Category: Biking Elsewhere

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, was awarded a Bicycle Friendly Business silver award by the League of American Bicyclists on Dec. 9.
Recognized for its investment in bicycling to promote employee health and social responsibility, APL has an active cycling club and, for bike riders, offers showers, locker rooms, secure parking and personal fitness financial incentive.
Recently, the Lab quadrupled its bike parking capacity and introduced a bike share program. With the announcement of 43 new and renewing BFBs today, APL joins a group of more than 1,090 local businesses, government agencies and Fortune 500 companies in 49 states and Washington, D.C.
“Cycling is one of many activities we encourage to contribute to the health of our staff members, which is terrific for our organization,” said Maria Cimilluca, head of the Facilities Maintenance Department at APL. “Our bike share program has been a big success in promoting a fun and active atmosphere on our campus. We aim to make APL a welcoming place for cyclists.”
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https://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2015/151216.asp

BY JOSH COHEN, Next City
In December 2014, U.S. Representatives Rick Larsen, Eleanor Holmes Norton and Peter DeFazio voiced concern that the number of pedestrians and bicyclists in the U.S. being seriously injured or killed was on the rise, while traffic deaths and injuries as a whole were declining. More specifically, they worried that over-engineered roads meant to help cars move faster were a leading cause. To see if their suspicions were true, they commissioned a Government Accountability Office study.
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https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/federal-study-bike-pedestrian-safety-data-more-funding

“The organizations released the report on Dec. 3 as the UN COP21 climate debates continued. “The analysis shows that the Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States account for some $80 billion per year in public support for fossil fuels, while their total pledges to the Green Climate Fund only amount to $2 billion per year,” the report stated.”
https://newsofscience.com/fossil-fuel-subsidies-outweigh-renewable-energy-subsidies-by-40-to-1/

By Dennis Wright
“If you want to drive your car, then by all means, go ahead – I don’t disagree with the right to move around the city in whichever way you want. But don’t moan about it when you finally reach your destination after sitting in the same traffic which has been gridlocking our city for decades now.”
https://www.bristol247.com/channel/opinion/your-say/transport/drivers-stuck-in-traffic-stop-moaning
[B’ Spokes: How long are we going to keep promoting car only transportation that hasn’t gotten any better in decades? At best there is a short improvement that is near equal in time to the traffic delays that the construction “to make it better” took. Think about it, billions spent on short sections of car centric road widening projects that at best are only a improvement that last a year.]

-> The world’s great metropolises are seeing a shift in the moving patterns of their residents and businesses, prompted by forces such as mounting housing costs and startup clusters that are arising on the outskirts of the urban landscape. New modes of transit that can keep up with this rapid — and often unpredictable — change are crucial to sustaining cities’ growth. Adding to public transportation’s challenges, startups have also bred a work culture that upends the 9-to-5 workday; people are commuting to and from the office outside of normal peak hours. As more cities adopt the bike-share model as a solution to ever-evolving public transit needs, the influence of these programs are also having ripples beyond streamlining users’ daily commutes. Check out several bike sharing programs’ environmental and health outcomes, safety and infrastructure improvements, and plans for expansion. https://huff.to/1l6QQRD
from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.

By Bryan Jones, PE, AICP
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We could start out by creating more space for people on our streets and in our communities. And let’s strive for Level of Mobility (LOM) A this time!
LOM A 55%+ of the public right of way that is dedicated to people
LOM B 50%-54% of the public right of way that is dedicated to people
LOM C 45%-49% of the public right of way that is dedicated to people
LOM D 40%-44% of the public right of way that is dedicated to people
LOM E 35%-39% of the public right of way that is dedicated to people
LOM F 34% and less of the public right of way that is dedicated to people
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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-level-service-cars-mobility-people-bryan-jones-pe-aicp?forceNoSplash=true
[B’ Spokes: This is the first metric that I have seen that shows people should get more space then a 4′ wide sidewalk. Enough with always use the minimum width in all cases for pedestrians and bicyclists but for cars let’s try to give them an extra 4′ per lane (if the same method of determining minimum width for cyclists was applied to motorists.) ]

-> Traffic fatalities are on the rise up again, with an increase of 8.1 percent in the first half of 2015, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (https://1.usa.gov/1lWDhEr). NHTSA officials attribute the problem to driver (or passenger) error — drunk driving, speeding, failure to wear seatbelts — but did promise “new initiatives to protect vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists.” The hazards NHTSA flags are real, but Robert Steuteville at Better Cities & Towns says the agency is also overlooking another major culprit: dangerous street design, propagated by an engineering profession that’s still pushing a “bigger is better” agenda… https://bit.ly/1Q037E2
from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.

By Robert Steuteville, Better! Cities & Towns
US traffic deaths are rising again—fatalities jumped 8.1 percent in the first half of 2015, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports.
The NHTSA cites “drunken, drugged, distracted and drowsy driving; speeding; and failure to use safety features such as seat belts and child seats,” but omits any mention of another D—design of streets and communities.
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https://bettercities.net/news-opinion/blogs/robert-steuteville/21865/traffic-deaths-rise-blame-engineering-dogma
[B’ Spokes: I’ll note as cars were getting safer the road engineers were busy patting themselves on the back because they thought they were making the roads safer. Now that cars have peeked in there safety performance and the road engineers are still pushing their failed designs in more and more inappropriate places. Give that expressways are the safest per mile I will strongly assert that’s because of grade separated intersections and NOT the higher speeds, NOT wide turning radius so turning vehicles don’t even have to slow down, let alone stop and certainly NOT the wide lane width.]

B’ Spokes: I highly recommend that you watch this video, lots of great points. Additionally there is a link for another great video on the origins of the term “jaywalking”. Oh, by the way it is not a legal term in Maryland. Our law would be more accurately described as “crossing between consecutive intersections controlled by traffic lights.” Keep in mind a intersection is where two highways intersect and a highway* is something for vehicle travel, wither public or private, this also includes alleyways and very possibly driveways. So there are very few places where “jaywalking” is without a doubt illegal.
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/11/12/animation-explains-how-bad-planning-makes-car-ownership-compulsory/
* The legal definition of a highway follows:
Continue reading “Animation Explains How Bad Planning Makes Car Ownership Compulsory”

-> A study of 100 census tracts with the highest levels of bicycle commuting in the country used American Community Survey (ACS) journey-to-work data to identify neighborhoods with the highest levels of bicycle commuting. It paired each with a randomly selected census tract from the same county to uncover what factors influence bicycle commuting. https://1.usa.gov/1LhAP4F (Neighborhood Characteristics that Support Bicycle Commuting: Analysis of the Top 100 United States Census Tracts: https://bit.ly/1L5T35n)
from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.