Inspired by the numbers showing how often a helmet can save your life if you have a bike accident, we talked to a pro about how to fit bicycle helmets.
George Garner Jr. owns and operates George Garner Cyclery, which his father founded in 1947. By now, the business have grown to three cycleries in Northbrook, Libertyville and Lake Zurich.
This is his advice:
…Advice From a Pro: How to Fit Bicycle Helmets Read More »
Bicycle season is in full swing! We use our bikes almost every day, and we hope you do the same. It improves air quality, your health and your wallet. “1 World, 2 Wheels” is mainly targeting the many short trips we make with cars. With the right attitude, many can replace car trips under two miles with a bike ride. Not all, but many! I’ve pledged 28 miles a week, which is about one errand a day – to the coffee shop, the library, the bank, the UPS-store or the Little League baseball field. How many of your car rides could you replace with bike rides? Once you’ve got used to biking, getting into the car is no fun!
We’ve been pouring over web sites and accident statistics about bicyclist and pedestrian issues during the last week and are amazed how many initiatives are out there to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians. And improvements are very much needed! According to Transportation for America, the number of pedestrians and bicyclists killed from 2000 through 2009, “is the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of passengers crashing roughly every month”. Additionally, a pedestrian gets injured every 7 minutes. Those are scary numbers!
But there is good news too! It helps to wear a helmet while cycling!!! The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute states that during 2008, 98% (!!) of 714 bicyclists in fatal accidents where not wearing helmets. (And yet, only every other (50%) bicyclist wears a helmet for at least some trips and 35 % use them for all or most trips). The National Safety Council has declared June to be National Safety Month. This week is focused on “Summer Safety“. And guess what? Whether you are skateboarding, inline skating or biking: Wear a helmet! It really reduces the severity of injuries if you happen to end up in an accident. Amazed by the numbers, we talked to George at George Garner Cyclery in Northbrook, IL to learn what to think about when choosing safety gear. We got a lot of information, that we’ll share with you in a separate blog post.
There are two parts to bicycle safety. One is the personal responsibility on safety gear and safe biking. The second is of course a lot of improvements that need to be made to policies, infrastructure planning, and education as well.
The Pededestrian and Bicycle Information Center has plenty of information on all of these topics. If you live in the Chicago area, you can join the Active Transportation Alliance. It is very active in all aspects of making bicycling, walking and public transit safe, convenient and fun.
Enjoy your bike ride but stay safe!
Elisabeth
The other day, someone living in Florida tried to convince me that we would be better off focusing our reflector sales in the northern states and in Canada. Well, looking at when the sun sets tells us that our reflectors can save lives and reduce pedestrian accidents also in the southern states!
So, how do the dark hours in the northern US states and Canada compared to the south? Well, in the summer, the sun sets earlier in the south. In hot climates, it is also often more pleasant to be outside after the blasting sun has set. We made a map to display sunset for a few North American cities on the longest day of the year. Dusk sets in 15-30 minutes before that.
So, what can we conclude from this?
This CBS news clip (2018 update: clip not available) from earlier this year shows a frightening accident where a police car hit a pedestrian walking her bike in the dark—in Florida. Imagine how much different this woman’s life would have been, had she worn a couple of reflectors, and had a bike light. Even if the car hadn’t managed to come to a complete stop, slowing down makes pedestrian injuries less life threatening.
Contrary to that, one of our Florida customers is well prepared to be out and about any time. Tee ordered funflector® tags from our webshop and sent us this kind note after receiving them : “Elisabeth – I rec’d my reflectors on Saturday. I couldn’t believe how quickly you were able to ship them! I love the funflector tags (they are on my bike & backpack already!) and I appreciated your email response and your personal note on the shipment receipt. I will definitely be passing on the word about your products to people that i know. Thanks again!! 🙂 -Tee”
Enjoy the summer nights and stay safe!
Elisabeth
Reflectors Save Lives, Even in Florida Read More »
Imagine early morning before sunrise when the darkness of the season feels heavy. All of a sudden, there is a faint singing in the distance and the doorway is lit up by a woman in a long white gown, wearing a wreath with candles on her head. Lucia, her maidens, and the “star boys” follow and bring light, joyful singing, coffee and sweet saffron rolls.
