advocacy

Bike rack instructional video brings the groove

Bike rack instructional video brings the groove: TARC raps on bike rack
Louisville’s TARC employees hope a new rap video will teach bus riders how to use the bike racks that have been installed on many city buses, according to an agency spokeswoman.

The video, which features TARC employees singing and dancing, has only been released online, and there are no plans to pay for television advertising spots, said Nina Walfoort, a TARC spokeswoman. [As a multimodal commuter myself… it’s really nice to the folks in the transit agencies getting involved. I’d love to see a video like this produced by New York’s Finest. I guess I should add that the video is awful form an intructional standpoint, never clearly showing you all the steps required, but then I’d guess that it’s not all that hard to figure out, even under the pressure of waiting bus.]
Source: Bike Commute Tips Blog

A year before the tragedy, Austin Miller wrote “Please Do Not Run Me Over”

A year before the tragedy, Austin Miller wrote “Please Do Not Run Me Over”: A year before a tragic fate befell Austin Miller, the 15 year-old Beaverton student wrote an opinion article on bike safety for his school newspaper titled, “Please Do Not Run Me Over.”

Writing under the pseudonym “Charlie Elsewhere”, the article (full text below) was published in The Savant, the school newspaper at the Art and Communication Magnet Academy in Beaverton, where Miller was a sophomore.

Reading through it, I had mixed emotions. As a father, I found it chilling and immensely sad. As a bike advocate, I found it frustrating. [It is to weep.]

City’s two-wheel transformation

City’s two-wheel transformation | UK news | The Guardian: Planners hope the changes will encourage a “critical mass” of cyclists to use the routes, creating a safe and accessible environment as well as cutting congestion and pollution across London. “We are aiming to make cycling part of public transport and if we can get even 5% of people out of their cars, off the tubes and buses and on to bikes it will mean 1.7m cycle trips in London every day,” said Mark Watts, transport adviser to the mayor. [London is so far ahead of New York right now. So far.]

Missing: Urban Policy in the Presidential Campaign

Missing: Urban Policy in the Presidential Campaign: It’s not a new problem. For more than a generation, presidential aspirants have mostly resisted acknowledging the importance of the cities’ well being. Blame the front-loading of the primary season with rural states, or electoral and legislative systems that give disproportionate weight to sparsely populated states. Whatever the reason, it is shortsighted. According to Bruce Katz, co-author of a Brookings Institution study promoting investment in metropolitan areas, the largest 100 cities and their surrounding communities are home to 65 percent of the nation’s population and account for about 75 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. [Here’s a chance for a candidate to really separate themselves.]
Source: StreetsBlog

Bike Writers Collective — Cyclists’ Bill of Rights

Bike Writers Collective: NOW, THEREFORE, WE THE CYCLING COMMUNITY, do hereby claim the following rights:

  1. Cyclists have the right to travel safely and free of fear.
  2. Cyclists have the right to equal access to our public streets and to sufficient and significant road space.
  3. Cyclists have the right to the full support of educated law enforcement.
  4. Cyclists have the right to the full support of our judicial system and the right to expect that those who endanger, injure or kill cyclists be dealt with to the full extent of the law.
  5. Cyclists have the right to routine accommodations in all roadway projects and improvements.
  6. Cyclists have the right to urban and roadway planning, development and design that enable and support safe cycling.
  7. Cyclists have the right to traffic signals, signage and maintenance standards that enable and support safe cycling.
  8. Cyclists have the right to be actively engaged as a constituent group in the organization and administration of our communities.
  9. Cyclists have the right to full access for themselves and their bicycles on all mass transit with no limitations.
  10. Cyclists have the right to end-of-trip amenities that include safe and secure opportunities to park their bicycles.
  11. Cyclists have the right to be secure in their persons and property, and be free from unreasonable search and seizure, as guaranteed by the 4th Amendment.
  12. Cyclists have the right to peaceably assemble in the public space, as guaranteed by the 1st Amendment.

And further, we claim and assert these rights by taking to the streets and riding our bicycles, all in an expression of our inalienable right to ride! [Good stuff. Fight the good fight. Some of it is silly in that we already have these rights, but I believe what they are saying is that there seems to be the age old bias about “different” and how folks are treated. Just as with race, gender, color, etc. cyclists are seen as a group “separate” from normal folks, and therefore treated as “less than” by many. That really has to stop.]

Super Tuesday

Super Tuesday: If you partake in Critical Mass and you dont didnt excersise your duty to vote, you are a total douche bag.
A record number of women didnt vote in the last presidential election, nor did voters age 18 to 24.
I have a easier time dealing with somebody who voted for Bush than somebody who didnt vote at all.
All Im saying is that registering to vote is not that hard. [The first sentence is particularly to the point. It’s easy to feel like you’re doing something when you join a protest ride or march of any sort. But the fundamental way to change life in this country is through voting. Please get involved.]
Source: How to Avoid the Bummer Life

Vision Zero

The Washington Post Writers Group: “Vision Zero” — no more deaths from highway accidents. The idea was born in Sweden, where it’s had spectacular success in reducing traffic fatalities. Now zeroing out all traffic fatalities must become an explicit U.S. and worldwide goal. Otherwise we have no prospect of taming the appalling roadway death toll — 42,000 lives lost yearly in the United States, close to 1.2 million worldwide. [snip -ed]

How did the Swedes do it? Tough seat belt and helmet laws, to be sure. But they’ve also begun to remake their roadways. Red lights at intersections (which encourage drivers to accelerate dangerously to “beat the light”) are being replaced with traffic circles. Four-foot high barriers of lightweight but tough Mylar are being installed down the center of roadways to prevent head-on collisions. On local streets, narrowed roadways and speed bumps, plus raised pedestrian crosswalks, limit speeds to a generally non-lethal 20 miles an hour.

[As said… imagine if that 42,000 death toll was from Jet crashes? Or a drug? Why is it an acceptable part of our lives since it comes from traffic? That’s an awful lot of maximal system failures. We need to do better, and it starts with a Vision Zero plan for the country. Who’s going to step up? So many roads in my neighborhood are barely safe because of the style of driving they reinforce. Walking is extremely dangerous during the day and nearly suicidal at night. Bike riding is horrendously dangerous at all times. Parking lot driving habits are awful… and the lots themselves are poorly designed. We must stop the madness.]