Category: Biking Elsewhere

An excellent read if you have been in an accident by By Bob Mionske
https://bicycling.com/blogs/roadrights/2011/07/17/how-to-handle-bike-car-accidents-part-3/

by: Saundra Young – CNN Medical Senior Producer
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"The study is important for the well-being of children because most children are not meeting physical activity guidelines needed for optimal growth and development," explained Roman Pabayo of the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre and lead author of the study. "Active transportation to school represents an affordable and easy way to incorporate physical activity in the daily routines of children."
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"As they age, they are probably most likely to have access to a vehicle through friends and older siblings," Pabayo said. "There still is more room for children to use active transportation to school, our challenge is to raise the proportion of students that uses active transportation to school."
A study Pabayo conducted last year found children aged 6 to 8 who consistently walked or cycled to school lowered their BMI scores during a three-year period.
Pabayo acknowledges that safety is a concern. "We need interventions to help allow parents to be more comfortable allowing their kids to walk school."
Continue reading “Who’s walking to school?”

By Dan Sokil
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Patrol officer Tim Cornelius has a new ride, one that’s more stealthy and maneuverable than any of his fellow Lansdale Police Department officers’ patrol cars — and gets much better gas mileage, too.
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Several officers have taken the same training as Cornelius through the Baltimore-based International Police Mountain Bike Association, and he says the certification that one earns by taking the four-day, 32-hour course is well worth the work.
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“It makes the police department more approachable to borough residents. I’ve probably had more people stop me in the last couple of months to ask questions than I’ve had in a couple of years in a patrol vehicle,” he said.
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“One of the great features about the bike is the silent clutch, it doesn’t have that tick-tick-tick noise when you’re coasting, so I’ve been able to approach suspicious actors basically undetected,” he said
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“A lot of times, due to traffic congestion I can actually get to calls a lot faster than the marked units can, so it’s a win-win situation for the borough,” Cornelius said.
Continue reading “Biking rocks for policing”

By KEILA SZPALLER of the Missoulian
Bill Kiess wore a bicycle jersey printed with answers to frequently asked questions.
"Yes, I am cycling across the U.S."
"No, I am not crazy."
"81 days."
"Astoria, Oregon."
"Jacksonville Beach, Florida."
"Really, for fun."
"Anywhere there are trees."
Say what? Kiess, visiting Adventure Cycling and one of an estimated 1,000 bikers who will cruise through its Missoula offices in 2011, filled in the blank: "Where do you go to the bathroom?"
One question the jerseys don’t answer is the age of the cyclists. Kiess is 80, a veteran rider and the oldest member of his group, but many of the cyclists rolling across the country this season are baby boomers. Some are riders forging new lives for themselves, and others are commemorating the 35th anniversary of Bikecentennial ’76.
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Continue reading “Boomers wheel into Missoula’s Adventure Cycling”

by David Alpert

Michael sent along this amusing “FAIL” photo… but is it really a fail at all?

Image from FAIL Blog.

At first blush, this looks ridiculous. How can closing a lane ease congestion? But actually, it can.

Let’s say you have a road that’s one lane in each direction. At one spot, it turns into 2 lanes each direction, then back to 1. What will happen?

People will speed up when the road widens, then merge back where it narrows. Merging creates “friction,” forcing drivers to slow down a little more than usual and to wait for each other which can be inefficient. The end result is lower throughput overall than if the road simply stayed one lane.

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Continue reading “"Lane closed to ease congestion" actually not a crazy fail”

Via Greater Greater Washington

Just try following speed limits: A columnist tries obeying all speed limit laws and finds himself the object of much driver scorn. But science says it’s false that “keeping up with traffic” is the safest behavior. Can this put to rest the myth that all cyclists are scofflaws and all drivers follow the law? (Vancouver Sun, The Urban Country)
Continue reading “Put to rest the myth that all cyclists are scofflaws and all drivers follow the law”

By Edward Fitzpatrick
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Meanwhile, let’s hear what the bike enthusiasts have to say for themselves. Eric Weis, trail program coordinator for the East Coast Greenway Alliance, a group spearheading development of a 2,900-mile trail connecting cities from Maine to Florida for cyclists and walkers, said, “I would love to be pandered to. Who do I talk to about that?”
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On a serious note, Tomasso, a fitness instructor, divided the report’s $4.8-million figure by the state’s 1-million population to derive a per-person cost of $4.80. “Because anyone can run, walk or ride on the extensive greenway system in Rhode Island, it’s the best deal in town,” she wrote. “Where else could one receive a lifetime membership to a fitness facility … for $4.80? In addition, that fee provides unlimited access to family entertainment, local flora and fauna, and tours of Rhode Island’s auspicious place in American history.”
Come to think of it, she has a point. See you on the bike path.
Continue reading “Despite report, it’s hard to find fat on area bike paths”

