BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Pianist @Klavierkunst carrying his piano by #bicycle to play Lennon's "Imagine" outside of #Bataclan theatre #Paris. pic.twitter.com/8b7En70RcR— Don Jacobson (@BigSurfDon) November 15, 2015

ANGIER, N.C. (WTVD) -- Four experienced cyclists are being treated at WakeMed Hospital after authorities say they were thrown from their bikes after being hit by a driver. .... [The driver] told ABC11 that when she saw the cyclists there was another car coming in the opposite direction and there wasn't room to move over. Authorities said the the four cyclists were riding in a single-file line. "It started in the middle of the road right there and then I pulled up here to get out of the road," said Williams. "Why didn't she slow down? Why did she try to pass when it wasn't safe? The two seconds she would have saved passing them wasn't worth it. Just absolutely not worth it," said [local rider Jerry] Phelps.

"In honour of the new—apparently totally confusing—bike lanes on Hollis Street, PLANifax and The Coast offer a friendly guide to the etiquette of cars parking where bikes are supposed to ride."

A jury on Monday found the City of Los Angeles primarily liable for a traffic collision that killed a scientist in San Pedro three years ago. The jury awarded $23.7 million to the widow and young son of Thomas Guilmette, a 59-year-old Northrop Grumman employee who died three years ago after his motorcycle struck a car that had inched into traffic on a busy avenue in northwest San Pedro. …residents…had complained for years about the blind corner at Summerland and Cabrillo avenues but the city was "not responsive." …Drivers waiting on Cabrillo to turn left onto Summerland were forced to edge into oncoming traffic to peer around a blind corner, attorneys said. …The judgment was unusually large, [the family's attorney Don] Liddy said, because attorneys showed the jury that L.A. officials had planned in 2001 and 2009 to make changes to the intersection that could have improved visibility. After Guilmette's death, city officials added a stop sign on Summerland at Cabrillo and restricted street parking there in an attempt to improve visibility. "It wasn’t until after the [crash] that they followed their own plan," Liddy said.

Caroline Samponaro, with the pedestrian and bicyclist advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, said this is a textbook example of what happens too often. “Every 38 hours a New Yorker is killed in a traffic crash,” Samponaro told 1010 WINS’ Roger Stern. “We can do better than that as a city.” Twenty-four hours earlier, a pedestrian was struck and killed by an SUV in a Manhattan crosswalk.

Here’s the plan. I’m setting aside two weeks. August 13-27, 2016. I intend to travel Washington state from north to south. Along with a support crew, I plan to navigate through the state on multiuse paths and roadways, all the while posting about my experience on social media. The idea is to find out firsthand and share with the public how accessible our state is for nonmotorized users, specifically people in wheelchairs.

Miami FL, which has no elevation changes anywhere

My husband did his first triathlon this summer, and bought a road bike that cost (in my opinion) an outrageous $1600. Then he got to the race and found out his bike was “like bringing a donkey to the Kentucky Derby.” He’s trying to sell his motorcycle so he can buy a $6000 (!!!!!) tri bike before the same triathlon rolls around next summer. And they don’t even have kickstands!

Shelli Snyder, one of Bike Cleveland's founding members and past board members, has been biking from Cleveland to Seattle. Last night Shelli was struck by a driver in Montana from behind at 60mph. (The driver was detained) Troopers and an ambulance were on the scene within minutes. Shelli has suffered a left hip/leg injury and fractured skull. She underwent surgery last evening to repair the hip/leg and relive the swelling from bleeding in her brain. At this time Shelli is in critical condition. Friends and family are on their way to Montana to be by her side. Please keep Shelli in your prayers. You can help with her recovery bills by donating to her at https://www.gofundme.com/2ptgcefw

If you don't live in New York then you could always fork the project on GitHub and set up your own crowd-sourced traffic violation reporting map in your own city or town.

