Month: April 2010

…
Too many people have been killed by semi truck crashes and trucking accidents. Trucking companies need to do more to ensure that their equipment and their truck drivers are safe. Driving an 80,000 tractor trailer covering hundreds of thousands of miles is an awesome responsibility. Truckers and trucking corporations must be vigilant about safety.
Nationwide, large trucks (known as tractor trailers, semi trucks, eighteen wheelers, diesel, big rigs, or commercial trucks) make up only about 3% of the vehicles on the road. However, they account for far more traffic fatalities. For example, in Missouri, semi truck crashes make up as much as 15% of traffic deaths. In Illinois, tractor trailer crashes cause more than 10% of traffic deaths.
The National Transportation Safety Board ("NTSB") lists the following as some of the most common causes of big rig accidents:
* Poor Driver Training
…
[B’ Spokes: According to NHTSA trucks kill more cyclists then cars and I would assume a lot of those trucks are driven by drivers with a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL). In general driver training/education is poor and material in the CDL manual is even worst. }
Continue reading “Trucks that kill”

I thought these were cute:


Continue reading “Hungarian Bike To Work Promotions “

[B’ Spokes: This is a great analogy by Tom Vanderbilt which I’ll skip to the end to emphasize his point but the full story is worth a read.]
…
The airport courtesy cart is a wonderful way to travel. Who wants to walk Houston’s or Atlanta’s long dendritic corridors (dodging those spillover queues from Auntie Anne’s) when you could be whisked, in comfort if not exactly style, directly from security to your gate? Sure, there’s plenty of mass transit options, like shuttle trains and moving walkways, and there’s always good old walking (which I frankly find a welcome respite after four hours of impersonating David Blaine’s latest act of extreme deprivation in 12F), but who wouldn’t want that private door-to-door ride?
The problem, of course, is that if everyone wanted to travel this way, the airport corridors would quickly bog down in a teeming, thrombosed mass of Lagosian proportions. Airports are able to process huge amounts of people because of mass transit, or because they walk.
And I think there’s something of a metaphor here for the presence of the car in the city of the 21st Century. On 34th Street, as the NYC DOT reports, one in ten people who travel on the street go by car. And yet they are granted an inordinate amount of space, and they exact a toll in time on the vehicles carrying many more people. It’s not difficult to imagine the car, forcing its way through a crosswalk during a right turn (as so many do), as the equivalent of that individual courtesy cart disrupting the larger flow of the stream of airport pedestrians for the sake of its few passengers. Or the driver honking as he passes a cyclist as that shrill cry of “beep, beep, cart coming through” that so vexed Seinfeld. Imagine now if, at the airport, courtesy carts were given wide swaths of real estate in which to navigate, and people on foot were relegated to a smaller, crowded, space, and you have something of an idea of the routine spatial imbalance that exists in New York City.
As with the courtesy cart, the car is a wonderful way to travel — the problem, of course, is that it gets less wonderful with each additional driver. Beep-beep.
Continue reading “On Airport Congestion and City Congestion”

Brought to you by the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia
Early Bird Registration open until May 1st – Includes discount + free commemorative t -shirt!
Join us at Bike Freedom Valley on June 20th and help us celebrate a 30 year Philadelphian cycling tradition.
Your ride starts on Philadelphia’s historic Boathouse Row and continues for a day of biking on the family-friendly Schuylkill River Trail. Ride as far as Valley Forge or turn around any place you choose.
Looking for a ride that’s more challenging? Choose the 35-mile, hilly route on shared roads that returns you to the trail.
This is a full supported ride with four rest stops, snacks, mechanics, and even a keepsake trail map for a summer of exploring what lies just beyond the trail.
To Register or for more info see: https://www.bicyclecoalition.org/content/bike-freedom-valley
If you cannot register online, please contact Jill Minick at 215-242-9253 x3 or jill@bicyclecoalition.org.
Questions? Interested in Volunteering? events@bicyclecoalition.org

