Category: Biking Elsewhere

[B’ Spokes: This is a great video safety series so please don’t let the spandex turn you off. I will also note in the second video "Cycling Skills" don’t turn it off just because you are not interested in track stands or jumping sticks. The last topic covered is the quick stop, an essential skill for all cyclists, not only can you stop faster, you can avoid doing yourself a "mischief" by braking too hard with your front brake without your weight far back causing you to flip over the handlebars.]
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Welcome to Road ID’s "Rules of the Road" video series. These videos were created in response to the numerous cycling-related accidents that we all hear about on a regular basis. The goal of these videos is to help make cycling safer for everyone that rides a bike.
https://www.roadid.com/RoadRules/

from Road Rights by JeanneEmery
No cyclist wants to relive a collision—but it pays to read the police report
By Bob Mionske
Picture this: You’re riding home from work, obeying all traffic laws, when a car knocks you off your bike. A few days later, you order the police report (usually about $10) and find mistakes in the account. Maybe you were unable to give a statement because of injuries, or you gave one while you were in shock, and you now believe it was incorrect. Or—even worse—you discover that the officer blamed you for the collision. What can you do?
First, the good news. A police report is not usually allowed as evidence at trial. Although officers can testify about what they saw, they cannot typically testify about what somebody else observed. (Not surprisingly, there are exceptions to the rule against hearsay evidence, and judges do occasionally allow such reports to be introduced at trial.)
In any case, a cyclist involved in a crash should check the police report for accuracy and have it amended if it’s erroneous. Doing so may strengthen your case with the driver’s insurance company, and prevent the need to go to trial. And if you were ticketed, an amended police report may convince prosecutors to drop the charges.
Try to review the report as soon as you are able. It will be more difficult to make changes after the report has been finalized. When you speak to the investigating officer, ask that your account of the incident be added to an amended report (see “Make Your Case,” below). If you present your case politely, the officer may be willing to amend the report. But if you file a complaint or make accusations of bias, you risk turning a potential trial witness into your adversary. Ask when the report will be finalized, and check back before that date to make sure that your addendum appears in the final document. If you are questioning the conclusion that you were at fault, the officer will likely be unwilling to shift blame to the driver, but you may be able to persuade him or her to take a neutral stance. This will place the responsibility for determining fault where it belongs: with the jury.
MAKE YOUR CASE
Disputing a police report? Here’s the info you’ll want to submit.
1) A written statement describing your disagreement with the report, in as much detail as possible.
2) A signed affidavit a sworn statement attesting to the truth of the addendum.
3) Photographs or any other evidence that supports your account.
4) Records of treatment you received—if you suffered an injury that affected your ability to give a statement at the scene.
Research and assistance provided by Rick Bernardi, J.D.
Continue reading “Set the Record Straight”

While these kind of posts don’t usually attract a lot of attention, I hope these little "sound bites" from larger more detailed articles give you some feel for what’s really going on with planning "requiring" use of the individual automobile. So while there are some interesting numbers and studies in the article, here is the final paragraph of the article from Strong Towns Blog by Charles Marohn:
If you want a simple explanation for why our economy is stalled and cannot be restarted, it is this: Our places do not create wealth, they destroy wealth. Our development pattern — the American style of building our places — is simply not productive enough to sustain itself. It creates modest short-term benefits and massive long-term costs. We’re now sixty years into this experiment, basically through two complete life cycles. We’ve reached the "long-term", and you can clearly see we’ve run out of options for keeping this Ponzi scheme going.
Continue reading “The Growth Ponzi Scheme”

from Streetsblog Capitol Hill by Tanya Snyder
According to an analysis by the Center for Neighborhood Technology of 2002 mortgage data, 250 people applied for mortgages every day in Chicago, and only 150 were approved. The top reason for rejecting the other 100? Applicants had too much credit tied up in car ownership.
…
https://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/06/07/how-car-dependency-turns-suburban-dreams-into-foreclosure-nightmares/

[B’ Spokes: For a bit of an introduction, readers of this blog know that Maryland has a terrible pedestrian fatality rate and I will assert that we need to break the perception that roads are for the sole purpose of accommodating cars and that bicyclists and pedestrians are trespassers. If we can make things safer for pedestrians cyclists benefit and if things are safer for cyclists pedestrians benefit. Any thing that says “We accommodate ALL users of public space (roads) equally will help.]

