Category: Biking Elsewhere

No doubt, bicycling can enable you to be awesome. Here is one such story. (You may want to keep a hanky handy.)

I ran across this project list from the city of Tempe and just look at all the grade separated crossings they plan to do! So much better then blaming the cyclists when they get hit trying to cross a road on the trail or crazy speed bumps or "cattle guards" or just "walk the bike" signs as they do on some Maryland trails.
I will also note I love the fact they also show which projects were completed from the last long range plan which is a lovely reporting feature, to bad Maryland is so archaic in it’s reporting.
Ref: https://www.tempe.gov/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=15034

I believe in the power of the pedal for positive social change; for building a healthier, happier, smarter world.
I pledge to be an ambassador of the bicycle; to honor the past; celebrate the present; empower the future of women in cycling.
I promise to start the revolution; to live the change I want to see; to rally another to ride with me.

https://cyclofemme.com/pledge/
Continue reading “A Powerful Pledge for the New Year”

So vehicle operators large and small, if you wanted to know why bicycle riders tend to not ride on the shoulders of our roads to the right of the white line or if one bicyclist seemingly erratically/suddenly shifts left into a vehicle lane, please remember the hazards in the photo and remember that Arizona law doesn’t require cyclists to ride to the right of that white line if confronted with hazardous conditions. You have now seen up close that there are many hazards in their part of Arizona’s roads.

https://www.svherald.com/content/community/2013/01/12/344833

From US DOT NHTSA

Pedestrian and cyclist fatalities are increasing nationwide, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Los Angeles and New York City have the highest rates of those deaths.
In Los Angeles, where the car is the major mode of transportation, hit and runs involving pedestrians occur almost daily. But these crimes can be the most difficult for law enforcement to investigate and solve.
…
https://www.npr.org/2013/01/03/168545915/hit-and-run-deaths-increase-but-culprits-hard-to-capture

One of the reasons why I promote bicycling… so it becomes normal for people to be outside, including kids. Sample heading from the article "Officer, hurry! Some children are playing!"
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/lenore-skenazy/free-range-parenting-2012_b_2375456.html

[B’ Spokes: An overview of topics (with some highlights)]
by Charles Marohn, Streets Blog
We’ve been looking at the instincts of today’s transportation agencies. While on an individual level it is clear that these organizations are filled with people who are professional, competent and want to do the right thing, the institutional inertia is carrying them in wayward directions.
…
It is to those people that I offer my thoughts on the principles and understandings that a Next Generation DOT should embody when making that inevitable course correction.
1. Transportation spending is not economic development.
2. Transportation spending is not job creation.
3. We need to budget based on what we have, not what we want to do.
4. The most unsafe condition we can build is a STROAD. Our primary design goal must be to eliminate them.
A STROAD is a street/road hybrid. It is all too often the default design of our highway system. A STROAD combines elements of a street — intersections, turning traffic, dramatic speed differentials, parking, pedestrians — with the high speed geometries of a road. Professionally, we all understand that this is the most dangerous type of environment we could construct.
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[B’ Spokes: I’ll note this concept even goes as far as trying to put freeway (where bikes and peds are prohibited) design elements in the urban environment where bikes and peds are frequently encountered. The most notorious is the right turn channel where motorists don’t even have to stop.]
5. We must build differently within a city than we build outside of it.
6. We need to improve travel time by eliminating access points outside of cities.
7. We must stop using traffic projections to give a veneer of expertise to something we have proven incapable of doing: predicting the future.
8. We need to build transit, but only through a value capture funding approach.
9. We must remain humble in the face of adversity.
https://dc.streetsblog.org/2013/01/04/the-next-generation-dot/

By Bob Mionske
A reader recently asked an interesting question. If a car causes a cyclist to crash, but doesn’t actually collide with the rider, is the driver still at fault?
In a recent incident, a husband-and-wife tandem team ran into an abutment after a driver violated their right-of-way. Police officers told them, incorrectly, that it was “not legally an accident because there was no collision between bike and car.” The officers refused to take contact information from a witness even though the driver admitted fault at the scene. They also informed the couple that it was their responsibility to control the bike. In another incident, a driver failed to yield before ­making a right turn and nearly struck a­ cyclist. The rider crashed, and wonders if his insurance company will pay.
Although neither vehicle touched the cyclists, the drivers operated in a way that caused a crash. In fact, the only ­reason there was no contact was because the ­cyclists took evasive ­action. Here’s how to avoid this kind of situation, and how to handle it if you do hit the pavement.
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https://bicycling.com/blogs/roadrights/2013/01/02/the-no-contact-crash/