Safe Routes to School

In less than a month this blog will be seven years old; apart from a six month break I took four years ago in 2008, I have written here at least once a week, often twice.

When I look back over this relatively short period, “Cycling,” that is to say the lot of the cyclist has improved greatly; this is happening globally, Even here in the US, a country seemingly entrenched in a “Car Culture,” the bicycle is slowly but surely gaining acceptance.

The type of thing I find encouraging are movements like the “Safe Routes to School” organization. I had heard of Safe Routes but knew little about it, until last week when I received an email from Carolyn Battaglia who works for the South Carolina Safe Routes to school.

I was invited to a meeting at a local school. The school with 1,200 students has a huge traffic issue every day as parents drop off and pick up their kids.

The school was encouraged when they participated in the International Walk and Bike to School Day, on October 1st. They wanted to extend this idea and have a Walk and Bike to School Day every month. The meeting was called to study the feasibility.

One of the ideas put forward was for the parents to drop the children off at a Church parking lot less than a mile away, and have the kids walk or bike the rest of the way as a group with adult escorts.

The goal is to encourage groups of children who live within a reasonable distance to meet at certain places then walk or bike to school with adult supervision and protection, and to do it on a daily basis.

The reason so many parents choose to drive their kids to school is because the school busses take a disproportionate amount of time for what is often a relatively short trip.

As well as being beneficial as a physical exercise, it would go a long way to cut down the congestion and air pollution at the school. What a great idea; a win for everyone.

What I didn’t know is that the Safe Routes to School is part of the South Carolina Department of Transport. This is wonderful news, because it means that when meetings like this are held, recommendations by Safe Routes org. for things like sidewalks and bike lanes go straight to the people who have the power to make it happen.

In fact there was a SCDOT engineer at the meeting taking notes. He made it clear that sidewalks needed around the school would only happen if money was available. But at least as money became available a work order would already be in place.

I would urge all those interested in local bike advocacy to look into Safe Routes to School in your state. Infrastructure improvements made for the benefit of schools and children, like sidewalks and bike lanes, are of benefit to all pedestrians and cyclists who live in the area.

And as I have said before; the day that it is safe for a child in the US to ride their bike to school, will be the time when our roads will be safer for everyone. Pedestrians, cyclists, and yes even car drivers.

                       

Is it time to opt out of the culture of speed?

All over the United States and indeed the world, people are riding bicycles. Forget about saving the planet, that is not the reason; it is a satisfying and civilized way to travel. Faster and more efficient than walking, and for not much more energy input; compared to driving a person is burning calories rather than gasoline.

A person riding to work each day on his bicycle is traveling for free; he gets there in only slightly less time that his colleague who drives. In some congested cities the cyclists gets there faster. He has not had to allot time to exercise or pay gym fees. When he gets to his destination he has fewer problems with parking.

Many more people would ride bicycles but they are afraid of being hit by cars. There are still a those who will try to intimidate and bully anyone in their way. The whole “Share the Road” concept is flawed in that it implies that the roads are for cars and cyclists are asking drivers to share space with them.

This is not the case; public roads are just that, “Public.” They are there for people to travel from their home to where ever they need to be. The right is for the person to travel, not according to the persons’ mode of transport.

There is no pleasure in driving anymore; it is the myth and the lie being sold to the public by the auto-makers.

Look at any car ad on TV and what do you see? The obligatory slow motion shot of a car sliding sideways in a controlled skid; cars driving at break neck speed on deserted streets and highways.

This is not reality; on today’s congested roadways, not only is driving fast impractical, it is downright dangerous. And what useful purpose does it serve? There is a legitimate argument for being allowed to maintain high speeds for long journeys on freeways that traverse miles and miles of open countryside.

However, when freeways approach cities and become congested, there is a definite need to slow to the same speed as everyone else. It is the driver trying to maintain his high rate of speed under these conditions that not only cause accidents, but cause people to brake and in turn lead to the stop and go traffic conditions that are all too familiar.

The best thing a person can do is to realize that getting from A to B is a necessity; so if you can’t make it a pleasure then at least make it stress free. Opt out of the culture of speed; slow down and relax.

