Turn Right at the Fork in the Road

By baw_admin | Published July 20, 2010

A couple years ago I was driving my bike to work with my daughter on the trail-a-bike. We turned left and nearly ran into a fork in the road. Someone, perhaps a drunk college student had put a fork in the road between some cracks so that it sat upright. It just so happens that there were some construction workers near that intersection so I biked by and told one “there’s a fork in the road back there, no really, someone put a fork in the road and it’s sticking straight up”!

We rode on laughing at the funny sight. I pass by that spot nearly every day on my commute to work,  and I can’t help but smile to myself when I remember the funny situation. My daughter will sometimes remark “remember when there was a fork in the road” and laugh out loud. Of course I’m laughing even harder since she has no idea that ‘fork in the road’ means something else.


Being closer and more in touch with the surrounding environment is one thing I love about being on a bike. Had I been in my car it is unlikely I would have seen the fork.

What is the funniest or most random thing you’ve seen while on a bike?

Posted in Commuting, Go By Bike, Humor | 3 Comments

Cyclists Make Drivers Uncomfortable

By Louise McGrody | Published July 19, 2010

A Pemco Insurance poll has revealed what many of us already know—most motorists are uncomfortable driving around bicyclists and they do not understand the rules of road as they relate to biking. The Puget Sound Business Journal did a short piece on the Pemco poll last week.

Forty-two percent of the respondents described themselves as “somewhat uncomfortable” when bicyclists are present on the road while they are driving. Twenty percent said they are “very uncomfortable.”

Only 23 percent know that it’s legal for cyclists to ride two abreast in a traffic lane. Forty-eight percent responded “false.”

Over one-third of the respondents don’t know that it’s illegal for a cyclist to ride against traffic. Only 23 percent responded “false” (correct answer) to the statement, “Bicyclists can be ticketed for riding their bikes in a crosswalk.” Entire poll results are here.

“It’s good to have this data because it shows the need for education,” said Washington Bikes board member Eileen Hyatt of Spokane.

Hyatt is a retired teacher and League Certified Instructor who successfully brought bicycle safety education into school districts around Spokane. She is working with the Bicycle Alliance to expand this program into other schools around Washington State.

The Bicycle Alliance is also acting to educate motorists on how to safely share the road with bicyclists. Working with the Department of Licensing, we have successfully incorporated “share the road” curriculum in all drivers’ education courses. We distribute thousands of Motorists/Bicyclists Tips for Sharing the Road each year. We are now working with legislators to make it a requirement to include “share the road” curriculum in traffic school programs.

Is there a noteworthy skills training or Share the Road program in your community?

Is your community in need of a Share the Road campaign?

What else might be done to make all users of the road comfortable and tolerant of each other?

Posted in Education, Issues & Advocacy, Kids, Legal, Safety, Share the Road | 3 Comments

True or False?

By baw_admin | Published July 16, 2010

Pearls Before Swine Cyclist Comic

Every time I see this comic, I chuckle. Humor aside, though, I think it raises an interesting point. Is this how non-bicyclists view bicyclists? Do we, cyclists, deserve this reputation? What should we do to change this perception?

Posted in Attitudes | Comments Off on True or False?

Ahead of the Curve? Missouri County wants to ban bikes from roads

By Louise McGrody | Published July 15, 2010

St Charles County, Missouri, lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban bicycles from certain two-lane highways in the county.  The effort is spearheaded by Councilman Joe Brazil, who claims this is the number one complaint he gets from his constituents. 

“There’s no shoulders.  There’s limited sight distance.  The speed limit’s 55 mph.  It’s very dangerous to be riding bicycles on these roads.  And you’re putting motorists in danger,”  Brazil was quoted in local TV coverage.  The bill is also supported by the parents of a teenaged motorist who was seriously injured when she swerved to avoid hitting a bicyclist.

Missouri Department of Transportation officials say the county doesn’t have the authority to ban bikes from state highways.  County council remains undeterred and plans to revisit the proposal in August.  Read more of the story.

