{"id":111858940,"date":"2008-07-18T15:55:40","date_gmt":"2008-07-18T15:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=111858940"},"modified":"2008-07-18T15:55:40","modified_gmt":"2008-07-18T15:55:40","slug":"bikes-or-cars-who-rules-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=111858940","title":{"rendered":"Bikes or cars \u2014 who rules the road?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Accident toll rises as gas-shocked commuters opt for bicycles
\nBy Alex Johnson – MSNBC
\nOver the last two months, Taylor Cabaniss\u2019 morning commute has evolved into something entirely new. It has lengthened to an hour.
\nBut that\u2019s a good thing, said Cabaniss, a senior financial manager for Qualcomm Inc. in San Diego \u2014 it\u2019s \u201cjust some good exercise opportunity, to get out a bit.\u201d
\nBack in May, Cabaniss abandoned his car and began biking to work. With fuel prices topping $4 a gallon, it makes a big difference.
\n\u201cI\u2019m probably saving a gallon and a half a day \u2014 I imagine $6 a day,\u201d he said.
\nCabaniss\u2019 story is a common one. Since the average price of gasoline hit about $3.25 a gallon early this year, bike sales have skyrocketed, the National Bicycle Dealers Association reported. Store owners across the country say two-wheelers are flying out the door faster than they can stock them.
\n\u201cGas prices have jacked our business quite a bit,\u201d said Jamie McDonald, owner of Sunrise Cyclery in Minneapolis. \u201cI\u2019ve sold way more racks, way more bags, way more lights, way more fenders and more bikes in general than I ever have before.\u201d
\nAt Wheel Nuts in Alexandria, Va., a suburb of Washington, owner Ron Taylor sounds a common theme \u2014 he\u2019s having trouble keeping up with both sales and repairs.
\n\u201cWith all of that business coming in, we\u2019ve actually had to hire additional staff,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cWe\u2019re staying here late, trying to meet customers\u2019 demands, trying to get their bikes back to them sooner.\u201d
\nMore bikes mean more accidents
\nExperts welcome the trend for all of the reasons you might expect: Transportation planners like that fewer cars clog the nation\u2019s highways. Environmental activists like that fewer tons of greenhouse emissions are pumped into the atmosphere every rush hour. Doctors like to see more people pedaling off more pounds.
\nBut in the months since motorists began pedaling in droves, it has become clear that all those cyclists on the streets pose a significant problem: all those cyclists on the streets.
\n\u201cI believe it\u2019s definitely going to cause some problems, because people don\u2019t know how to share the road with cyclists,\u201d said Kirk Hendricks, director of advocacy for the group Idaho Cycling Enthusiasts. \u201c[Drivers] need to know that we have as much right as an automobile even though we\u2019re not as big.\u201d
\nThere are no nationwide statistics on bicycle-related injuries and deaths for the first half of 2008. But authorities across the country say they are seeing a sharp rise in the number of accidents involving bicyclists.
\n\u201cLast year in New Jersey 12 bikers, bicyclists, were killed in motor vehicle crashes,\u201d said Pam Fischer, director of the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety. \u201cSo far this year \u2014 and we\u2019re at the middle of the summer, July 15 \u2014 we have already lost 11 bicyclists.\u201d
\nFischer said that \u201cin almost every case, the bicycle was doing something that put them at significant risk.\u201d
\nAt least five bicyclists have been killed in Chicago alone this year, leading to lawsuits, organized protests demanding safer bike routes and a set of new ordinances requiring drivers to give cyclists at least a 3-foot-wide berth when passing.
\n\u201cMost of the crashes that we\u2019ve seen are a result of inattentive driving,\u201d said Rob Sadowsky, executive director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation.
\n
\nBeware of newbies in the saddle
\nThe problem is that so many new riders create road hazards because they don\u2019t know the rules, police say. Too often, inexperienced riders take traffic signs as suggestions, not commands.
