Category: Biking Elsewhere

What does it take to be Platinum? Bikes, the priority in planning, it’s the little details that make a difference. Being able to get anywhere by bike. Routes with no stops for bicyclists.
Continue reading “Street Films – Boulder Goes Bike Platinum”

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The research identified three key contextual factors that Douma and Cleaveland believe strongly influence the success of new bicycle facilities in attracting riders: location along usable commuting routes, overall network connectivity, and amount of publicity and promotion given to the facilities. In cities where these three factors were not effectively addressed, the number of commuters traveling by bicycle did not increase significantly.
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Continue reading “If you build it, will they ride?”

In the last 30 years, our children have lost a lot of the freedom and independence they once had to explore our neighborhoods. As we have designed our communities around automobiles, activities like walking or bicycling to school have declined dramatically.
In one generation:
• The number of kids walking or bicycling to school has dropped from 71% to 18%.1
• The number of total walking and bicycling trips made by children has fallen by 65%.2,3
Today, more than two-thirds of all trips by 5-15 year olds are made as car passengers.3
Reduced childhood activity has contributed to health and transportation problems:
• There are more than three times as many overweight kids today as there were 25 years ago.4
• More than 1 in 3 young people in grades 9–12 do not regularly engage in vigorous physical activity.4
• As much as 20% of morning rush hour traffic can be parents driving kids to school.5
• School bus transportation is frequently the second largest budget item for school districts after salaries.6
Imagine discovering a way to:
• Reduce traffic accidents involving child pedestrians by 80%.
• Take one out of every five cars off the road during the morning rush hour.
• Reduce school transportation costs.
• Increase childhood physical activity to help reduce incidences of diabetes and obesity.
• Give children the same freedom and independence enjoyed by Baby Boomers when they were kids.
Continue reading “Can kids just be kids?”

Here in the Portland metropolitan area, 28 bike delivery employees will be hired — by United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS). It may seem counterintuitive, but here in Portland, Oregon, where we crazy passionate types embrace bicycling so warmly that monthly group bike rides for kids continue even through the winter, the concept of hauling up to 200 pounds in a trailer with a mountain bike sounds like the perfect holiday vacation. UPS bike drivers will be given special training to really practice pulling 200 pounds and learn, for instance, "safe following distance in rain" (I think if you’re following anyone too closely with 200 pounds in your bike trailer, you should be training for the 2012 Olympics, not delivering Amazon.com packages for UPS.)
UPS can only deliver 25-50 packages per day by bicycle, compared to up to 150 by truck, but Portland area spokesman Jeff Grant says UPS will save $38,000 in vehicle operation and upkeep costs for every three delivery bicycles used.
After all, UPS started using bicycles to deliver packages 100 years ago in Seattle, and started a pilot program in Atlanta and Seattle last year. Bicycle delivery is ideal for the holiday season as it allows the company to expand its service without having to expand its fleet of expensive delivery vehicles; bikes are about $600 each, and judging by the reaction to popular biking blogs, the company will have no trouble filling the available jobs with bikers eager to prove their mettle. It’s not only sensible economics, but fantastic PR for a company that struggles with a rather stodgy image. Expanding the bike delivery program for all the company’s busy seasons would be a fiscally responsible plan that could also pay big dividends in customer good will.
Continue reading “UPS delivers by bike this holiday season”

Abstract
This paper investigates the relationships between mobility (the amount people travel) and crash risk, and the traffic safety impacts of mobility management strategies that change travel patterns to increase transportation system efficiency. Although many factors affect traffic crash rates, evidence summarized in this paper indicates that all else being equal, per capita traffic crash rates increase with per capita vehicle travel, and that mobility management strategies tend to provide safety benefits. Strategies that reduce per capita vehicle travel tend to reduce overall crash risk. Mode shifting tends to reduce per capita crash rates by reducing risk per mile and total mileage. Shifting vehicle travel from more- to less-congested conditions tends to reduce crash frequency but may increase crash severity due to higher traffic speeds. Smart growth land use policies tend to reduce crash severity and fatality rates, although crash frequency may increase due to increased traffic density. Strategies that reduce traffic speeds provide significant safety benefits. Conventional traffic risk analysis tends to understate the safety impacts of changes in mileage. This analysis indicates that mobility management is a cost effective traffic safety strategy, and increased safety is one of the largest benefits of mobility management.
Continue reading “Safe Travels Evaluating Mobility Management Traffic Safety Impacts”

Motor vehicle traffic deaths remain the leading cause of death among Americans aged between 1 and 34 years. In 2001, traffic crashes accounted for about 38000 deaths, of which an estimated 4700 were pedestrians. 1 Although only about 5% of all trips are made on foot,2 pedestrian fatalities make up about 12% of all traffic deaths, making walking one of the most dangerous modes of travel.3
[Baltimore traffic fatality rate is 74% higher then New York City.]
Continue reading “Motor Vehicle Occupant and Pedestrian Fatalities”

