Category: Biking Elsewhere

-Justin Davidson, New York Magazine
…
Public space comes in a range of shades. In the sixties, its cultivation was effectively delegated to private developers, who were permitted to put up bigger office buildings if they provided sidewalk-level oases where workers could eat their lunch. In the eighties and nineties, New York began to rejuvenate its parks, restoring enclaves that offer a cushion from noise and congestion. Now the Department of Transportation has realized that its jurisdiction covers the basic unit of urban life: the street. There, lifestyles intersect and city dwellers co-exist with people different from themselves. It’s where we learn toleration, where leisure shares space with urgency, commerce with activism, baby carriages with handcarts. When it is narrowed by garbage or overwhelmed by traffic, then the street reverts to its most primitive use: as a corridor. But a truly public place allows people to move at many different paces, or not to move at all.
Continue reading “Because Robert Moses Would Have a Coronary If He Were to See Our Streets Now”

For folks who want to sign the Rails to Trails economic recovery petition, which simply asks President-elect Obama and Congress to consider:
"supporting explicit funding for trails, walking and biking in the upcoming economic recovery package. Funding active transportation is a cost-effective investment that creates jobs and leads to healthier people, stronger communities, decreased oil dependency, and reduced climate change emissions"
as part of our nation’s economic recovery plan.
Continue reading “Rails to Trails economic recovery plan online petition”

The Journal’s Ana Campoy reports:
As politicians debate how to break the nation’s addiction to foreign oil and curb its global-warming emissions, laypeople are already setting an example: They’re cutting back on driving.
That’s not just because they were shocked into conserving when gasoline prices surpassed $4 a gallon earlier this year, points out a new study by the Brookings Institution titled “The Road… Less Traveled.”
U.S. drivers began pushing the brakes four years ago — well before gas prices began shooting up. But it was 2007 when, for the first time, the number of miles traveled in the U.S. actually fell compared with the prior year.
That’s because, at this point, there are relatively few people eligible to drive who aren’t doing so already. The growing use of public transit and the sprouting of shopping centers in residential areas are also helping, the study says. These are changes the authors don’t expect will be reversed in coming years, even if gas prices keep falling.
The drop in miles driven will likely force the massive reorganization of transportation policy that experts say is badly needed, but that policy makers have so far skirted.
For starters, Congress will have to figure out how to make up for the shortfall in gasoline – tax revenue, which is used to fund transportation projects, as people use less of the fuel. Short-term, Brookings says, lawmakers should raise gas taxes, and while they’re at it, they should index them to inflation so that they rise along with overall prices. In the long-term, the study suggests a carbon tax.
But aside from securing new revenue streams, Congress will need to do a better job of assigning the cash. According to Brookings , traffic data suggests that either the build-up of road lanes is outpacing the growth in the number of cars that roll on them, or that fewer cars are driving over existing roads than in the past. Either way, the report says, if the number of miles Americans log “continues to fall—and states continue to build more roads—the nation may be wasting scarce transportation dollars on unneeded roads.”
Continue reading “Road Kill: Americans Are Driving Less, Which is Good and Bad”

Link found between ‘active transportation’ and less obesity in 17 countries
-Associated Press
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Jim Richards is no kid, but he loves to ride his bike. At 51, he has become a cycling commuter, pedaling 11 miles from his home in the suburbs to his job in downtown Knoxville.
"It really doesn’t take that much longer" than driving, he insists.
And he gets 40 minutes of exercise twice a day without going to the gym, which he attributes to a 20-pound weight loss.
New research illustrates the health benefits of regular biking, walking or taking public transportation to work, school or shopping. Researchers found a link between "active transportation" and less obesity in 17 industrialized countries across Europe, North America and Australia.
"Countries with the highest levels of active transportation generally had the lowest obesity rates," authors David Bassett of the University of Tennessee and John Pucher of Rutgers University conclude.
Continue reading “Leaner nations bike, walk, use mass transit”

Since the 1950’s the United States has been planning and
developing its communities and transportation infrastructure
around suburban living and the speed and convenience of the
automobile. This has resulted in sprawl, congestion, and a
built environment that is largely inconvenient, inaccessible or
unsafe for active transportation such as walking and bicycling.
Because of this, rates of walking and bicycling are generally
very low, except in dense neighborhoods built on a grid pattern,
and in mixed-use areas where schools, businesses and public
facilities are located within close proximity of residential areas.

