Category: Biking Elsewhere

Briana Orr, an environmental studies and planning, public policy and management major at the University of Oregon, will receive the 2009 Faith Gabelnick Student Leadership Award at the Oregon Civic Engagement Awards next week in Portland, Oregon. Orr started the UO Bike Loan program, a unique twist on the familiar model of free-bike programs.
"Briana’s program is a phenomenal example of how to take bicycles discarded by departing students and turn them around as long-term loans to students," said Marc Schlossberg, an Associate Professor in the University of Oregon’s Planning, Public Policy, and Management Department.
Orr’s program is a simple model that can be easily replicated in other locales. For $65, a student gets a bike, a helmet, a lock, and a bike basket. The full $65 is returned at the end of the year if all of the equipment is returned.
"The program began this year and has been a real success, with a long waiting list of people who want a bike," said Schlossberg. " In its first year, the program focused on international students as a pilot since they tend to live close to campus and don’t bring vehicles with them. Brilliant!"
Continue reading “UNIV. OF OREGON STUDENT HONORED FOR BIKE LOAN PROGRAM”

A judge has sentenced a 60-year-old North Carolina woman to three years of probation for passing a stopped school bus and striking a 16-year-old boy, killing him.
The News & Record of Greensboro reported Judy Stilwell pleaded guilty Tuesday in Rockingham County. Her six- to eight-month jail sentence was suspended as long as she completes probation. Her driver’s license was suspended for a year and she was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.
Prosecutors say Stilwell had a clean record in January before passing the school bus which had its lights on and stop sign out on state Highway 770. She struck Nicholas Adkins as he crossed the street.
Stilwell cried in court and her attorney called the incident a lapse in attention.
Continue reading “Woman gets probation in death of teen at bus stop”

Posted by: John Forester on Chainguard
Date: Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:58 am ((PDT))

The issue regarding control of lanes by cyclists, precisely stated, is:

1: Cyclists should have the same legal right of lane control as other
drivers of vehicles. This can be called the slow vehicle law case.
or

2: Cyclists should be assumed to have no right to control lanes, but
must always act to allow the easiest overtaking by any potential faster
traffic, unless failure to control the lane is dangerous. This can be
called the Far To the Right law case.

That’s the issue.

2.1: The FTR case has been public policy for decades, and it has been
supported by three arguments:

2.1.1: Cyclists are not capable of obeying the normal rules of the road,
and therefore are endangered if they don’t stay at the edge of the
roadway. This is an assertion based on the notion that cyclists are
young children, who are assumed to be safe only if they stay at the edge
of the roadway. Both parts are false. Most roadway cyclists are not
young children, but are sufficiently old to obey the normal rules of the
road. Furthermore, roadway cycling safety requires that cyclists often
operate away from the edge of the roadway, so that those who do not know
how to do this safely are endangered. Cyclists need to be trained to
operate properly.

2.1.2: Having cyclists operate at the edge of the roadway keeps them
safe from fast traffic. This argument assumes that fast motorists will
always leave sufficient room at the edge of the roadway to accommodate
bicycle traffic, which is false, and it exonerates motorists who are so
careless that they drive right into slower vehicles, which is seriously
unlawful behavior.

2.1.3: Having cyclists operate at the edge of the roadway, despite the
exceptions for safety, will produce less delay to motorists than
allowing cyclists to operate as drivers of vehicles. This argument is
very weak. The only condition in which the cyclist’s lateral position on
the roadway might be changed to allow a motorist, who has no other safe
choice than to stay behind the cyclist, to safely overtake, is if the
cyclist is using a lane that is wider than standard. If the lane is
standard-width or narrow, which is the typical case, the cyclist can do
nothing to make safe overtaking possible within that lane. Only if the
cyclist is operating in a wide outside lane, might there be adequate
width for safe overtaking. Only in the limited case when there is
adequate width in the outside lane for safe overtaking, does the FTR law
require that the cyclist stay far right to facilitate overtaking by
faster traffic. That is all the advantage that the FTR law can provide.

2.2: The FTR case has been public policy for decades, and it has
produced the following ill effects:

2.2.1: The public belief that staying at the edge of the roadway is both
necessary and sufficient for cyclist safety persuades cyclists that they
should not leave the edge of the roadway and, therefore, would not
benefit from better knowledge and skill in operating according to the
rules of the road.

2.2.2: Motorists believe that there is always room for cyclists to move
aside safely, simply because the FTR law says that there is.

2.2.3:Some motorists believe that the FTR law expresses the right of
motorists to always travel faster than bicycles, that bicycle traffic is
prohibited from slowing down motor traffic.
Continue reading “Lane control public policy”

[This is cute, taking place in DC @ All Souls Church.]
SUNDAY, APRIL 19
Exciting events planned for Earth Day Sunday at All Souls. Blessing of the bikes. Ride your bike to church. Cyclists and non-cyclists are invited to participate in the blessing of the bikes led by Rob after each service.
Continue reading “Blessing of the bikes”

