The Chainlink

New Bicycle Quiz from the League of Illinois Bicyclists--What's Your Score?

The LIB is about to release a new online bike quiz on June 27th, but it's available online now.  33 questions, broken up into 3 parts: a Bronze, Silver & Gold series of multiple choice tests.  If you get something wrong, it tells you, then gives you two more chances to get it right after you're done.

 

The quiz is HERE.

 

I took all three parts of the "Adult Bicyclist" version.  I'll eventually get back to take the "Motorists" and "Child Bicyclist" tests just to see how I'll do.

 

My scores were not spectacular; maybe not even very good:

Bronze--4 wrong (though I'd debate the "correct" answer with the League on the question of what's most visible to a motorist)

Silver--only 1 wrong (Whoohoo!)

Gold--3 wrong (ugh; two were bike-handling quick stop & quick turn questions, which makes me think I need to study this)

 

Of course, I got 100% on the "second pass" on the incorrects, but who wouldn't?

 

Good luck!

Kickoff event: http://www.thechainlink.org/events/lib-s-new-online-bicycle-safety-...

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Yeah, it never would have occurred to me to throw my weight back behind the saddle in a quick stop.  It seems to me that would unweight the front tire and you'd pop a wheelie rather than stop faster.  I'll have to try it, if I can figure out how to not fall off the back of the bike.
 
Evan said:

 The questions about maneuvering are hard because I do that intuitively.



peter moormann said:

I disagree with many answers on this quiz.....

"How visible are cyclists?"

It states that of 4 riding positions at an intersection, riding in the right side separated bike lane is the least visible while salmoning from the other direction against traffic is  more visible.

B.S. Wrong answer!

What is the right answer in your opinion?  The cyclists not on the road aren't on a separated bike lane, it looks like they are on a sidewalk or trail.  With that in mind, the salmon on the road and the cyclist on the trail riding downwards on the screen are among the least visible.  

On riding on narrow roads:

"If you hold up traffic more than a short time, pull aside when it is safe and let traffic pass."

B.S. Wrong answer!

Hmm, I'd take the position that just like cars are supposed to share the roads, cyclists should also reciprocate.  So, if you're holding up traffic, instead of forcing drivers to try to drive around you or just wait, it's better to pull off to the side when it's safe and letting them pass.  Note, I take this to mean among other things, just pulling into a bunch of contiguous empty parking spaces and slowing down to let the cars go by. 

Nah, most of your braking power comes from the front and when you brake hard, your body's momentum tries to keep you going in a straight line leading to potentially endoing.  If you slide back on the saddle a bit, that applies more force on the back and counteracts the tendency for you and the bike to rotate around the front tire when you brake hard on the front.  If you're braking really hard, you can slide your butt off the back (almost like you're trying to do a wheelie) and let the braking forces keep your front tire on the ground.

Thunder Snow said:

Yeah, it never would have occurred to me to throw my weight back behind the saddle in a quick stop.  It seems to me that would unweight the front tire and you'd pop a wheelie rather than stop faster.  I'll have to try it, if I can figure out how to not fall off the back of the bike.
 
Evan said:

 The questions about maneuvering are hard because I do that intuitively.

Thanks for the explanation, S.  I learned something new today.

S said:

Nah, most of your braking power comes from the front and when you brake hard, your body's momentum tries to keep you going in a straight line leading to potentially endoing.  If you slide back on the saddle a bit, that applies more force on the back and counteracts the tendency for you and the bike to rotate around the front tire when you brake hard on the front.  If you're braking really hard, you can slide your butt off the back (almost like you're trying to do a wheelie) and let the braking forces keep your front tire on the ground.

Thunder Snow said:

Yeah, it never would have occurred to me to throw my weight back behind the saddle in a quick stop. 