The most vulnerable populations, including children, the
elderly and those with special needs, have been functionally
shut out of the transportation and land use infrastructure, and
have become dependant upon the automobile, or have simply
become less active because they cannot move around their
communities without a great deal of effort and personal risk.
Continue reading “Why again do we need to support cars above all else?”

Let’s use public dollars to encourage those who travel by bike in our communities, as they are doing a service for the economy and the environment while paying more than their fair share in taxes.
By David Hiller
WHILE James Vesely’s attempt to stir the pot may seem reasonable ["Impose a license fee on bicyclists," editorial column, Dec 7], it ignores much of what we know about who subsidizes whom on our roads, sidewalks and trails. It also casts people who travel by bicycle, or walk for that matter, as the "fringe" who don’t participate equally in our society and communities. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The truth is that less than 3 percent of the region’s total transportation funds are spent on bicycle and pedestrian projects and programs, while 37 percent of the region’s population — the old, the young, the disabled, the poor and those who don’t own cars — cannot or does not drive. What’s more, 60 percent of Washingtonians want to walk and bike more than they currently do.
Investments in transportation overwhelmingly tilt in favor of moving as many cars as quickly as possible — often to the disadvantage of walking and bicycling. This makes it easy to forget that these streets are in fact not the sole domain of the private automobile, but public rights of way where we, the public, should be able to travel with equal ease.
It is this historical bias that has created an environment where many feel unsafe or uncomfortable making even the shortest trips on foot or by bike. Modest investments in walking and bicycling not only improve health, safety and mobility, but also reduce congestion by removing cars from the roads.
People who attack nonmotorized travelers as freeloaders may not know that drivers don’t pay their own way. For starters, local roads — where the vast majority of travel occurs — receive almost no funding from user fees like the gas tax. They are funded by sales and property taxes, which we all pay. The 37 percent of people who don’t drive, or drive less, pay far more in taxes dedicated to roads than they receive in return.
If we broaden our perspective to include driving’s externalities, like crash damages, medical expenses, congestion, pollution, and public safety costs, subsidies for driving are estimated at a dollar per mile. Further, the Victoria Transport Policy Institute estimated the monetized benefits for shifting trips from cars to bicycling or walking to be between $1.43 and $2.75 per mile.
Failing to adequately support investments in walking and bicycling has led to a $1.2 billion backlog in unfunded capital projects statewide, according to a 2007 state study. Even though more than 2 million people in Washington do not drive, they are often deprived of safe, equitable access to our public rights of way.
Compare the cost of serving this unmet need with a recent billion-dollar project begun on Interstate 90, which serves a mere 29,000 vehicles a day. For the price of a project that moves fewer vehicles than many arterial streets, we could build every planned trail, sidewalk and bike lane in the entire state.
Despite enormous subsidies for driving, and routine underinvestment in other transportation choices, bicycling is the fastest-growing form of transportation in the Puget Sound region’s urban centers. According to the American Communities Survey and the U.S. Census Bureau, bicycling trips grew 27 percent and walking trips grew 15 percent in Seattle from 2000 to 2005, while drive-alone trips grew by only 4.5 percent over the same period.
Growth in bicycling and walking also works in tandem with public transit. Making transit centers more accessible to people who choose to leave their cars behind can double ridership, giving buses, streetcars and trains more bang for their buck. Every one of us who finds a new transit stop within walking or bicycling distance knows the freedom of new transportation choices.
Finally, facing tremendous challenges in combating global warming, now is hardly the time to undermine growth in walking and bicycle use. Extreme weather brought about by human activity is taking its toll on our crumbling infrastructure. Bicycles not only produce zero emissions, but have nearly zero impact on road surfaces when compared with motor vehicles.
Despite his sarcasm, Vesely may be onto something when he dubs bicyclists "the most green of our population." Let’s use public dollars to encourage those who travel by bike in our communities, as they are doing a service for the economy and the environment while paying more than their fair share in taxes.
David Hiller is advocacy director for the Cascade Bicycle Club.
Continue reading “Biking should be encouraged, not taxed further to support roads”

