John Forester (cyclist)

John Forester (born 7 October, 1929) is an American industrial engineer and a noted cycling activist who coined the term Effective Cycling. The author of a much-cited book of the same name, he has authored several other books.

Early life

Born in East Dulwich, England, Forester is the oldest child of the writer and novelist Cecil Scott Forester and his wife Kathleen. He moved with his family to Berkeley, California in March 1940 and attended the public schools there until after his parents' divorce, when he finished high school at a preparatory school on the East Coast of the United States.Forester, John. [http://www.johnforester.com/Articles/Social/My%20History.htm My history] Forester Website. Accessed November 1 2007.] Thereafter, he attended the University of California at Berkeley, starting as a physics major, but graduating with a bachelor's degree in English in August, 1951.Fact|date=November 2007 Following a brief stint in the Navy in the early 1950s during the Korean War, Forester eventually settled in California to become, as he describes, "an industrial engineer, a senior research engineer, a professor, and, of all things, an expert in the science of bicycling".

In April 1966, Forester's father died. The unexpectedly large estate, its contents, and its disposition proved that Forester's father, whom he had loved and admired, had consistently lied to Forester for years, and strongly suggested evidence of another secret life. That discovery was a traumatic experience, and led to his biography of his father, "Novelist and Storyteller: The Life of C. S. Forester".

Cycling advocacy

From early childhood, Forester had been a passionate cyclist. Following his father's death, his attention increasingly focused on cycling, racing and brevet touring.Fact|date=November 2007 In the 1960s, he and his wife divorced, and he met Dorris L. Taylor, a visiting cyclist from Minneapolis. Taylor and her daughters moved in with Forester the following year and joined him in his pursuit of cycling. In 1973, Taylor agreed to financially assist him so he could dedicate himself to full-time cycle advocacy.Fact|date=November 2007

Forester first involved himself locally, arguing against the installation of segregated bicycle facilities in the city of Palo Alto, facilities that were based on Netherlands designs adapted for American use and had been recommended to the California Department of Transportation by two researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles. His first published article appeared in the January/February 1973 issue of "Bike World", a regional Northern California bimonthly magazine.

In May 1973, his focus broadened as the Food and Drug Administration (later the Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC) issued extensive product safety regulations for bicycles. Originally intended only for children's bicycles, the regulations were soon expanded to include all bicycles except for track bikes and custom-assembled bicycles. In October of that year, Forester published an article in "Bike World" denouncing both the California Department of Transportation and the CPSC. He targeted the new CPSC regulations, especially the "eight reflector" system, which required front, rear, wheel and pedal reflectors, asserting that the real purpose of the CPSC regulations was to block the import of high-grade racing bicycles. Ironically, the front reflector is placed at the usual location for a bicycle headlight, and it is only visible to motorists when the bicycle is ridden on the wrong side of the road. Forrester has repeatedly condemned wrong-way bicycling.

After the rules were finalized, Forester sued the CPSC. Acting as his own lawyer, Forester did not understand that United States federal law did not grant jurisdiction to the appeals court to review the technical merit of the rules (a so-called "de novo" review) unless the procedure used to create the rules was flawed. The CPSC argued that a challenger must prove the process was "arbitrary and capricious". The judge ordered a "de novo" review of the rules; threw out four of them, but left the "eight reflector" standard untouched. Forester, emboldened by this partial success, proceeded to launch further challenges to administrative rules in court, but did not duplicate that early success.

In addition to legal advocacy, Forester is known for his theories regarding bicycling safety.Smith, David. [http://crankedmag.com/issues/issue-5/the-bicycle-driver/ The bicycle driver] . "Cranked Magazine" #5, pp. 22–25. Accessed November 1 2007.] His Effective Cycling educational program, developed subsequent to his research demonstrating that integrating motorists and educated cyclists reduces accidents more than creating separate bicycle lanes, was implemented by the League of American Bicyclists until Forester withdrew his permission for that organization to use the name.

Quotes

On sharrows: [ [http://lists.topica.com/lists/caboforum/read/message.html?mid=812593830&sort=d&start=2123 post to caboforum list at Topica.com] ] cquote|I offer the following two points. The first is that the concept of sharrows is theoretically impossible to properly implement. As I understand it, painting a sharrow on the roadway, say at milepost 1.53, designates the appropriate lateral position for any cyclist coming along the roadway and passing that milepost. That's absurd, contrafactual. The second point is that we have quite strict standards for bike lane markings, but despite those standards, in many places we have bike lane markings that magnify the danger, that are even praised for doing so. Required by ignorant politicians, designed by compliant or ignorant traffic engineers or bikeway planners, and painted by people who try to follow the design but often fail.

I fail to see better results from sharrows, except it appears that they are less harmful than stripes.

Bibliography

* "Bicycle Transportation" (First edition, 1977; Second MIT edition, The MIT Press, 1994) ISBN 0-262-56079-8
* "Effective Cycling" (First edition, 1976; Sixth edition, The MIT Press, 1993) ISBN 0-262-56070-4
* "Effective Cycling Program", "Effective Cycling Instructor's Manual", the film "Bicycling Safely On The Road" (Iowa State University, 1978)
* "Effective Cycling, The Movie", (Seidler Productions, 1992)
* "Novelist & Storyteller, The Life of C. S. Forester", ISBN 0-940558-04-1 (biography of his father)

References

External links

* [http://www.johnforester.com/ John Forester's] web site
* [http://probicycle.com/jf/jfbio.html ProBicycle biography] of John Forester
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6082181397382918705 John Forester talk at Google headquarters, May 17, 2007] (video)
* [http://www.cyclecalifornia.com/Effective.html Effective Cycling: The Cure for Un-riding!] Review by Cycle California! Magazine.