Charity Bicyclist Believes T-Shirts Can Make Hobby Safer

Thursday 09th of October 2008 03:08:45 PM

Charity Bicyclist Believes T-Shirts Can Make Hobby Safer

You just never know what great purpose t-shirts may serve. They are used to send messages, make statements and inform the public about issues. The logos and printing on the shirts change plain t-shirts into mini-billboards and signposts.

The most recent example is the use of the t-shirts by the Alzheimer’s Research Trust. The bicyclists are testing whether the charity t-shirts encourage driver politeness. It is hoped drivers will pay closer attention to bicycle safety. There are always numerous complaints by bicycle riders that motor cars do not want to share the road and are careless about crowding the bicyclists.

So the riders connected with the charity decided to try an experiment. A four man team is wearing the charity t-shirts while riding for a 1 week period. A second four man team is going to wear regular clothes such as sweatshirts for the second week. The two teams will document all incidences with motorists and then compare notes.

Andrew Scheuber, a cyclist with the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, enjoys riding his bike from Trumpington to Great Shelford. He has been doing this for the last seven months. He made the comment, "I was getting fed up with being given a narrow berth on my ride to work and on too many occasions in the last year, I've almost come to grief owing to motorists just not spotting me.”

The purpose of the bicycling t-shirt wearing experiment is to see if automobile drivers give the bicyclists more leeway on the road when they are wearing charity t-shirts. The Alzheimer’s Research Trust is located in Cambridge and encourages its employees to get plenty of exercise. Exercise can lower the chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Mr. Scheuber said, "When by chance I wore one of our Alzheimer's Research Trust t-shirts on my ride for a couple of days, I definitely noticed I was given a bit more space on the road." The charity has purple and white t-shirts.

(c ) Image by Sanja Gjenero, www.sxc.hu/