Filmed by Bike, a festival of independent bike-themed short movies from around the world, is accepting entries until Feb 15, 2009. All submissions must be eight minutes of less. A jury will make the final selections. Hundreds will enter from around the world, but only 30 can make the final cut. Visit FilmedByBike.org for more info.

Think you got what it takes? Show us what you got!
// watch the trailer here

[LA just adopted the following:]
WHEREAS, cyclists have the right to ride the streets of our communities and this right is formally articulated in the California Vehicle Code; and
WHEREAS, cyclists are considered to be the “indicator species” of a healthy community; and
WHEREAS, cyclists are both environmental and traffic congestion solutions; and
WHEREAS, cyclists are, first and foremost, people – with all of the rights and privileges that come from being members of this great society; and
NOW, THEREFORE, WE THE CYCLING COMMUNITY, do hereby claim the following rights:
1) Cyclists have the right to travel safely and free of fear.
2) Cyclists have the right to equal access to our public streets and to sufficient and significant road space.
3) Cyclists have the right to the full support of educated law enforcement.
4) Cyclists have the right to the full support of our judicial system and the right to expect that those who endanger, injure or kill cyclists be dealt with to the full extent of the law.
5) Cyclists have the right to routine accommodations in all roadway projects and improvements.
6) Cyclists have the right to urban and roadway planning, development and design that enable and support safe cycling.
7) Cyclists have the right to traffic signals, signage and maintenance standards that enable and support safe cycling.
8) Cyclists have the right to be actively engaged as a constituent group in the organization and administration of our communities.
9) Cyclists have the right to full access for themselves and their bicycles on all mass transit with no limitations.
10) Cyclists have the right to end-of-trip amenities that include safe and secure opportunities to park their bicycles.
11) Cyclists have the right to be secure in their persons and property, and be free from unreasonable search and seizure, as guaranteed by the 4th Amendment.
12) Cyclists have the right to peaceably assemble in the public space, as guaranteed by the 1st Amendment.
And further, we claim and assert these rights by taking to the streets and riding our bicycles, all in an expression of our inalienable right to ride!
Continue reading “CYCLISTS’ BILL OF RIGHTS”

Does caffeine inhibit or improve athletic performance? According to Australian researcher John Hawley, it helps. "With the ingestion of both caffeine and carbohydrate, the overall amount of glycogen stored in the muscle for the four-hour period was 60 percent higher than with carbohydrate alone," Hawley is quoted as saying in the following VeloNews piece. "There is absolutely no question that this additional muscle glycogen would improve performance." Potential downsides: the recommended dose can cause side effects such as insomnia, jitteriness, and gastrointestinal upset.
Continue reading “COFFEE ANYONE?”

[From the League of American Bicyclists]
Every now and then, someone takes a potshot at bicyclists and bicycling. Sometimes it’s a politician; other times a shock jock. Whoever it is, and whatever their motivation, we don’t like it! So we keep track of who says what, and give you the chance to talk back. For responses to common trash talk, click on the menu to the right (Driving Costs, Pay Your Way, etc.)

Oct. 2, 2008: Professor John Cochran, University of Chicago

Sep. 8, 2008: Senator Jim DeMint, South Carolina

July 29, 2008: U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters

July 18, 2008: David Brooks, New York Times

Dec. 6, 2007: Representative John Boehner, Ohio

Sep. 11, 2007: Senator Tom Coburn, Oklahoma

Aug. 4, 2007: Representative Patrick McHenry, North Carolina

Talking Back points:

* Driving Costs

* Pay Your Way

* Get Off the Road

* Behave!
Continue reading “Who’s Trash Talking Bikes?”