Month: July 2013

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Operation Safe Summer: Police Reward Kids For Wearing Helmets With Ice Cream

[B’ Spokes: I love the idea of positive reinforcement, seriously why not reward people for doing behavior that you want instead of only punishing the behavior that you don’t want? This goes double for bicycling! We want to see more people on bikes, less traffic, more parking, better health… So instead of trying to making stupid laws that require everyone to wear helmets, just encourage their use, like they have done here. And while we are on positive reinforcement I” remind you of an old post "The Speed Camera Lottery " https://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20101015230537843 ]
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Via Huffington Post

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Police Chief David Oliver wrote his new policy on Facebook last week:

"Effective next week, my officers will have a quota for tickets….at least one per shift. We are going to be profiling, too. We will target a specific group, with the express purpose of writing as many tickets as possible. I am strongly encouraging my officers to write as many as they can, every shift, every day…it is called operation Safe Summer…"

Officers are targeting kids 12 and under. If a cop spots a child wearing a bike helmet while riding, that suspect will be stopped and issued a ticket. And what is that ticket good for? One free ice cream cone from Franks Drive-in.
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https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/05/operation-safe-summer_n_3390576.html

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Feds Withdraw Claim That Bike Helmets Are 85 Percent Effective

By jtitus, WABA
The federal government is withdrawing its long-standing claim that bicycle helmets prevent 85% of head injuries, in response to a petition filed by WABA under the federal Data Quality Act.
In 1989, a study in Seattle estimated that helmets prevent 85% of head injuries. Efforts to replicate those results during the 1990s confirmed that helmets reduce injuries, but not nearly as much as the Seattle study suggested. Yet public health advocates, government web sites, and the news media have continued to repeat the 85% factoid to the point that it has become a mantra.
Bad information can cause problems, even when it is promoted with the best intentions. If people think that helmets stop almost all head injuries, consumers will not demand better helmets, and legislators may think it makes sense to require everyone to wear one. So we asked two federal agencies to correct the misinformation, and they recently agreed to do so.
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https://www.waba.org/blog/2013/06/feds-withdraw-claim-that-bike-helmets-are-85-percent-effective/

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“The remarkable manner in which new roads create new traffic”: a history of induced demand

– Sir Charles Bressey, 1937: “remarkable manner in which new roads create new traffic.”
[B’ Spokes: While we have such modern proofs that more roads cause more traffic delays such as Braess’s paradox and the Downs–Thomson paradox but what strikes me about this article is how long we have adopted the philosophy of “Building more roads to prevent congestion is like a fat man loosening his belt to prevent obesity.”
Why am I sharing this? Think about it, Maryland just raised the gas tax to build more roads while miles traveled by automobile has leveled off and is on the decline. I think it’s about time we rethought our transportation goals to be less car centric.]
https://www.roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com/induceddemand/

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Bike Tour of Community Gardens!

The Charm City Farm and Garden Tour will be held Sunday, August 18. Cyclists meet at 8am in Patterson Park. We’ll be visiting eight community gardens in East Baltimore!

Come along as we explore the creative work of dedicated farmers and community gardeners in Baltimore City. The bike tour meets at the Patterson Park City Farm at 8am and will tour a variety of community-managed gardens. The tour is $15 per person (bring your own bike). There is also a bus tour that departs at at 11am from Cylburn Arboretum ($20 per person).

After the tours, please join us for a picnic at Cylburn Arboretum at 2pm. We will have music, family games and arts, judging of produce from participating gardeners and, of course, food. We ask for a $5 from adults not on the tours; kids unders 12 are free. We also ask everyone to contribute a dish that will serve 5-6 others.

For more information or to RSVP, contact 410-448-5663 x 128 or charmcitygardentour@gmail.com

The Charm City Farm and Garden Tour is presented by University of Maryland Extension, Baltimore City Master Gardeners, the Community Greening Resource Network, Baltimore Green Space, Baltimore City Recreation and Parks, and the Parks & People Foundation.

