B’ Spokes: I never really understood why it’s governments obligation to provide parking for businesses free of charge. If a business wants a parking let them pony up ~$2000 a spot every few years (IIRC). If businesses were actually paying for their parking we could move it from on-street to a vacant lot turned into a parking lot, we would have options to accommodate all users but as it is there is barely money to keep the status quo. Think about this: Exactly how much gas tax is generated by a stopped and parked car?
I know home owners that are charged for sidewalk repairs and alley repairs, so why are business exempt from on-street parking repairs?
Bike lane in LaVale is an uphill journey
Cost, parking logistics throw a monkey wrench in the works
https://times-news.com/local/x766439664/Bike-lane-in-LaVale-is-an-uphill-journey
Adult Obesity Rate in Maryland Could Reach 58.8 Percent by 2030, According to New Study
Related Health Care Costs Could Climb by 21.3 Percent
Washington, D.C., September 18, 2012 – The number of obese adults, along with related disease rates and health care costs, is on course to increase dramatically in Maryland over the next 20 years, according to F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2012, a report released today by Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).
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"This study shows us two futures for America’s health," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, RWJF president and CEO. "At every level of government, we must pursue policies that preserve health, prevent disease and reduce health care costs. Nothing less is acceptable."
The analysis, which was commissioned by TFAH and RWJF and conducted by the National Heart Forum, is based on a peer-reviewed model published last year in The Lancet. Findings include:
Projected Increases in Obesity Rates
If obesity rates continue on their current trajectories, by 2030, the obesity rate in Maryland could reach 58.8 percent. According to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2011, 28.3 percent of adults in the state were obese.
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Projected Increases in Disease Rates
Over the next 20 years, obesity could contribute to 741,358 new cases of type 2 diabetes, 1,540,592 new cases of coronary heart disease and stroke, 1,488,428 new cases of hypertension, 968,487 new cases of arthritis, and 222,932 new cases of obesity-related cancer in Maryland.
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Projected Increase in Health Care Costs
By 2030, obesity-related health care costs in Maryland could climb by 21.3 percent, which could be the seventh highest increase in the country. Nationally, nine states could see increases of more than 20 percent, with New Jersey on course to see the biggest increase at 34.5 percent. Sixteen states and Washington, D.C., could see increases between 15 percent and 20 percent.
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How Reducing Obesity Could Lower Disease Rates and Health Care Costs
If BMIs were lowered by 5 percent, Maryland could save 7.6 percent in health care costs, which would equate to savings of $ 13,836,000,000 by 2030.
The number of Maryland residents who could be spared from developing new cases of major obesity-related diseases includes:
* 158,413 people could be spared from type 2 diabetes,
* 129,330 from coronary heart disease and stroke,
* 126,707 from hypertension,
* 70,406 from arthritis, and
* 10,841 from obesity-related cancer.
"We know a lot more about how to prevent obesity than we did 10 years ago," said Jeff Levi, PhD, executive director of TFAH. "This report also outlines how policies like increasing physical activity time in schools and making fresh fruits and vegetables more affordable can help make healthier choices easier. Small changes can add up to a big difference. Policy changes can help make healthier choices easier for Americans in their daily lives."
Report Recommendations
On the basis of the data collected and a comprehensive analysis, TFAH and RWJF recommend making investments in obesity prevention in a way that matches the severity of the health and financial toll the epidemic takes on the nation. The report includes a series of policy recommendations, including:
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* Fully implement the National Prevention Strategy and Action Plan;
[https://www.healthcare.gov/prevention/nphpphc/2012-npc-action-plan.pdf ]
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Continue reading “Adult Obesity Rate in Maryland Could Reach 58.8 Percent by 2030, According to New Study”
How MAP-21 Allocates Transpo Funds Where They’re Needed Least
by Tanya Snyder, Streets Blog [highlights]
Who wins and who loses when political wheeling and dealing takes the place of sound decision-making on transportation? Graphic: CAP
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The single biggest transportation program is the one that exists to redistribute money to the areas of least need. Graphic: CAP
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https://dc.streetsblog.org/2012/10/03/how-map-21-allocates-transpo-funds-where-theyre-needed-least/
Why you should take your kid Mt biking [video]
[B’ Spokes: Warning cuteness overload.]
