Category: Bicycle Advocacy
The Maryland House of Delegates is the latest legislature to take up the road safety issue that motorists must give bicycle riders a 3-foot clearance when passing.
Three-foot passing laws are in effect in at least a dozen states. Meanwhile, BIcycle Colorado distributes these nifty window stickers to car owners who purchase “Share the Road” license plates.
The Maryland bill is a top priority of One Less Car, which helped the Maryland Department of Transportation draft. It died in the House Environmental Matters Committee last year, so advocates are asking Maryland residents to contact their delegates, especially those on the committee …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/02/27/3-foot-passing-battle-for-bicycles-shaping-up-in-maryland/
“Please Do Not Run Me Over” is the title on an essay that Austin Miller of Beaverton, Oregon, wrote for his high school newspaper last year.
It surfaced again this week in Portland media outlets after the 15-year-old sophomore at the Art and Communication Magnet Academy was struck and killed by a bus while pedaling home from school on Feb. 11.
The story by the young bicycling enthusiast tells about a fictional town where the inhabitants abandoned their bicycles for motor vehicles. He later goes on to write about the poor state of motorist-biker relations and the need for bike lanes …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/02/27/teen-cyclist-killed-in-bus-collision-wrote-prophetic-essay/
The city of Ota in Japan thought it could help people who needed a ride around downtown by setting up a free bicycle loan program using abandoned bikes that had been repainted yellow.
The program started with 30 bicycles in mid-November. Within two months, all but three were missing.
That's an amazing rate of disappearance, but missing bicycles are common in yellow bike programs in the US. Since there's always a ready supply of discarded bicycles, the Austin Yellow Bike Program, for instance, simply puts more bikes on the street …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/02/26/how-to-deal-with-disappearing-yellow-bikes/
Do the Clinton-Obama or McCain-Huckabee campaigns get your political juices boiling? How would you like to direct a campaign that will make a real difference.
America Bikes, a national coalition of bicycle and trail groups, is looking for a campaign director to dramatically improve funding for bicycling in the next federal transportation authorization bill, expected to go to Congress in 2009.
By ensuring that the transportation funding bill is bicycle-friendly, the group says the campaign director “will help address a number of key problems facing the United States, including climate change, dependence on foreign oil, road congestion, air quality, and childhood obesity. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/02/22/campaign-director-sought-for-america-bikes/
If you're bicycling around Pierce County in Washington state, keep an eye open for a maroon Mercedes Benz with some body damage and try to get a plate number.
The car's driver is the latest weasel to hit someone, move the bike and/or victim, then take off. And there's a $1,000 reward offered.
The 67-year-old bicycle rider was struck at the intersection of Ramsdell Street and Contra Costa Avenue in Fircrest about 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning. A streak of blood at the scene indicates someone from the car dragged the victim and her bike to the curb…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/02/20/hit-and-run-victim-and-her-bike-dragged-out-of-road/
When Trek president John Burke urged the bicycle industry to create a bike friendly world, the Canadians were listening.
The Bicycle Trade Association of Canada has awarded $25,000 to six different advocacy programs that put people back on two wheels.
The nonprofit group for suppliers and retailers sponsors the ExpoCycle (Canada's bike trade show) and lobbies the government on cycling issues. They issued the grants in advocacy, education and facility enhancement…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/02/19/canadian-bike-friendly-programs-win-grants/
What is it about hitting a bicyclist that causes some people not to stop and try to help? A GhostCycle.org survey revealed that one in five bike accidents involving another vehicle were hit-and-run. Here are two recent cases that are particularly despicable:
Police in Beaumont, Texas, have a suspect in a Saturday night hit-and-run that killed a 26-year-old man who was riding a bicycle. According to witnesses, the woman stopped after striking the man and dragging him for 20 feet, pulled his bicycle out from under the car, then continued on her way. ….
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A 23-year-old Oshkosh, Wisconsin, man faces the possibility of 25 years, 6 months in prison and $101,100 in fines. He's charged with hit-and-run causing a death and his second offense of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/02/13/motorists-who-dont-stop-after-hitting-bicycle-riders/
The city of London is taking a tip from the Parisians and will begin an urban bicycle rental program using 6,000 bicycles in the summer of 2010.
The bike rental plan is just one part of $1 billion that London Mayor Ken Livingstone wants to invest in bicycling in order to cut 60% of carbon emissions in the city by 2025.
The bikes being considered won't be stylish. They're described as “grannyish,” with heavy frames, front baskets and mudguards. Said one advocate: “We want to encourage the view of bicycles as a tool rather than a fashion accessory….
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/02/12/london-will-go-into-bike-rental-business-in-2010/
If you're ever looking for a reason why it's good to have elected officials who share your passion for riding a bike, here's one:
Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley is a bike enthusiast who helped put the city on the League of American Bicyclist's Bicycle Friendly Community list in 2005. Now he wants to beef up penalties for motorists who recklessly endanger bicyclists.
Daley has proposed fines of $150 — $500 if there's a bike crash — against motorists who open car doors in front of cyclists, turn in front of them or pass too close…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/02/07/chicago-mayor-proposes-stiff-fines-for-endangering-cyclists/
It's all about the bicycle in Davis. I visited the college town last week to get a glimpse of what life would be like in the US if everyone decided to stop feeding ExxonMobil's profits and turned to bicycling instead.
It was perfect, two-wheeled bliss. Miles of bicycle lanes criss-cross the town and acres of bike parking are spread across the UC-Davis campus.
This is the bicycle-friendliest community in the US. That's not me saying it. The League of American Bicyclists bestowed the “platinum level” to Davis in the Bicycle Friendly program in 2005.
With just a couple of hours to visit Davis, I rented a bike…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2008/02/06/a-platinum-level-bike-ride-through-davis-california/
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