Month: June 2013

By BOB NORBERG, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Sebastopol became the first city in Sonoma County and one of few in the nation to pass an ordinance that makes it easier for bicyclists and pedestrians to sue drivers who threaten or harass them.
"It’s a way to send a message that people who are not in cars have rights too," said Councilman Patrick Slayter. "Just because you are driving a 5,000-pound weapon doesn’t mean might makes right."
The "vulnerable road users" ordinance was passed on a unanimous vote, paving the way for it to become law when it comes back for a second reading at a future meeting.
"Hate is hate, it doesn’t matter what it’s for, anything we can do to stop bullying," said Vice Mayor Robert Jacob.
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https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20121218/ARTICLES/121219536/1350?Title=Sebastopol-adopts-law-to-help-bicyclists-pedestrians

Cities can thrive again by making their downtowns more pedestrian friendly
By MONICA WILLIAMS, US News
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Why do we need more walkable cities in America?
There are three fundamental reasons. About 15 years ago three distinct groups—the economists, the epidemiologists, and the environmentalists—started saying the same thing, each for their own reasons. The economists have shown us that people are more efficient in cities and more productive. The epidemiological argument has to do mostly with the obesity epidemic. Recent studies have shown that we’ve been focused for too long on diet and not enough on activity. That’s what a walkable city gives us. Finally, there’s the environmental angle: a fundamental rethinking of the way that Americans have always thought about environmentalism and this idea that countryside is good, cities are bad.
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https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2012/12/13/how-american-cities-can-thrive-again

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS, New York Times
An important new study suggests that statins, the cholesterol-lowering medications that are the most prescribed drugs in the world, may block some of the fitness benefits of exercise, one of the surest ways to improve health.
No one is saying that people with high cholesterol or a family history of heart disease should avoid statins, which studies show can be lifesaving. But the discovery could create something of dilemma for doctors and patients, since the people who should benefit the most from exercise — those who are sedentary, overweight, at risk of heart disease or middle-aged — are also the people most likely to be put on statins, possibly undoing some of the good of their workouts.
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https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/can-statins-curb-the-benefits-of-exercise/

By Tony Lovell
YOUR ARTICLE on Boston’s bicycle safety report notes that 22 percent “of the collisions between cars and cyclists occurred when a vehicle door opened unexpectedly on a cyclist” (“With crash data, city tries to make bicycling safer,” Page A1, May 15).
Car doors do not open “unexpectedly”; they open when people in the vehicle work a handle and push them open.
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https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/letters/2013/05/21/your-hand-door-handle-eye-should-cyclists-path/fZXgkb6kHkW3BoOHHGcLJN/story.html

[B’ Spokes: i found this interesting.]
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From As Easy As Riding A Bike
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Drivers, we are told, have seatbelts, and a protective shell around them, and there is no need for them to protect their ‘fragile skulls’ in the same way that a bicycle user might with a polystyrene shell. This despite the evidence that the most common severe or fatal injury to car occupants is to the head.
Similarly, a UK study of data from 33 hospitals between 1996 and 2003 found that around 25% of car occupants who had suffered a head injury did not survive [pdf].
Plainly the heads of car occupants are susceptible to serious damage. Yet lobbying for car occupants to wear helmets is non-existent, even if, to use the emotive language of bicycle helmet advocacy, ‘they might just save one life’. Or that ‘wearing a helmet is surely better than not wearing one’.
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https://aseasyasridingabike.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/helmets-expectation-and-inconsistency/

by Michael Andersen, Bikeportland
People who ride bikes at night consistently overestimate their visibility to other road users, a new study has found.
They also overlook a few tricks, like reflective strips around the ankles and knees, that can help the most.
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https://bikeportland.org/2013/05/20/youre-not-as-visible-on-a-bike-at-night-as-you-think-new-study-shows-87044