This case in Tennessee could have applicability in Baltimore and it’s many (yet) unfixed bicycle unfriendly storm grates. Like the town of Cleveland Baltimore has a policy of updating storm grates during road reconstruction, and the initial court case found no liability since there was no road reconstruction on the road in question. But on appeal this decision was reversed, some quotes from the case:
The plaintiff argues that the proof shows that the old style grate was a hazard of which
the State had been aware for many years. The State simply decided, according to the proof,
that it would not deal with the hazard until later. She further argues that if this Court affirms
the trial court, “the State would never have an obligation to remedy known hazards if the
State merely decided not to as a matter of practice.” Although the argument is not presented
in exactly these words, the thrust of the plaintiff’s argument is that the trial court improperly
granted the State immunity for a “category” of activity for which the State does not have
immunity under Tenn. Code Ann. § 9-8-307. We agree with the plaintiff.
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We believe, however, that looking at this as a problem of state-wide magnitude is an
improper focus. Here, we are dealing with one grate that caused one injury to one bicycle
rider. We are not holding that the State must replace or alter every old style grate across the
state. We are simply holding that the State had a duty with regard to the subject grate. This
approach is consistent with the law regarding other sections of Tenn. Code Ann. § 9-8-307
which treat the State and its obligations as a landowner the same as a private landowner.
Byrd v. State, 905 S.W.2d 195, 196 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1995). A private landowner would
never prevail based on the argument that it could not be held responsible for one of many
dangers on its land simply because it owned too much land to eliminate all the dangers.
Moreover, even the long-range plan recognized a duty on the part of the State to identify and
cure specific hazards, including hazardous drainage grates. We conclude that the State had
a duty with regard to the subject grate to address the hazard to bicycle riders.
So if I am interpreting this right, Government cannot put off "indefinitely" fixing a known hazard by adopting a policy that I’ll term as addressing the low hanging fruit only. That is to say that while true that it is more economical to fix storm grates during adjacent road reconstruction the kicker is some roads are reconstructed less frequently then others.
Or look at it this way, suppose you report a pothole that causing damage to cars and the city says "As a matter of policy we only fix potholes if we are doing something else on the street as well because it is more economical that way. And we are currently not planning on doing anything on that street, so just avoid the pothole." Hopefully you can see that policy does not fulfill the city’s obligation to keep roads in good repair and is not a valid excuse in avoiding its obligations.
The reason why I am going on is not only because of the similarities with Baltimore and how it is replacing storm grates but there are other things that the state is obligated to do to accommodate bike/peds that they have attached to a secondary thing and claim no obligation if they are not doing the secondary thing.
Take Richie Highway for example, while the State is still looking into things what if Richie Highway does not meet the State’s requirements to get fixed? Is that a reason why they never have to accommodate bike/peds crossing that road?
I am all for doing things economically and focusing efforts where they are needed the most but I think the lesson here is when establishing government policies make sure that it covers the "whole enchilada" of the problem. With storm grates a better policy might be x% of the budget goes to new storm grates which would yield (for an example) 40 grate replacements a year if done with road reconstruction or 20 grates as stand alone projects.
You can see by my example why focusing on the more economical or the "low hanging fruit" is desirable but what do we do when the low hanging fruit runs in short supply and we have years with no storm grates being replaced? That is the problem and I think it has ramifications beyond just storm grates and crops up anywhere "matter of practice" for bike/ped is applicable.
Continue reading “State liable for damages if fixing is not a matter of practice”

[B’ Spokes: One of the things I would like to see accomplished through this blog is a better understanding of road engineering, so while JUST a crosswalk may not be appropriate in this case, a traffic light might be or at least move the bus stop.]

From How We Drive by Tom Vanderbilt

In the by turns tragic and outrageous case of Raquel Nelson, I keep seeing a call for “marked crosswalks” to be installed on Austell Road, near the bus stop where pedestrians naturally want to cross (rather than walk the estimated 2/3 of a mile to the stop).

But I’m unclear what they’re calling for — is it a traffic signal with a marked crosswalk?

Or just a marked crosswalk? Which we intuitively think would be better than nothing — or would it?

From what I’ve read on marked crosswalks, they precisely begin to lose effectiveness on roads with at least four lanes, and volumes of upwards of 30,000 vehicles per day. Not to mention a “posted” speed of 45 mph.

To quote the FHWA:

Thus, installing a marked crosswalk at an already undesirable crossing location (e.g., wide, high-volume street) may increase the chance of a pedestrian crash occurring at such a site if a few at-risk pedestrians are encouraged to cross where other adequate crossing facilities are not provided. This explanation might be evidenced by the many calls to traffic engineers from citizens who state, “Please install a marked crosswalk so that we can cross the dangerous street near our house.” Unfortunately, simply installing a marked crosswalk without other more substantial crossing facilities often does not result in the majority of motorists stopping and yielding to pedestrians, contrary to the expectations of many pedestrians.

Continue reading “Marked Crosswalks and the Raquel Nelson Case”