from one of my favourite sources... http://www.vtpi.org/whoserd.pdf Whose Roads? Evaluating Bicyclists’ and Pedestrians’ Right to Use Public Roadways Victoria Transport Policy Institute from page twelve... 'In 2011 (the latest data available) U.S. governments spent $206 billion on roads and motorists drove 2,946 billion miles, so roadway costs averaged about 7.0¢ per mile (FHWA 2012). During that same year motorists paid $127 billion in road user fees, which averages 4.3¢ per mile – the remaining 2.7¢ spent on roads is from general taxes. A typical motorist who drives 12,000 annual miles imposes $840 in roadway costs, pays $516 in roadway user fees and $224 in general taxes spent on roadways. Non-drivers tend to travel less, people who rely primarily on bicycling for transportation typically ride 3 to 6 miles per day or 1,000 to 2,000 annually. If their costs are an order of magnitude smaller than automobile travel (0.7¢ per mile), a typical cyclist imposes $7 to $14 in roadway costs, and pays $224 in general taxes toward roadways, a significant overpayment. '

Portland police received another call Tuesday morning reporting a clown was riding a bicycle near Highways 109 and 52. The report was false and police found a person riding a bike wearing a safety vest with flashing lights to warn traffic, Heavner said.

Cities around the world are demonstrating that simply changing the rules in favor of cyclists can make roads more welcoming.…streets are already governed by different rules for different users, such as laws that require slower speed limits for big trucks, or that mandate school buses to stop at uncontrolled railway crossings. Rather than demonize cyclists for their inability to conform to rules designed for cars, laws should recognize that riding a bike is different than driving.

Having recently studied for the Irish Driving Theory test, I was impressed by how much of the material was devoted to dealing with cyclists. In fact, next to tractors, cyclists were probably the most frequently mentioned "other" in the questions involving other road users, outnumbering mentions of motorbikes, pedestrians, and horses. Every possible scenario involving an encounter with a cyclist was covered: from how to read hand signals and what sort of maneuvers to expect, to how to overtake a cyclist and what to do when passing is not safe ("be patient and wait; do not sound horn").

The act would permit bicyclists and pedestrians to receive compensation from a driver's insurance as long as the non-motorized party is less than 50 percent at fault. Under current law, a bicyclist or pedestrian deemed 1 percent at fault is ineligible for any compensation. This contributory negligence policy would be replaced by a form of comparative negligence. — https://dcbac.blogspot.com/2016/07/bac-statement-in-support-of.html

Const. Clint Stibbe, spokesperson for Traffic Services of the Toronto Police Service, was unable to say whether 18 is…the most pedestrians struck in a day, but it was well above expectations. “Almost three times higher,” said Stibbe.

Riders like me want to believe we’re doing our part for the environment. We want to believe that having the best equipment is an expression of commitment. But I don’t know a single rider who commutes more than the people I met for this story, who do it purely out of necessity, and who do so on bikes that, while fashioned to look like high-end mountain bikes, are stripped of so many essential engineering details that we’d consider them unreliable, unsafe, and certainly unenjoyable.

Motor City Detroit built the automobiles, oil capital Houston fueled them and Los Angeles was carved up by freeways in their honor. Yet now all three cities are pushing walking, cycling and the use of public transport. So does this mean America’s love affair with the car is finally waning? America’s road trip: will the US ever kick the car habit?

I wonder if this would hold up in Pennsylvania.

“U.S. DOT took an important step to change course, releasing new standards to guide how transportation agencies measure their performance. Advocates for transit and walkability say the policy is a significant improvement. … "The revised U.S. DOT standards will lead agencies to assess their work in ways that support investments in transit and active transportation, according to Stephen Lee Davis at Transportation for America, which led the charge to reform the rule. Keep in mind that funding is not at stake here — U.S. DOT can’t reward or punish state DOTs based on how they perform. But state DOTs will now have to set new goals and report on their progress, and advocates will have new ways to hold transportation policy makers accountable."

U.S. DOT’s new rule…, it’s worth noting, can’t be struck down easily, because it’s the product of a lengthy regulatory process mandated by the 2012 federal transportation bill.

