Category: Biking Elsewhere

By by Doug Landau
By settling the Property Damage ("PD") claim as soon as the evidence of all the personal property losses are assembled AND LATER settling the Personal (or "Bodily") Injury ("BI") claim when the extent of the harms and losses can be ascertained, injured cyclists can amerliorate their losses and keep from unwittingly giving the insurance company an "interest free loan." Some bikers make the mistake of settling early after an accident with a truck or car, before they know how badly injured they really are. Others get a check and quickly cash it, for their PD or BI claim, not realizing that the notation "Full and Final Release of All Claims" means that they cannot seek reimbursement for any other losses and may not file a lawsuit for redress in Court !
Virginia biker injury lawyer Doug Landau of the Herndon law firm ABRAMS LANDAU, Ltd. points out that most cases seem to resolve when the liability or "fault" of the driver is clear and the cyclist’s injuries are straightforward. The "PD claim" can settle shortly after the bicycle crash, without signing a "Release" of "Any and All Claims." And later (but within the state’s time limits for filing a lawsuit against a negligent driver), the disabled cyclist can settle the "BI claim." The injured cyclist can get a replacement bike, repairs, equipment, components, clothing, etc. right away and not give the auto liability insurer and "interest free loan." Then, when the injuries are on the mend, the permanency calculated and future care costs evaluated, the case for compensation for the physical injuries, lost earnings, mental trauma, scarring, loss of consortium and future specials can be made. …
Continue reading “So, HOW does an injured cyclist get TWO checks for ONE bike crash ?”

from Average Joe’s Cycling Blog
Global TV Launches Anti-Car Campaign!
Global TV is having a week-long Anti-Car Campaign. I think it’s accidental, but I approve anyway.
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https://averagejoecyclist.com/?p=2559

from How We Drive, the Blog of Tom Vanderbilt’s Traffic
I was intrigued by this passage from a typically fascinating Paris Review interview, this time with science-fiction legend Ray Bradbury:
If I’d lived in the late eighteen hundreds I might have written a story predicting that strange vehicles would soon move across the landscape of the United States and would kill 2,000,000 people in a period of seventy years. Science fiction is not just the art of the possible, but of the obvious. Once the automobile appeared you could have predicted it would destroy as many people as it did.
Continue reading “Stranger than Fiction”

By Darren Flusche
League Policy Analyst
According to a survey recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 57 percent of adult Americans say that their neighborhood features – like sidewalks, crosswalks, or lighting – are of high importance in determining their levels of physical activity. About two-thirds of adults said they were willing to take “civic actions” to improve neighborhood features.
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Not surprisingly, the study concludes, “the biggest factor in determining a person’s willingness to take civic action to improve neighborhood features was how important that person rated neighborhood features to be in determining her or his level of physical activity.”
Continue reading “Growing demand for livable communities”

Wishing Gabrielle Giffords Many More Commutes by Bike
from Commute by Bike by Ted Johnson
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My thoughts were drawn, once again, to the rhetoric of the debate over cycling infrastructure, referred to as “The Bike Wars” or a “war on cars.” War? Really? With armies, weapons, and battles?
Anyone who commutes by bike knows two things: First, that there are a lot of crazy and unstable drivers out there, and second that with the wrong person behind the wheel, a car can be used as a weapon. When we, the participants in this debate, regurgitate this “war” framing, we need to consider the chances that a crazy motorist might take it seriously. The motorist who believes (because he’s been told so) that cyclists are literally the enemy; that cyclists are threatening his way of life, how is he likely to use his car?
Let’s downshift our rhetoric as well. It’s not a war. It’s a disagreement over transportation priorities; it’s motorists and cyclists struggling to reconcile their differences and coexist.
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Continue reading “The WAR on Bikes”

By Tom Held of the Journal Sentinel

Tess Weber, just 3 months old, already has been out cross-country skiing and snowshoeing with her parents, Paul and Susie.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise. She enjoyed a bike ride the day of her birth.

Susie Weber, an active 41-year-old, shared her story of biking to delivery – a one-mile ride from her home in Menasha to the Theda Clark Medical Center – in the January issue of Silent Sports Magazine.

“On the day my daughter was born, I stayed at home until my contractions were about three minutes apart and increasing in intensity. When it was time to go to the hospital, the last thing I wanted to do was get on a bike. But my husband had the bikes ready, my doctor was expecting to see my bike in the lot, and my own internal voice was telling me I couldn’t give up now.

“I somewhat reluctantly got on the bike and, to my surprise, enjoyed every minute of the ride, even when I was having a contraction. Despite all the dire warnings that I would crash my bike when the pain hit, I found that I could power through it. In fact, the contractions on the bike were the easiest to bear because I was distracted and doing something I love.”

While biking to birth would be an extreme example of maintaining fitness during pregnancy, Weber’s piece provides excellent advice for expectant women (and their partners).

Her pregnancy was high-risk due to her age and previous miscarriages, but she kayaked, skied, swam and biked from start to finish. She biked to her first appointment in March, and that day “set a goal of biking to every appointment,” including the delivery.

