Category: Biking Elsewhere

A worthy group to support and a chance to win a folding bike.
https://dc.streetsblog.org/2013/05/01/support-streetsblog-get-a-chance-to-win-a-folding-bike/

[B’ Spokes: The first thing I thought of: ‘”Why can’t this be done here?” Then I thought: “Liability issues.” Ironically sad we can’t teach younger folks about traffic safety because of the perceived lack of traffic safety on today’s roads. There is also the point how kids bike 15 kilometers (almost 10 miles) while here we bus kids at an incredible expense from the education budget not to mention promoting the obesity epidemic by busing kids away from playgrounds as soon as school is over as a matter of policy.]

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by Angie Schmitt, Streets Blog
In 2010, 4,280 pedestrians were killed in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and another 70,000 were injured. That’s one death every two hours.
It’s impossible to quantify the human toll of traffic fatalities, but as David Nelson at Project for Public Spaces points out, AAA estimates that traffic crashes cost America $300 billion annually in the form of medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other factors [PDF]. That works out to three times the annual cost of congestion reported by the Texas Transportation Institute. But while we’re spending billions “fighting congestion” with expensive new roads, getting a handle on pedestrian deaths and injuries is almost a non-issue at your average state DOT.
Nelson says the silence about pedestrian fatalities arises from a tendency he calls the “accident axiom” — a set of assumptions that presume no fault, or assign culpability in simplistic and stereotypical terms, when a pedestrian is struck:
Given that all forms of transportation begin and end with walking, this is essentially a right to be a pedestrian—a right severely restricted by expensive and counterproductive high-speed roads that we’ve built. A key problem in defending this right is that very few laws motivate law enforcement to consider killing a pedestrian as a crime. Involuntary Vehicular Manslaughter is a potential charge, but it’s hard to prove constructive manslaughter since a little speeding is rarely seen as a crime, and the threshold for recklessness is hard to meet. Anecdotally, drivers who kill a pedestrian are better off waiting for the police to arrive, because hit and runs really are about the only time the police reliably pursue these drivers with any prejudice. New laws specifically dealing with pedestrian-vehicle crashes are needed.
In my opinion, our local media outlets are exacerbating the problem. Their stories discount the human loss and reinforce widely held misconceptions. First and foremost, underlying all of the poor media coverage is what I call the “Accident Axiom.” This is the widely-held (but almost never-question) belief that accidents are an unavoidable and innocent consequence of modern motorized society. The assumption here is that crashes not involving excessive speed, alcohol, or gross negligence are presumably the fault of no one, but an unfortunate systemic fluke.
This axiom has two corollaries: the Inherent Risk Corollary and the Reckless Driver Corollary. The former states that in this world of unavoidable accidents, pedestrians and cyclists are senselessly putting themselves in harm’s way by traversing concrete and asphalt. If they get hit, it is a deserved consequence of their poor decision making. And the latter states that those rare instances when a driver is at fault, it is the result of that driver being a reckless and careless individual, a deviant member of society. All blame is attributed to the individuals involved. The road network and driving culture are given immunity.
https://streetsblog.net/2013/05/02/the-epidemic-of-pedestrian-deaths-in-america-and-why-it-barely-registers/

Via Coloradoan
A confrontation between a sheriff’s deputy and bicyclist in Fort Collins last month led to a $22 ticket for the rider and an internal investigation into the deputy’s behavior.
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Malisani ticketed Baker for failing to move to the right as the deputy passed the cyclist.
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Alderden repeatedly told cyclists they needed to get out of the way of drivers.
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The ticket given to Baker says he failed to move to the right when being overtaken. But the current law no longer requires that.
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“We all need to understand what the rules are, what the laws say. And the rules in this case are very clear,” said bicycling advocate and safety instructor Rick Price,
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Malisani, Baker said, passed by him and his bike with inches to spare.
“I just rode off, but the shocking thing was when the officer then passed by me … he was about a foot, maybe nine inches away,” Baker said. “It’s unbelievably different when the car that’s stalking is you an officer who is supposed to serve and protect.
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Fort Collins police officers have received specific training on bike laws. Sheriff’s deputies have not.
https://www.coloradoan.com/article/20130501/NEWS01/305010039
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[B’ Spokes: As much as I would love to require every police officer to get training on bike laws, maybe a compromise position would be to prohibit those officers who have not received bike law training from giving tickets to cyclists.]