Is St Charles County an anomaly or ahead of the curve?  Sadly, the casino town of Black Hawk, Colorado, has banned bike riding on almost every street in town and police started issuing tickets in June.  Here’s a report from the Denver Post.  Bicycle Colorado is challenging the ban. This sort of knee-jerk reaction is in marked contrast to US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood’s support of complete streets and biking as transportation. 

Let’s ensure that forward and sensible minds prevail.  Speak up for bicycling in your community.  Thank your local officials when they support bicycling.  Contact the Washington Bikes when cycling is threatened in your community.

Posted in Attitudes, Issues & Advocacy, Legal, Safety, Share the Road, Transportation | Comments Off on Ahead of the Curve? Missouri County wants to ban bikes from roads

Transporting Valuables by Bike

By Mary Anderson | Published July 14, 2010

This post isn’t about carrying computers, groceries, speakers or projectors, all of which I have trekked across town by bike. This is about something much more valuable–my daughter.

First ride, I promise she eventually stopped crying.

About 5.5 years ago my husband and I bought a Topeak child bike carrier. I went back and forth between a trailer and a seat that sits on the parents rear rack. When it came down to it I decided to get the seat for two reasons, one being money. We had about $100 to spend, I had been looking for used trailers for months to no avail. Reason number two was the bus. Thankfully I had the foresight to work that into the equation. The bike with the rear seat fit nicely on the bus rack, a trailer does not.

I happened to be at REI one day and saw the Topeak seat. I had a 20% off coupon and decided to go for it. It was $125, we eventually bought an additional rear rack for my husband’s bike at Fairhaven Bike and Ski for $40. We used that seat for 3 years, riding to daycare, the park, the store, and friends houses. Then one day a friend of mine said he’d sell me his Adams Trail a Bike.

I was ecstatic!  I had been wanting to buy one for awhile, but couldn’t afford it. The timing was perfect as Bike to Work and School Day was the following week. Izzie would often tell me how excited she was to be able to pedal with me. It wasn’t all fun and games though, we lived in a second story apartment so every morning and evening I had to haul both my bike and the trail a bike up and down the stairs. It was hard work, but worth it!!

The trail a bike worked great for us, we ended up using it through this spring. Even though Izzie could ride her own bike just fine, because she went to after school day care we couldn’t leave her bike at school.

One of the reasons I chose the YMCA summer camp is that the drop off location is only a few blocks from my work. I knew we’d be able to easily bike there. I was ready to take the leap and have her ride her own bike along side me to downtown Bellingham.

Eeks!

This is scary even for a seasoned commuter/bike advocate. She rides her bike around the neighborhood all the time, and has ridden to school, I knew she’d be fine. It would be about a 2 mile ride, partly on trails, partly with bike lanes, and one questionable spot. I planned out the route and we did it. It was great, and we ended up walking our bikes on the sidewalk for a short section
(busy street/intersection).

I often have parents ask me what age children can/should ride on their own bikes. Honestly the answer really depends on the kid. Parents know their kids best. How well can they handle their bikes, are they very comfortable and in control, or nervous and wobbly? Do they know the rules of the road? Some bicycle educators recommend that kids start riding on the street around age 8, others say 10. My daughter is 7 (8 in September). Depending on the street she is either on the sidewalk, with me riding to her left, in front of me, or we ride two abreast, with her to my right.

As hard as it is to see her grow up so fast, I am excited for this new phase in our bike commuting lives.

Posted in Commuting, Gear/Maintenance, Go By Bike, Kids, Whatcom County | 1 Comment

Pants or No Pants?

By baw_admin | Published July 13, 2010

If you’re a bicyclist, you’ll know that excellent feeling of accomplishment when you wear the right clothes for the conditions. As a year-round commuter in Massachusetts and now Washington, I adopted the threadbare but still true axiom that there was no bad weather, just wrong clothing choices.