“I think it was better for me overall and I recovered quickly and was down to my pre-birth weight in three weeks,” said Weber, who is on maternity leave from her job as a pilot for United Airlines. “My doctor was a great person to work with.

“I think people treat pregnancy as a sickness; and you’re not sick. You just have to be reasonable, I think.”

Tess was born on Oct. 7 and weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces and measured 19 1/2 inches. On Thursday morning, Weber proudly reported that Tess had rolled over, apparently starting her own fitness regimen.

Paul, Tess and Susie Weber. Photo courtesy of Susie Weber

Continue reading “Menasha mom biked to hospital to deliver baby”

On December 13, 2010, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy hand-delivered more than 51,000 signatures in a petition to AAA to support—not oppose—the continuation of established trail, walking and bicycling programs through the transportation trust fund. Now, we turn our focus on Congress, protecting and defending these active transportation programs on the federal stage. We will show our elected leaders the results of our AAA petition and remind them that it represents millions of Americans who want a balanced transportation future.

[Video]

Continue reading “AAA Petition Delivered, AAA will not budge”

from A view from the cycle path – David Hembrow
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There is a lesson here for other countries. I’ll take Britain as an example.
It is difficult to campaign for better conditions for "cyclists" in Britain. Cyclists are a minority group, and not a very well liked minority at that. Cyclists can be considered to be an out-group. This is a large part of why it is that cycling initiatives come and go in Britain. There’s no real emphasis placed on results because too few people see it as important. When cyclists in Britain are hit by cars, they get very little sympathy from the public at large.
Campaigning for child safety is different. Very different. Children are not a minority group. Most families include children, all adults used to be children. Child safety is an issue which is important to everyone and difficult to ignore. All parents want their children to be safe.
It is clear that there is a problem with child safety on the roads in the UK. This is the underlying reason why it is that children are increasingly being driven to school. It is the reason why American style school buses are proposed for British kids, and even the reason why someone made the news for driving with his walking child on the school run. When British parents attack traffic wardens next to a school, they even do this in part out of concern for the safety of their own children. These are not solutions to the problem, but they are reactions to it. They demonstrate that parents are not remotely happy with the roads as they are.
Campaigners often talk about there being a pent-up demand for cycling in Britain. It’s true. There is. When I was a campaigner in the UK, many people would tell me that they were very keen to take up cycling, but for one reason or another.
However, the pent-up demand for conditions in which children are safe on the streets is very much greater. This is what any campaigner who wants to see mass cycling return to the UK ought to be campaigning about. Get those parents on your side and there will be a mass move to change infrastructure and improve conditions.
I can see the responses from a certain element of the cycling community in the UK. i.e. those who are concerned about being "forced" to use sub-standard shared-use paths next to the road. However, this is all part of the problem. Sub-standard facilities are of no use to anyone. Not only are they no good for confident adults to cycle on, but they will also never provide the level of subjective safety required for British parents to think their children are safe on a bike. I’ve seen many examples of what happens in Britain. Planners think that if they provide a couple of hundred metres of astonishingly bad quality shared use next to a school that they’ve actually done something. People afterwards ask why it is that such facilities are not used. The answer is very simple: they are not usable. The quality is much too low. Tokenism isn’t the answer.
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Continue reading “Stop the Child Murder”

by Stephen Miller

Expanding bicycle infrastructure requires political support. That means showing residents and elected officials that cyclists are not some strange, alien species, but fellow people just like them.

Photo by somervillebikes on Flickr.

Since people who ride every day are currently a small portion of the population, advocates must work with those who don’t ride bikes to show why expansion is in the local community’s best interest.

There are, of course, issue-based arguments, supported by facts and numbers. We hear these arguments all the time: cycling is good for the environment, good for public health, good for congestion reduction, and good for the bottom line. Even most bike lane opponents won’t disagree.

But there’s another line of argument that bike advocates employ less often. It’s an empathetic appeal that demonstrates that cyclists are just like you. They’re everyday citizens, getting around town. Failure to show this reality to decision makers, the press, and the public at large can have adverse consequences. In the absence of a positive or even neutral image of cyclists, an alternative, more explosive narrative can gain steam.

This negative narrative has two parts. First, because there is not much of a social contract between cyclists and other road users, it’s easy to believe that cyclists are reckless scofflaws who don’t deserve respect because they don’t give respect. Cyclists become aliens on two wheels who run red lights and play chicken with you as you try to guess their next unpredictable move. This thinking transforms cyclists into something that is nothing like you.

The second part comes into play when governments begin providing bike lanes or other provisions for cyclists. It starts to look like the road is being taken away from responsible users like you and given to a reckless minority. This is where the backlash begins, as citizens speak up against this perceived injustice.

There is an alternative to this acrimony, though. DC bike advocates are already making the case that people riding bikes are no different than anyone else, and deserve a safe way to get around.

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Continue reading “People riding bikes aren’t jerks, they’re just like you”