When travel speed increases by 1%, the injury crash rate increases by about 2%, the serious injury crash rate increases by about 3%, and the fatal crash rate increases by about 4%. The same relation holds in reverse: a 1% decrease in travel speed reduces injury crashes by about 2%, serious injury crashes by about 3%, and fatal crashes by about 4%.
Continue reading “Lower Speed Limits Increase Safety”
Google Village
From: Google Maps Bike There
Google is facing space problems at its worldwide headquarters, nicknamed The Googleplex, in Mountain View, California (about half-way between San Francisco and San Jose). Check out the story and a video report here:
Internet search giant Google has asked the city of Mountain View to allow homes and storefronts to be built near its headquarters.
At a City Council and Planning Commission meeting Tuesday night, officials considered a letter from Google. The letter said the company wants plans for a stretch of Shoreline Blvd near its headquarters to include more housing.
Every day, fleets of buses coming from all over the Bay Area take Google’s employees to their offices. Google said in its letter that building more homes nearby would be more sustainable.
In the video, notice all the cars. Notice how wide the roads are, with the unbuffered, unprotected, non-grade-separated, split-by-gutters bike lanes. Notice how loud the cars are — even blocking out much of the audio in the video clip. As beautiful as the Mountain View area is, including and especially the Googleplex area, it seems shocking that anyone would allow cars to so completely overwhelm a place of such natural beauty. It’s really a crime.
Google has talked a lot about renewable energy and all sorts of very high-tech ways for us to live better and greener, and they’ve done quite a bit — relatively speaking, with bikes — but they’ve not done enough. Google can save and profit from becoming more bike-friendly. People, including potential genius future employees and their families, love bike-friendly.
At some point, we need to convince someone high up at the company that bikes are a serious, if old-fashioned, technology. Bike technology can solve many of Google’s growing pains.
Bikes can also make a place a great place to be — a great place to work, play, live. I just returned to San Francisco after a quick weekend in Fullerton/Los Angeles — a very car-dominated place, relatively speaking (and I’m still completely enamored with LA culture and LA people). On my Monday morning bicycle ride into work in SF, I just thought, “Wow — so civilized.” Or, more accurately, “Wow — so much less uncivilized.”
All the talk of ’sustainability’ really misses that important aspect of bike culture vs. car culture — quality of life. In the video, a person walking their dog near the Googleplex says, “…I wouldn’t want to live here.” Ouch.
Yesterday; what a roller coaster ride
To start the day off I woke up from a frustrating dream. In the dream I notified my neighbor that I was having a surveyor out to mark my property lines and he responded "No way unless you do something about my increased liability!" "But, but" I stammered, "the property line already exists, I am just defining were exactly it is." and the dream went on with more illogical conclusions and accusations. It should not take a professional to realize this is about my frustration over our 3′ safe passing bill when we already have a safe passing distance required law (I really need to get a different life.)
Later on in the day One Less Car got a conference call together (unfortunately I was out and about and missed this.) And we found out the mysterious amendment was from MDOT. And we now have people working on a strategy that will strengthen rather than weakens bicyclist protection if this bill passes.
So the upshot is opposition to this bill is not the best strategy in the long run.
Autumn Country Training Ride
Train ‘On the Road’ with Coach Troy! Our Virtual Reality Cycling Series makes indoor training fun again with rides that make you feel like you’re riding outdoors ‘on the road’.
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Volume 1 – Autumn Country Training Ride (50 Minutes):
A challenging 50 minute (17 mile) workout on open rural roads in northern Baltimore County, Maryland. Video taped during the fall months, you’ll enjoy the beautiful autumn scenery and the explosive colors of changing leaves. This ride will take you through a variety of heart rate zones as the terrain is rolling and challenging. The focus for this workout is primarily upper blue zone (aerobic) training and you’ll soon discover it’ll go by really fast for an enjoyable and effective 50 minute training session.
* Compatible with all stationary bikes
* Has a ‘music on/music off’ option allowing you to listen to your own music
* DVD only
* Length: 50 minutes
* Difficulty level: 8.7
Police decide against charges
Police will not charge a Christchurch businessman who made online threats against cyclists.
Sign of the Takahe owner Richard Freeman claimed he had put two cyclists "into the curb" [sic] with his Hummer and would "nail" cyclists.
His comments prompted a complaint to police.
However, Canterbury road policing manager Inspector Al Stewart yesterday said there was "insufficient evidence" to charge Freeman under the present legislation.
Freeman told The Press yesterday common sense had prevailed.
"The police have investigated and have seen it for what it [the complaint] is." He said his comments had been edited and "twisted" to make him look like a monster.
Stewart said Freeman had denied any intent to frighten, threaten or intimidate cyclists through the media after the high-profile coverage his comments received.
Stewart said the situation did not represent the overall relationship between the city’s cyclists and motorists.
"Although there will always be people on both sides who want to vent their frustrations, the majority of road users, both cyclists and motorists, are reasonably tolerant of each other."
Freeman apologised for his comments last month.
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Continue reading “Police decide against charges”
"Ya we take bikes but we don’t have any racks."
NYC recently passed bike parking regulations which seem pretty cool till you run across garages that do double speak in order to pass inspection but still deny parking for cyclists.
Continue reading “"Ya we take bikes but we don’t have any racks."”
