Our environmental friends at the Sierra Club have assembled an online quiz about the ‘greenness’ of people’s cycling habits.
The quiz pretty clearly favors those who are using cycling as transportation, versus recreational cyclists and certain types of cyclotourists. For instance, they love the bamboo bicycle. They aren’t keen on unnatural fibers (spandex, wicking polyesters), claiming them to be more about fashion than function. I’d challenge that on a hot day in the Minnesota sun, yes indeedy, beyond the fact that some of the tight, bright cyclist clothing is also about safety (doesn’t get caught in moving parts) and visibility (they don’t make truly neon hemp clothes). The LAB also points out that in the cold, cotton will hold damp and sweat to your skin… brr!
They also don’t like space program bicycle materials. I suspect the bike I am presently building makes them cry.
March 12, 2008
by julie Comments Off on Chicago Cyclist Ordinance Update
I remain wary of the need and the enforcement probability of this ordinance. It also increases complexity of differences between various jurisdictions as far as traffic law goes even within Cook County, Illinois. It will be interesting to see the long-term impact.
March 10, 2008
by julie Comments Off on Tom Harkin Introduces Complete Streets Legislation
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced a bill last week designed to promote proper road planning – designing facilities that are safe for all street users, including motorists, public transit, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
Tom’s office has put out a complete media release, including the list of organizational supporters, on his Senate site. Many organizations devoted to promoting livable communities have signed on to this bill.
Writing your own Senator to encourage passage of this bill is best done by e-mail in the post-anthrax Senate, per a friend who used to be a Harkin advisor. If you need info on contacting your Senators, check out the Senate web site.
After the (stupid) death of a (stupid) cyclist participating in an unauthorized street race in which said (stupid) biker ignored traffic signals, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is proposing an ordinance that specifically targets reckless drivers who endanger cyclists.
Yeah, it’s a little hard to follow the logic path there, but it’s some sort of progress. Chicago politics is a bad place to apply logic, traditionally.
The ordinance has some interesting elements, including fines for turning left or right in front of a bicyclist, passing a bicyclist with less than three feet of space, and opening a vehicle door into the path of a bicyclist. It also establishes a fine for double-parking in a marked shared lane, and increases the fine for driving, standing or parking in a bicycle lane.
If enforced, it could provide some quality revenue for the city. (Come now. It’s Chicago. All fine-worthy offenses are about city coffer enhancement. Ask any Chicagoan!) Enforcement is a key question, of course: Just as many states already have 3-foot buffer rules as I referenced earlier today, there is little precedent for enforcing them. Enforcement requires the education and cooperation of the police force. It’s quite easy for a police force to quietly not bother, particularly in a city of the size and nature of Chicago.
I’m a little wary of too many ‘special’ rules applied to bicycles, as when proper road planning and vehicular cycling principles are applied, a lot of special rules shouldn’t be needed, and existing rules may be sufficient if enforced. Beyond that, many special rules are municipally-specific, which can make keeping track of them as a road user of any type a challenge – and creates specific challenges for educating road users in such regulations. Some of the special regulations can be especially vexing, such as certain of the right-turn/left-turn rules proposed in the Chicago ordinance – given some of the, uh, creative engineering on certain of the city’s bike lanes, compliance with the rule and enforcement of the rule may be a dual challenge.
I’m fairly sure that if one were to look into Chicago ordinances on parking, double-parking, parking outside of parking zones, and causing an accident by opening a door in traffic even when parked in a parking zone are all already ticketable offenses. Large cities tend to have large (and strict) parking codes by necessity, and any of the above offenses would be detrimental to traffic flow, regardless of bicycle involvement.
Speaking of which, the City Transportation Commissioner is promising a summer crackdown on cyclists who violate traffic laws. He points out that laws are already on the books that allow for such enforcement – standard traffic rules. Once again, it gets into the idea that you need to have your police involved in the enforcement. Red light cameras in Chicago have been doing a good job of reducing motorist red light violations, but I’ve seen no stats on what’s happening with cyclists in violation, if anything.
Might be interesting to watch. If you tap into any articles in the Chicago mass media on the cyclist death in the alley cat race (it’s been well-established that the rider wasn’t just taking an ‘orange’ light, but was outright blowing a signal at an intersection that good sense would suggest wouldn’t be worth blowing for victory in a street race), there’s a lot of typical surliness about ‘unregulated’ cyclists. While some of this comes from the idea of bikes as toys and the bullying response, it really isn’t appropriate for cyclists to presume special rights on roadways, even those with bicycle lanes. Traffic laws need to apply to all, and be followed predictably by all, else public safety is at risk.
I’ve been poking around some on the candidate web sites to check out transportation policy proposals, particularly as relate to bicycling. This has been a bit challenging, based on how the sites are structured (and the sheer number of transportation unions out there endorsing people!).
What I’ve found so far:
As Senator, Barack Obama “supported a measure authored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) to mandate states and Metropolitan Planning Organizations create policies that incentivize greater bicycle and pedestrian usage of sidewalks and roads. As president, Obama will work to provide states and local governments with the resources they need to address sprawl and create more livable communities.” (source)
Obama also addresses the idea of integrated transportation planning that includes mass transit, walking, and bicycle access for livable communities as an energy independence issue. (source)
Hillary Clinton, in a posted webchat transcript, discusses how she used to like to bicycle down the canal in DC, although that’s not especially policy-related. (source)
Clinton also addresses the need to upgrade the US transportation infrastructure, although bicycles do not get specific call-out in the releases on the topic. (source)
If we trust Google, the word ‘bicycle’ does not exist on John McCain’s web site. Ow. There’s lots on transportation, but a good bit of it involves ex-Secretaries of the Cabinet, and transportation for the candidate and the media to various events, and due to the way the web site is constructed, filtering through the articles is making my head ache.
I plan to keep bouncing through the sites to check out any additions.
