Category: Biking Elsewhere

from Streetsblog.net by Angie Schmitt
While there hasn’t been a vulnerable roadway user bill introduced in Alaska yet, the concept is gaining momentum nationwide.
Three states already have vulnerable user laws on the books (Oregon’s took effect in 2008, and Delaware’s and New York’s took effect this year), and more states are introducing the bills. Vulnerable roadway user bills mandate stiff fines, loss of license and/or other penalties when the driver of a motorized vehicle severely injures or kills a pedestrian, bicyclist, wheelchair user, motorcyclist or construction worker.
On Monday, April 18, Washington’s State Senate voted 44-2 to accept House amendments to SB 5326, its version of a vulnerable user bill that now goes to Gov. Christine Gregoire for her signature. Cycling and walking advocates in Washington have been trying to pass a vulnerable user bill for three years, but the bill usually ended up dying in committee. This year the Senate and House both passed their own versions of the bill by large margins, then the Senate bill crossed over to receive House approval (with amendments) and now can go to the governor.
“The real crux of this bill is that outcomes matter,” David Hiller of the Cascade Bicycle Club told the Sammamish Patch website. “A DUI with a death is not a DUI with a tragic outcome; it’s vehicular manslaughter. If you have an unsecured load in your vehicle, it’s simply an infraction; but if you kill someone, it’s a felony.”
Continue reading “Vulnerable roadway user laws gain momentum nationwide as more people bike and walk”

from Transportation Experts
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That’s because maintaining roads and bridges isn’t nearly as sexy as building them. "It’s like having the roof leaking and buying a hot tub…. There’s a lot of pressure on [transportation agencies] to build new facilities, and that comes at the expense of keeping up what you’ve got," said Roger Millar, Smart Growth America’s director of Land Use and Transportation Policy. Smart Growth America will release a study next month showing that filling the pothole is perhaps more important than building a new road. Acting now saves money later.
How can infrastructure advocates overcome the political reality that fixing a leaky roof, or a pothole, is just plain boring? Does the public need to weigh in? Or can the discussions be had among just elected officials and the transportation community? Do officials at the federal and state transportation departments need to be more up front about where their allotted transportation money is going if they are to justify the need for more? Do tight budgets help or hurt the conversation?
Continue reading “Fixing a Leaky Roof (or a Pothole)”

BY Edgar Sandoval, Jennifer H. Cunningham and Helen Kennedy
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
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At the Mobil station on W. 30th St. in Manhattan, Kevin Williams of Brooklyn cringed next to his 2005 Mercedes-Benz as he watched the pump tick past $80.
"I like my car, but I’m thinking it’s not worth it. I’m going to sell it," said Williams, 30. "I either have a car or I go out. You can’t do both."
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Greyhound driver Keith Spriggs of Baltimore spent $499.73 to fill his bus.
"I got two cars at home, and I went out and bought a moped," he said, adding that $10 worth of gas lasts him several days now.
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Continue reading “More expensive than milk! $4-plus gallons of gas straining New Yorkers’ budgets”

from New Urban Network – The Source for Urban Planning, Walkable Communities & Smart Growth by Charles Marohn
As a society, we are zealous when it comes to the safety of children. And rightfully so. Still, for some reason we find it perfectly acceptable to routinely include them in the most dangerous activity of American life: riding in a car.
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The best thing we can do for the safety of our children is to get them out of the car by building mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods.
So who in the child-advocacy realm is talking about this? Nobody that I can see. Safe Kids USA has all kinds of information on using your child seat, but nothing on the value of reducing trips. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has information on child seats, but that’s it. Same with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Child seats. Should they really inoculate our collective conscience?
Shortly after my oldest was born, I got in a bad accident. An oncoming car came across the lane, we glanced each other head on, I went off the road and came to a stop when Mr. Tree refused to yield. I was belted and air-bagged yet banged my head pretty hard. I could not remember my phone number, address or doctor’s name and it took me a couple of months before I had my full mental cognition back. For a fast-driving, road-loving, engineer type with a new baby, this had a major impact on me.
I’m sorry if this piece has caused anyone pain. It seems we all know someone who has lost a loved one, too many of them kids, in a car accident. I don’t blame any parent for doing what I do each day: buckle up the kids, give them a kiss and drive as safely as I can. Still, we need to ask ourselves, what are we really willing to risk in order to maintain the American development pattern?
Is it really worth it?
Continue reading “Do we really care about children?”

