Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: energy, peak oil, transportation, urban cycling, vehicle miles traveled, Vmt
Interesting times, exhibit 67.
Via http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/travel_monitoring/12jultvt/index.cfm
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alliance for Biking and Walking, bicycle infrastructure, bicycling advocacy, bicycling infrastructure, Bikes Belong, cycling, LAB, lobbyists, urban cycling, wheelmen
Ho hum.
Some months ago there was a lot of talk of three of the major cycling advocacy groups in the United States merging to form a super-group. Now, after months of steady dialogue and face-to-face meetings, the leaders of the Alliance for Biking & Walking, Bikes Belong and League of American Bicyclists have decided not to pursue full unification at this time….
via Proposed merger of three major advocacy groups now unlikely | Bicycle Times Magazine.
Filed under: maps | Tags: 2012 Denver bike map, Bike Denver, bike map, bike maps, bike routes Denver, biking, city bicycling, cycling, denver, Denver bike routes, map, pdf, transportation, urban bicycling, urban cycling
Via Bike Denver. Download: http://www.bikedenver.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/Bike_Map_Final_2012_Final.pdf
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: accident statistics, atrocities, bicycle, bicycling collisions, cameras, car-bike collisions, GoPro, helmet cam, helmet cam videos, Hero camera, Hollywood, paranoia big destroya, road rage, script writing, traffic accidents, urban cycling, wheels
Go Pro … or Go Paranoid?
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/07/20/technology/100000001638549/cameras-on-wheels.html
If you ride bikes regularly: Sickening video clips of car-bike crashes.
If you write Hollywood scripts: Comedy gold!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle, bicycle parking, bicycling, bike parking, bike racks, bike theft, cycling, denver, Downtown Denver Partnership, dumb racks, pedalcycle, urban cycling
The Downtown Denver Partnership advises cyclists to lock bikes to bike racks rather than trees, street lights or other sidewalks furnishings. There are 600 racks scattered throughout downtown Denver.
via More cyclists in Denver — and record numbers of bicycle thefts – Denver News – The Latest Word.
You mean one of these racks….
HURST CAN COMPLAIN ABOUT ANYTHING. In other downtown abominations, check out these new racks, which have plates welded where one would most like … to stick … one’s … lock. I should be happy you say, grateful that these things are being installed — racks is racks right? I mean, they are still useable. Unfortunately I can’t get past the sheer stupidity represented in these curious artifacts. Every time I am compelled to use one I find myself grumbling, so I avoid contact.
As the sticker there proudly proclaims, they are brought to you by the Downtown Denver Business Improvement District, an organization which until now has seemed to view bicycling as a hindrance to business, something to be stamped out rather than facilitated. These pants-suited business boosters never exhibited any appreciation for potential customers on bikes, or the workers downtown, from lawyers to dishwashers, who use bikes to get to their jobs. They certainly had little appreciation for the messengers who served their tenants, I mean overlords. Then the cycling renaissance of the ’00s took the BID by surprise. What are all these people doing riding bikes around down here? Now they present these awkward racks to their friends the cyclists with the prime rack area welded shut to create a place to put their sticker or some other form of advertisement. Am I on hidden camera here? This is a bit like getting a delicious sandwich with a huge bite taken out, and a sticky note there with ‘Brought to You by Mo’s Deli’ written on it. And of course the racks are popping up everywhere — except where they would be most useful. That’s about a D+ for execution, BID.
from http://www.industrializedcyclist.com/92809_Hope_You_Had_a_Nice.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bici, bicycling, bicycling in the city, bike rental, bike share, Bike sharing, bikes, biking, Chris Holben, Citibike, city biking, District of Columbia, NYC, transportation, urban cycling, Washington, Washington D.C.
Whereas, if you look at the actual facts presented in this USA Today article, the bike share program in question is incredibly safe.
Washington’s Capital Bikeshare program began in September 2010, has grown to include more than 1,500 bicycles and recently recorded its 2 millionth ride. At the same time, bicycle-related accidents have increased on city D.C. roads.
