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Why the Bike Lane is the Golf Course of the 21st Century Posted on January 26, 2012 Hello Dear Readers, The Sightline Daily, a blog affiliated with a Northwest policy think tank, published an article I wrote about my Stevens Fellowship experience. You can read the article here! A funny story about how the opportunity with Sightline came about. I was waiting at a stoplight near Mercer Street in Seattle in late November and this guy pulled up to me (on his bicycle) and commented on how bad the bicycle infrastructure was at that particular intersection. He noticed that I had no "biking clothes" on and asked me if I'd ever heard of Copenhagen Cycle Chic.  "Copenhagen Cycle Chic is my favorite blog!" I told him. Then we started talking bike politics and eventually I realized he was Alan Durning, the founder of the Sightline Institute. I've been reading the Sightline blog and using their research in my work for years. I really like that this Sightline article came about because of a conversation that started on the bike lane (or..errr…lack of bike lane).  Who needs the golf course when you cycle! Cycling is such a social form of transport. Sean and I were biking in to work a few days before Christmas and bumped into our friend Jed who I hadn't seen in almost a year.  (Jed and his wife recently had a baby!) We rode together along the cold, but sunny, shores of Westlake for about ten minutes and caught up.  It was a great way to start the day and I was happy to know that Jed was doing well. Then, the next morning, Sean and I bumped into Jed again-in almost the same place as the day before-and we shared another pleasant commute together while joking about how we were becoming a bike commuter gang. The morning before I left for Copenhagen I biked downtown alone after saying goodbye to Sean. I was feeling the weight of the goodbye and also some anxiety about professional challenges ahead.  I pedaled slowly along Dexter, my pace matchi

Spotlight on Pedestrian Safety by Tamara Redmon, Dan Gelinne, Leah Walton, and Jeff Miller FHWA's aggressive approach to reducing the fatality rate in 13 States and 5 municipalities is showing promising results. Focus cities have installed high-visibility crosswalks, such as this one in Montclair, NJ, in a number of locations to improve pedestrian safety. For the past 7.5 years, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has been trying to aggressively reduce pedestrian deaths by focusing extra resources on the States and cities with the highest numbers or rates of pedestrian fatalities. In recent years, 13 States experienced pedestrian fatalities above 150 per year and above the national rate of 2.5 per 100,000 population. In 2003 those States were Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas. An increase in Nevada's rate later added it to the list, while Michigan dropped off in 2007. In addition, five cities had the highest number of fatalities per year: Chicago, IL; Detroit, MI; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; and Phoenix, AZ. Washington, DC, later went on the list, and Detroit dropped off (only to rejoin in 2011). To address this challenge, FHWA's Focused Approach to Pedestrian Safety project began with a memorandum dated May 2004 outlining the goal of reducing pedestrian fatalities by 10 percent by the year 2008 (goal later changed to 2011). To address this performance goal, FHWA encouraged the affected States and cities to develop and implement pedestrian safety action plans. A previous article in Public Roads documented the early implementation of the Focused Approach to Pedestrian Safety (see "In Step With Safety" in the September/October 2006 issue). "The focused approach to pedestrian safety has changed the way road owners and operators view pedestrians," says Elizabeth Alicandri, FHWA director of the Office of Safety Programs. "One of the reasons it has bee

Children are the foundation of the cycling culture When you use a bike as a child, chances are that you will also use a bike as a grown-up. In Denmark, the cycling culture is built through more than 100 years. The foundation of the cycling culture is the fact that Danish children learn to ride a bike from their parents, brothers and sisters, or friends. Cycling is inherited from one generation to the next. But the culture is only kept alive, if it is used. If all children stopped cycling, it would not take long for the cycling culture to decline. The Cycling Embassy of Denmark places great emphasis on the creation of the best possible conditions for children who cycle. This article provides insight into three different kinds of projects with the purpose of supporting and improving the conditions for the child cycling. Cycle Games Children should feel encouraged to play and move around, and a bike is an ideal means for that purpose. When children cycle their sense of balance and mobility are stimulated. At the same time, the sense of locality and the perception of space and direction are increased, because the movement is being done at a higher velocity and on a moving vehicle. Furthermore, learning through play is a more effective way of learning than the old-fashioned cycle training with broom handle and supporting wheel. We believe that it is reasonable to begin at the age of two. When children play on their bike, the focus is shifted from the bike to the playing. When the actual cycling "automated" and the attention is on the surroundings, the basis is created for safe children cycling. The safe cyclist does not think about how the bike works, but only has the focus on the surroundings and the other cyclists. Cycle games contributes to better cyclists. Because the children have fun while they learn, chances are that they as adults will use the bike as their everyday means of transport. In Denmark the project "Cycle Games for everybody" consist of the foll