\nAfter the Seminole County, Fla., sheriff\u2019s office recently began fielding scores of complaints from drivers that bicyclists were clogging major streets, it sent out deputies with video cameras. The cameras revealed large groups of bike riders illegally disrupting traffic.
\n\u201cYou need to obey the rules of the road,\u201d said Officer Jeryl Vonderheid of the Eau Claire, Wis., police. \u201cBicycles are not exempt from [the] rule of stop signs.\u201d
\nNew riders also aren\u2019t fully prepared for the inconveniences they can face \u2014 the worst one, experienced riders say, being drivers who also don\u2019t know the rules or are too frustrated to observe them.
\nBikers said they often struggled to blend safely with traffic. In the same video survey that found dangerous biking, Seminole County deputies also recorded a shocking level of rude and aggressive behavior by drivers.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not their right to assault a cyclist or to run a cyclist off the road because they get impatient,\u201d sheriff\u2019s Lt. Pete Kelting said.
\nRegardless, said cyclist Keri Caffrey, \u201cthey see a cyclist and they target them, in many cases.\u201d
\nTransit riders feel the squeeze
\nCycling advocates point to a host of other longstanding problems that they say are becoming critical now that so many new riders are hitting the streets: too many potholes and poorly maintained streets, too few bicycle lanes, too few places to securely park a bike, too few places to wash up after a long ride to work.
\nAdd a new one: Too little space on the bus.
\nTransit officials in numerous cities report that more people taking their bikes along when the catch the bus or the train \u2014 in Houston, the number rose 33 percent in May alone, officials said. Those bikes take up passenger space, and that puts the squeeze on all paying customers.
\n\u201cGiven the explosive growth in bikes, we\u2019ll never have enough capacity on transit to accommodate every bike, especially during rush hour,\u201d said Mary Fetch, a spokeswoman for the TriMet light rail system in the Portland, Ore., region, where 1 in 10 transit riders totes along a bicycle.
\nDeborah Ulinger of Beaverton often cycles to a TriMet station and hops the train with her bike. But late last month, security guards began kicking cyclists off bike-crowded trains at the perpetually packed 185th station and wouldn\u2019t let any board unless there were empty bike racks.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating, because we have places to go and things to do,\u201d Ulinger said. \u201cI know it\u2019s a safety issue, but if they could provide more spaces for bikes it would be great.\u201d
\nThe Utah Transit Authority said it would probably have to rip out seats in its FrontRunner commuter trains between Ogden and Salt Lake City to make room for more bicycles. Each car now has straps to hold two bicycles, but James House of Layton, a regular commuter, said he had seen as many as 15 in each car, blocking the aisles.
\nConnecticut Gov. Jodi Rell, meanwhile, recently ordered that a pending order for 380 cars for the Metro-North light rail linking her state and New York be modified to allow more bicycle storage before the state will take delivery.
\n\u2018A way of life for a lot of people\u2019
\nAuthorities and cycling advocates acknowledged that finding the money for the upgrades needed to accommodate all the new bike riders would be tough. But they said the move toward cycling was unlikely to reverse, and the sooner the fixes were made, the better.
\n\u201cI believe in the future that cycling is going to not be just a trend, but a way of life for a lot of people,\u201d said Gene Wells, owner of Fat Tire Cycle in Buckhannon, W.Va., an assessment that was echoed by Rebecca Anderson, advocacy director for Trek Bicycle Corp.
\n"Millions of people have bicycles hanging in the garage and they’re getting them down and riding them,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cPeople are looking at the bicycle as more than just a toy.\u201d
\nhttps:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/25695376\/<\/a>
\noldId.20080718155540998<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Accident toll rises as gas-shocked commuters opt for bicycles By Alex Johnson – MSNBC Over the last two months, Taylor Cabaniss\u2019 morning commute has evolved into something entirely new. It has lengthened to an hour. But that\u2019s a good thing, said Cabaniss, a senior financial manager for Qualcomm Inc. in San Diego \u2014 it\u2019s \u201cjust … <\/p>\n

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