Here are a few examples of the types of weather I’ve ridden in.
Stupid Snow Defeat
Conditions: Sleet storms when icicles formed on my helmet, sheets of ice coated my arms and bike, and only my monster studded tires kept me upright. (The picture above shows a real snowy day I attempted to ride to work, but it took 20 minutes to ride 1 mile, and I had a 13-mile commute. Part of winning a battle is knowing when to retreat.)
Clothing: Long-sleeve wool jersey, Gore-Tex jacket, two layers of gloves, fluffy ear warmers, bike shorts, long bike pants with nylon fronts and warm fuzzy insides, two pairs of wool socks, Gore-Tex hiking boots.

Conditions: 10°F, sunny, with a 10-mph headwind, when people in cars wore heavy layers and I couldn’t keep my glasses from fogging up every time I paused.
Clothing: Too many layers to count, and still my fingers and toes had an alarming white look to them when I finally got to work.

Conditions: Steady, relentless rain and 45°F, with wind so gusty and nasty that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep my bike on the road.
Clothing: Gore-Tex jacket, thick non-waterproof pants, lightweight long-sleeve shirt and bike shorts; one pair of wool socks and booties.

Conditions: Flood water up to my axles, across roads so deep people in Explorers didn’t brave it.
Clothing: Bike shorts and jersey; summer-weight socks and clip-in shoes.

Conditions: Muggy 90°F temperatures that left my arms and legs slick with that nasty sweat-and-sunscreen that seems to have a La Brea tar pit-like fascination to tiny bugs.
Clothing: Bike shorts and jersey; summer-weight socks and clip-in shoes; sunblock.

Cape Cod Getaway 3
Of course, I’ve also ridden in innumerable beautiful days ranging from 30°F to 80°F — days where I’ve wondered, “Why would anybody choose to drive on a day this gorgeous?” (The picture at right shows me on my first-ever two-day ride, the MS Cape Cod Getaway in 2008, one of those delightful days when the weather cooperates perfectly.)

All this to say that, in general, I have a pretty good idea of what clothes work well in what conditions. Yet this morning, I completely misjudged the weather. Instead of having a comfortable ride in the rain, I arrived at work more than damp, having eschewed jacket and dry foot covering for an optimistic vest and sandals. Why, why, why (I asked myself) did I not wear a jacket? Because (I answered myself) it is JULY, and I shouldn’t still need my jacket and long pants.

Have you ever worn exactly the wrong clothes? What was your excuse rationale for choosing the wrong thing?

Posted in Commuting, Gear/Maintenance | 1 Comment

Right turn on red: a bad idea whose time has come and gone?