By Steve Magas The Bike Lawyer
…
You see it everywhere, I’m sure. In your neighborhood – with your kids. Do you kids wander around town on their bikes? Probably not.
For me, as a teenager in the mid-1970’s, it was nothing to leave the house in the morning on the bike and MAYBE come home for lunch. My and my buddies would be riding all over – from ball diamond to park to ice cream stand. For, I am certain, a variety of reasons that just doesn’t happen any more.
One downside of this is that kids miss out on learning the absolute JOY that comes with the freedom of being on a bike. Kids miss out on being able to MOVE from place to place without a play date and without waiting for Dad or Mom to take them.
Can we develop a SAFE way to encourage kids to ride again without exposing them to the statistical population of cycling fatalities? I guess that is one of the many challenges facing the bike industry, bike safety experts and those encouraging our country to RIDE. Those 1975 cycling fatality statistics were littered with dozens of “dart out” cases – kids jumping from sidewalk to roadway, without paying attention to traffic. Safe Riding means teaching everybody – Kids & Adults – about the Rules of the Road and how to ride safely in traffic.
…
Continue reading “Is it safe to ride?”

By JIM SAYER, the executive director of Adventure Cycling Association.
A little while ago, our special projects director, Ginny Sullivan, reported on rumble strip mayhem. We were receiving reports from around the country of the indiscriminate application of rumble strips or stripes to secondary roads, often prime cycling roads in the countryside. For example, a popular connecting road between Memphis and the Natchez Trace had been "rumbled." With only a two foot shoulder, it made it nearly impossible for cyclists to navigate the road without going into a high-speed travel lane.
…
Last Friday, while I was in Washington, DC, we were able to secure a meeting with Joe Toole, FHWA’s lead administrator for safety, and David Nicol, the head of the Office of Safety Design. (I was joined by Jeff Miller of the Alliance, Walt Finch of the League, and Caron Whitaker of America Bikes.) We emphasized that we were not opposed to rumble strips when properly applied but that the evidence was demonstrating that states and counties were forgetting about the importance of cyclists’ safe use of secondary roads — and the clear guidance provided by many states and the FHWA on how to apply rumbles in a way that respects the needs of all users. The indiscriminate use of rumbles also contradicts the recent directive of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that bicycling and walking should be considered as "equal modes" of transportation to motorized vehicles.
Joe and David were cordial, had clearly done their research, and had given a lot of thought to the subject. They promised to follow up with Administrator Mendez and with us, and thought they could provide some form of information to agencies about the proper use and application of rumbles. They also let us know that they are doing an in-depth update of their technical guidance on rumbles, due out later this summer, and asked for our input.
…
Continue reading “Rumble Strip Report”

Posted by admin In: Business Finance
There may be several reasons to encourage your employees to seek alternate transportation to work. Whether it’s carpooling, taking public transportation, walking or biking, the benefits of not driving a car everyday are substantial. The most notable benefit is the reduced strain on the environment. Cutting back on driving not only reduces our countries dependence on crude oil, but also reduces our carbon footprint. However, by taking an extra step—and asking your employees ride a bike to work—your company will have pride knowing that its also contributing to the physical health and well-being of the employees that participate.
How to Encourage Your Employees to Bike to Work: Getting Started
Marilyn Bryant, executive director of the non-profit Sacramento Transportation Management Association (STMA) in Sacramento, California, suggests writing down a general idea of what you would like your bike program to look like.
A large part of the program must center around making biking more convenient for participants. So offering a secure place for bike storage, or a place for workers to shower and change and store clothing goes a long way.
The Association, which supports cycling as a method to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution, offers Sacramento-based businesses a survey to determine their level of bicycle friendliness. If you score high enough, the association encourages you to apply for certification as a Sacramento Region Bicycle-Friendly Business. If not, you can contact the group to learn how to become more bicycle friendly. Below are several of the questions from the STMA survey. Ask yourself the following question in order to build a picture in your mind of the program you’d like to have:
…
Continue reading “How to Encourage Your Employees to Bike to Work”