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It was broadly observed that the construction of an
improved pedestrian facility resulted in an increased proportion of pedestrians using the desire line at the
location of the improvement.
A key outcome of this analysis is the importance of pedestrian desire lines to the location of new or
improved pedestrian facilities. The utility of a facility is maximised when it is placed on pedestrians’ most
desirable crossing path – ie a facility that does not lie on the path that is most preferred by pedestrians
may not be utilised by a large proportion of pedestrians in the area, as was the case with the Collingwood
St kerb extensions.

[B’ Spokes: Now contrast that with Baltimore County’s (to name just one) and the “We do not accommodate j-walkers, we ticket them.” type of pedestrian safety “improvement” program.]

• Safety was rated as the most important factor considered by pedestrians when choosing a location to
cross the road.
• Pedestrians at all of the study sites reported feeling safer while crossing the street after the
implementation of the new pedestrian facility.
• At five of the eight study sites, the average ‘after’ safety rating was 2.5 or more (out of a maximum of
3), indicating that these facilities had been successful in providing the perception of an extremely safe
crossing environment.

[B’ Spokes: Can you guess what Maryland typically does to improve pedestrian safety? If you guessed the one on the bottom, your are right! I really think having the 4th highest pedestrian fatality rate gives us some right to demand that the State crank it up a notch for pedestrian safety and where needed crank it down a notch on the (over) accommodation of cars.]
Continue reading “Benefits of new and improved pedestrian facilities – before and after studies”

…
Akerson told The Detroit News that, rather than have the government incrementally increase fuel efficiency standards over the next several years, “You know what I’d rather have them do — this will make my Republican friends puke — as gas is going to go down here now, we ought to just slap a 50-cent or a dollar tax on a gallon of gas.”
“People will start buying more Cruzes and they will start buying less Suburbans,” he said.
Akerson isn’t the first representative of a major U.S. automaker to come out in favor of a higher gas tax….
https://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/06/08/gm-ceo-we-ought-to-just-slap-a-dollar-tax-on-a-gallon-of-gas/

From "More or Less" on BBC4: Good info about the safety of cycling beginning at about ten minutes into the broadcast, running for seven minutes.
https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/moreorless/moreorless_20100903-1248a.mp3
There are a lot of good points here about comparing apples with apples. I will also note that the leading cause of death for 1-31year olds is automobile accidents. Additionally the 5-25 year olds make up the bulk of bicycle crashes so if you are outside of that age range bicycling looks more attractive then driving, at least in my opinion. Listen to the broadcast for more points why bicycling may not be as dangerous as we thought (we need more data to say so with any degree of certainty but the clues are there.)

If you have not heard about this… totally outrageous:
The report reads: “The cyclist was westbound on MS 50 near the Truelove Loop intersection. V1 (vehicle one) was westbound on MS 50 approaching the cyclist from the rear. The front of V1 collided with the rear of the bicycle. The impact threw the cyclist into the air before landing on the hood of V1 and onto the windshield. V1 continued for a few feet before coming to a stop. The cyclist was then thrown to the asphalt when V1 stopped. The driver of V1 exited the vehicle and observed the cyclist while talking on the phone. D1 (driver one) then reentered her vehicle and ran the cyclist over again before being forced from her vehicle by a witness. V1 came to a final rest facing west in the westbound lane on MS 50 just meters west of the Truelove Loop intersection. The cyclist came to a final rest near the right front tire of V1.”
https://www.starkvilledailynews.com/node/5919
Continue reading “CYCLIST RUN OVER TWICE BY SAME DRIVER”