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Mr. Money Mustache on Retiring at 30 By Riding a Bike

by Tanya Snyder, Streets Blog
His claim to fame is that he retired at age 30. He swears that you can achieve greater financial freedom too, if you follow his example by eliminating unnecessary expenses and investing wisely. He calls himself Mr. Money Mustache. And he says nothing is more essential to his philosophy and wealth-building strategy than riding a bike.
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https://dc.streetsblog.org/2013/05/22/mr-money-mustache-on-retiring-at-30-by-riding-a-bike/

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Observations from an occasional cyclist

By Brian Bieretz, Smart Growth Maryland
Bicycling has many advantages to the individual from health to pleasure. To the city, bicycling can help spur development and promote economic vitality by getting people to interact with community around them. Many of those benefits are enumerated elsewhere. Instead, this article looks at the areas of tension that occur between cars and bicyclists
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Public Awareness
People typically become aware of the rules only after they’ve personally broken them or seen the terrible results of breaking then on the news. A knee-jerk reaction to policy does little to make people safer. Local jurisdictions and the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) need to get out in the streets and inform the public about bicycle safety and rules.
Public awareness will also help drivers and cyclist navigate intersections. Many drivers aren’t cyclists and don’t appreciate the feeling of danger a cyclist can feel from an aggressive driver and the difficulty in accelerating from a stop to the speed of traffic.
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https://smartgrowthmd.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/car-versus-bicycle/

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Experiment Town in England turns off traffic lights surprising results [video]

[B’ Spokes: There are a lot of surprising results in non traditional road engineering vs the old car-centric with emphasis on speed approach to roads and this is one of them. One thing that needs to be emphasized here: “We need to experiment on what works and what does not work rather than rely on some so called expert whose calculation (using out dated standards) says we can’t accommodate bikes or pedestrians on some road because of the adverse effect on traffic.” There are a lot of options open to us that have little to no adverse effect and in some cases traffic flow is improved and general road safety is improved as well.]

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The Blanks Family Fund

Tom Blanks was cycling early in the morning on July 16th and was struck by a hit and run driver. He was thrown 35 ft., sustaining massive injuries, and was airlifted to a near by hospital.
Tom is a loving husband of 13 years to Blair and father to their three children. Cycling is an integral part of Tom’s family life as he shares his passion with his children. Tom and his son have been building a racing bike together, with plans to race together in the fall, plans which have been cancelled.
Tom’s injuries are extensive, he sustained a broken pelvis and fractures to his sternum, ribs, and both lumbar & thoracic vertebraes in his spine. He will remain in a back brace and unable to walk without crutches for many months and hopes of riding a bike again will certainly require hours of painful therapy. Despite his injuries, Tom has amazed his family, friends and hospital staff with his positive attitude and strength of character.
Making the roads safer for cyclist is a huge part of who Tom is. He is an active member of Rodgers Forge’s Safe Routes to School committee, which promotes safety for the neighborhood’s students who walk to school and he has served on the board for the advocacy group, Bike Maryland.
Tom’s passion for cycling is matched only by his drive to provide for his family. It is not hard to imagine the strain the careless acts of a reckless driver has placed on the Blanks family. The family was on vacation when the accident occurred. Toms’ wife Blair remains by his side commuting from a nearby hotel, they are unable to transport him back home to Maryland for care at this time.
It may not seem like a lot but $5 here, $10 there, EVERY donation counts – even if Tom is a stranger to you – he is someone’s husband, father, son and friend. The kindness of strangers is a powerful thing! Every donation is so appreciated.
https://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/the-blanks-family-fund/73726

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Notre Dame dean rides for disease awareness

By Mike Leiby, The Independent
SHOW LOW — The dean of science at the University of Notre Dame not only wants a way to treat Niemann-Pick Disease (NP-C) to be found posthaste, he is riding across country to help make it happen.
Niemann-Pick Type C is a genetic, cholesterol storage disorder that primarily strikes children with death occurring before or during adolescence. There is also an adult onset form of the disease.
Gregory Crawford rode through Show Low July 3 on his way to Baltimore as part of the Road to Discovery ride.
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https://www.wmicentral.com/news/show_low/notre-dame-dean-rides-for-disease-awareness/article_8a0f1538-e829-11e2-b0b7-0019bb2963f4.html