Month: May 2010

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Miami-Dade County Public Bus Bicycle Accident. [video]

Apparently on-board cameras won’t keep a bus driver from doing something stupid. Note the bus honking and then cutting off the cyclist and then when the bus finally catches the cyclists a second time the bus does not yield or give the cyclist any room. Bus drivers please do not try and share the same lane with cyclists.

And a note to cyclists, do not weave in and out of parking spaces. Maintain a steady course and you have a right to ride in the middle of a lane that is too narrow to share or at least stay in the right hand tire track. Also stay behind or get way ahead of all aggressive drives do not appear to be like a timed little rabbit trying to hide from time to time, an aggressive driver will eat you for lunch.

(A parenthetical note to motorists: Cyclists being squeezed out at intersections by motorists as shown here is a major contributing factor in encouraging cyclists to run red lights.)
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Blind bike stunt rider overcomes vision loss, obstacle course

By Susan Reimer, The Baltimore Sun

Watching Matt Gilman use his bike like a two-wheeled pogo stick, bouncing from giant wooden box to slightly smaller wooden box, your heart is in your throat waiting for a nasty spill.

When he rears up on his back wheel on the highest box, like the Lone Ranger on Silver, you instinctively look away.

The ballet that Gilman dances on his bike requires strength and balance, but, apparently, not sight, because Gilman is a blind bike trials rider.
…
Gilman rides rocks and mountain trails, too, following a friend who puts a clicker on his wheel so Gilman can follow the sound. "That’s actually the scariest thing I do."
…
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Electric bike may be good fit for middle-aged wannabe cyclists

By Michael Dresser Baltimore Sun reporter

If you’re a 30-year-old athlete with rippling muscles and less fat than your typical flounder, a hybrid electric bicycle is not for you. By all means, be proud you can take the steepest hills with nary a huff nor a puff.

You should be a purist. Feel free to stick your nose in the air when you pass some weenie pedaling by while getting an assist from an electric motor.

But if you’re a few years over that age (or in my case decades), a few lamb chops over the ideal weight and nobody’s mistaken you for Lance Armstrong or a female counterpart lately, it may not be such an abomination.

Maybe you’ve passed a group of bicyclists looking all sleek and Spandex-y and thought you’d like to do that if all the roads were flat or downhill. If so, you really owe it to yourself to try one of these electric hybrid bikes.

I did and it was way cool.

My test run on a hybrid electric bicycle resulted from a decision to drop in at the organizational meeting of the Baltimore Bicycle Alliance, an offshoot of the group One Less Car.

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APHA Tallies ‘Hidden Health Costs’ of Transportation Status Quo

from Streetsblog Capitol Hill by Elana Schor

The nation’s transportation planning process fails to account for more
than $200 billion per year in “hidden health costs” imposed by traffic and air
pollution, according to a new report from the American Public Health
Association (APHA) that maps the nexus between infrastructure and
health care.

08congestion_600.jpgTraffic brings with it billions of dollars in “hidden health costs,” according to the APTA. (Photo: NYT)

The APHA’s report (available for download here) echoes many of the policy recommendations issued by the Centers for Disease Control last month: stronger incentives to expand bicycle and pedestrian networks, as well as more frequent measurement of the health impacts of new transport projects.

But the APHA, a trade association representing public health workers, went further than the government by adding up the estimated costs imposed by the absence of any mandatory evaluation of the health consequences of transportation decisions.

Citing U.S. DOT and American Automobile Association studies, respectively, the APHA pegged the annual price of congested roads at between $50 billion and $80 billion, with the health toll of traffic crashes — including the treatment of fatalities, the resulting court costs, and lost wages — reaching $180 billion per year.

The majority of those bills are paid indirectly by the transportation system users they affect, not factored in advance into local planning, as the APHA writes:

The federal government does not require a consistent methodology for environmental impact analysis, transportation modeling, or cost-benefit analysis for agencies seeking federal highway funding — and while this approach allows agencies to tailor analyses to fit their needs, itmakes it impossible to compare potential project effectiveness at a national level. It also  means that health impacts, costs and benefits are often left off the table when projects are being considered.

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More than 1,300 participate in Bike to Work Day

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By Meredith Cohn, The Baltimore Sun

It was sunny and warm Friday morning, a perfect day to ride to work. And that’s what some 1,320 people did on the 13th annual Bike to Work Day, a national event that encourages everyone to share the road.

Regional participation has been growing, with just over 1,000 registered last year and 800 the year before.

And some of the veterans who met at City Hall in the morning for a rally said that they’ve noticed that change is creeping through Baltimore. More people seem to be ditching four wheels for two, drivers are a bit less hostile and there are more bike lanes used by more people.

“I appreciate the city making an effort,” said Keith Shuey, who lives near Arbutus and rides downtown to his job at the Baltimore Visitor Center every workday. “We’re still way behind other cities in terms of awareness and consideration. But you just have to go for it.”

Shuey said he’s faced harassment from drivers, though he says he always follows the rules of the road. Two years ago he said he was even shot in the elbow, as he pointed to the scar. But “I won’t let it stop me,” he said.

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Nan Tuckett said she was encouraged to start biking six years ago when she met her future husband, William Marker, who bikes from Pigtown to his job at the state office buildings north of downtown every day — about a mile and a half.

She said she runs errands to the grocery, drugstore and library on her bike and is getting more confident all the time. She especially likes the new bus-bike lane on Pratt Street, which she takes to get to the Whole Foods in Harbor East.