BY MARC SCHLOSSBERG
It finally happened. The other day someone yelled at me, “Why do you cyclists think you own the road?”
I had just finished an afternoon dentist appointment and was cycling home. I was riding on East 27th Avenue from Willamette Street to the Amazon Parkway in Eugene, a short, narrow, not-too-heavily traveled road with parking on both sides and no bike lanes — generally the type of road where things work themselves out.
I was riding downhill in the middle of the lane at the pace of the car in front of me, preparing to turn left on Amazon. A car entered the road behind me, accelerated around my left (into the opposite traffic lane), swerved in front of me, and skidded to a stop as we all reached the stop sign at Amazon Parkway. And that’s when I heard it: “Why do you cyclists think you own the road?”
Honestly, it was deeply disturbing to have a two-ton vehicle aggressively swerving around me and then be made to feel as though I was the instigator of some great injustice. I’ve heard from others that this is a fairly common refrain coming out of car windows, so I thought I’d try to answer this question using its component parts: “You,” “cyclists” and “own the road.”
…
In that day’s unfortunate situation, I was riding in the middle of the lane, both because there was no bike lane and because I was preparing to turn left. But beyond legality, where and how I was riding was just common sense. I was travelling at the same speed as cars on this short strip, so why wouldn’t I be a “vehicle” and act as one? What upsets me most about this situation is how easily someone felt they could enforce their view of right and wrong by aggressively swerving a vehicle around someone on a bike.
Perhaps this is the crux of the matter: In an ambiguous space, what are our community priorities? Should someone in a vehicle have priority, because after all, in a collision between a vehicle and a bike we know who would lose? Or in such situations, should our community default be to defer to the more vulnerable user?
I was confident I was right, both legally and morally (although I do wish I could have kept calmer after being yelled at).
But I worry for others who want to use a bike as a safe, convenient, less costly, more environmentally friendly — or whatever — way to move about.
I have taught my children to how ride responsibly, but I worry about them being confronted — actually, assaulted — like this.
More importantly, I worry about their physical safety simply because they are using the road as they should. I also worry about the thousands of others who are interested in biking but don’t because they worry about confrontations with vehicles similar to my experience.
So to answer the question: No, I don’t think I am an overentitled bicycle-­riding road owner; I’m just a guy trying to get to work, the dentist, pet food store or my kid’s ballet lessons, sometimes by bike, and hoping to do so without being yelled at.
Marc Schlossberg is an associate professor of Planning, Public Policy and Management at the University of Oregon.
Continue reading “Can’t a guy ride a bike without being yelled at?”

By Parris N. Glendening
President, Smart Growth Leadership Institute, Former Governor of Maryland, and NSI Senior Advisor
Many of the comments in this discussion have touched on a key point of the reauthorization bill: if Congress pursues more fiscally responsible highway repair and maintenance strategies, our entire transportation system will benefit. Though much of our national highway system is crumbling, it is largely complete. Our public transportation network and facilities for pedestrians and bicyclists, on the other hand, are woefully inadequate.
As Smart Growth America’s recent report showed, between 2004 and 2008 states spent more than 50 percent of their collective highway capital budget on expansion projects that accounted for only one percent of highways, while repair and upkeep of the existing 99 percent of the system received less than half of all funds. These decisions are creating huge liabilities for states, and with budgets stretched so thin, we cannot afford to continue to spend on new capacity at the cost of existing roads. Challenging economic times presents an opportunity to re-evaluate our spending strategies and make some fundamental changes to our priorities.
If Congress adopted stronger mechanisms for prioritizing repair and maintenance projects, taxpayers across the country will benefit from lower future liabilities. By emphasizing a fiscally responsible approach to our highway network, we can also refocus our commitment to serving all Americans no matter what mode of transportation they use.
Continue reading “Parris N. Glendening responded to Could Focusing on Repairs Please Everyone?”