Listen led me Law and why I believe in better, safer biking for all.

I am honored to have been interviewed on the TriDot Podcast, discussing bicycle safety and the work of the Bike Law Network, our Foundation, and our Ambassador community.

Whether you commute by bike, are a weekend warrior, slow roll with family and friends on your favorite trails, love or hate the pavement, or live for the Wednesday night hammerfest with the strongest, fastest cyclists in your local community, we all have something important in common just because we love to ride.  

Perhaps you don’t ride but you live somewhere that’s also home to people on bikes who don’t identify with any of the aforementioned biking preferences. Unfortunately, the irony is that those folks are largely invisible to much of the racing and recreational crowd but make up the vast majority of American cyclists with whom we all share the road. 

Maybe you’re reading this because you can’t stand bicyclists and think we’re all the same: selfish Lance-Armstrong-wannabes who blow through stop signs, impede traffic, and don’t believe the rules apply to us. You’re not a troll. You’re a potential ally and probably haven’t thought about what it must be like from our perspectives for reasons I don’t assume to know. Don’t leave yet.

THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE (and thanks for listening to the TriDot Podcast).

The problems and challenges bicyclists face in the context of crashes, cycling safety, bike culture, sustainability, and cycling injustice are imposed upon all of us. Whether we love it, hate to love it, or do it because we don’t have the luxury of picking another mode of transportation, there are so many of us that I see only hope and infinite avenues for change and improvement every time I ride my bike. 

If a small group ride allows me to go longer and faster than I would alone, 50 million people working together could move mountains. 

I feel really proud to be a member of the multi-sport community. Especially today. Not because of how willing we are to turn ourselves inside out over three athletic disciplines instead of “just” one. Not because being a triathlete allows us to identify as different or “special” within an already unique community of people. But because the fun, thoughtful, engaging conversation I had with Andrew and John of TriDot Training Systems while recording this podcast episode reminded me that even in “retirement” from long course racing, I am still part of a community of people that cares enough about every person that rides a bike to ask important questions that identify the problems with a willingness to be part of the solution. That’s exactly the first necessary step in the flow-chart of how advocacy SUCCESSFULLY adds up. 

As I discuss on the TriDot Podcast, through the work of the bike crash attorneys in the Bike Law Network and our Ambassadors for our non-profit Bike Law Foundation, I have been a participating witness to the way that a hive mentality made up of a collection of diverse individuals creates REAL opportunities for change. I feel safer on the roads because of the Bike Law attorneys and the growing community of people like me and you that recognize why inclusion, teamwork, difficult conversations, dedication, and fun are all necessary ingredients for a better biking future.

Have a listen to the TriDot Podcast. Yeah, an hour is kind of a long time. (I am thinking about what 30 second all out heavy gear efforts feel like right now). But long before I was the Bike Law director, I was a crash victim myself, completely unaware of how serious the bike crash epidemic was back then and still is now, and how close we are to preventing any more of our friends, family members, or cycling strangers from suffering the indignities of a bicycle crash… or worse. 

We can’t expect everyone or anyone else to do our share of the work required to get there. That’s one of the things I love about being part of a peloton: the more we work together, the safer, stronger and faster we are.

Rachael Maney

Rachael Maney is the Director of the Bike Law Network and of the non-profit Bike Law Foundation.