Category: Biking Elsewhere

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Study Finds Car-Centric Neighborhoods Strongly Tied to Childhood Obesity

by Angie Schmitt, Streets Blog
There’s a fairly obvious relationship between levels of physical activity and the layout of our streets and cities. Still, solid research on the link between childhood obesity and neighborhood design is scarcer than you might think.
A new study from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, helps fill in the picture. Comparing neighborhoods in San Diego and Seattle, the study found wildly different rates of obesity among children based on “place-related” factors, namely walkability and access to healthy foods.
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https://streetsblog.net/2012/04/11/study-finds-car-centric-neighborhoods-strongly-tied-to-childhood-obesity/

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Help Us Chart our Bike Future: Take the Survey on Unification

By CAROLYN SZCZEPANSKI, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, Leauge of American Bicyclists

In late February, we announced a “New National Plan to Transform Bicycling” — the potential unification of the League, Bikes Belong and the Alliance for Biking & Walking into one, powerful national organization.

With more than 40 comments on that blog post, we know you want to share your ideas and feedback — and we want to hear it.

Please take this quick survey at BikeFuture.org.

“There is a lot of work ahead,” Hans van Naerssen, Chair of the League’s board and a member of the transition team, said in the announcement. “We must determine how to combine the diverse strengths of a powerful alliance of state and local organizations, a storied national user group, and a vibrant industry association in a way that preserves their unique attributes and realizes the game-changing potential of a single entity.”

Share your insight — Take the survey now!

Continue reading “Help Us Chart our Bike Future: Take the Survey on Unification”

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Few Fatal Vehicle-Bike Crashes Lead to Arrest, Data Show

By Alex Goldmark , WNYC
Four years ago, 31-year-old assistant professor Rasha Shamoon was struck and killed by a Range Rover at the corner of Bowery and Delancey while riding her bike home at 1:30 a.m.
Police interviewed the three people in the car, but listed no other witnesses in the police report. Several people called 911, but it’s unclear if they saw the crash. Cops determined Shamoon caused the crash and let the driver go.
But Rasha’s mother didn’t buy the story.
Samira Shamoon turned to the courts to get more answers. She brought a civil suit against the 21-year-old driver where he and his passengers were required to give detailed testimony. In February, the jury placed 95 percent of the fault on the driver, and 5 percent on Rasha Shamoon.
That finding stoked the mounting anger in the cycling community. Bike activists took it as evidence that the police were not serious about investigating cyclist deaths.
Last year, 21 cyclists were struck and killed but only two drivers were arrested. And about 40 percent of the time a driver is involved in a fatality – a pedestrian, cyclist, other motorist or themselves – not even a ticket is issued.
“We as a society have chosen to drive these big cars," said Joe McCormack, an assistant District Attorney for the Bronx whose job it is to prosecute traffic crimes. "And we also as a society have chosen not to criminalize every single small mistake that just has a dramatic consequence because you’re driving a car.”
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Continue reading “Few Fatal Vehicle-Bike Crashes Lead to Arrest, Data Show”

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Carleton students develop new crash test dummy for cycling accidents

[B’ Spokes: I think this is good news, finally some tools for more accurate crash reconstruction.]
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Car-testing dummies, it seems, don’t tell what happens to people who are thrown off a bicycle. The Carleton dummy is built to suffer in more ways than the conventional model, a Thor-NT device used widely in industry.
“The idea is that we should be able to throw this crash test dummy into whatever situation and get a reasonably accurate result, regardless of whether we know (in advance) what injuries we’re going to have,” he said.
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Read more: https://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Carleton+students+develop+crash+test+dummy+cycling+accidents/6411644/story.html