Continue reading “That’s a great slogan. :p”

By EMILY BADGER, The Atlantic Cities
Tucked inside the new Complete Streets Design Guidelines that the city of Chicago is about to debut, pasted onto page 10, is a reproduction of a Chicago Tribune news blurb from May 6, of 1913 with this irresistible headline: “SPEEDER WANTS ALL STREET: Motorist Complains to Judge Because Pedestrian Gets in Way.”
Pedestrian advocates exactly a century later will be happy to know that our 19-year-old anti-hero, Harold Bracken (son of a saloonkeeper!), was fined by the court $200 for knocking over a pedestrian on Michigan Avenue with his speeding car. An equally awesome detail: Our injured pedestrian got up, jumped into a passing car, caught up with Bracken and had him arrested. In doling out the fine, a municipal judge declared, "The Streets of Chicago belong to the city, not to automobilists."
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"My feeling is that we have to swing the pendulum in the other direction," says Gabe Klein, commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Transportation. "The fact is that the transit user is also a pedestrian, a cyclist is also a pedestrian, an auto user is also a pedestrian. You may not chose the other modes every day, but every day you’re a pedestrian."
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https://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/04/chicago-commits-put-pedestrians-first-transportation-planning/5256/

[B’ Spokes: I found the argument against employers providing showers very provocative.]
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By Alex Davies, Business Insider
The 2013 Copenhagenize Index of the world’s most bike-friendly cities is out, and not a single American metropolis made the top 20.
That’s a problem — and not just a health-related one, said Mikael Colville-Andersen, CEO of Copenhagenize, the consulting and communications company that published the Index.
By failing to embrace cycling culture, American cities are losing out on significant financial benefits, Colville-Andersen told Business Insider. Studies show that every kilometer cycled in Denmark earns the country €.23 (partly because cyclists have been shown to spend more money in local stores), he said.
And even with significant taxation of automobiles, every kilometer driven in Denmark costs the country €.16.
The problem in the U.S. is all about perception, said Colville-Andersen. Many commuters see cycling as a form of exercise, not convenient transport, and cities are still being built around automobiles.
How Americans See Cycling
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https://www.businessinsider.com/what-americans-dont-get-about-cycling-2013-4

[B’ Spokes: Of course getting groceries by bike is better but for those of you looking to go car light, this is a good second option.]
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By Francie Diep, Popsci
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Even companies that don’t optimize their trucks’ driving routes, and instead just deliver when their customers want them to, create fewer emissions than all of those households would driving by themselves, according to a paper from two civil engineers at the University of Washington in Seattle. Every scenario the engineers examined was a win for delivery, which always saved on emissions by at least 17 percent for their study area around Seattle.
The savings would increase for less dense cities. They’re also better if companies have more customers and are able to optimize delivery routes, which led to 80 to 90 percent less carbon dioxide emissions compared to individual household grocery trips.
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https://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2013-04/home-delivered-groceries-saves-emissions-study-finds

By JOHN METCALFE, The Atlantic Cities
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In England, researchers studying the psychology of surveillance recently discovered that putting posters of glaring eyes above bike racks seemed to ward off thieves. It was no small effect, either: In the three racks they monitored, the number of stolen cycles went down by an incredible 62 percent. There is a big caveat to their findings, though, which we’ll get to in a minute.
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https://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/04/posters-angry-eyes-actually-scare-bike-thieves/5420/

[B’ Spokes: I love promoting those who support bicycling. ]
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Learning this first hand was Chris Ford, a Vice President at Whole Foods and cycling enthusiast. “I ride a lot. I’m super passionate about cycling,” noted Ford, who rode the second and perhaps most difficult stage of the ride from Hartford to New York City. “I had never ridden that far and the pace these guys move at is faster than I’ve ever gone. I’m just as passionate about good food and helping these guys our with healthy, organic food really means a lot to me and to our brand.”
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https://rideonwashington.org/2013/04/whole-foods-market-fuels-ride-on-washington/