Category: Bicycle Advocacy

Hub on Wheels bike ride

One thing that Boston, Kansas City, Midland, Michigan, Salisbury, North Carolina and Oahu all have in common — they want to be considered bicycle-friendly communities.

Putting a label on communities' efforts to achieve accessibility for bicyclists gives them a goal of making it to the League of American Bicyclists honored list. If successful, it also means fewer cars on the road and cleaner air.

The New York Times reported over the weekend on Boston's efforts (“Boston tries to shed longtime reputation as cyclists' minefield”).

Remember the city appearing on a “worst cities to bike” list in Bicycling magazine a few years ago? The city is trying to improve that image, and hired Nicole Freedman, a former Olympic cyclist, as the city’s “bike czar” in 2007 to accomplish that. ….

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A suspected drunken driver is facing murder charges in the death of a bicyclist who was competing in a triathlon in Louisville on Saturday.

The 25-year-old motorist was driving the same car in which he was arrested in June for driving under the influence. He's scheduled for an Aug. 18 hearing in that case.

Dead is John Carr, 47, of Owenton. He leaves behind his wife of 11 years and their two children, aged 7 and 5. … The widow … told a TV station:

“When I looked at him in the face, the only thing I could say to him was that 'You took the life of a man and you took the daddy of a little boy and a little girl that needed him. ….

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The Centers for Disease Control issued 24 recommendations last week that communities could employ to beat one of the nation's biggest health crises — obesity.

In one instance in the report, the CDC suggested that communities build bike lanes and shared paths to encourage folks to get out on their bicycles.

Here's the report's recommendation No. 17 regarding bicycling:

Communities Should Enhance Infrastructure Supporting Bicycling

Overview

Enhancing infrastructure supporting bicycling includes creating bike lanes, shared-use paths, and routes on existing and new roads; and providing bike racks in the vicinity of commercial and other public spaces. Improving bicycling infrastructure can be effective in increasing frequency of cycling for utilitarian purposes ….

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New York City curbed one of the biggest obstacles to riding a bicycle to work — finding a secure place to park your ride.

The Bicycle Access Bill passed by the City Council on Wednesday requires that building owners provide access to freight elevators for bicycle commuters so they can park their bicycles at work. Another bill requires that parking lots with more than 200 spaces create paid bicycle spaces.

Now, with these laws in hand, bicycle advocates across the country can begin work to get similar bills passed in their cities. It only took 16 years in New York.

Even with passage of the bill, bicycle advocates don't expect an easy ride ….

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Remember how the prospect of federal stimulus funding posed such good possibilities for installing more bicycle lanes and creating more bike and pedestrian trails when it was approved in February?

Well, a group named Smart Growth America has analyzed the requests from states for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding and found that only 2.8 percent ($605.4 million) will go toward non-motorized projects.

An even lesser amount 0.9 percent (or $189.4 million) will go toward public transportation projects. The report is summarized at the Smart Growth America blog:

“While some states proved excellent at investing wisely and making progress, most states failed to fulfill pressing transportation needs. ….

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As if the streets are dangerous enough, some nitbrain in Seattle apparently has decided it's great sport to shoot blowgun darts at bicyclists.

Two people riding their bicycles in the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard reported to police that they were hit by 4-inch darts fired from a blowgun on Monday.

Police are investigating the separate attacks against a 29-year-old man and a 39-year-woman as aggravated assaults.

One victim, Avram Dolen, told the Seattle Times …..

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After denying a permit to a charity bicycle ride, commissioners in a Denver metro area county say they'll ask the state legislature to grant counties the power to ban bicycles from county roads of their choice.

The Bicycle Colorado advocacy group says this must not be allowed to happen.

“If such legislation were to pass, county roads anywhere in the state could be closed to bicyclists, including critical cycling routes like Deer Creek Canyon in Jefferson County, Swan Mountain Road in Summit County, Horsetooth Reservoir in Larimer County, and many, many more.”

I'm not familiar with these roads, but it sounds like a big mistake to give counties the right to ban bicycles from certain roads. Bicyclists have paid the taxes, along with other citizens, to build and maintain those county roads, and they have a perfect right to use those roads ….

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Bicycling tends to lend itself to do-it-yourself projects — DIY panniers, DIY tall bikes, DIY bike trailers. Now, we can add DIY bicycle lanes to the list.

Dan Koeppel writes in Bicycling magazine about an experiment in DIY bike lane painting last summer in Los Angeles.

“Do-it-yourself bike lanes are illegal, perhaps dangerous, potentially damaging to the cause of legitimate bike advocates everywhere—and really, really effective.”

Koeppel accompanies a group of bicyclists who are frustrated by the city's inaction on bike infrastructure that's approved in planning documents but never sees the light of day ….

Former King County Executive Ron Sims may have left the Seattle area to work for the Obama Administration, but he's still keeping his bicycling chops in shape.

A Seattle Times profile of Sims in his new job as the No. 2 person in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development pictures Sims with his bicycle heading off to work.

Here's a file photo (via WSDOT) of Sims at the kick-off of the Green Bike Project in Seattle last summer. It was just one of a number of bicycle projects that Sims advocated during this tenure in King County.

In the past I've written that the best way to promote bicycling in an area is to get elected officials on bikes …