Month: April 2011

[B’ Spokes: This is a great idea, put a time scale for a mode of travel on the map. Can you imagine if the State Bike Map had half hour grid lines? It’s also very cool showing what’s available to go to that’s nearby.]

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Each monolith is strategically placed and has:

• An easy-to-read map that is orientated to the users point of view;
• 5 and 15 minute walking distances;
• 3D drawings of key shops and buildings in the area.

Changing Londoners mental maps

Continue reading “Legible London Gets People Walking”

By Mighk – Commute Orlando

“‘I’ll see it when I believe it’ is more accurate than ‘I’ll believe it when I see it.’”

– Social psychologist Karl Weick

Regular readers of this blog know we recommend an assertive lane position when the lane is too narrow to share.  Our rationale was initially that when a cyclist is in the right wheel track, some motorists will still attempt to squeeze past within the lane instead of making a full lane change.  That’s still true.  But we’ve also observed that a more assertive lane position — either in the center of the lane or just left of center — gets motorists to change lanes earlier on roads with more than one lane in each direction.

Our hypothesis was that from a significant distance, a cyclist in the right wheel track (where the League of American Bicyclists has long recommended cyclists travel if the lane is too narrow to share) looks like he or she is on the edge line, so the motorist stays in that lane until he or she gets close enough to realize there’s not really adequate width for safe passing.  By then the opportunity for changing lanes may have closed.  The motorist then either waits and stews, or “shoves” his way through between the cyclist and the traffic in the next lane.

When the cyclist is in the center of the lane, it’s immediately clear to the motorist that passing within the lane is impossible, so the driver changes lanes at the earliest opportunity.

The added benefit we’ve discovered using a video camera on the dashboard of a following car is that drivers farther back are alerted to the situation by the lane changers ahead of them, and get to see the cyclist themselves at an earlier opportunity.

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Continue reading “Lane Positioning”

from Commute Orlando by Jason

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	Weekly			Monthly			8 months
Riders	Human-Miles	Gas Savings1	Cost Savings2	Human-Miles	Gas Savings1	Cost Savings2	Human- Miles	Gas Savings1	Cost Savings2
1	75	3.75	$43.88	300	15	$175.50	2400	120	$1,404.00
2	150	7.5	$87.75	600	30	$351.00	4800	240	$2,808.00
3	225	11.25	$131.63	900	45	$526.50	7200	360	$4,212.00

¹ in gallons, assuming 20 mpg
² AAA estimates

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Continue reading “Savings”

from Business Insider by Henry Blodget
Well, it’s official: Sitting all day is bad for you.
It makes you fat.
It makes you weak.
It makes you more likely to keel over dead.
How do we know?
Because "inactivity researchers" have finally cracked the code.
Specifically, they have figured out why some people get fat when they eat too much and other people don’t get fat, even when they eat the same amount:
The people who get fat get fat because they sit around all day. The people who don’t get fat don’t sit around as much.
Importantly, the difference between the fatties and the non-fatties in the study had nothing to do with exercise. None of the folks in the "inactivity" study were allowed to exercise. The folks who didn’t get fat didn’t exercise–they just didn’t spend as much time sitting. Instead, they stood. They walked. They took stairs instead of elevators. They fidgeted. Etc.
And sitting doesn’t just make you fat. It makes you sick, too.
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[B’ Spokes: Yet so much of our built environment discourages the simple act of walking, from parking right next to the front door of a business and our homes to fire alarms installed on stair well doors to meet fire codes.]
Continue reading “Sitting Can Kill You”

[B’ Spokes: This is in the UK but the same attitude needs to happen here. I’ll jump to the end of the article.]
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By Cahal Milmo and Kevin Rawlinson
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Nine steps towards safer cycling
The London Cycling Campaign, which promotes safer cycling in the capital, has produced a nine-point-plan for reducing the toll of death and injury among cyclists:
* Enforce speed limits and clamp down on drivers who use mobile phones.
* Crack down on hit-and-run drivers, who account for a large portion of serious road injuries. [Note: Maryland Hit-and-run drivers are ~20% of bike/ped fatalities vs ~1% overall.]
* Introduce 20mph speed limits in all built-up and shopping areas of Britain’s towns and cities.
* Require all lorries to carry full safety equipment to help them avoid collisions with cyclists: six mirrors, sensors and safety guards. (See www.no-more-lethal-lorries.org.uk/)
* Require organisations which run lorries and other large vehicles to provide their drivers with cyclist awareness training, as already practised in four London boroughs.
* Include a "cycle awareness" section in the driving theory and practical tests
* Allocate more road space to cycling, as has been done in The Netherlands and Denmark, among other places.
* Provide all children with access to Bikeability cycle training, the current version of the Cycling Proficiency test
* Encourage less car use and more. cycling so that, as in The Netherlands and Denmark, collision rates for cyclists are reduced.
Continue reading “Save our cyclists: Clamour for flood of avoidable road deaths to be stemmed”

from Streetsblog.net by Angie Schmitt
While there hasn’t been a vulnerable roadway user bill introduced in Alaska yet, the concept is gaining momentum nationwide.
Three states already have vulnerable user laws on the books (Oregon’s took effect in 2008, and Delaware’s and New York’s took effect this year), and more states are introducing the bills. Vulnerable roadway user bills mandate stiff fines, loss of license and/or other penalties when the driver of a motorized vehicle severely injures or kills a pedestrian, bicyclist, wheelchair user, motorcyclist or construction worker.
On Monday, April 18, Washington’s State Senate voted 44-2 to accept House amendments to SB 5326, its version of a vulnerable user bill that now goes to Gov. Christine Gregoire for her signature. Cycling and walking advocates in Washington have been trying to pass a vulnerable user bill for three years, but the bill usually ended up dying in committee. This year the Senate and House both passed their own versions of the bill by large margins, then the Senate bill crossed over to receive House approval (with amendments) and now can go to the governor.
“The real crux of this bill is that outcomes matter,” David Hiller of the Cascade Bicycle Club told the Sammamish Patch website. “A DUI with a death is not a DUI with a tragic outcome; it’s vehicular manslaughter. If you have an unsecured load in your vehicle, it’s simply an infraction; but if you kill someone, it’s a felony.”
Continue reading “Vulnerable roadway user laws gain momentum nationwide as more people bike and walk”