No Chain, handle bars are the lock and nice lines, the ultimate commuter bike?
Wytze’s graduation project for Cannondale from Eelke D. on Vimeo.
Loch Raven mountain biking hearing
[From our mail bag:]
In your 12/1 Spokes about Loch raven mountain biking, you wrote (or transcribed):
There will be a hearing on Mon 12/14 with the DPW and Mary Pat Clark (Balto City Council). Open to the public. Location and time will follow as soon as I find out. Please prepare concerns, ideas / solutions.
Unfortunately, this is not true. The hearing will be scheduled probably in January, after two more readings of the resolution, and reports from DOT and DPW. Public comment and written testimony will be welcome then.
On December 14th, there is a small meeting with Ms Clarke and some of the stakeholders to establish goals and expectations for the hearing. This meeting is not the place for public comment, and is only open to the few people on the City hall access list which has been created for it.
Could you please issue a clarification?
Thanks,
Greg Hinchliffe
"I Lost 331 Pounds"
[ I love inspirational stories like this; Scott could only walk 10 steps before needing a rest but some how a bike gave him the motivation to continue. An excerpt from the article:]
Brown, based in Minneapolis, built a steel bike for Cutshall and delivered it in early 2005. But Cutshall was so afraid of breaking it that it sat in his hallway for months, gathering dust. Finally, on Thanksgiving Day, he had an epiphany. He prepared a feast for his family, and only ate a few bites. Then, he took his bike outside and rode 1.9 miles. It took him three hours. From then on, he was hooked.
Continue reading “"I Lost 331 Pounds"”
Court outcome in St Mary’s fatality
[From our mail box:]
I spent the morning in District Court in Leonardtown to see the trial for the person responsible for the fatal bike / car collision on Clarke’s Landing Rd. in St. Mary’s County last month.
After the collision, the driver made a statement to Maryland State Police that she had just left home and had cleared a portion of the left windshield of morning dew but left the fogged up right side to be cleared by the car’s heater. The windshield had not yet cleared and she was busy searching for a cigarette lighter in her purse (the car’s lighter didn’t work) when she ran into the cyclist. “I just didn’t see him”.
The investigating officer claimed that the cyclist was at fault for not riding as close as possible to the right side of the road but the driver contributed to the collision through negligent driving (Maryland Transportation Code Article 21-901.1 (b)).
The judge found her guilty of negligent driving. When the driver asked for a reduction in the amount of the fine because of lack of personal funds, the judge rolled his eyes and said “Your negligence has caused the death of a human being. I’m going to require the maximum fine plus costs”.
Maximum fine $287.50 plus $25.50 court costs for a total of $313.00 due on January 4, 2010. And that was it.
While walking out of court, I approached the investigating officer and mentioned that the law actually states that a cyclist must stay as far to the right as safe and practicable not as far to the right as possible. He replied with a grin “Practicable, possible, it’s all the same thing and that’s the law. If you don’t like it, try to get it changed.”
-JS
Bicycle Film Festival – Washington DC, Dec. 4 & 5
WASHINGTON DC DECEMBER 5
ANIMA D’ACCIAIO (SOUL OF STEEL) TRAILER
The story of Ciocc. Directed by Daniel Leeb of Cinecycle!
“WHERE ARE YOU GO” TRAILER
Epic journey from Cairo to Capetown across Africa.
THE CYCLOCROSS MEETING
BFF Washington D.C. will be screening a review cut of Brian Vernor’s brand new film “The Cyclocross Meeting”. Check out the trailer here.
BFF Washington D.C.
December 4 – 5
Festival passes sold out! Tickets are still available for individual programs
December 4 – 5
Festival passes sold out! Tickets are still available for individual programs
Friday December 4
9:00 PM | GOLDSPRINTS Asylum – 2471 18th St NW
Saturday December 5
Screenings at United States Navy Memorial Theater – 701 Pennsylvania Ave NW
5:00 PM | Program 1 – ROAD TO ROUBAIX – Buy Tickets
7:00 PM | Program 2 – WHERE ARE YOU GO – Buy Tickets
9:00 PM | Program 3 – Urban Bike Shorts – Buy Tickets
10:00 PM | After Party – The Gibson – 2009 14th St. NW
Screenings at United States Navy Memorial Theater – 701 Pennsylvania Ave NW
5:00 PM | Program 1 – ROAD TO ROUBAIX – Buy Tickets
7:00 PM | Program 2 – WHERE ARE YOU GO – Buy Tickets
9:00 PM | Program 3 – Urban Bike Shorts – Buy Tickets
10:00 PM | After Party – The Gibson – 2009 14th St. NW
Continue reading “Bicycle Film Festival – Washington DC, Dec. 4 & 5”
NPR ‘Road Rage’ Case Highlights Cyclist Vs. Driver Tension
Bicycling magazine called it “the road rage incident heard ’round the cycling world.”
A driver in Los Angeles was recently convicted of using his car as a weapon against two cyclists. And the case is focusing attention on the often uneasy relationship between motorists and bicyclists who have to share the road.
It happened last year on the Fourth of July, on a steep, narrow road in L.A.’s Mandeville Canyon. Cyclists Christian Stoehr and Ron Peterson were riding side by side when a doctor who lived in the neighborhood came up from behind in a sedan.