The night of the 13th, the day of Lucia in the saints’ calender, was the longest night in the medieval calender. To the fend off the darkness and the dark forces, one had to eat several meals before dawn. Feasting on food from the Christmas slaughter eventually turned into Lucia who brings light, coffee and saffron rolls before dawn.
This year’s Lucia on Swedish Television has a beautiful mix of traditional Lucia carols and modern songs and is available until January 13. In the Swedish neighborhood Andersonville in Chicago Lucia will be celebrated tonight at 4.45 and at 7. See The Swedish American Museum for more info.
Lucia is no longer the darkest day of the year: we have another week to go before it gets brighter again. Fend off the dark forces and especially pedestrian traffic accidents with some joyful safety reflectors!
If you belong to those who tell us that you are never out in the dark, please think again! This is when the sun sets today in a few cities – and remember that dusk starts earlier!
Anchorage – 3:41 pm
Montreal – 4:11 pm
Boston – 4:12 pm
Vancouver – 4:14 pm
Chicago – 4:20 pm
Toronto – 4:21 pm
New York – 4:29 pm
Minneapolis – 4:32 pm
Denver – 4:36 pm
Washingotn DC – 4:47 pm
San Fransisco – 4:51 pm
Indianapolis – 5:20 pm
Dallas – 5:22 pm
Honolulu – 5:51 pm
Of course, none of these places are as dark as the Nordic countries—Oslo (3:11 pm), Stockholm (2:47 pm), Helsinki(3:12 pm), but if your kids have any after school activities or you work normal office hours, you are bound to be out in the dark in most of these places. Get sunset and sunrise in your own city at timeanddate.com. Once you have your city, click the “Sun & Moon” tab.
Enjoy the darkness and stay safe!
Elisabeth
The number one Halloween hazard by far is kids being hit by cars. That’s what we were told on Good Morning America the other day where they urged everyone to attach safety reflectors on Halloween Costumes. The funflector® safety reflectors will do the trick! They are high quality reflectors, fulfilling the European standard E13356, which means they can be visible to drivers from about 500 ft. Earlier this week, we did a funflector fundraiser at a local preschool. One of the teachers, who had happened to drive by during the photo session along the highway commented: “Wow, were they bright! Now, I really understand how useful the safety reflectors are.”
The ball chains that come with funflector® safety reflectors are meant to be attached to zipper pulls and loops. So what do you do when the robe of your grim reaper has none of that?
Even if we don’t recommend it for everyday use, safety pins allow us to temporarily put the reflectors wherever we’d like them. Put the safety pin through the seam (through as many layers as possible) of the garment to avoid the Halloween costumes tearing and reflectors getting lost. Low down is good—that’s where headlights shine the most. On the witch’s dress, we attached it at the bottom of the side seam to let the funflector® safety reflector dangle below the hemline. With one cat on each side, she should be visible from all directions.
It is easy to stick the chain through the mesh material that some costumes are made with. Put it through several layers or around a seam to avoid ripping. The witch’s hat has a large bow made from mesh material, so we just put it through several layers.
Many costumes have a belt. If the belt is too wide for the ball chain, put a loop made from a piece of string around the belt and slip the ball chain trough the loop. Please DO NOT replace the chain with a string! The chain is designed to break if it gets firmly hooked on something, so that the wearer doesn’t become stuck. A strong string may harm your child.
Our witch’s dress has some eyelets on the front which came in very handy for a few more safety reflectors.
The ball chain can also be taped to handles of light sabers, scythes, brooms, swords or magic wands, alerting drivers when your kids are busy fending off evil spirits on the loose.
Beyond that, use your imagination and common sense to find suitable places to attach reflectors and let us know what original ways you come up with! The glimling team wishes you a fun and safe Halloween. 🙂
Elisabeth
Favorite Places to Put Fun Reflectors 3 – on Halloween Costumes Read More »
On today’s Good Morning America, Elisabeth Leamy says being visible in traffic during trick-or-treating is the number one safety concern.