Finding the zone: The Zen of urban cycling 36 BY JOEL GWADZ 27 JAN 2012 2:49 PM Photo by Choh Wah Ye. I am a mountain biker and mountain bike racing is a big part of my love for cycling. There's only one problem: I live in the city. To get to the hills, I have to put my bike on the car and drive an hour out of town. Luckily for me, there are many aspects of urban riding that fulfill a similar sensory experience to the high I find on the trail. I'm no World Cup racer, but hammering down the mountain biking trails, I still have moments when I find myself in a state of athletic euphoria that riders call "the zone." When you're in the zone, your bike and body operate as a single unit. Your thoughts and actions are intertwined. Your mind measures the variables as they approach at warp speed and you respond without thinking, arcing tight twists and turns through gaps just inches wider than your handlebars. Riding in the zone is an amazing, Zen-like experience. It is the cyclist's version of a "runner's high." This immense state of focus not only happens in the woods. The zone can be achieved when riding in the city, too. In a mountain bike race, the competition adds to the adrenalin. The effort required to chase the racers in front of you or escape the racers behind you can fuel the experience. In town, encounters with car drivers can act in very much the same way. In the woods, it is about flowing over logs in the trail, cruising through seemingly lineless rock gardens, and dipping between tight trees. On the city streets, it's about weaving past the guy on his cell phone who steps out from between parked cars, adapting to an aggressive lane change by a soccer mom in a minivan, or avoiding a car door swinging open into your lane. In so many ways, urban riding is just a series of close calls. Yesterday, I was taking a standard route across town. I was moving at a pretty good clip, when a driver behind me laid on the horn. Instead of ridin

Safe Routes to School (SRTS)The Safe Routes To School (SRTS) program is part of a national (and international) movement to improve the health and well-being of children in grades K-8-including those with disabilities-by making it safe, convenient and fun to walk or bike to school every day.

Active Transportation Alliance News and Events Get a Member in December! Our members are our power - the more members we have, the more successful we will be in creating better conditions for biking, walking and transit in our communities. If you're an Active Trans member, you have an assignment - get just one new member to join Active Trans during the month of December! We're sure you know people who ride bikes, take transit and appreciate walkable communities - we need them to join us in action. And for those of you who are not members of Active Trans, please demonstrate your dedication to better transportation by joining now! Meet Ald. Solis at the Active Trans Social in Pilsen - Dec. 7 Join Active Trans as we celebrate all that has been accomplished over the past year to put Chicago on the path to building a world-class bike network. Ald. Danny Solis will discuss his recent educational trip to one of the most bicycle-friendly countries in the world - the Netherlands! Learn about Dutch approaches to city cycling that could be applied in Chicago: Dec. 7, 6 -7:30 p.m., Simone's bar, 960 W. 18th St., Chicago. The event is free and open members and nonmembers. Come to the Active Trans Social in Logan Square - Dec. 8 Calling all Logan Square Active Trans supporters! Join your friends and neighbors at Cole's tavern to connect with others who have a deep and abiding affection for biking, walking and transit. Local authors Greg Borzo and John Greenfield will be celebrating the release of On Bicycles: 50 Ways the New Bike Culture Can Change Your Life, 8 -10 p.m., Dec. 8, Cole's, 2338 N. Milwaukee, Chicago. The event is free and open members and nonmembers. Active Trans Volunteer Appreciation Party - Jan. 18 If you've volunteered for Active Trans during the past year, we're throwing you a party. We want to recognize all of the dedicated individuals who make our events, campaigns and programs successful. The evening will include light appetizers,

Ed's Bicycle Advocacy Page Over 20 years ago I began looking at climate change impacts on infrastructure. Since about 2003, I have been more focused on human-induced climate disruption and its impacts on water resources. As I pursued this research, I have had the good fortune to work with some world-class scientists, and the findings of all of them have framed this issue as one that transcends discplines and crosses political and geographical boundaries in a way that demands more of us than most other issues. While I already have lots of web space devoted to climate change and water issues, one passion that is not well represented is bicycling. Our inefficiency in transportation (accounting for nearly 30 percent of U.S. energy demand) produces a huge proportion of the greenhouse gases that will dramatically alter the climate our children and grandchildren inherit. I'm not sure what shape this page will eventually take, but I will use it to link to articles and resources that will at least help me keep track of things. Maybe if anyone else lands here they'll find something useful too. The True Cost of Transportation Energy The report by the National Research Council, "Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use" summarizes some of the externalized costs of energy generation and use. Of particular interest is that motor vehicles are responsible for about 1.5 cents/mile in nonclimate-related damages, such as health impacts. At 10,000 miles/year, this is maybe $150/year. Interestingly, electric and hybrid vehicles are about as bad, and vehicles using biofuels are generally the same or worse. Development and Bicycle Advocacy Here's the civil engineering connection: planning and construction often leaves out bicycle (and pedestrian) considerations. A great movement to include this in neighborhood and city design is the National Complete Streets Coalition, where lots of resources are available. A Place for Optimism While maybe contrar