Something better then nothing is not making the grade for our 3′ safe passing bill
I decided to ask on a national bike forum what others involved in advocacy thought of our 3′ bill and so far this is what I got:
This is just really sad.
What should have been a clarification of § 21-309. Driving on laned roadways.
(1) While overtaking and passing another vehicle going in the same direction and while the center lane is clear of traffic within a safe distance; [no exceptions]
to specify that cyclists need at least 3 feet for safe passing has gotten all mucked up in trying to get it to apply only to cyclists riding legally, the only road user singled out for limited due care I might add. While I have some empathy that motorists should be exempt from gross errors by cyclists such as wrong way riding or suddenly swerving into the motorists path by more then 3′ but no where else in the legal code for safety does it apply only if the other road user is operating in strict accordance of the law. I will also assert gross errors by the other party are already part of the legal system. As I noted previously pedestrians have § 21-504. Drivers to exercise due care.
(a) In general.- Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, the driver of a vehicle shall exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian.
But if a pedestrian suddenly runs in front of a car the driver is not charged with this violation, the same should hold true with cyclists.
The sad fact is this bill will most likely have the most adverse impact on kids (and MD and especially Baltimore are far worst then the national averages for kids on bikes crashes) as drivers are now exempt from passing with due care if they feel the kids are not riding per the strict rules of the road for bicyclists.
Damned if you, Damned if you don’t
I was thinking of all the times police (but mostly motorists) want me to ride in the gaps between parked cars. To the police I usually respond with “Do you want me to weave in and out of parked cars?” and they just give me a disgusted look and move on. But now with this law it might be legal for cars to intimidate a cyclist into the gap and if a cyclist rides the gap then upon leaving they are failing to maintain a straight course so once again no requirement on motorists for a safe passing distance. [Note if you do the latter always signal and yield to traffic before moving laterally.]
Additionally in a side conversation one advocate said “But this rule seems to repeal the duty to pass with care.” Hmmm…
Continue reading “Something better then nothing is not making the grade for our 3′ safe passing bill”
Basic Live On Bike Setup
By Ginger Ninjas
Between bicycle music festival venues, the crowd and bands pedal around town on a big social ride. Two things that make these rides unusually cool beyond how cool it already is to pedal with hundreds of other revelers: recorded music and live music. In either case, it’s a bonus to have the music signal broadcast so that any rider with a receiver and a speaker can be part of creating the rolling soundscape. If the music is recorded, we call it Soul Cycling; if it’s a real-time musician or group, we call it Live On Bike.
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And there is this marching band on bikes!!!
Continue reading “Basic Live On Bike Setup”
Ladies Bicycling Information Event Sunday, February 28, 2010
For a ladies evening of fun, hands on learning and networking.
Be more comfortable on your bike by learning fitting tips, proper riding wear & gear, flat tire repair, regular bike maintenance, and best safe riding practices.
Meet other women who love to ride or who want to love to ride.
We look forward to spending a fun and informative evening with you.
Raffle prizes and refreshments!!
Continue reading “Ladies Bicycling Information Event Sunday, February 28, 2010”
Hope for the Baltimore Area
by Richard Layman
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Now that I am working in the Baltimore area (at least on one particular project), it happens that there are a bunch of things happening in Maryland (safe routes to school programs, planning for the Red Line light rail, state trail planning, transit planning generally) or the county (updating the master plan, universities doing campus planning) that I end up dealing with because of my work leading the development of a pedestrian and bicycle master plan for a portion of the county.
And unlike in DC, they actually listen.
E.g., the State Highway Administration is Maryland is looking to pilot test a cycle track somewhere in the state, because my paper on “Making Cycling Irresistible in DC” has been distributed throughout the agency. (Note that it’s time to update the paper. OTOH, you could argue I am updating it, in the context of a pedestrian and bicycle plan for a goodly section of a large county.)
Or, because four of the proposed Baltimore red line light rail stations will be located in my plan’s study area, and because the project is still in the pre-engineering phase, we have an opportunity to develop national best practice for integrating bicycling as a mode of transportation into planning for the stations and the line. (Although I hear that MTA is doing good things in this regard for the Purple Line, that Toole Design is working on that part of their planning there.)
Again, they are considering the various recommendations that “we” are making, ranging from incorporating a parallel bicycle trail into the line, at least in the Baltimore County section–which is planned to “emanate” from one of the major entry points to the Gwynn Falls Trail, bicycle sharing, and at least one bike station at the station serving the highest density employment center.
Could Barcelona provide the integrated transportation vision for the red line light rail in Baltimore County? Photo by John Norquist.
Or the points I am making about how to best change school district transportation planning and operations to a more balanced and sustainable paradigm will likely (although getting new legislation takes time) change the state policy (hopefully sooner rather than later), thereby changing practices in every one of the state’s 24 school districts.
Or I am shaping two particular policies for the Transportation Element of the county master plan, requiring “complete streets” policies and setting up an overall paradigm of “sustainable transportation” which supports transit, walking, bicycling, and transportation demand management.
(Plus all the things that can touch pedestrian and bicycle planning, from green infrastructure to bicycle sharing to laying down a master network of trails and bicycle routes, etc., well, I get to cram them into the plan… at least before the inter-agency review period.)
It’s the absolute craziest thing.
Contrast that to DC where I feel like I am talking into gale force winds.
But I can’t say I enjoy the commute. …
Continue reading “Hope for the Baltimore Area”