Really Easy (and awesome) Streetside Outreach – High Fives!
B’ Spokes: This is a great idea and I would love to see some of the numerous bicycle organizations in the area take this up. (From the People Power Movement list serve.)
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Hi everyone:
I just wanted to share a really easy and fun way to celebrate new improvements on the streets — bike lanes, smooth pavement, or whatever — which was really successful last night, and doesn’t require much from staff or volunteers.
Basically, we just purchased a few foam hands (if it’s worth it, from foamhands.com — which can customize for a fee) — and we stood on a corner of our busiest bike street which just got some new pavement
(https://www.sfbike.org/main/why-your-market-street-ride-just-got-better/)
with a sign reading "High Fives for Smoother Pavement" and got some folks riding by to give us High Fives.
If I were to do it again, I’d change a few things:
– Have the sign and hand mid-block, and an outreach table to talk directly to folks at a long light cycle, that way you can make a direct pitch. Don’t want people focusing on you and taking hands off brakes near a stop light.
– Customize the hands or brand it a little better with our organization.
– Get DPW staff out there, as well, to help them see how much people appreciate it (instead, we’re printing out a photo and sending the photos to the DPW shop for them to share).
See some photos of the fun here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sfbike/sets/72157631684896646/with/8051335663/
— and please, use the idea! Really lightweight, fun, and effective —
9 memberships in two hours!
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
EIGHTHINCH – Fixed Gear Conversions Made Easy [video]
END of the road
The science of knowing when older drivers need to let go of the wheel
by Douglas Birch, John Hopkins Public Health (pg 37)
On a spring-like Saturday morning in February of last year, Jeanette Walke drove her silver Honda Civic northwest on University Parkway near Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood campus and made a right turn across a bicycle lane into the driveway of her apartment house. Police say she cut off 20-year-old Nathan Krasnopoler—science fiction fan, chess player, enthusiastic amateur cook and Hopkins computer science student—who was carrying a bag of produce home from the Waverly Farmers Market on his Trek bicycle. A police reconstruction of the accident said Krasnopoler swerved, collided with Walke’s car and was thrown in front of it, trapping him underneath. Badly injured and apparently unable to breathe, he was caught between the searing heat of the engine and the pavement. He was still wearing his bike helmet, according to police, but his lungs had collapsed. His broken glasses were found at the scene.
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While most media reports emphasized Walke’s age—“Elderly Woman Ticketed in Crash with Hopkins Bicyclist” was a typical headline—Walke told police she was in good overall health. She reported having had glaucoma surgery in 2009 in both eyes, but told police she had visited the ophthalmologist the previous month and was given “a good report.” Walke could not be reached for comment, but her attorney says he did not believe her age played any role in the incident.
Still, the tragic death of Nathan Krasnopoler bore some of the hallmarks of collisions involving older motorists. Walke, who was charged with negligent driving, told police she looked but didn’t see Krasnopoler riding in the bike lane on her right as she approached her driveway. “I kept checking,” she said, according to the police investigation. Experts say that drivers older than 80 or so who are involved in collisions are more likely to report never having seen the other vehicle.
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Researchers are seeking ways to help keep older people behind the wheel for as long as they can drive safely and to prepare them to call it quits if they can no longer do so. The goal: Help governments, families and society improve road safety while respecting the rights of older citizens.
Answers, however, have been elusive. “The evidence is really just not there yet on what policies and programs are most effective, and much more needs to be done in the area of older driver research,” says Andrea Gielen, ScD ’89, ScM ’79, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP).
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Read more: https://magazine.jhsph.edu/2012/fall/_pdf/2012-fall-mag-features.pdf
To Encourage Biking, Cities Lose the Helmets
B’ Spokes: To be a little more clear, I personally encourage helmet use but so called "safety" messages that begin and end with just wear a helmet are wrong, and that needs to stop!
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By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL, New York Times
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In the United States the notion that bike helmets promote health and safety by preventing head injuries is taken as pretty near God’s truth. Un-helmeted cyclists are regarded as irresponsible, like people who smoke. Cities are aggressive in helmet promotion.
But many European health experts have taken a very different view: Yes, there are studies that show that if you fall off a bicycle at a certain speed and hit your head, a helmet can reduce your risk of serious head injury. But such falls off bikes are rare — exceedingly so in mature urban cycling systems.