“There was an exchange of words,” Stoehr recalls. “He then accelerated within five feet in front of us, pulled over and slammed on the brakes.”
Stoehr says there was no time for them to stop. He was thrown over the car and landed across the road. But Peterson didn’t have time to swerve.
“And he went right in through the back window of the car,” says Stoehr, adding that Peterson crashed headfirst. “I think they found his teeth in the back seat.”
The impact severed Peterson’s nose and separated Stoehr’s shoulder. Christopher Thomas Thompson, the driver of the car and a former emergency room doctor, was arrested and put on trial. The jury found him guilty of six felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon: his car. Thompson now faces 10 years in prison.
“For someone to do this to you on purpose, it’s unfathomable,” says Peterson, a cycling coach for the University of California, Los Angeles. He says he still can’t feel his nose, he now wears false teeth, and he will forever have scars.
…
Continue reading “NPR ‘Road Rage’ Case Highlights Cyclist Vs. Driver Tension”
Ohio cyclist case dismissed for impeding traffic and failure to comply with the order of a police officer
[I found this point rather interesting.]
{¶ 36} The court is aware that, generally, fleeing from a request for a Terry stop is not grounds for an arrest. State v. Gillenwater (Apr. 2, 1998), 4th Dist. No. 97 CA 0935. However, R.C. 2921.331 specifically prohibits persons from failing to comply with officers’ orders regarding traffic flow. However, those orders must be lawful orders according to the statute. Here, the court does not find that the officer’s request for the defendant to stop was a lawful order, because there is no indication that the defendant at that point had violated any statute.
Continue reading “Ohio cyclist case dismissed for impeding traffic and failure to comply with the order of a police officer”
TIME Magazine features Dangerous by Design report on pedestrian safety, culminating three weeks of coverage nationwide
By Sean Barry
–newspapersThis week’s issue of TIME Magazine topped off three weeks of nationwide coverage of Transportation for America’s Dangerous by Design report ranking communities according to the risk for pedestrians.
The excellent TIME piece opens with the tragic story of Ashley Nicole Valdes, “a smart, pretty 11-year-old girl” who was killed while crossing the street in Miami earlier this year and became “a heart-wrenching symbol of South Florida’s notoriously reckless car culture.”
Florida was identified in the report as being the most dangerous for pedestrians. “You see all these people getting run over,” said Ashley’s mother, Adonay Risete, “and you ask yourself: What’s happened to us as people here? We need to get tougher and change attitudes.”
The phenomenal response to Dangerous by Design is a hopeful sign that change may be under way.
More than 150 newspapers, 300 TV broadcasts and 50 radio programs have covered the report, co-authored by the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership, since its release three weeks ago. The report’s findings speak to the need for action: America has a pedestrian fatality rate equivalent to a jumbo jet full of passengers crashing every 31 days. This decade alone, 43,000 Americans – including 3,906 children under 16 – have been killed while walking or crossing the street.
We could make great strides on pedestrian safety by adopting “complete streets” policies, ensuring that roads are designed to be safe and accessible for everyone who uses them, whether motorist, bicyclist, transit rider or pedestrian. You can help by asking your member of Congress to support the pending national Complete Streets Act.
Continue reading “TIME Magazine features Dangerous by Design report on pedestrian safety, culminating three weeks of coverage nationwide”
Vote for Annapolis Bicycle Project!
The Brighter Planet is an organization that makes it easier for anyone to get involved in the fight against climate change. Simply put, they help people manage and mitigate their environmental footprint.
They also provide funding for community projects that aid in growing the climate movement from the ground up. In coordination with the Dept. of Rec & Parks, APD and DOT, the City of Annapolis have submitted the Revolution Kids project for funding.
The mission is to promote opportunities for bicycling in the City of Annapolis through the education of youth and youth mentors. Elementary through High School students will have opportunities to earn bikes and learn about safe cycling through a variety of hands-on programs. The objectives include
1) increasing youth opportunities to safe cycling as a mode of transportation and a form of healthy physical activity; and
2) providing at-risk teens with skills necessary to repair broken bicycles and gain job opportunities while giving them a chance to earn a bicycle.
The funding comes through a competition however, where website visitors vote for their favorite project. As such we need to the get the word out to vote for "Revolution Kids". The voting begins on Dec 1st at https://brighterplanet.com/project_fund_projects and ends on Dec 15th. Please vote and spread the word. Thanks.
Iain J. Banks, PTP
Personal Transportation and Parking Specialist
Department of Transportation
City of Annapolis
www.annapolis.gov/bikeannapolis
Issued a warning ticket for riding my bike at Ft. McHenry
[From our mail bag:]
All paths within FT. McHenry are closed to cyclist until the new construction is complete Oct 2010. The rangers/federal police officers, informed me there are signs posted. I did not see the sign when I entered the property. The only reason I was given a warning ticket instead of verbal warning is because the director wants to document all encounters with cyclist. Of course they did run my drivers license in their, I assume federal, computer system. Both officers were very polite and friendly, probably because I was open and honest answering their questions. They also liked the One Less Car sticker on my bike. If I would have been issued a ticket, instead of a warning, the fine is $150.