Category: Bicycle Advocacy
The combined efforts of bicycle advocates and city staffs to encourage bicycling has paid off in 18 cities this fall as the League of American Bicyclists announced the latest round of Bicycle-Friendly Communities.
Two of them — Baltimore and Knoxville — must be given credit for hanging in there to earn the award on their third attempt.
All the cities — there are representatives from north, south, east and west — earned their entrance at the lowest bronze level. Now they can work toward the goal of a silver, gold or platinum level designation. Only Portland, Ore., Davis, Calif., and Boulder, Colo., are at the highest level.
The League also renewed the designations of eight cities — three at the silver level and five at the bronze level …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/09/16/18-more-u-s-cities-earn-bicycle-friendly-stamp-of-approval/
Cash infusions to four bicycle advocacy organizations will help pump up bicycling programs in four communities.
The $103,000 was handed out earlier this month by the Alliance for Biking and Walking as Advocacy Advance grants, funded by SRAM, as well as Bikes Belong and Planet Bike.
The four lucky programs are Bicycle Coalition of Maine, The Community Development Council of Greater Memphis' Livable Memphis Program, the Missouri Foundation for Bicycling and Walking, and the California Bicycle Coalition Education Fund.
“From rural to urban communities, from the coast to the Heartland …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/09/14/more-funding-for-bicycle-advocacy-programs/
Traffic fatalities involving bicyclists dropped 12% in 2009, marking the second lowest number of bicycling deaths recorded by the Department of Transportion in the past 10 years.
Although 630 traffic deaths of bicyclists is still too many, the overall decrease is a good sign considering the increase in cycling that many have observed in the past few years.
The figures were included in a report issued by the Department of Transportation on Thursday that showed the number of people dying on America's highways dropped 9.7% between 2008 and 2009, to its lowest level since 1950.
The decline in bicycling deaths out-paced the rate of decline in most categories ..
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/09/09/bicycle-traffic-fatalities-continued-to-decline-in-2009/
A Warrensburg, Missouri, man is hospitalized with serious injuries after the driver of a Jeep appeared to swerve to hit the man and then fled the scene.
I'm not letting this incident renew my rejected stereotype that Missouri is not friendly toward bicyclists. I just have to remember that this hit-and-run in the western part of the state happened the same day that the community of Hannibal was trying to help out a cross-country bike traveler whose bike and gear had been stolen.
Witnesses said that Michael Martin, 53, was riding his LeMond bicycle east on Business Route 50 when the Jeep approached late Friday morning. One witness told the Daily Star Journal newspaper ….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/09/08/bicyclist-intentionally-struck-by-hit-and-run-driver-in-missouri/
The nation's biggest bike-sharing system yet is scheduled for launch in late September with more than 1,000 bicycles at 114 stations spread across Washington DC and Arlington.
It's the third major bike-sharing system roll-out in 2010. Denver's B-cycle system launched in April with 500 bikes and Nice Ride Minnesota launched in June with 700 bicycles at 65 kiosks around Minneapolis.
Other cities with bike-sharing in the pipeline include Boston and Philadelphia. Even Boulder, a platinum-level bicycle-friendly city, is considering a bike-sharing system.
In 2008, Washington DC became the first city in the US to offer high-tech bike-sharing ….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/09/03/capital-bikeshare-in-metro-dc-arlington-rolls-out-this-month-more-to-come/
Just because Black Hawk, Colorado, banned bicycling on nearly every street through town doesn't mean that they wouldn't welcome a bunch of conventioneering bicycle-types.
That's what Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, learned when he opened an e-mail solicitation from a Black Hawk casino asking him to steer some business its way. His description of Black Hawk sums up his reaction:
“… an unlikely destination for a national bicycling organization to choose for a meeting, unless perhaps we are planning some civil disobedience, or a field trip to see what life would be like …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/09/01/black-hawk-says-no-to-bicycles-but-solicits-bicycle-convention/
When it comes to tripping a traffic signal with your bicycle, many of us get the feeling — “Does anybody know I'm here?”
Those loops in the pavement don't always pick up your bike, especially if it's shy on steel or other metal parts.
Depending on where you live, sometimes pavement markings show where to line up. Placing your front tire on the “T” is supposed to work in Seattle, while “X” marks the spot in Bellevue.
Neighboring Redmond, Washington, has produced a video that gives some guidance on how a cyclist can trigger a stop light if there aren't any pavement markings.
Since July 2009, Washington state law requires that intersections with traffic sensor devices be able to detect bicycles …..
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/09/01/tripping-a-traffic-light-on-your-bike-some-improvements-due/
Albuquerque officially opened a new bicycle bridge over the Rio Grande River on Monday that helps link the city's 400-some miles of bicycle paths and trails.
The $6.9 million bridge just north of I-40 is named for Gail Ryba, the founder of Bike ABQ, the city's first bicycle advocacy group. She died of cancer earlier in May.
The Gail Ryba Memorial Bridge, together with the approaches, is about a mile long. It was built with $5.3 million in federal stimulus funds, along with $1.3 million kicked in by the city.
It provides a central link for the the north-south Paseo Del Bosque Trail …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/08/31/new-bike-bridge-in-albuquerque-dedicated-to-bicycle-advocate-gail-ryba/
Leave it to the Centers for Disease Control to boil down the human toll of highway carnage into cold, hard cash.
A report issued by the agency this month finds that the costs of medical care and lost productivity related to deaths and injuries in crashes surpasses $99 billion a year. Bicyclists' share of that is about $5.4 billion annually.
The study, entitled “Traffic Injury Prevention,” reports that the U.S. is falling behind the traffic safety gains many other developed nations are making.
It concludes that there are some strategies that could save lives and prevent injuries. One of those is mandatory bicycle helmet use. That's definitely a hot-button issue among bicyclists, although the CDC authors focus their discussion on bicycle helmet use among children ….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/08/26/bicycle-injuries-and-fatalities-cost-more-than-5-billion-a-year/
After I noticed this past weekend that Renton had lowered speed limits on the Cedar River Trail to 10 mph and imposed a $101 fine [see Monday's article], I contacted the Cascade Bicycle Club to see if they had an opinion about the city's action.
Here's the response from David Hiller, advocacy director for the Seattle-based bike club:
“We find Renton’s response to be unsound and grossly disproportionate. Though we promptly reached out to staff at the city following the tragic circumstances that led a pedestrian to die from a collision, none of our guidance was taken and, with the exception of one phone call from an apologetic staffer, the promised coordination never materialized.
“We continue to discuss mounting a full scale campaign to get Renton to reverse the course it has taken ….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2010/08/25/cascade-bicycle-club-responds-to-10-mph-speed-limit-on-rentons-cedar-river-rail-trail/
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