By baw_admin | Published July 12, 2010



“California’s greatest contribution to Western culture,” Woody Allen is said to have observed, “is the legal right turn on a red light.”
The accuracy of Mr. Allen’s Manhattan-centric snub of the West Coast is debatable. But so, too, is his suggestion that allowing drivers to make right turns on red is a positive thing.
Most American drivers, other than people of a certain age who grew up on the East Coast, are probably baffled that anyone would question this basic right, which they no doubt believe is enshrined somewhere in the Constitution.
It’s true that we Americans (except those of us who live in New York City) have been making right turns on red for a long time—beginning with drivers in the State of California in 1939. Other Western states soon followed California’s lead, with those in the East being slower to adapt. Finally, federal legislation prompted by the 1970s energy crises and signed by President Gerald Ford made right-turn-on-red the norm nationwide.
(Interestingly, this artifact of the 70s energy crunch remains intact long after the national 55-mph speed limit, estimated to have saved about 167,000 barrels of oil per day, was eliminated. But I digress.)
Outside of North America, however, right-turn-on-red is not recognized as a universal human right. European Union countries, for instance, generally forbid it outright—much to the consternation of visiting American motorists, and much to the delight of visiting American pedestrians.
What’s so wrong with right turns on red, anyway? Well, nothing, if you transport yourself entirely by automobile. But for pedestrians and cyclists it’s something else entirely.
How many times have you been about to step into a crosswalk, only to be driven back by a right-turning driver rolling through the red light without looking in your direction? Cyclists who use bike paths that parallel city streets face the same danger. When I rode my bike to work on the Alaskan Way pedestrian-bike path in downtown Seattle, I probably would have gotten nailed twice a day by right-turning drivers if I hadn’t been on the lookout.
Recent North American statistics, insofar as they are available and accurate, suggest that right-turn-on-red drivers don’t kill a large number of pedestrians and cyclists. But maybe that’s just because American pedestrians and cyclists are constantly on the lookout for errant motorists. Our motto: “Paranoia breeds confidence.”
Other than reducing the paranoia factor of urban American pedestrians (a laudable goal in-and-of-itself), what would banning right turns on red–say, at specific intersections with high pedestrian and bicycle traffic–accomplish?
First, it would allow bicyclists to be given an “advance stop line” [aka “bike box“] allowing them to wait at red lights ahead of motorists where they are more visible without having to watch their back. This is common in Europe (and has been tried in Portland as well).
Second, it would allow engineers to time traffic signals to give pedestrians and cyclists an “advance green,” allowing them to lay claim to the crosswalk and street space (and thereby be more visible) a few seconds before cars started turning right. This is common in pedestrian and cycle-friendly countries like Denmark.
It would even allow cyclists and pedestrians at particularly busy intersections to have their own “protected signal phases,” when they could cross the but cars would be forbidden altogether from turning right. The Netherlands in particular makes use of this technique, in both urban and suburban settings.
I’ll grant you: this would be a hard- sell in our auto-centric society. But in a country with abysmally-low cycling rates and where the pedestrian deserves endangered-species protection, maybe it’s time to start questioning some of our basic driving assumptions.
Posted in Commuting, Infrastructure, Issues & Advocacy, Safety, Share the Road, Transportation | 6 Comments

Rumbling about rumble strips pays off

By baw_admin | Published July 9, 2010

As a bicycle advocate, I’ll take every victory I can get and one just crossed my desk. But first the back story…

In May, my phone rang with this admonishment, “Rumble strips are being cut into the shoulder of SR 525 on Whidbey Island right now! What’s going on and what are you doing about it?”

Yikes, and I was just talking with Adventure Cycling Association’s National Bicycle Routes staff about Highway 20 as a Washington treasure. I hopped on my trusty bicycle, loaded up my panniers and headed south on Whidbey Island with my husband Andy. We rode for the next two days crying in frustration and anger to see rumble strips carved into the shoulders of a premier cycling route.

Upon returning home, I armed myself with this picture and headed to Olympia confident but very unhappy that rumbles had been cut seemingly without regard to Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) guidelines.

I met with Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond and two of her staff: the WSDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator and the person from WSDOT’s Design Office responsible for writing the Design Manual. I explained what had happened and showed them the photo. I asked that the Design Manual be amended and updated, and I asked for an evaluation of the rumble strip installation on Whidbey Island. That was in June.

Now, in July, some good news! An evaluation by WSDOT headquarters staff validated my appraisal that rumble strips on SR 525 were incorrectly installed along guardrails and other locations, and will be paved over later this summer–SUCCESS! Rumbles on SR 20 were also incorrectly applied and will be paved over next summer–PARTIAL SUCCESS! Changes were made to the Design Manual regarding outreach–MINOR CREDIT! More work needed.

Is it a victory that I rode the length of Whidbey Island in the rain with my crabby husband to tell WSDOT that they had done something incorrect and unnecessary? That rumbles affect bicycle safety and interstate tourism? I’ll claim the victory when rumbles are used sparingly for the safety of all roadway users. Watch for action alerts as the Bicycle Alliance plans to act proactively to stop this type of installation.

 *******************************************

What’s a rumble strip and why should I care? 

If you ride on city streets or county roads, chances are you won’t ride across rumble strips. However, anyone out riding the highways and byways of Washington for recreation, health and happiness should care because a safety feature for motorists can create a serious safety hazard for cyclists.