Check out the story about how last year’s Halloween did not end as planned for Hailey and Melissa. Please stay till the end to see the safety demo! Cars, Not Candy, Can Pose the Greatest Danger to Your Kids This Halloween
The girl’s story was also featured on king5.com in December last year. They visit schools to talk about their accident and what the kids can do to avoid it happen to them. Their “STAY ALERT & STAY SAFE” campaign can be found at www.stayalertstaysafe.com.
If you suddenly feel the urge to have more reflectors on hand for your kids this Halloween, you can still order funflector® safety reflectors in our web shop, but please don’t wait much longer. Our FREE SHIPPING includes standard mail via USPS. Please contact us if you need express shipping.
Halloween costumes rarely have zipper pulls to attach reflectors to, so later this week, we’ll offer some ideas of what to do instead.
Halloween Safety Tips from Good Morning America Read More »
Although one of my daughters often has asked “When will I get a dog” (noticed the lack of “if”?), we have no dog in our house. Three kids and a small house is quite a handful as it is. Sorry for the misleading headline… Luckily, Maggie, one of our cool glimling blog dogs, lives just around the corner. Maggie is a lab, a black lab, and a great model for dog safety reflector. With her pitch plack fur, a dog safety reflector looks extra cool on her—and is extra necessary when it gets dark.
When Maggie was a puppy and too little for these reflectors, her owner tied a few of them along the leash instead. One evening a neighbor came home and slowed down to almost no speed while they were walking along the street. The neighbor was very puzzled by the weird dangling lights. She could not figure it out until she had stopped the car, rolled down the window and asked.
Today, Maggie is no longer a small puppy, so she wears the reflectors on her collar. For Halloween, she picked the Jack O’lantern. Maggie was also very excited helping pick out reflectors to hang in the bushes in our yard.
Dino, who is another friendly neighborhood dog, picked his favorite—the paw of course! Dino and his master like to take long walks and it is not always that they manage to come home before the sun starts to set. A dog safety reflector is a must. In about two weeks, daylight saving time ends and they will loose another hour of afternoon walking time in daylight.
There are many places to put reflectors, but on kids, dogs and adults are certainly the most important ones. Halloween is a night when a lot of kids are out in the dark, so make sure drivers can see them. If you need more funflector safety reflectors for Halloween, you still have a few (but not much more) days to order them so we can ship them. If you are not convinced, please read my blog post about traffic accident statistics—pedestrian reflectors really do save lives!!!
Elisabeth
Favorite Places to Put Fun Safety Reflectors 2 – On My Dog Read More »
The other night, at 10 pm, I asked a guy walking his dog on the sidewalk if he didn’t want to get a fun reflector. “We are never out in the dark!”, was his serious answer. The sun set at 6:44 that day. I could not help cracking up. We get that answer fairly often, but this was in the funniest of circumstances. The fact is, that most of us are out in the dark even if we didn’t plan to. October is knocking on the door and the days are getting shorter and shorter. Do you belong to those that believe you are never out in the dark?
I’ve dug through some Halloween statistics and they are scarier reading than any Halloween story. The statistics are NOT on your side if you are out between 6 PM and 3 AM. In 2008, 61 % of the fatal pedestrian accidents occurred during those dark hours! Adding the three often dark morning hours, 3-6 AM, brings the numbers up to a whopping 70%—seventy percent!
You have probably figured out that I will tell you to wear a pedestrian reflector. Yes—and no. Wear at least two! That increases your visibility from multiple directions.
A question that we often get is “Are they really powerful enough to do much good?” Yes, reflectors like the funflector™ tags that fulfill the European standard EN13356, do improve the numbers by a lot. Data from Finland, where 30-40% of the pedestrians wear reflectors, show that for every accident during the bright hours, there is only one at night. In the US there are more than two.
In summary, if a third of American pedestrians had worn reflectors, the fatal pedestrian accidents at night could have been cut in half! In 2008, about 1,500 lives would have been saved, in 2007 about 1,600, in 2006….
When did you last get a life insurance for a couple of bucks? One that is even fun to wear!
There is a lot more numbers to pull out, but let’s stop here before our heads start spinning too much…
Elisabeth
Starting the Month of Halloween with Some Scary Reading Read More »
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