Month: April 2009

[Note: There are many technical errors in this report but none the less this is how some people think.]
By Zack Colman
Black 2001 Saturn SC2. That’s the car I drive — and if you’re a bicyclist on the road but not in a bike path and you see my car, I hope you’re wearing a helmet, because I might run you over.
Maybe not intentionally.
But you see, with all these things I can do in my car nowadays, such as choose a different song on my iPod, send a text message while driving or fall asleep at the wheel because I had to wake up for a worthless 8 a.m. biology lab, I might not notice you.
And, considering you are where you should not be, I might hit you.
The simple fact of the matter is, MSU has so kindly provided sidewalks for people on foot and Rollerblades, and MSU’s ordinance should be revised to require bicyclists be there too. The university has outlined bike paths on certain roads, but bicyclists can’t just create imaginary bike paths like they do.
I cannot drive my car on the sidewalk, so why must you ride your bicycle where I drive?
Continue reading “Bicyclists need to stay on sidewalk”

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Increased traffic around schools has vexed other major cities, too. Nationwide, roughly 21 percent of morning traffic is generated by parents driving children to school, said Raquel Rivas, a spokeswoman for Safe Routes to School, a national organization formed to encourage walking and bicycling to school.
Traffic patterns around schools in Los Angeles have become clogged and often dangerous because of a large growth in student enrollment and an increase in the number of parents who ferry their children to and from school out of fear for their safety, Mr. Hopwood said. Especially in high-crime areas, parents are reluctant to let their children walk.
“It’s getting worse and worse each year,” said Brad Smith, an environmental health and safety officer at the school district, “because so many parents feel that they need to drop their kids at the front entrance of the school because they are concerned about harm.”
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The city attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, is also pressing the Police Department to enhance enforcement of traffic laws around schools. “It’s a small investment with a big return,” said Mr. Delgadillo’s spokesman, Nick Velasquez. “Making do with less in tough times.”
A school bus driver, Michelle Coleman, says middle schools are her biggest nightmare. “The parents park right here where the buses need to be,” Ms. Coleman said the other day outside Florence Nightingale, northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Luz Bunacaba conceded that she was part of the problem. But with bus fare of $5 a day and the distance too far for her 15-year-old son to walk, Ms. Bunacaba parks in the bus lane. “I have to,” she said, “it’s the only way.”
Part of the problem is that schools lack enough crosswalks, so students cross in the middle of the block, Mr. Hopwood said.
“We have sidewalks that are too thin,” he said. “At one high school, there are over 5,000 students on the sidewalks, and they get impatient with one another. We have lots of parents double parking. There is just not enough room, and there have been lots of incidents of students getting hit.”
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Continue reading “Giving Lessons in Traffic Safety at Middle Schools”

Traffic pollution was identified as a significant problem
Exposure to traffic pollution could affect the development of babies in the womb, US researchers have warned.
They found the higher a mother’s level of exposure in early and late pregnancy, the more likely it was that the baby would not grow properly.
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[Baltimore Spokes: Note that being in a car you are exposed to more traffic pollution then if you are riding your bike in traffic.]
Continue reading “Pollution link with birth weight”

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Well, according to field research conducted by the city of Portland, there are indeed a lot of scofflaws blowing through stop signs around town.
We’re talking about commuters who apparently have a total disregard for safety and the law, coming to a full stop at intersections only 22 percent of the time.
See! It’s those dang bicyclists with their neon-colored jackets, self-righteous attitudes and ripped calves, right? Right!? Actually, no. Those were automobile drivers.
"The law says a complete cessation of motion is required," said Greg Raisman, traffic safety specialist for the Portland Bureau of Transportation. "I think a lot of the time, people think they stop. But they were watching the wheels."
"They" were the Bureau of Transportation’s data-collection team, which camped out at various stop-signed intersections in 2006 and 2007. The monitors recorded a "full stop" whenever the wheels on a car, bike, minivan, truck or any other vehicle came to a complete halt, even for just a second.
Although automobile drivers weren’t as dismissive of stop signs as cyclists, who stopped just 7 percent of the time, you’d think the study might erase some of the nasty stereotypes that they have of bike riders.
Don’t count on it, said Randy Blazak, a Portland State University sociologist.
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Continue reading “Running red lights is a problem”