Posts from — July 2007

Blaine to Forest Lake. It’s 49 miles, beach at the end.

Given that current weather looks to be stinky hot, we may turn south after Centerville Lake and cut this way short. Or cancel entirely — there’s not a ton of shade in this area, and did I mention stinky hot? Yeah.

Blaine-Forest Lake Map

Following the death of a cyclist in Louisville, KY, there’s a lot of debate about how laws regulate the sharing of roadway space.

The motorist is not being charged with a crime. She told the police that he didn’t see the cyclist until it was too late to avoid him. Because Kentucky law requires substances to be involved (DUI, drugs) or ‘wantonness’ (ie, deliberately acting in hazardous ways), this is technically correct. However, it is rather upsetting that there is no citation at all being issued. While manslaughter or another vehicular crime may not be advisable under the law — or relative to trying to prosecute — one would think the driver could at least be charged under a ‘basic speed’ law. The bridge was marked as a shared bridge, and bicycles are considered vehicular traffic in Kentucky. Proper care would include watching for cyclists while driving across the bridge.

What kind of message does it send when a driver is issued no citation at all for causing a death?

After several deaths on the gorgeous, yet technical, Haleakala, Hawaii is proposing restrictions on bicycle tours.

As far as controlling Haleakala tours, this is likely overdue. There are a lot of tours, and they’re marketed as being easy for anyone, because a van brings you up the mountain, then pushes you off. No fitness needed!

Uh, wrong.

Bike tour. Let’s see:

• Generally, this means you’re with a group of people.
• Decent on a downhill is, I think, a harder skill than climbing a hill — more handling required, and more risk.
• Haleakala has a fairly narrow road with somewhat technically demanding turns.
• …and these downhill journeys are marketed to novices?

Of course there have been problems! This just screams ‘bad idea’ in every way but economically. One of the accidents involved a trip leader, but I have to wonder if the trip leader’s handling was impacted by the ‘ducklings’ around said leader.

One concern with recent rules being passed and discussed on Maui for regulation is that they may not simply control access to Haleakala. This could impact other touring companies providing other services. It’s hard to dispute that the park service should have the right and ability to restrict number of groups and participants in tours on the volcano — similar restrictions exist in many activities in many national parks. But local shops are concerned about restrictions hitting non-downhill tours and rentals, and some local authorities are spouting off about keeping bicycle tours from ’slowing traffic.’

Ought to be interesting to see how this pans out, because the legislation seems almost unnecessary. National parks can restrict entry to tour operators easily enough without local regulation coming into play.

Alkmaar, best known for a cheese market or something like that (never been there), now gets international media coverage for a drunk guy on a bike on top of a car.

He got the Dutch equivalent of public intox (yes, they have one), but not a drunk driving charge. He wasn’t driving, after all.

The US Census Bureau reports Minneapolis as the #2 city for bike commuters, behind notoriously-friendly Portland, Oregon.

I think the next big area for inquiry will be how many months a year this cycle-commuting core put their buns in the saddle… not that failure to ride in january is a bad thing, ’round these here parts.