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Telling our story

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Mon, 07/18/2011 - 08:14 by locutas_of_spragge

To judge by the number of people who don't know exactly what to make of my helmet camera, not all that many Toronto cyclists wear helmet cameras on a regular basis. Perhaps a few more of us should consider it. If more people saw what the streets look like to cyclists, we might get more support, particularly if we put our stories together into a narrative. I think about the series Whale Wars on the Animal Planet TV show. I don't generally agree with Paul Watson or the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, but first-hand footage of their struggle makes for an exciting narrative, and I have to say that having watched their struggles, I have somewhat more sympathy for the Sea Shepherds than I did before I started watching the series. Cyclists have compelling and exciting stories to tell, and if those of us who record our rides put our footage together, maybe we too could come up with a basis for a show to pitch to Discovery or TLC or even TVO.

Tags: 
speaking out
helmet camera
activism

Comments

GMD (not verified)

Nice piece - the video, the

Mon, 07/18/2011 - 10:25

Nice piece - the video, the commentary.

I think there is a need in this city for a fair bit of education around proper cycling. For instance, the appropriate place to wait or to ride in a right turn lane has no consistent behaviour in the city.

kiwano

Well this is tempting me to

Mon, 07/18/2011 - 11:31

Well this is tempting me to go out, get a helmet cam, record the myriad times I come to a red light, take the right lane, wait for a car to come, and scooch over to the left side of the lane if the driver signals a right turn. Also a few of the instances where the car that pulls up goes straight (or fails to signal their turn) and I drift to the right side of the lane after starting, and then cap it all off with footage of some asshat yelling at me to get out of "the middle of the road" when I'm at an intersection in a similar lane position.

Maybe it would be an interesting project to try and compile a collection of footage that could be edited down into self-explanatory 30 second spots that could be run on television (between all the car ads) with the tagline "courtesy goes a long way".

locutas_of_spragge

My next video (recorded

Tue, 07/19/2011 - 04:21

My next video (recorded earlier) actually has an incident where I did this. I hope to post it this morning.

Kevin (not verified)

Nice quality of video. I am

Mon, 07/18/2011 - 17:48

Nice quality of video.

I am seriously considering getting a camera myself, and that looks like a good one.

May I ask what equipment was used to take this video?

beerich

Look into the ContourHD. I

Mon, 07/18/2011 - 19:19

Look into the ContourHD. I have one. Check out BeeRich33 on Youtube for some of my cycling vids. I love the thing.

locutas_of_spragge

I made this with a GoPro

Tue, 07/19/2011 - 04:20

I made this with a GoPro camera (non-hd), available at Future shop, MEC, New Balance at Sherway and Urbane Cyclist (availability as of last time I checked).

Shoegazer (not verified)

I think we need some

Tue, 07/19/2011 - 10:29

I think we need some intersections like these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlApbxLz6pA&NR=1

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