst it will cause other drivers. Good for you OP for trying out a new idea and figuring out how to make it work. I hope it works out for you and that it doesn't damage the "relationship" between drivers and riders.

I really think the best way to get drivers to give us more space is to get those drivers on a bike. If my wife ever becomes president she is going to force everyone to ride on a busy road at least a couple times so they understand how it feels and how dangerous it is when a car buzzes a cyclist. One can dream...

Fantastic points.

Here's  one of the biggest problems I see:

On roads where there's a wide shoulder, the bikes would be able to be out of the traffic lane. MAYBE the car could as well. What happens when there's no shoulder? Instead of other cars having to pass a bike or two that take up, what, 2 feet of the lane (plus the 3 feet required by law -- as if...), now there's a slow-moving car blocking pretty much the entire lane. That car has now created MORE of a blockage. So what happens when traffic passes that slow-moving car? They pull back into the traffic lane because they couldn't see the bikes ahead of the car. Now it's a MORE dangerous situation.

You said what I was trying to say only better. Thanks.

Just a marketing scheme playing off the 'ride safety' sentiment.  Not a sustainable business model on its own, just ploy to sell you 'premium memberships' and the opportunity for them to sell their client list to their ad sponsors. 

The real kicker for me was the solitiation of 'sponsorships' for their proposed ride app.  No thanks.

Mark

I haven't read all the responses or replies, but personally I wouldn't use this.  I carry a flat kit, phone, and road ID.  That would cover pretty much every scenario.  Having someone follow me around at an excruciating slow pace for a car for hours would only stress me out.  Maybe this idea should be expanded to race support for areas with a strong bike racing populace.  

Now if I could pull alongside and exchange empty bottles for full and get a nutrition bag at set intervals that might be fun/tempting to use every once in a while.  Usually I just ride a loop and stop back at my car to refill.  I think non stop rides would be better.