To paraphrase the US Department of Transportation a shoulder rumble strip is a “longitudinal design feature” which is a series of indented cuts in pavement intended to alert inattentive drivers through vibration and sound that their vehicles have left the travel lane. For more info, check Federal Highways Administration’s Rumble Strips FAQ.

Posted in Advocacy, Funding/Policy, Infrastructure, Safety | 6 Comments

Traffic as a Tornado

By baw_admin | Published July 8, 2010

Jef Mallett is the cartoonist who created Frazz, an accomplished triathlete, and one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. He recently moved to a new house in a new city and set out to explore the nearby streets and training routes by bike. He posted a blog entry a few days ago in which he said the conditions were surprisingly good, not nearly as bad as people said. Drivers were more tolerant, streets in better shape than he expected. Later that evening, though, a road rage incident on a street near his new place involving a cyclist and motorist resulted in an injury and an assault charge. Jef’s post yesterday, here, reviews the event and reflects a bit on what to do when confronted by a similar situation. Jef is a very thoughtful person and his take on dealing with errant road users is the best I’ve heard. Key quote:

It’s not that I’ve never been harassed or threatened or scared or that I’ve never done anything dumb myself. It’s not that I’ve never wanted to set someone straight. But to me, drivers are another form of weather. Some good, some bad, some types more common in certain areas than in others. With bad weather, you have a choice: You either prepare for it and accept it, or you stay inside and avoid it. Trying to educate a bad driver on the spot is akin to trying to lecture a tornado away from your trailer park.

The temptation to try to communicate with an errant motorist (or cyclist) is pretty high, and I have succumbed. In traffic you just don’t have time to have an effect. I’ve heard many times the maxim that “You can’t change the world, you can only change how you react to it.” Picturing an attempt to lecture a tornado is a good way to think about that.
Posted in Bike Blogs, Go By Bike, Safety, Share the Road | 1 Comment

The Tour de Fat Experience

By baw_admin | Published July 7, 2010

Decorate your bike and don your alter ego…Tour de Fat is returning to Seattle’s Gasworks Park on July 31!

Tour de Fat is not a bike ride or race. It’s a celebration of all things bicycle organized by our bike-loving friends at New Belgium Brewing Company. This rolling carnival travels to select communities around the West and features a costumed bike parade for the young and young-at-heart, music and other live performances, a car-for-bike swap, beer garden, and food vendors. All this wacky fun and goodness benefits the work of the Washington Bikes and Bike Works – woo-hoo!

The event kicks off in the morning with the bike parade ($5 suggested donation for this event benefits Bike Works). Costumed participants will meander from Gasworks Park through Fremont, the self-proclaimed center of the universe, then roll back to the park for the festivities.

Kick back and listen to the bands, be entertained by performances, and sip some tasty New Belgium beers (these proceeds benefit the Bicycle Alliance). Test ride one of the many bike contraptions in the bike pit (the bike with sneaker wheels is a popular one). Sign up for the Slow Ride contest—slowest rider wins! And be sure to bring an old bike tube to contribute to Alchemy Goods recycling bin. You’ll be eligible for a drawing for some of their cool products made from recycled bike tubes and other recycled materials.

Celebrate the bicycle as a sustainable and worthy form of transportation with the announcement of the car-for-bike swap winner in the afternoon. (This could be you if you enter the contest now!) The lucky winner is transformed before all from a car driver to a full-time bike commuter when he/she hands over their car, title and keys in exchange for a tricked out custom commuter bike.

Admission to Tour de Fat is free, but bring cash in your wallet. Proceeds from the parade, Tour de Fat merchandise, and beer sales benefit bicycle advocacy. After all, it is all about the bicycle!

Tour de Fat poster image courtesy of New Belgium.  Bike parade and contraption images courtesy of Carla Gramlich.

Posted in Bike Culture, Events, Go By Bike, Seattle, Tour de Fat | Comments Off on The Tour de Fat Experience