A $23 million award of stimulus funds Wednesday will make commuting by bike easier in Philadelphia and getting from Cooper River Park in Camden to the City of Brotherly Love by foot or bike a reality in 2012.
The grants — $17.2 million for Philadelphia and $5.8 million for Camden — are part of $1.5 billion awarded from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program on Wednesday.
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Continue reading “Philadelphia and Camden win stimulus funds for bike trails”
Do we need a name for anti-bike-ism?
The Virginia Bicycling Federation discussing problems with their 3′ law:
…Here are some of the objections raised, with my response to each:
“Bicyclists are often law breakers, unworthy of any added protection under the law.”
Don’t many drivers fit this category too? Yet they receive protection.
“Bicyclists are inconsiderate when they delay drivers from getting to their destinations, especially in narrow lanes or roads.”
Drivers delay other drivers too. To get on a major arterial near my house in a car, I am often am the only vehicle tripping the traffic signal. This stops upwards of 20-30 cars for 30 seconds or longer. Everyone waits patiently while I get on the highway, then we all travel together about a half mile or so down the road where the process repeats itself. No one honks, screams obscenities, or throws things at me. Yet bicyclists often receive harsh treatment for allegedly impeding a single motorist by far less. This same heat and intimidation was evident in each of the hearings I attended.
The public roads are just that — public, available on a first come, first served principle.
“A 3 ft. passing rule would inconvenience and hazard motorists by requiring them to move into the adjacent or oncoming travel lanes.”
As any experienced cyclist will tell you, this is already a frequent case under the existing law. The new law would have had little to no impact on the vast majority of drivers who pass us safely already. It’s the ones who don’t understand what a safe passing distance is that we are most concerned with. In addition 3 feet accounts for the typical wobble of many cyclists and children, and helps to prevent crashes where a cyclist gets startled and loses control. In short, the changes were not totally about the spandex mafia, though that’s how the legislation was portrayed by opponents.
“Bicyclists should police themselves before coming in asking for added legal protections.”
“Policing ourselves” clean before any headway can be made in bike safety legislation is an impossible standard to meet. It’s unfair too — we don’t ask drivers to police other drivers. Can you imagine AAA warning and cajoling red light runners and speeders? Yet that is what we are being asked. If people are breaking the law to the extent that it is a concern, it should be up to the police to enforce those laws.
Those were the main arguments against. If you are thinking, “Where’s the beef?” you are not alone.
Judges most dangerous on road – study
ATTORNEYS and judges may be sticklers to the word of the law but it seems they are not quite so adherent to the rules of the road, topping a list of the the top 10 most dangerous drivers by profession.
A study by online US insurance company insurance.com found 44 per cent of attorneys claimed a prior accident when looking for a car insurance comparison quote from insurance.com.
The findings were based on accident claims as a percentage of quotes in which drivers need to give details of their driving record.
Second in the list came financial professionals followed by government workers while the study found the least dangerous drivers were athletes, with only 17 per cent reporting prior accidents and homemakers at 24 per cent.
"Professions that demand multi-tasking – being on the phone, moving fast on a tight schedule – are prone to more distractions and, from there, more accidents," insurance.com vice-president Sam Belden said.
"Though the job of a homemaker demands multi-tasking, young children are often along for any car ride and when children are involved, people tend to take their time and use greater caution."
He added that homemakers and athletes also tended to be off the road during rush hour.
The Top 10 most dangerous drivers by profession are:
1. Attorney/Judge
2. Financial professionals
3. Government worker
4. Bartender or waiter
5. Business professionals
6. Dog groomer
7. Marketing/advertising professionals
8. Barber/stylist
9. Coach
10. Nurse
Continue reading “Judges most dangerous on road – study”
So cool
TIGER grants fund bicycling (but not here.)
From the League of American Bicyclists
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Some disappointments:
Portland, OR applied for 21 different grants and had big ambitions for bicycling projects, but only one got funded – it will add a streetcar line and bicycle and pedestrian facilities.
Kansas City, MO/KS put together an excellent application. You can see how they calculated the miles, trips, benefits, and cost in the appendices using resources on the economic impacts of investing in bicycling. They calculated a ten to one return on investment for their proposed project. Kansas City received badly needed funds for sidewalk access to bus stop in what they call a Green Impact Zone. Unfortunately, the bicycling component was stripped out. Brent Hugh from Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Federation believes Kansas City’s focus on recreational riding hurt their application’s chances.