Mr. Wilfred, of the election commission, said Mulayam Singh Yadav could take his pick among several unclaimed symbols, including a light bulb, a toffee, a pressure cooker, a sewing machine, ice cream, bread and cauliflower.

The Philadelphia International Cycling Classic [has been] cancelled for 2017.... Unfortunately, according to press reports, the City was not able to find enough sponsors to host it this year, to pay for the police and other services.... Last time the event was cancelled, the City and Congressman Bob Brady were able to negotiate a deal to bring a race back to Philadelphia. Today, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia is calling upon the City to reconsider the cancellation of the race and find a solution to bring it back this June. That’s why we’ve set up this petition. Sign it and let Philadelphia’s political leadership know that you support finding a way to bring back the Philadelphia International Cycling Classic this year.

A MaxBotix MB1200 XL-MaxSonar-EZ0 temperature-compensated ultrasonic distance sensor, which is accurate to within 1 cm, was used to record, at 10 Hz temporal resolution, the closest object to the right of the bicycle (this study took place in the United Kingdom, where traffic travels on the left and overtakes on the right). This sensor fed into an Arduino Uno prototyping computer running specially written software which recorded to an SD card, 10 times per second, the date and time, the proximity reading from the sensor, and a record of whether or not a button mounted on the bicycle’s handlebars was pressed (see below). Researchers wishing to conduct a similar experiment can construct such a unit for approximately €100, and the plans and software needed to do this can be obtained from the authors, as can software automatically to extract the closest passing proximity for each vehicle.

 Yield to people who are more vulnerable.

True, there’s no cage around the cyclist, but he will often be wearing a helmet, while the pedestrian won’t be. That might be enough to make the pedestrian more vulnerable in a cyclist-vs-pedestrian collision.

not saying that they should not yield to pedestrians. Cyclists should always yield to pedestrians,

• car parking is very expensive
• shopping districts are numerous and compact (narrow streets)
• many people don't own cars
• biking on the sidewalk is accepted

“This is the third time this year that [Montana has] gotten national attention, but for the wrong reasons,” [Melinda Barnes, executive director of Bike Walk Montana,] said. “People are starting to wonder what’s going on up here. It’s entirely possible that riders are just going to avoid coming to Montana.”

this is a misremembering of reality

Washington, D.C. experienced a 70 percent reduction in traffic deaths after installing speed safety cameras. Similarly, Portland, Oregon saw a 53 percent reduction in fatalities after implementing the technology.… AB 342…will allow San José and San Francisco to conduct a five-year pilot program that employs speed safety cameras to supplement traditional traffic enforcement.

I was wondering if anyone has done a study on the effect of liberty bridge closure due to fire last year on driving habits?

perhaps surprisingly, as a city study of Broadway found, there was little noticeable change in travel time for cars in the first few months of the Broadway bike lane pilot, even as three lanes did the work of four. Before the installation, it took an average of 11 minutes and 50 seconds to drive the 2.5-mile stretch from Colfax Avenue downtown to Interstate 25. After, the same distance took an average of 11 minutes and 59 seconds.

Baltimore City is effectively stating the Fire Department needs 20 feet clear to safely fight fires, despite the fact many streets in Baltimore fail to meet this standard, including the streets one block east and west of Potomac Street, which have in places just 9 feet clear. This was not made an issue when miles of reverse angle parking installation, containing thousands of parking spaces, created the same condition as Potomac Street throughout Southeast Baltimore.

was in the front seat of the bus and witnessed the crash. Her account aligns with the video; she said she wanted to make it clear that the "story," as initially reported, "was not correct." "We brushed him causing him to loose [sic] control," she wrote in an email. "I was in the front seat of this bus and witnessed it. He was ahead of us and the driver may have felt that he had enough room to proceed." "He most likely lost control because the bus was inches away. My heart breaks for this man and his family," she added.

