First I will highlight my issue:
Too many on-road bike accommodations are not being done because they are too cheep to compete with other projects in TIP and too expensive to be done without Federal Aid. We MUST follow Federal policy in funding on-road bike/ped projects.
You can do something about that by attending an upcoming workshop (schedule in the read more section) or on-line https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/imagine_2060
Continue reading “Imagine the Baltimore Region in 2060…”
NHTSA’s distracted driving policy and rumble strips
from Bikeleague.org Blog by Darren
To raise awareness about the dangers of driving while distracted, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has posted their distracted driving policy statement and frequently asked questions on their website.
The statement starts with this, “The primary responsibility of the driver is to operate a motor vehicle safely. The task of driving requires full attention and focus. Drivers should resist engaging in any activity that takes their eyes and attention off the road for more than a couple of seconds. In some circumstances even a second or two can make all the difference in a driver being able to avoid a crash.” The Frequently asked questions then offer a good summary of distracted driving’s risks and research.
On the whole it’s a good primer on distracted driving and worth reading, but I have one bone to pick. After a strong opening about how safe driving is a driver’s primary responsibility, the FAQs suggests that states take do something that diverts attention away from driver responsibility and can create a lot of problems for cyclists: installing rumble strips.
Here’s the offending passage:
States can take some steps immediately to reduce the risks of distracted driving. One example is installing rumble strips along roads to get the attention of drivers before they leave the roadway and/or deviate from their lane.
Rumble strips occupy the best part of the shoulder to bike on and can force cyclists onto the debris-ridden outer edge of the shoulder or into high speed travel lanes. The stimulus law has created greater urgency for cyclists to speak out against the proliferation of rumble stripping because the America Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) has provided funds that states can use to install rumble strips. (Google “ARRA rumble strips” for examples.) Plans for the strips stretch beyond interstates and limited access highways to slower otherwise bike-friendly roads and threaten thousands of miles of good bicycling routes.
Notwithstanding the insertion of rumble strips into the discussion, NHTSA has put together a strong statement on distracted driving. Again, it’s worth a read. And while you’re on the topic, you can check out our report, Distracted Driving: a Bicycling Advocate’s Resource.
~Darren Flusche
League Policy Analyst
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No free parking — not even for parking lot employees
Kristin Rushowy Staff Reporter
There is no such thing as free parking — even if you work at a parking lot.
While the Toronto Parking Authority put up a fine fight, it has lost its appeal to overturn a tax court ruling that says employees who park their own cars for free while on the job must claim it as a taxable benefit.
“You are hearing more and more of a taxable benefit being applied to parking,” said Gwyn Thomas, president of the parking authority, adding he wasn’t surprised by the ruling.
Employees park their personal vehicles at lots for a variety of reasons, he added.
“We have shifts — day shifts and night shifts — and employees parking in lots to work … it was all for business.”
But, if they park without paying, it’s a taxable benefit, the tax court has ruled.
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Why We Focus on Unsafe Cycling and Not Unsafe Driving
from Streetsblog.net by Sarah Goodyear
Things would be different if bicycle safety training were elementary. (Photo: Bike Portland via Flickr)
This morning on Sustainable Savannah, a post about double standards.
John Bennett writes that at two recent meetings in Savannah about improved bicycle facilities, the discussion turned to unsafe cycling practices, such as wrong-way riding, riding without lights, and riding on sidewalks. While Bennett is concerned about those things as well, he wonders why discussions of investment in bike infrastructure almost inevitably turn to the question of unsafe cycling:
Are similar suggestions about combating unsafe driving ever prompted by discussions of new roadways? I can’t remember a single instance. All sorts of elected officials had all sorts of things to say at the groundbreaking for the fifth phase of the Truman Parkway last month, but did any mention the need to educate motorists about speeding or aggressive driving? Car crashes, too often resulting in fatalities, are a regular occurrences on the existing portions of the limited access freeway. Wouldn’t a groundbreaking ceremony present an excellent opportunity to warn about the dangers of distracted or impaired driving and call for new programs to better educate motorists who use the Truman Parkway?
Again, I appreciate any concern expressed for the most vulnerable road users, but I’m curious about the requisite safety discussions that accompany our conversations about bicycling. Is there a subtle expectation that as cyclists we must earn, through good behavior, any new infrastructure made available to us, no matter how small? Is this expectation self-imposed? I must admit, I’ve caught myself thinking (and sometimes saying) things along these lines. Meanwhile, as motorists we enjoy colossal new facilities ($67.5 million in the case of Truman Parkway Phase Five), without being asked to consider how to ensure their safe and responsible use.
I think part of the concern about safe riding practices stems from the lack of consensus — among people who ride and people who don’t — about just exactly what safe cycling is. Safe driving practices are far more standardized and codified, because driving is a mode of transport that every American is expected to use at some point in his or her life. People on bicycles are forced, because of a mishmash of infrastructure and regulations, to make things up as they go along. Which is why there is so much disagreement about the practice known as “salmoning.” (Speaking of which, what do you think of “zebras”?)
It doesn’t have to be like this, of course. In a country with extensive bike tradition and infrastructure, such as the Netherlands, citizens are educated from an early age about how to ride. This means that everyone knows what “safe cycling” means — people on bikes, people on foot and people in cars. And there’s no need to fret about “cyclist safety” every time a new bike path is built.
As you head into the weekend, give some thought to slowing things down. Both Boston Biker and Let’s Go Ride a Bike have posts today about the pleasures of riding at a more leisurely pace.
Continue reading “Why We Focus on Unsafe Cycling and Not Unsafe Driving”
Taking smoothies for a spin
A vendor by the name of Wheely Good Smoothies will sell fruit drinks made in bicycle-powered blenders when the Baltimore Farmers’ Market opens for the season May 2.