The good news is there are now dozens of strong projects conceived of and proposals written that can be worked on in the future.
Read more below to see the successful applications that include bicycling components.
Continue reading “TIGER grants fund bicycling (but not here.)”
Still Looking for That Magic Highway?
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[An excerpt from the 1958 Disneyland TV Show episode entitled Magic Highway USA.]
Popout
In his first post on the topic, Avent framed the problem this way:
Every weekday, tens of millions of Americans get into vehicles that are
full of passenger space which won’t be used, with engines capable of
horsepower and speeds that won’t be attained, holding fuel tanks that
could power the car for distances that won’t be traveled. The result of
all this over-engineering is that cars cost way more than a vehicle for
daily commuting need cost, and they consume way more energy than a
vehicle for daily commuting need consume. This all adds up to a
remarkable waste of resources, even before you begin talking about
things like congestion. Why are we stuck in this wasteful equilibrium?
Men of England Rise Up Against Reckless Motorists
Nine mechanical engineers build a spokeless bicycle
by
Dave Freeman
Dave Freeman
Nine mechanical engineering majors had a dilemma: what do you do for your mechanical design class when you only have a semester? Well, this guys decided to build a spokeless bicycle. Admittedly, only the back wheel is spokeless, but there are reasons for that.
The students that posted this up were in a mechanical engineering class at Yale, and wanted to prove that you could build a human powered spokeless bicycle. It’s a very impressive project, and make sense when you think about it. The design allows for the possibilities of an electric motor, or even (as the student put it) “some sort of gyro balanced storage basket”. Keep in mind, this is a prototype so it’s a little rough around the edges, but the concept is sound. Also, the design originally called for both wheels to be spokeless, however due to budget and time restraints they stuck to just the back wheel.
Continue reading “Nine mechanical engineers build a spokeless bicycle”
San Francisco Takes Parking Spaces for Trial Sidewalk Extensions
A photo simulation of the new Pavement to Parks public space in what was once two parking spaces in front of the Mojo Bicycle Cafe in NOPA. Image: RG Architecture. With the success of San Francisco’s Pavement to Parks trial plazas, the city is about to unveil its newest plan to use its streets for something other than cars when it converts parking spaces to public space by extending sidewalks into the street with durable wood platforms.
City planners acknowledge that the inspiration for these new pedestrian spaces came from the success of Park(ing) Day, an international sensation developed by Rebar, where people in cities around the globe occupy parking spaces for one day a year and build pocket parks and other innovative facilities.
The first iteration of the loosely dubbed Pavement to Parks 2.0 projects, which could happen in the next few weeks, will be the transformation of two parking spaces in front of Mojo Bicycle Café on Divisadero Street, in coordination with the massive construction project that is remaking the Divisadero corridor.
“The idea is essentially to build a cheaper bulbout, to get the same effect as a $100,000 [concrete] bulbout at a fraction of the funds,” said the San Francisco Planning Department’s Andres Power, project manager for Pavement to Parks. “We will take the occupation of a sidewalk off the sidewalk and move it into the parking lane.”
Continue reading “San Francisco Takes Parking Spaces for Trial Sidewalk Extensions”
Obama’s Transportation Budget Request – Good for now but not sustainable
By Steve Van Beek
the Administration proposes to fund the increase by tapping what user revenues there are and by significantly increasing the proportion of transportation programs paid for by the nation’s taxpayers.
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these are five reasons why these strategies are unsustainable:
(1) Transportation cannot consistently out-compete other domestic priorities,
(2) Experience shows that annual appropriations without dedicated funding sources often go unfunded or fall short of authorized levels,
(3) Injecting taxpayer money into trust funds breaks the historic link inherent in current programs between how monies are raised and how they are spent,
(4) Transportation providers and federal agencies need a solvent and predictable trust fund regime to plan and invest in multi-year infrastructure projects, and
(5) Current surface transportation and aviation policies require reform and changes need to be linked with new trust fund regimes.
Continue reading “Obama’s Transportation Budget Request – Good for now but not sustainable”