Bicycle-related accidents have increased from 312 in 2009 to 601 in 2011, according to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. Pedestrian-related accidents also rose from 657 in 2009 to 935 in 2011.
…
Chris Holben , a bicycle program specialist for the District Department of Transportation, says Washington has actually become safer since the number of people riding their bikes has increased. He said only 24 Bikeshare crashes have been reported to police since the program stated.
So that’s roughly 1 reported crash per 100,000 trips! And even those are likely to be minor crashes. Oooh, danger. Hope they’re all wearing their helmets…
Now check out the headline:
via Bike sharing stokes conflict between drivers, cyclists – USATODAY.com.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle safety, bicycling, bike, Bike accidents, bike commuting, Bike to Work Day, car versus bike, car-bike collisions, common sense, cycling, denver, energy, Linkhart, looked-but-failed-to-see errors, Mayor Hancock, transportation, urban cycling
He was my favorite mayoral candidate. He has almost no TV charisma, which is a major plus for a public official. He would have made a fine mayor. He liked libraries.
Fortunately, he’s fine, but the incident did prompt a conversation between council members and the mayor about road safety regulations and the interactions between cyclists and vehicles.
…During which, of course, scofflaw bicyclists somehow came out the villains, and education and/or reprogramming of scofflaw bicyclists was re-hurled to the tippy top of the bike safety priority list. This even though Linkhart’s crash (1) did not involve a scofflaw bicyclist and (2) car-bike crashes involving adult bicyclists typically do not. The most likely scenario for an adult bicyclist is to be caught out by another road user’s looked-but-failed-to-see error while riding lawfully. But hey, we’ve all seen bicyclists run lights right? People like Mayor Hancock make no attempt to understand the truth about urban cycling safety. Why bother — everyone knows it’s “common sense.” Common sense is good politics. Let’s not let any facts get in the way of our “common sense” about bicycle safety.
According to Linkhart, he was heading west on 23rd Avenue — on a bike route — approaching Downing Street when a pickup truck went to make a left turn and collided with him.
“I was going straight. He turned left in front of me, and…hit me across the side, and I fell down,” Linkhart recalls.
… Linkhart was scraped up badly, his bike got a bit bent and he had to get several stitches in his leg.
“I kinda went flying,” he said. “I kind of plowed into the sidewalk. I had a helmet, which didn’t help.”
Linkhart, going straight, had the right of way over the pickup truck, which was turning left.
23rd and Downing is classic left cross territory. I’ve been through that intersection a hundred times. Got to ‘keep your head on a swivel’ so to speak.
via Westword Doug Linkhart, ex-councilman, hit while cycling to Bike To Work Day event – Denver News – The Latest Word.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: April 2012, bicycling, cars, DOT, peak oil, transportation, urban cycling, USDOT, vehicle miles traveled, Vmt
The latest govt. numbers. April ’12 down a little over April ’11. 53 months and counting.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: driving in the United States, federal gas tax, gas taxes, peak oil, road maintenance, road repair, transportation, urban cycling, Vmt, VMT tax
A tax based on miles driven. This also seems to imply GPS tracking of individual vehicles. Politicians can’t even propose an increase in the gas tax which is unreasonably low. So don’t hold your breath on a VMT tax with privacy issues.
The efforts are being prompted by the fact that gasoline taxes no longer provide enough money to pay for roads and bridges — especially when Congress and many state legislatures are reluctant to increase taxes imposed on each gallon. The federal tax of 18.4 cents a gallon hasn’t been raised in nearly two decades. More than half the states have not raised their gas tax this millennium. Fuel-efficiency also is behind the efforts. Electric-powered vehicles are growing in numbers.
We can hear about gains in ‘efficiency’ because that’s something the politicians want to take credit for.
What the politicians/media studiously ignore, for reasons I’ll leave you to ponder: VMT (vehicle miles traveled) has been below its previous peak for about 4 years, after climbing almost uninterrupted for a half century or more, which is remarkable. People are driving less. Probably this has a great deal to do with the increase in people sitting on their couches instead of going to jobs; the demography of our aging population; and the cultural shift away from teen driving; as well as the price of fuel.
via States explore new ways to tax motorists for road repair – USATODAY.com.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bici, bicycling, Bike sharing, bikeshare, biking, cycling, green transportation, transportation, urban cycling
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/29/hurt-capital-bikeshare-is-making-biking-ugly-smugl/
Unlike Sarah Palin or Tina Fey, or whoever it was, I really can see Russia from my front porch. Or, at least, I can see broken-down socialism.