On the other hand, many researchers say, if you force or pressure people to wear helmets, you discourage them from riding bicycles. That means more obesity, heart disease and diabetes. And — Catch-22 — a result is fewer ordinary cyclists on the road, which makes it harder to develop a safe bicycling network. The safest biking cities are places like Amsterdam and Copenhagen, where middle-aged commuters are mainstay riders and the fraction of adults in helmets is minuscule.
“Pushing helmets really kills cycling and bike-sharing in particular because it promotes a sense of danger that just isn’t justified — in fact, cycling has many health benefits,” says Piet de Jong, a professor in the department of applied finance and actuarial studies at Macquarie University in Sydney. He studied the issue with mathematical modeling, and concludes that the benefits may outweigh the risks by 20 to 1.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/sunday-review/to-encourage-biking-cities-forget-about-helmets.html?smid=fb-share#h[ItUCaa,1]
[Reporter] actually mentions "unmarked crosswalk" in report
[B’ Spokes: In case some wonder what I would like to see in crash repoting, this article covers that well.]
By Stop and Move
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Many things can be said about the story, but this is what caught my eye:
The driver was eastbound on Clinton Avenue as the woman and the girl
were in an unmarked crosswalk walking to the north side of the street.
I don’t know if it was the reporter, Jim Guy who noted this, or if it was brought to his attention by Police Sgt. Anthony Dewall who was interviewed for the article but….
Well done.
Not enough people understand that in California [and Maryland], an unmarked crosswalk exists at every single intersection and has the same legal standing as a marked one. That is, the pedestrian has the right of way, and the vehicles must stop.
Noting the law doesn’t change the unfortunate collision, but it DOES affect perception. And that actually means a lot.
When a pedestrian is hit, and an article is published, it seems like there exists a rule which demands that crosswalk status be mentioned. Driver speed? Who cares. Road design? Not relevant. Motorists being distracted? Not news. But were the pedestrians inside the magical crosswalk? That is key. No pedestrian injury story can be written without including a line about the crosswalk.
It’s like how every bike collision story MUST include reference to a helmet (or lack of).
Personally, I don’t get it. In many ways, focusing on helmets and crosswalks but not things like speed and driver distraction simply helps to toss blame towards the victim. It doesn’t matter if it’s not the intention of the reporter, it’s the result.
Take the following example.
1) “A mother and child were hit by a pickup truck today. They were not in the crosswalk”
Reaction: It’s all their fault! How dare they! Idiots! They had it coming!
Once that’s put in the story, it’s like it becomes the only variable. Does it matter if the motorist was speeding? No. Does it matter that in California, if the closest intersection is unsignalized, a pedestrian may cross at any point? No. The victims must be blamed. If only they’d been inside the magical unmarked crosswalk, only then would everything be ok.
2) “A mother and child were hit by a pickup truck today. It was unclear if they were in a crosswalk”
Reaction: They probably were jaywalking! I see it all the time! They had it coming!
Just by implying that they MAY have been breaking the law, blame is placed on them, even though the motorist may have actually been breaking the law by speeding or doing something else.
3) “A mother and child were hit by a pickup truck today. They were in the crosswalk”
Reaction: Motorists need to me more careful!
In this case, by stating the facts as 3, instead of what they usually do as in 2, makes a huge difference in how the case is perceived.
So that is good to see.
Of course, imagine if newspapers used the same “question” technique on motorists that they do usually with pedestrians:
4) “A mother and child were hit by a pickup truck
today. They were in the crosswalk. It was unclear if the motorist had
been speeding recklessly or texting at the time”
Reaction: Lynch him now! Death is not good enough for this criminal!
Like questioning the status of the crosswalk, questioning the drivers’ actions isn’t actually blaming him for that stuff, but implying it may have happened is strong enough.
It’s also good to see the police acknowledge it was the motorist who should get the blame. many times, you see “the victims should have been paying more attention!”
Police Sgt. Anthony Dewall said the driver, who has not been identified,
could have avoided running into the woman had he been more attentive.
“When another vehicle is stopped, it should bring some attention to you as to why the other vehicle is stopped,” he said.
Dewall said the driver would be cited for not stopping as well as being unlicensed. His truck will also be impounded.
Continue reading “[Reporter] actually mentions "unmarked crosswalk" in report”