For me, the LIB's answer was partially incorrect.  From car driving experience in the past, if I were the motorist in the picture, first I'd look at the car directly ahead of me, which is turning into my street--but that wasn't one of the options given.  Then I'd look left down the street, as cars coming at me from the left could crash into me as I made the right turn.  Then I'd glance to the right side of the street, to make sure a car wasn't coming at me in the passing lane--yeah, they'd have to be nuts to pass a left turning car on the left, but I'd probably look there anyway.  Then I'd glance over at the sidewalk on the right, as cyclists or pedestrians on my side of the road might just get in front of me as I began to turn.  Finally, I'd probably ignore the cyclist on the left sidewalk, as they'd have to cross half my street before affecting me in any way.
 
S said:


peter moormann said:

I disagree with many answers on this quiz.....

"How visible are cyclists?"

 

What is the right answer in your opinion?  The cyclists not on the road aren't on a separated bike lane, it looks like they are on a sidewalk or trail.  With that in mind, the salmon on the road and the cyclist on the trail riding downwards on the screen are among the least visible.  

Jeff, if you're within 4 or 5 feet of the parked cars, you're in the dangerous door zone.  If that means riding outside the bike lane, so be it, that's really the only safe place to ride along parked cars so you don't get doored.

And I agree with you about the importance of the hand signal.  I am glad they put that one in though, to try to weed out some of the weird signals we see on the streets.
 
Jeff Schneider said:

I missed the question about where to ride in the bike lane.  I *like* to ride on the left side, as they say is correct.  But sometimes I go a *little* closer to the parked cars on the right, to make it less attractive  for inconsiderate cyclists to pass me on the right, sandwiching me between them and passing cars.

Also, I thought it odd that knowledge of hand signals wasn't tested until the silver level.  To me, that's the very most basic requirement for riding in traffic.  Even if you sometimes make a mistake about where you should be in the roadway, drivers can deal with it if they know what you intend to do.

The ones that I missed iniitially were because I can't read.  I thought the tire pressure question read funny. I know low pressure is wrong but read the question to lead me to point to the obviously wrong one.  I found the question with the salmoning rider weird. I looked for the answer that had that guy in the worst position and got it wrong. He was in the second worst position according to the question. Once you could re answer it was not hard to figure out all the correct answers.I grade it  as follows: Still alive, A+. Still it was a fun and often informative test.

Whoever designed this quiz is bad at it; I could not even understand how to answer the second question, so I tried to move on, and was told I had to answer that question. So I just stopped. And then was congratulated for taking the quiz.  Very poorly designed.

I got 1 answer wrong on the "silver" quiz and then when it had me go back, it changed the order and I got it wrong again and it made me "retake it" which also changed the order of all the answers and I got bored of re-reading the questions and quit the quiz.  THIS IS NOT A GOOD WAY TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO TAKE YOUR QUIZ!!!!!! 

Also on the gold (I eventually regained enough patience to go back through) the question on braking is 

1. poorly and confusingly worded 

2. doesn't actually give a "correct" answer, since you never want to brake so hard as to skid.  Skidding puts you into dynamic coefficient of friction which is lower than the static coefficient of friction (present on moving wheels).  Therefore you want to brake until you start to skid and ease off of both brakes and pump to maintain static coefficient of friction, while braking slightly harder on the rear.  This is what anti-lock brakes do for you in a car. 

Liz said:

I got 1 answer wrong on the "silver" quiz and then when it had me go back, it changed the order and I got it wrong again and it made me "retake it" which also changed the order of all the answers and I got bored of re-reading the questions and quit the quiz.  THIS IS NOT A GOOD WAY TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO TAKE YOUR QUIZ!!!!!! 

Just so you know, this is all going on your permanent record.

Liz said:

I got 1 answer wrong on the "silver" quiz and then when it had me go back, it changed the order and I got it wrong again and it made me "retake it" which also changed the order of all the answers and I got bored of re-reading the questions and quit the quiz.  THIS IS NOT A GOOD WAY TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO TAKE YOUR QUIZ!!!!!! 

Yeah, I thought that was a very subjective answer. I am not required by law to pull over and allow motor traffic through. Plus, swerving back and forth constantly is not safe.

peter moormann said:

On riding on narrow roads:

"If you hold up traffic more than a short time, pull aside when it is safe and let traffic pass."

B.S. Wrong answer!

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