That is because across the street from my house on Capitol Hill is a loud, clanging “Capital Bikeshare” docking station. It is one of the locking ports for those fat, red communal bicycles you see peddled all over town by commune enthusiasts. (Say that fast, and it sounds like you are saying “commun-ists.”)
For a small membership fee, users can pick up a bike at any of 165 such docking stations and proudly pedal themselves to work, school or to pick up Chinese food.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: active commuting, biblioteca, bicycle, bicycling, bike, biking, ciclista, ciclistas urbanos, cycling, gob mx, green transportation, Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico City bicycling manual, Mexico D.F., transportation, urban biking, urban cycling
(En Espanol)
http://www.sma.df.gob.mx/sma/links/download/biblioteca/flippingbooks/manual_ciclista_urbano/
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycling, bike share, bikeshare, Citi, Felix Salmon, New York City, NYC bikeshare, The Art of Urban Cycling, transportation, urban cycling
He noticed, it’s kind of expensive.
The first trip you take, on one of the new New York bikes, will cost you at least $10, and possibly as much as $95. Cab rides don’t cost much more than that, and you can fit four people in a cab. Experienced urban cyclists like me will definitely cough up the $95, even if that hurts a little, because we know how convenient it can be to be able to take one-way bike trips in Manhattan, especially if it’s going to rain later, or if you don’t like biking back in the dark, or if you got in to work on the subway but then just need to go a mile or so to your lunch meeting.
But the great promise of the bikeshare scheme is that it will get people onto bikes who have never biked before — people who are generally very nervous about biking at all on busy urban streets. Those people are going to want to try before they buy, and the $10 cost of a trial one-day membership is high enough to give them a good excuse not to bother.
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/05/15/bikeshare-pricing-charts-of-the-day/
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alex Gallegos, bicycling Detroit, bikes in Detroit, Detroit Bike City, urban cycling
Detroit Bike City, by Alex Gallegos:
Detroit Bike City from Alex Gallegos on Vimeo.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycling, bike share, San Francisco, urban bicycling, urban cycling
https://twitter.com/streetsblogsf/status/182520096361676800
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle, bicycling, bike, India, samajwadi, urban cycling
Here’s something you don’t see every day.
SAMAJWADI PARTY :: OFFICIAL WEBSITE.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle commuting, bicycle mode share, bicycle ridership, bicycling, bike commuting, cycling, Oregon, patterns of use, Portland, urban cycling
A measure of commuter cycling, from the new City of Portland bike count report:
click to enlarge
See The Industrialized Cyclist Bicycling Research Page to download the report, and just about any other report you may want.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycle, bicycling, bikes and red lights, cycling, France, Idaho stop, red lights, traffic law, transportation, urban cycling
France gets all reasonable about bicycles and red lights.
The newly relaxed rules of the road for cyclists is now being tested across 15 intersections in Paris, though with it bike-commuters aren’t given full liberty to blow through crossing points unreasonably. Law will continue to require that cyclists yield to pedestrians and opposing traffic, though that’s quite likely consistant with the standards of etiquette and personal safety most cyclists abide to anyways.
via France Grants Cyclists the Right to Run Red Lights : TreeHugger.
Maybe now American advocacy groups will get behind the idea. They haven’t in the past. But they seem to love anything remotely Euro-flavored, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this caused a noticeable uptick in Idaho Stop-related chatter around here.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bicycling, bike commuting, bike lanes, bike snob, Doig, Salon, urban cycling
“Are urban bicyclists just elite snobs?” by Will Doig, Salon, December 4, 2011
The sensationalistic headline hides a rational column and an interesting take on bike lanes from a confessed beginner commuter…
Industrialized Cyclist Notepad 