From the Onion News Network:
President Obama’s proposed high-speed train system will be replaced with a fleet of buses that will rocket along highways at speeds up to 165 mph.
https://www.theonion.com/video/obama-replaces-costly-highspeed-rail-plan-with-hig,18473/
[B’ Spokes: The animations are very funny and there are some parallels to accommodating bicycling on existing roads, like with shared multi-vehicle routes.]

from Cyclelicious by Richard Masoner

Photo CC by-SA 2.0 from Xtracycle Gallery.

Continue reading “Smile! You’re on a bike!”

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Forget water or Gatorade. The drink of choice to rehydrate after a workout is beer.
Researchers at Granada University in Spain found beer can help retain liquid better than water alone.
https://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/news/health/water-may-be-the-drink-of-choice-to-rehydrate-after-working-out,-but-one-type-of-alcohol-is-better

from A view from the cycle path – David Hembrow

Delays at traffic light controlled crossings

Cyclists and pedestrians elsewhere often feel that their time is wasted by pedestrian and cycle crossings which are timed in such a way that they prioritize “keeping traffic moving” over people who want to cross roads. This often causes people to cross against a red light, especially if they are in a hurry.

Here in the Netherlands, timings are quite different. This video shows two crossings which are on the route to school for my youngest daughter. She never has to wait too long for a green light, so I am happy that she is never tempted to cross while the cars are still moving.

Some years ago, I did some calculations based on a pedestrian crossing which we used together on the route which we walked to school in Cambridge. Crossings in the UK almost always work as described below. Even though the highway engineers can claim that the cycle time is the same for motorists and pedestrians, the average delay for motorists works out as far shorter than that for pedestrians:

Assuming that the junction splits time 50:50 for the two different directions, and that there is a 1 minute cycle time, a motorist can expect to be delayed a maximum of 30 seconds. Half of drivers are not delayed at all as the light is already green, and the other half are delayed by an average of 15 seconds, making an overall average delay of just 7.5 seconds for a driver.

On the other hand, a pedestrian only gets to cross if they walk right up to the crossing and push the button. Typically, the green phase for a pedestrian will last as little as 3 or 4 seconds, fitted into the 1 minute cycle. What’s more, there is an initial use delay on the button intended to make pedestrians bunch up. The intention of this is to make best use of the this short time and “keep traffic flowing” on the road in the meantime.

So, you push the button. Wait, say, 10 seconds, then have an average delay of (60-4)/2 = 28s. As a result, the average delay for a pedestrian is 38s. That’s 8s longer than the maximum for a driver or 5x as long as the average for a driver even though they are subject to the same cycle time.

Now I know that some people will say “it’s just a few seconds”, but let me explain further. At one time I would walk my children to primary school, then return, walk again to collect them, and return again, using this crossing four times a day. That means that on average the pointless extra delay would consume one and a half minutes day – about as long as it would have taken to make one of the whole journeys by car. I literally worked the numbers out while waiting for a green light to show.
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Continue reading “The significance of signal timing that treats bicyclists and pedestrians as second class road users”

found via trackosaurus rex

Main points:
* Driving is still the most dangerous activity most of us undertake each day.
* Just because the roads are safer, doesn’t mean you are.
* Futuristic auto technologies are tantalizing, but driving will never be fail-safe.
* The automakers are pushing new technologies that are at cross-purposes to safety.
* We can engineer cars and roads to be safer, but the safest way to engineer our communities is to make cars less necessary.
Continue reading “Is Car Safety an Oxymoron?”