BIKING Virtuous cycle: 10 lessons from the world's great biking cities 9 BY CHRISTINE GRANT 30 JAN 2012 7:04 AM Cross-posted from Sightline Daily. In the Seattle suburb where I grew up, the main transportation choice most residents face is what kind of car to buy. I moved to the city after college and, inspired by the "car-lite" lifestyles of several friends, decided to give cycling a try. I fell in love with it. Urban cycling freed me from slow buses, parking meters, and mind-numbing elliptical machines. I arrived at work with more energy. I lost weight. I discovered charming neighborhood restaurants. I could smell fresh laundry and dinners in the oven while I pedaled home through residential streets. Getting from A to B on my bike became the best part of my day. Recently, I won a fellowship and got to spend six months living life on two wheels in the world's most bike-friendly cities. I brought home 10 lessons for us here in the States: A bike lane in Denmark. (Photo by Christine Grant.) 1. It's the infrastructure, stupid! Amazing infrastructure makes cycling normal and safe in bike meccas. For example, parked cars to the left of the bike lane not only provide a barrier between motorized traffic and cyclists, they also minimize a cyclist's chance of getting "doored." Most cars only have one occupant, the driver, and drivers get out on the left. Bikes move at different speeds than cars or pedestrians, so intersections are safer for cyclists if they have their own traffic signal rhythm. Cyclists in Copenhagen generally get a slight head start over cars so that they'll be more visible as they cross the intersection. 2. Bike share! Bike-share programs are sweeping the world, and they are very successful at boosting bike numbers. About 130,000 trips are made each day in Paris on public bikes thanks to the pioneering Vélib bike-share program. Barcelona's bike-share program has been wildly succesful at boosting ridership. (Photo by C

BIKING How bicycling will save the economy (if we let it) 83 BY ELLY BLUE 28 FEB 2011 3:08 PM This is the first column in a series focusing on the economics of bicycling. Imagine getting a $3,000 to $12,000 tax rebate this year. Now imagine it coming again and again. Every year it grows by around a thousand dollars. Imagine how this would change your daily life. Sounds like a teabagger's wet dream, but it's actually a conservative estimate of how much you'd save by ditching your car, or even just one of your cars -- and getting on a bicycle instead. Car-centric conditions don't always make it easy to choose the bicycle. Communities designed exclusively for motor vehicles impose a major financial penalty on those who are compelled to take on the expense of driving. But if you're one of those who lives in a bike-friendlier place, you'll be doing your local business community a good turn and padding Uncle Sam's pockets as well as your own if you trade four wheels for two. In the many North American cities where two-wheeled transportation is taking off, a new bicycle economy is emerging. It's amazing how much money can stay in your community when it isn't being pumped into the gas tank, big insurance, and the auto market. What will this new bicycle economy look like? We don't have to guess. It's already emerging along urban, low-traffic bikeway networks nationwide. One thing is guaranteed: it includes a lot of new bike shops like this one on a bikeway in Baltimore -- one of five new bike shops to have opened in the last two years in that city. A 2008 study in Portland clocked bicycle-related industry alone as contributing $90 million to the local economy every year. Bicycle tourism is another huge boon to regions that can attract it -- in 2010, Wisconsin bragged of a yearly $1.5 billion bike economy [PDF]. Less obvious synergies abound as well. People who ride, just like people who drive, buy groceries, visit the doctor, need a new shirt sometimes, and en

Inj Prev doi:10.1136/injuryprev-2011-040071 Study protocol The Bicyclists' Injuries and the Cycling Environment study: a protocol to tackle methodological issues facing studies of bicycling safety M Anne Harris1,2, Conor C O Reynolds3, Meghan Winters2, Mary Chipman4, Peter A Cripton5, Michael D Cusimano6,7, Kay Teschke2 + Author Affiliations 1Occupational Cancer Research Centre, Cancer Care Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 2School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada 3Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada 4Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada 5Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada 6Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada 7Division of Neurosurgery, St Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Canada Correspondence to M Anne Harris, Occupational Cancer Research Centre, Cancer Care Ontario, 505 University Avenue, 14th Floor, Toronto, ON M5G 1X3, Canada; harris.m.anne@gmail.com Accepted 4 May 2011 Published Online First 8 June 2011 Abstract Background and Aims Bicycling may be less appealing in parts of the world where cycling is less safe. Differences between jurisdictions suggest route design is key to improving safety and increasing ridership. Previous studies faced difficulties in effectively assessing denominators for risk calculations and controlling confounding. This paper describes the advantages of the case-crossover design of the Bicyclists' Injuries and the Cycling Environment study to address these challenges to observational studies of cycling safety. Methods Injured cyclists were recruited from the emergency departments of five hospitals in Vancouver and Toronto, Canada. In 18 months, 690 participants were successfully recruited and interviewed. Each participant was interviewed to map the route of their injury trip, identify the injury site and select two control site