By Todd Litman –
There are a lot of good reasons for cities to charge for public parking. It is more efficient and equitable. Urban parking facilities are a valuable resource, costing $10,000 to $50,000 to construct, with a typically annual value of $1,000 to $2,000 in land, construction and operating costs. Many vehicles are worth less than the parking spaces they occupy; underpricing parking forces people who own fewer than average vehicles to subsidize their neighbors who own more than average vehicles. Currently, most parking is provided free, financed through development costs and municipal governments, and therefore borne through mortgages, rents and taxes. Charging motorists directly of using urban parking facilities typically reduces automobile trips by about 20%; in other words, about 20% of parking facility costs, traffic congestion, accidents, energy consumption and pollution emissions results from the common practice of paying for parking indirectly rather than directly.
Continue reading “The cost of free parking”

By Derrick Z. Jackson –
AS MUCH AS obesity is in the news, Ohio State University public health epidemiologist Sarah Anderson was still surprised how it now assaults the youngest children. Studying 8,550 children, she and Robert Whitaker of Temple University found that 18.4 percent of 4-year-olds, nearly one-in-five, were obese….
"While research has shown differences in older children and men and women, we didn’t necessarily think we’d find that large of a difference in young children," Anderson said in a telephone interview. "But the fact they have such a high BMI (body mass index) and they’re 4? This clearly shows that we have a problem early in childhood and that we really need to think about childhood obesity prevention that begins in infancy, perhaps even in pregnancy."
The study in the current Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine should set off a national alarm. We already know that fat youth inexorably blow up into fatally immobile adults. In 2003-2006 data, the Centers for Disease Control said 12.4 percent of children ages 2 to 5 were obese. Adult America is 34 percent obese.
…
Study after study shows obesity to be fueled by child exposure to ads, proximity of fast-food restaurants to schools, and the overabundance of bad food at rural and inner-city convenience stores, in lives devoid of exercise. <<<<<
…
Continue reading “Becoming a nation of Baby Hueys”

Bike-friendly features include the front flaps of the jacket, which turn back and button under the pocket so they don’t flap when riding and, along with the underside of the collar and sleeves, are pink for visibility.

For additional reach on the bike the jacket has a stretchy ‘action back’ and the cuffs turn down, making the sleeves longer.

The fabric is a wool with a Prince of Wales check. Rapha say nanotechnology in the fabric makes it amazingly water and stain resistant, and keeps the wearer cool in summer and warm in winter.
Continue reading “Rapha unveil their £3,000 cycling suit”

Field observations of bicyclist and pedestrian behaviors revealed the following key findings:
• 84 percent of bicyclists rode on the sidewalk and 16 percent rode in the street.
• 58 percent of bicyclists rode with traffic and 42 percent rode against traffic.
• 79 percent of pedestrians crossed midblock and 21 percent crossed at an intersection.
• 57 percent of pedestrians did not crossed in a gap and 43 percent crossed in a gap.
Continue reading “PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLE CRASH PLOTTING AND COUNTS AND BEHAVIORS OBSERVATIONS”

[Note: There are many technical errors in this report but none the less this is how some people think.]
By Zack Colman
Black 2001 Saturn SC2. That’s the car I drive — and if you’re a bicyclist on the road but not in a bike path and you see my car, I hope you’re wearing a helmet, because I might run you over.
Maybe not intentionally.
But you see, with all these things I can do in my car nowadays, such as choose a different song on my iPod, send a text message while driving or fall asleep at the wheel because I had to wake up for a worthless 8 a.m. biology lab, I might not notice you.
And, considering you are where you should not be, I might hit you.
The simple fact of the matter is, MSU has so kindly provided sidewalks for people on foot and Rollerblades, and MSU’s ordinance should be revised to require bicyclists be there too. The university has outlined bike paths on certain roads, but bicyclists can’t just create imaginary bike paths like they do.
I cannot drive my car on the sidewalk, so why must you ride your bicycle where I drive?
Continue reading “Bicyclists need to stay on sidewalk”

…
Increased traffic around schools has vexed other major cities, too. Nationwide, roughly 21 percent of morning traffic is generated by parents driving children to school, said Raquel Rivas, a spokeswoman for Safe Routes to School, a national organization formed to encourage walking and bicycling to school.
Traffic patterns around schools in Los Angeles have become clogged and often dangerous because of a large growth in student enrollment and an increase in the number of parents who ferry their children to and from school out of fear for their safety, Mr. Hopwood said. Especially in high-crime areas, parents are reluctant to let their children walk.
“It’s getting worse and worse each year,” said Brad Smith, an environmental health and safety officer at the school district, “because so many parents feel that they need to drop their kids at the front entrance of the school because they are concerned about harm.”
…
The city attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, is also pressing the Police Department to enhance enforcement of traffic laws around schools. “It’s a small investment with a big return,” said Mr. Delgadillo’s spokesman, Nick Velasquez. “Making do with less in tough times.”
A school bus driver, Michelle Coleman, says middle schools are her biggest nightmare. “The parents park right here where the buses need to be,” Ms. Coleman said the other day outside Florence Nightingale, northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Luz Bunacaba conceded that she was part of the problem. But with bus fare of $5 a day and the distance too far for her 15-year-old son to walk, Ms. Bunacaba parks in the bus lane. “I have to,” she said, “it’s the only way.”
Part of the problem is that schools lack enough crosswalks, so students cross in the middle of the block, Mr. Hopwood said.
“We have sidewalks that are too thin,” he said. “At one high school, there are over 5,000 students on the sidewalks, and they get impatient with one another. We have lots of parents double parking. There is just not enough room, and there have been lots of incidents of students getting hit.”
…
Continue reading “Giving Lessons in Traffic Safety at Middle Schools”