If I learn to notice, I can see cyclists who don’t fit the young, rich, white, documented, and male stereotype. I can see folks obliged to ride late at night after the public transit stops. If I learn to look, I can see folks who ride because they don’t have a license. If I stop to notice, I’ll recognize cyclists who ride because it’s cheap transit in an expensive city. If we learn to see everyone who rides at all times and for all reasons, maybe we can also learn to design more just roads and more equitable transit.

You know how to kill a zombie, yes? Just shoot them in the head, remove the brain. Easy.  Easier, anyway, than offing a zombie toll road that has been lurching and moaning ever forward without the good sense to just die already. But — and I can't believe I'm typing this — the giant Trinity River toll road may be days away from its final demise. This is not another tease. This is real. Almost surreal. For years I've taken people down to the floodway and pointed to the earthen levees and said can you freaking believe how foolish this city is for wanting to build a massive highway next to a forever-promised park and a river that's supposed to flood.

Bike trivia Montreal: 1 Groups of cyclists are treated as one vehicle at a stop sign, and only the first member of the group must stop. The rest may follow without stopping. 2. All one way streets have a bike lane allowing cyclists to go against traffic. 3. There are 800 km of bike lanes for Montreal

At some point trucks will all be computer driven...

Even the suggestion that someone is watching us tends to influence us: In 2011, researchers at Newcastle University in England posted pictures of a pair of male eyes and the caption, “Cycle Thieves: We Are Watching You.” Bike thefts decreased by 62 percent in those locations — and not elsewhere.

@jonawebb @ 01/13/2018 at 9:29pm > So weird to read a story where traffic planners treat cycling routes as something to be taken into account when doing mass transit construction. It’s like reading about another country. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2018/01/11/montgomery-plans-new-bike-lanes-to-help-cyclists-during-purple-line-construction

Think of an e-bike as a replacement for a car, not [for] a manually powered bike

The stories told by these kids are troubling: Cops would sometimes open the doors of their police cruisers just as kids go by, knocking them off their bikes. Or, police allegedly pulled their guns and held a group of kids at gunpoint. One said an officer ran after his friend and tackled him off his moving bicycle in the Wells Fargo parking lot off East 14th Street. The kids said San Leandro police officers also sometimes said they were going to give the nice scraper bikes that they confiscated from Oakland youth to their own children. San Leandro police officials did not respond to multiple calls and emails seeking comment for this report.

• force cars to slow down (30 mph or less). In the Netherlands they concluded that "the best way to slow cars down is to throw away all the techniques that traffic engineers developed to make traffic flow quickly."
• congestion zones with variable pricing, for cars
• wide pedestrian sidewalks
• lots of bike lanes

Heather Cook has asked Baltimore Circuit Judge Timothy Doory to change two of her four sentences from consecutive to concurrent status. That could cut two years off the seven-year sentence Doory imposed for the 2014 crash that killed Tom Palermo.

Betsy DeVos involved in a bike crash

1. Speed Control and Separation
2. Functional Harmony
3. Predictability and Simplicity
4. Forgivingness and Restrictiveness
5. State Awareness

https://youtu.be/9goJVi7aXTg

Syracuse, N.Y. — Marshall Street belonged to Elijah “Eli” Harris Jr.

For decades, Harris made the Syracuse street his stage. He played his guitar and sang on Marshall Street before and after games at the Carrier Dome, serenading fans as they passed by.

“He called Marshall Street his alleyway,” said musician Joe Driscoll, “and he appointed himself the musical mayor of the street.”

• Person has more than 5 pounds of the drug. (11 oz or less is misdemeanor in most cases)
• Person has indicated he is not a marijuana user or that the marijuana he has is not for his personal use.
• Marijuana is packaged in such a way as to make distribution easier, or person has packaging materials with him.

North Carolina driver arrested after striking protesters with car

• many are black & brown
• they're having fun in the street but not in cars
• they're easy targets for enforcement
• selective enforcement of dumb, local bike registration law allows it