Bike Radar offers examples of ridiculous laws for cyclists from around the world. No gargling while cycling in Peridot, AZ. No “wanton or furious” cycling in the UK. No cycling without a shirt in Thailand. No cycling with a slingshot in your pocket in Bellingham, WA. https://bit.ly/2icDcio
from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
TRANSFORMING UGLY URBAN UNDERPASSES TO PUBLIC PARKS
-> Curbed reports many cities are turning transit underpasses into public parks, replacing trash, overgrown weeds, and dark passageways with art installations, funky lights, and pedestrian thoroughfares. Check out 7 creative examples that have been transformed, are still under construction or in the process of becoming public parks. https://bit.ly/2j05jyN
from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
[B’ Spokes: I put this in Biking Baltimore because the area to the east of Druid Lake is underutilized and something like this would be marvelous.]
MD DOT: INCREASING CYCLIST SAFETY ON HIGH-SPEED ROADWAYS
-> A Maryland DOT study investigated bicycle infrastructure design options and treatments to facilitate safe accommodation of bicyclists on high-speed roadways. They studied a design called “rumble-buffered” bike lane as a means to help mitigate the inherent hazards to bicyclists associated with limited separation from motor vehicles where separated facilities are not feasible. https://bit.ly/2iZ02HC
from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
NASHVILLE, TN: TEENS MAP ROUTES, IDENTIFY MOBILITY OPTIONS
-> To make the case for better neighborhood mobility, a class of middle and high school students in Nashville, TN mapped their movements around North Nashville, tracking the spaces they visited most and the barriers that kept them from getting around, such as the lack of crosswalks and paths. They developed suggestions for connecting North Nashville to the rest of the city, eventually sharing their findings with urban planners. After meeting with the class, city planners incorporated a new bicycle lane along Rosa L. Parks Boulevard. Although the lane stretched only 2 miles, it created a bicycle route across the interstate, connecting North Nashville to downtown. https://bit.ly/2j0DBBT
from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
JUMP IN STATES TRANSFERRING TAP FUNDS TO ROADS & BRIDGES
-> The Safe Routes to School National Partnership released their most recent quarterly “State of the States” report tracking Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) funding transfers through September 2016 (https://bit.ly/2j0HeYo). It shows a jump in the amount and number of states that transferred TAP funding away from biking, walking, and Safe Routes to School and into roads and bridges. Plus, 12 states transferred funds for the first time. Congress allows state DOTs to transfer up to half of their TAP funds to other transportation priorities. SRTSNP urges advocates to ask their DOT to reverse these transfers. Check out details of the $109 million state DOTs transferred out of TAP between July and September 2016. https://bit.ly/2j0HeaQ
from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
[B’ Spokes: Maryland is in there at $11 million]
COURT: BAD STREET DESIGN LIABLE IN NYC CRASH
-> Curbed reports transportation experts agree that poor street design—and the driver behavior it enables—is responsible for many of the U.S.’s astronomically high number of traffic deaths. Now, in a landmark case, the New York State Court of Appeals has found New York City’s street design liable for a 2004 crash that left a 12-year old boy riding a bike with multiple skull fractures and reduced mental and physical capacities. The city’s leaders had been advised multiple times before the crash that the stretch of street was particularly dangerous. The court ruled, “an unjustifiable delay in implementing a remedial plan constitutes a breach of the municipality’s duty to the public.” The city was found 40 percent liable, and ordered to pay $19 million of the $20 million settlement to the boy. The city narrowed the street from four lanes to three by repainting the medians. However, from 2007 to 2016, the same street saw a shocking four fatalities, including the death of a 17-year-old cyclist. Late last year—almost 12 years after the 12-year old boy’s crash—New York City’s Department of Transportation finally announced major design changes to the street. https://bit.ly/2j03bXP
from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
VIDEO: SYSTEMATIC SAFETY: THE PRINCIPLES BEHIND VISION ZERO
-> Bicycle Dutch blogger Mark Wagenbuur reports he and Northeastern University professor Peter G. Furth created a succinct and clear 8-minute video to explain the concept of “Systematic Safety” based on Dutch transportation practices and outcomes. At its heart, systematically safety identifies and eliminates the opportunities that create high crash and injury risk. It recognizes human bodies are vulnerable and humans make mistakes. The video describes 5 systemic principles at the core of Vision Zero and provides examples of each in The Netherlands. Systematic Safety: The Principles Behind Vision Zero: https://bit.ly/2j0352l
from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.
MTA to spend $196,000 outfitting weekday MARC commuter trains with bike racks
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-marc-bicycle-cars-20170108-story.html
Hidden dangers ahead: How states keep accident-prone roads secret
[B’ Spokes: A story from here in Maryland. I swear there is a faction in MDOT/SHA that will do anything for faster/unsafe roads. And I’m not talking just speed limits, in this case we are talking about a traffic light. I know a lot of people are going to complain that one extra light is going to make them late for work. Like the reality isn’t that they were already late when they left the house but we’re hoping to make up time by driving like a mad man. One day people are going to realize that cars no longer work that way. Sure in the day when few drove and few cars on the road but that is not the direction we are heading.]
Hidden dangers ahead: How states keep accident-prone roads secret
The Curb-Cut Effect
By Angela Glover Blackwell, Stanford Social Innovation Review
…
At last, on July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits disability-based discrimination and mandated changes to the built environment, including curb cuts. “Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down,” he proclaimed.
…
There’s an ingrained societal suspicion that intentionally supporting one group hurts another. That equity is a zero sum game. In fact, when the nation targets support where it is needed most—when we create the circumstances that allow those who have been left behind to participate and contribute fully—everyone wins. The corollary is also true: When we ignore the challenges faced by the most vulnerable among us, those challenges, magnified many times over, become a drag on economic growth, prosperity, and national well-being.
… ^^^This^^^
[Lots of good points]
…
In city after city, despite a “bike-lash” of critics who warn of more congestion and less parking, we’ve seen that—like a bicycle wheel—what goes around comes around. From 2000 to 2013, the risk of serious injury dropped 75 percent for New York City cyclists 27—and pedestrians, a much larger group and not the intended target of the bike lanes, are 40 percent less likely to be injured. 28 In a 2011 survey of Chicago drivers, half believed that they noticed improved driving behavior on a street with bike lanes.
In addition to creating safer and saner streets, bike lanes add tremendous economic value to a neighborhood. One stretch of Ninth Avenue in Manhattan saw retail sales rise nearly 50 percent after bike paths were installed, compared with a 3 percent rise borough-wide.30 Rents along the Times Square bike paths grew 71 percent in 2010, the largest increase in the city, as people flocked to pedestrian- and bike-friendly neighborhoods.31 A single block in Indianapolis saw the value of its property jump nearly 150 percent after adding bike lanes.
Then there are the benefits to public health and the environment. A study of the San Francisco Bay Area found that a slight increase in walking and biking each day can reduce the prevalence of diabetes and cardiovascular disease by 14 percent, while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by 14 percent as well. If just 5 percent of New York City commuters began biking to work, the CO2 emissions saved would be equal to planting a forest 1.3 times the size of Manhattan.
…
Half a century ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. prophetically wrote from a Birmingham, Ala., jail cell, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Outside that building today, a plaque commemorates its most famous inmate. Along the sidewalk, at regular intervals, are curb cuts.
https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_curb_cut_effect