Natan Lawson has three bikes, each rigged up so the wheels drive a shaft that drives a blender.
“It’s meant to get your attention,” he said of the bike bit. “But if the smoothies weren’t good, it would just be all show.”
Before launching the business — it debuted at Artscape and Waverly Market last summer, but is new to the downtown market this year — Lawson did a lot of research.
“I bought all the smoothie recipe books on Amazon,” he said. “I went through them all.”
But he wound up developing his own flavors, which he test marketed on neighbors and friends.
Among the blends he’ll be selling: Strawberry Spice, which combines OJ, strawberries and basil; The Fuzz, which has two whole peaches, organic lemonade, and a little chipotle spice; Blueberries and Cream, made with just that, plus some banana and apple juice.
The price for each 16-ounce smoothie is $5.50 — $5 for customers who do the pedaling themselves.
New York Times reporter Scott Shane — full disclosure: a former Sun reporter — gets the scoop on Wheely Good Smoothies last year at the Waverly Farmers’ Market. Photo by Fern Shen, Baltimore Brew.
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Full Lane for Bikes Sign in Arlington, VA
Stop the Maryland Unsafe Drive responds to Three-foot rule will not make bicyclists safe
from r by Driver
What needs to happen? Maryland drivers must decide to share the road in a safe manner with everyone else. I have years of experience bicycling on California’s back roads from the San Francisco Bay Area to Lake Tahoe to Mendocino County. There are far more bicyclists per mile there than in Maryland and I felt reasonable safe. One major reason for the difference is not the roads but the drivers who use Maryland’s back roads. The driving culture in Maryland blames everyone and everything but the proximate cause – the aggressive reckless driver.
Slowing and passing a bicyclist is a safe, easy, and polite maneuver. You look for on-coming traffic in the opposing lane, judge the traffic behind you, slow down and wait for a safe opportunity to pass with adequate clearance. Total precious driver time wasted insignificant to the number of lives saved.
The law requires an adequate clearance. I agree, that in a perfect world, such a law would not be required because everyone would have a modicum of common sense. That is unfortunately lacking in Maryland today. Most of our roads in Southern Maryland are of the two-lane country variety. Where are bicyclists supposed to enjoy their hobby if not our quiet6 bay-view country roads?
Until you have been on a bicycle and encountered a rude, reckless, thoughtless driver you do not have an adequate appreciation of the problem. The editorial staff of the Sun needs to get a group together and go bicycling.
I’d guess that one reason we have so many school buses in the country is because drivers have made use of our roads impossible for children. At first it befuddled me why Maryland kids didn’t get themselves to school and then I drove here. It is not safe on the road in front of my own home in a neighborhood with one road in and one road out. The straight away begins at my front door and the race out of the area begins. Drivers are OBLIVIOUS. Our culture of reckless abandon guarantees unsafe roads.
This is a problem solved at the grass roots level. Citizens of Maryland must DECIDE to drive safely. There are too many bad drivers to ticket. This does not however limit the need for enforcement and awareness building that expensive citations provide.
The answer is that all of the Maryland road killers need to slow down and enjoy the ride. Be safe, be happy, arrive alive.
Continue reading “Stop the Maryland Unsafe Drive responds to Three-foot rule will not make bicyclists safe”
VA Cyclist Does What Many Would Like To
By Washcycle
A cyclist in Abingdon, VA was brushed by a 19-year old driver (intentionally, he thinks) – not enough to make him fall, but enough to rub off some of the bike’s paint. So the cyclist went looking for the car at the nearby campus. He found it, called the cops and got the guy charged with "reckless driving and, later, hit and run with property damage". So satisfying.
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St Paul Street Bikelane
Favor Placing Bikelanes on Lefthand Side of One Way Street
Putting the bikelanes on the Lefthand side of one way St Paul Street would: (1) Avoid conflicts w/ buses & taxis (2) reduce chance of getting doored (3) decrease chance of getting right hooked. From the photo, it looks like bicyclists who use the righthand bikelane have conflicts with buses, ride in the risky door zone, and face dangers of getting right hooked from right turning traffic. I definitely favor a leftside bikelane.
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The Persistence of Bike Salmon
from Streetsblog.net
This sign is in London. Do you think anyone got the message? (Photo: Salim Virji via Flickr)Over the weekend on CommuteOrlando Blog, Keri McCaffrey posted a video showing a bicyclist riding in the wrong direction on a Florida street. After pointing out how this might have ended badly for the rider, she poses the question “Why do they do this?”:
Riding against traffic accounts for 45 percent of bike-v-car crashes in Orlando. The majority of those are intersection crashes because the bicyclist comes from an unexpected direction.… Despite the numerous conflicts people experience from this behavior, they don’t connect the dots. Why?
And how do we change that?
McCaffrey and many others on CommuteOrlando Blog practice “vehicular cycling,” a style of riding in which the cyclist essentially acts like any other vehicle on the road. There’s a long and ongoing debate between vehicular cyclists — who often oppose the construction of bike-specific infrastructure — and those who believe that striped bike lanes and similar facilities are a good way to get more people out biking, thereby achieving safety in numbers and a more welcoming environment for people who might feel reluctant to ride otherwise. There’s no need to reopen that debate here.
But you don’t have to be a vehicular cyclist to wonder, as McCaffrey does, “Why do people do this?” As the streets of New York fill up with spring cyclists, the number of “salmon” is rising — and quite often, they are endangering other bikers as well as themselves with their wrong-way riding. It’s one of the most frustrating and hazardous phenomena I encounter on my bike on a regular basis.
Why do you think people persist in this behavior? Is it simply because they can’t be bothered to ride a block further to get to a street that goes the right way? Do you have any ideas about how to get them to stop?
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