baltimorespokes

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Still, drivers who enforce some imaginary version of the vehicle code by assaulting law-abiding cyclists tend to do so repeatedly; for this reason, I advise cyclists to report these incidents to police. A driver with a reported history of violent assaults will be less likely to get away with claiming, as Thompson did, that it was all just "an unfortunate accident." Real change will happen when law enforcement begins to take each report seriously, rather than waiting until serious injuries (or worse) have been inflicted.
But the most important change must occur within each of us, because when tempers flare on the road, nobody wins. The roads are common spaces, and their use is an ancient right for all — except motorists. The state allows them to use the roads, and far too often that revocable privilege is misinterpreted by motorists as having some sort of superior right to the road. More often cyclists are endangered by drivers who are simply too distracted, or otherwise too careless, to even notice the cyclist whose life they have just endangered. And just as cyclists notice — and remember — the occasional dangerous motorist, it is the occasional rude cyclist that motorists notice and remember. It is these minority of bad actors on the road that lead to much of the resentment toward each other.
The real issue here is not "scofflaw cyclists" or "motorists hell-bent on killing cyclists;" it is competition for limited road space. For that, motorists owe cyclists a debt of gratitude; merely respecting our need for safety is all the thanks we need. Every cyclist you see on the road represents one less car contributing to congestion. Yes, you may occasionally have to slow down for a few seconds, but those few seconds are offset by the time you save for every car that is not on the road ahead of you. Cyclists also neither consume gasoline nor contribute to climate change, and they cause far less wear and tear on the road than cars. These are benefits that accrue directly to motorists in the form of less demand for limited resources, driving regulations and limited tax dollars.
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Continue reading “Doctor’s prison sentence isn’t a sea change for cyclists”

Blogging live from the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, one of the biggest events of the year for transportation nerds…er, professionals. I got an early look at the 2009 data from the National Household Transportation Survey. The NHTS is in some ways better than the American Community Survey because it asks respondents about all trips, so we can see bicycling’s share of all trips in the US.
Bicycling’s share of all trips in the US hit an even 1 percent in 2009. That’s up 25 percent since 2001. Bicycling’s journey to work and school numbers both top out at 0.7 percent
Continue reading “Bicycling for all trips hits 1 percent”

Some incredible stories:

Judge: Woman hit in unpainted bike lane is not protected by law
When The Law Doesn’t Say What The Court Thinks It Should Say
In the Court of Absurd Results
NonExistent Laws And The Cops Who Enforce Them

by Matthew Roth on January 8, 2010

Screenshot from the Facebook group promoting dooring, among other acts that injure cyclists.

A
number of Streetsblog readers have noticed a particularly loathsome
group that has sprouted up on Facebook and has a legion of fans. As of
this writing, more than 32,000 people are fans of “There’s a perfectly good bike path right next to the road you stupid cyclist,”
a group page with a bunch of anti-cyclist screeds and some pretty nasty
photos of bicycle crashes and car-on-bike violence. Facebook has
concluded that the group does not violate the site’s terms of use and
will not shut it down.

“It’s a stupid and offensive joke and unfortunately there are still
people who don’t see that bicyclists have the same rights as
everyone else,” said Marc Caswell, Program Manager at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. “It’s a cruel example of the
ignorance of cyclists’ rights. We would encourage people to report it
as offensive.”

The
site is full of the vitriol one has come to expect online and in
anonymous comment sections, but unlike blogs or online forums, all the
fuming leaves a clear path to the users who posted it.

The first user to link the group was Ryan Woolcott,
who hails from Australia, and several of the references to road rules
are of British provenance or from former British colonies. In the
“About Me” section, it reads: “No matter how far to the left you are,
you’re taking up my road. My car is hard, and i am not slowing down!”

A photo from a road race on June 3, 2008 in Mexico, when a drunk driver killed one cyclist and injured more than ten others. Posted to the group by Sean Tysoe

In addition to creating a counter group called “HELP REMOVE this HATE GROUP against cyclists!”,
a number of cyclists have become fans of the original group and have
posted agitprop in the form of bicycle photos. While there are
disturbing photos of cars creaming cyclists and road signs promoting
violence against cyclists, the photo album is full of pictures of the
kind of bike porn you might expect on Bike Blog or Fixed Gear Gallery. And there are easily as many photos of “Share the Road” signs as the opposite.

Streetsblog asked Facebook whether this group violates their Terms of Use, particularly sections 6 and 7, under
“Safety”:

6. You will not bully, intimidate, or harass any user.
7.
You will not post content that is hateful, threatening, pornographic,
or that contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.

Facebook’s
Simon Axten told us the group has been reviewed and deemed kosher by
the company’s staff. Presumably the reason they are not removing this
group boils down to how one interprets the phrase “actionable threats
of violence.” Here’s Axten’s explanation:

We
take our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities very seriously and
react quickly to remove reported content that violates our policies.
Specifically, we’re sensitive to content that includes hate speech
and/or actionable threats of violence. The goal of these policies is to
strike a very delicate balance between giving Facebook users the
freedom to express their opinions and beliefs, even controversial ones,
and maintaining a safe and trusted environment.

We’ve reviewed
this group and determined that it doesn’t violate our policies.  We
encourage users to report anything they feel does violate these
policies using the report links located throughout the site. Thanks.

Posted to the group by Chelsea Kerr

Any legal minds care to comment?

H/T Bike Portland.

Continue reading “Facebook Refuses to Remove Group Promoting Anti-Cyclist Violence”

WEBINAR: "Selection of Crosswalk Markings and Other Treatments at Unsignalized Pedestrian Crossings"
Date: Jan. 21, 2010, 2 p.m. – 3 p.m., EST
Presenter: Charlie Zegeer, Director, Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center
Host: UNC Highway Safety Research Center
Cost: None
Details (and registration): https://tinyurl.com/yegkdp9
Questions: <webinars@hsrc.unc.edu>
WEBINAR: "School Bicycle & Walking Policies: Addressing Policies that Hinder and Implementing Policies that Help"
Date: January 26, 2010, 2pm, EST
Presenters: RJ Eldridge, Toole Design Group; Robin Schepper, Murch Elementary School, Winner of the 2009 James L. Oberstar Safe Routes to School Award; Diane Lambert, National Center for Safe Routes to School; Leigh Ann Von Hagen, Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center
Host: Safe Routes Coaching Action Network
Cost: None
Details (and registration): https://tinyurl.com/yk3bj7t
Questions: Michelle Gulley <mgulley@americawalks.org>
Continue reading “WEBINARS, WEBCASTS AND SEMINARS”

A 3-minute video of pedestrians and bicyclists trying to cross what appears to be the exit of a very busy roundabout. The phrase “you can’t get there from here” comes to mind…
Continue reading “Two lane roundabouts not bike/ped friendly”

-> According to a Jan. 4th EarthTimes article, "Women who have lived near busy roads and who have been exposed to exhaust fumes for decades tend to have decreased cognitive performance in old age, according to a startling report by a team of German scientists."
"The closer the women lived to the highways, the higher was their exposure to particulate pollution and the more likely they were to show signs of mild memory and cognitive decline, the researchers wrote in a study published in the journal Environmental Research."
"This is the first study to find an association between cognitive impairment and long-term exposure to air pollution due to traffic. It is also one of a handful of recent studies to report a link between air pollution and brain function in people…"
Continue reading “TRAFFIC POLLUTION & DEMENTIA IN ELDERLY WOMEN”