[I thought this was relevant as it shows that every road does not need to be a car only road in fact it might help to make some roads bike and pedestrian only roads.]
According to an Oct. 6th Bright Green Blog entry, "File this one under ‘intensely counterintuitive.’ A recent study has found that closing off certain streets can actually relieve traffic congestion. Using Google Maps, a trio of scientists — Hyejin Youn and Hawoong Jeong, of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and Michael Gastner, of the Santa Fe Institute — looked at traffic routes in Boston, New York, and London. Their paper, titled ‘The Price of Anarchy in Transportation Networks: Efficiency and Optimality Control’ and published in the journal Physical Letters, found that, when individual drivers seek the quickest route, they sometimes end up slowing things down for everybody.
"It all hinges on something called Braess’s Paradox (and yes, I appreciate the irony of a Wikipedia entry that challenges the wisdom of crowds), which states that adding capacity to a network in which all the moving entities rationally seek the most efficient route can sometimes reduce the network’s overall efficiency. The authors give a simple example of how this could play out: Imagine two routes to a destination, a short but narrow bridge and a longer but wider highway. Let’s also imagine that the combined travel times of all the drivers is shortest if half take the bridge and half take the highway. But because each driver is selfishly trying to seek the shortest route for himself, this doesn’t happen…"
Continue reading “The Price of Anarchy in Transportation Networks”

According to a Nov. 24th Bicycle Newswire article, "An upcoming National Park Service (NPS) rule change could greatly benefit mountain bicycling by improving the administrative process for opening trails to bicyclists. IMBA has been asking the agency to revise its policies since 1992, because the current ‘special regulations’ process is needlessly cumbersome and treats bicycles like motorized vehicles.
"The NPS has said the proposal for new rules will be formally announced later this year. IMBA hopes the enhanced procedure will allow park superintendents to make trail access decisions locally, instead of being tied to a Washington-based, multi-year regulatory journey. The new rule would treat bicycling like other non-motorized trail users, such as equestrians.
"The suggested NPS rule change would only apply to places where including bicycling is deemed non controversial, and would maintain current requirements for environmental review and public notice. Opening a trail to bicycling must be done in compliance with the National Park Service Organic Act, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Historic Preservation Act, and all NPS General Management Planning processes…"
Continue reading “NAT’L PARKS RULE CHANGE WOULD BENEFIT BICYCLING”

-> "Right now, the U.S. consumes about 10% of the world’s oil supply just to get back and forth to work. If we are able to reintroduce the bicycle into our communities, we are going to make it easier for people to break our addiction to oil. I have cycled to work in Washington, D.C., for 12 years. I’ve burned over 300,000 calories and saved $94,000 in car costs, 206 gallons of fuel, and 4800 pounds of carbon dioxide."
— Earl Blumenauer, U.S. House of Representatives (D., Ore.)
https://tinyurl.com/5up48j
-> "We go from shock to trance. You know, oil prices go up, gas prices at the pump go up, everybody goes into a flurry of activity. And then the prices go back down and suddenly we act like it’s not important…And, as a consequence, we never make any progress. It’s part of the addiction, all right. That has to be broken. Now is the time to break it."
— Barack Obama, President-Elect
https://tinyurl.com/6r3jqa
-> "When a cyclist is killed by a driver who was text-messaging someone, you read as much in the paper about how awful the driver feels. We’ve made driving so easy, accessible and convenient — and the system is so forgiving — that people can drive distracted at great speeds and mostly get away with it. But we’ve seen conclusively that not paying attention will cause bad things to happen; studies have shown that distracted driving is just as dangerous as driving drunk. We should be penalizing those people the same way that we treat drunk drivers."
— Andy Clarke, Executive Director, League of American Bicyclists
https://tinyurl.com/6aep22
Continue reading “QUOTES R US”

Here’s YOUR chance to tell President-elect Barack Obama and the new Congress what they need to know to take action to improve transportation next year.
What’s bugging you? Congestion? Safety? Potholes? Bumpy pavement? When it comes to America’s transportation system, there’s a lot riding on the future. Add YOUR voice to the debate.
[This is important to let them know bicycling issues are important on so many levels, safety should be a priority for all not just for motorist. Vulnerable road users make up over 15% of traffic fatalities but get less then 2% of the funding, this has to change! Powerful lobbies are trying to take every last penny away from us to insure only motoring is supported.
* Per US DOT survey 73% would welcome new and improved bicycle facilities#1
* Per NHTSA survey 89% of bike trips begin at a residence and only 7% at a recreational site#2
* Over 75% of all car trips in the US are for distances under ten miles and nearly 60% are for distances under five miles.#3
* Per recommendations of TFAH and RWJF increase access to safe, accessible places for physical activity in communities. Examples include creating and maintaining … bike lanes and providing incentives for smart growth designs that make communities more livable#4]
Continue reading “I told the president”