“I heard about the bike lane and at first I couldn’t see the advantage,” she said. “Now, I fly past cars stuck in traffic.”
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BTW Day, Again

By A Practical Cyclist

So I went to the Columbia, MD, Bike-t0-Work day yesterday. As I’ve said before, my feelings at these affairs are mixed at best. This year was about the same as last year, although there were more practical bikes (if not cyclists!) in attendance. I found the speakers more fatuous and self-congratulatory than I remember: at least two county officials sent their aides in their stead, who dutifully reported that “[blank] couldn’t be here today because of a scheduling conflict,” to which I was thinking, “Yeah, at 7:30 am, it’s a conflict with bed.” Mostly, there was a air of patronization, of “we say we love you for what you do, but we wouldn’t be caught dead doing it ourselves.”
Hm. I’m betraying a seriously bad attitude here.

(Truthfully, I did seriously appreciate the Chief of Police who is a fit looking guy and a cyclist, who got up, gave an update on Maryland traffic laws — hey, we have a Three-foot rule now! — and admonished the crowd that you have to be respectful of traffic laws if you want respect from motorists. Hear, here.)

The county director of transportation got up and, after talking about mostly nothing for about a minute, and never mentioning any traffic improvements for cyclists, prompted me to shout, “more bike lanes!” which (to my satisfaction) nonplussed him and gained me the bemused looks of fellow cyclists. (I was hoping for a smattering of applause.)

The problem is (as it was last year) is that no one is serious about promoting biking to work. If they were serious, they’d be showing off bike lane planning for the region (assuming same existed,) they’d be touting LCI’s teaching “Road 101” classes, there would be little workshops on “what you do (and don’t) need to be carrying on a commuter bike.” But there’s none of that. There are a couple of booths for local bike shops showing off various relevant and non-relevant bikes, there are people talking all starry eyed about how they got county officials to listen to a presentation about sharrows (but no commitments of any kind), and there are county officials waxing ecstatic about how BTWD got them to practice riding so they could show up, and guess what? It was exhilarating! Plus lots of bumper stickers and tee shirts. (Where was the League of American Bicyclists?)

Look, being serious about wanting people to bike to work equals a commitment to painting bike lanes. It really is as simple as that. The few of us who are vehicular cyclists will bike to work anyway (and be perfectly safe,) but the others need bike lanes. New York City has proved this. Studies conducted over the last couple of months show a significant increase in cyclists in New York City following their painting over 200 miles of bike paths (although there is some controversy on the exact numbers). If the powers-that-be really want to encourage practical cycling for all the reasons they say, all they need to do is get out the white traffic paint.

I shouldn’t be so negative about BTWD. I was in the middle of a conversation with a county official when a fellow cyclist (fully outfitted in cycling gear) came up and said, “Hey, you’re the guy that I see biking to work every day, aren’t you?” It made my day.

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The good and the BADD

from Bikeleague.org Blog by Darren

In January, Jim Rogers, a cyclist well known in Nevada County, California was killed in a crash with a motorist who was reportedly on her cell phone at the time. This tragedy has inspired four Nevada County residents, including the wife of Rogers, to launch a grassroots organization and campaign called Bicyclists Against Distracted Driving, BADD.  The group is taking advantage of the Tour of California to increase awareness of the dangers of distracted driving by distributing stickers, designed to fit on back of a cell phone, to remind drivers to put the phones away before they drive. They have already given away several thousand stickers. The names on the stickers will change depending on the cyclist being honored, according to Rene McGillicuddy, one of BADD’s founders, who spoke to me earlier this week.

B.A.D.D 2

Image from BADD, via theunion.com

BADD’s effort is an excellent example of bicyclists working to promote alert driving. However, they have aspirations beyond their awareness campaign. McGillicuddy testified in front of the California Assembly in favor of greater penalties for drivers found guilty of driving while distracted. California currently bans handheld cell phone use and text messaging while driving, and bans all cell phone use for drivers under 18 and school bus drivers. McGillicuddy has been working with the California Bicycle Coalition to strengthen California Assembly Bill 1951, which would amend the penalties for injury-causing vehicle crashes.

McGillicuddy said that we can expect distracted driving to continue to get worse until we take strong steps to curb it. BADD is working on two critical areas: awareness and legislation. We wish them all the best and look forward to supporting their efforts.

For more on what bicycling advocates have done to fight distracted driving, see our report, Distracted Driving: A Bicycling Advocates Resource and fact sheet. For more on BADD, see this article in theUnion.com.

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Lying ped light caught on news camera

With cross traffic clearly stopped and a sold red hand displayed "one man, who used a crosswalk when the signal said not to, even put his hand up to drivers."

Too often when you press a ped light call button it responds with a diabolical laugh and says "I would be green right now if you got here sooner but now I am going to make you wait another light cycle. That is of course assuming I am working, otherwise you will never get a green light and you have no way of knowing if I am working or not. Bawhaahaa." It is unbelievable that someone actually spent time to make sure ped lights perform like this.

$4 million in pedestrian safety and not one pedestrian countdown light? Something is terribly wrong with how we are spending money and not making the slightest dent in reducing crashes. And has anyone looked at bus stops and how many are near a crosswalk? It makes no sense what so ever to have fewer crosswalks then bus stops. On one hand we acknowledge people do not walk that far out of their way to pick up a bus but then they are expected them to walk many times that distance just to cross the street. This makes no sense! I really have to ask what did they spend $4 million on, benches and landscaping so pedestrains can sit and cry in quiet desperation because of so few safe options to cross the street?

Seriously quit blaming the victim of overly car centric roads. SHA has a complete street policy and this is not even close to doing it right.

As an analogy lets say you have a car with a dangerous exhaust leak in the drivers compartment and you might die as a result. So you decide to spend money on getting a new paint job rather then fixing the problem. Did you spend money in fixing up your car, well yes but did you fix the problem, no! We have got to get the State to spend money in fixing bike/ped problems and not just beautification and allowing them to say they are doing something to fix the problem just because they spent money.

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