Speed limits need to be lowered to 20mph in crowded city centers where there are many pedestrians and cyclists. Would such a speed limit have a great impact on peoples’ over all drive time?

In most cases drivers simply accelerate to race from one traffic light to the next. On long stretches of highway, traffic lights can be timed so someone driving the speed limit can have green lights all the way through a town.

The faster cars go the more space is needed between each car. Therefore, people moving slower but continuously in a procession can travel closer to each other. This means traffic is moving slower but on any given stretch of highway it is carrying a larger volume of vehicles. So is the overall flow of vehicles per hour that much less? Bottom line is; people still get to where they need to be.

The world is becoming more and more crowded; populations are exploding everywhere including the US. Every person who rides a bicycle is taking one more car off the road, making more room for those who choose to drive.

Wouldn’t life be a little more pleasant if everyone slowed down a notch? So what if it took you five or ten minutes longer to get to work, at the end of each day would that make a huge difference? Of course wishing for this is wishing for Utopia; but who would argue that it would be better if less people had to die on our roads.

The cities across America that have adopted a “Bicycle Friendly” program, have found that when more people ride bicycles the overall speed of traffic slows. With that comes less fatalities, not just for cyclists, but across the board for pedestrians and motorists too.

                         

Justifying ingrained behavior

I first rode a bike as a child in England in the 1940s; I started riding at a club level in the early 1950s at fifteen years old, and began racing a year later when I was sixteen.

Right from the start I was taught the rules of the road in school; we were given a Highway Code book that laid out all the rules and laws for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists. We studied the rules for cycling and later took a Cycling Proficiency Test; on passing we were given a certificate.

I left England in 1979, and up until that time I do not recall a single instance of seeing an adult on a bicycle riding on the wrong side of the road, riding on the sidewalk (Or pavement as it is known in the UK.) I never saw anyone ride through a red light.

I have said this before but it bears repeating. I was amazed when I arrived in the US and found there were absolutely no rules for cyclists; people pretty much rode anywhere and in any way they pleased. I remember my first ride with the bike club in New Jersey, a traffic light turned red, I stopped, and everyone else just kept on riding.

Just last week I listened to a half hour broadcast on National Public Radio. The subject was, “Are cyclists their own worst enemy? The link is below, and if you haven’t heard it, it brings up some interesting points.

People phoned in and several admitted that they broke the rules of the road, and some went even further and said a person had to be crazy not to break the rules, because that was a good way to get yourself killed.

The strange thing is I follow rules of the road most of them to the letter; it was ingrained in me as a kid and has stayed with me since. I do not find myself in danger because of this.

Listening to these cyclists talk about the way they ride, it occurred to me that they were simply riding the same way they had always done since they were children. Taking the shortest and most convenient route, whether that is the sidewalk, or the wrong side of the street, whatever.

As kids no one ever told them they shouldn’t do that; no one really cared, they were just kids, doing what kids do. This manner of riding has become ingrained as surely as my style of riding. And now they justify it as somehow necessary and a safer way to ride.

It is not a safer way to ride; the safe way is to follow the rules, because if you at least try to do that everyone else knows what you intend to do.

It annoys me that many car drivers will not lift one finger to operate their turn signals, if they obeyed the law and used their turn signals everyone else would know what their intentions are.

This brings me to another point that was brought up time and time again during this broadcast that motorists also don’t obey the rules, but cyclists get noticed more; again this is an excuse to justify law breaking.

Stop and think about it, this was one of the rules that our parents and teachers tried to drum into us; pointing a finger at someone doing the same wrong was never a valid excuse. What was it they always told us? “If Johnny jumped off a cliff, would you do the same?”

The fact that so many motorists break the law is society’s problem. A teenager is given a minimum amount of drivers’ education and he/she is allowed to drive. There is no follow up or later test and people quickly learn to do whatever they can get away with.

Cyclists on the other hand are given no training what-so-ever; they are never told what they can and can’t do to begin with.

When I first witnessed the lawlessness by people on bicycles in New Jersey 1979, no one really cared; there were not that many cyclists. Now we have an ever growing number of cyclists in our larger cities, and we are on a fast track towards absolute chaos. 

There has to be a uniform and acceptable pattern of behavior that everyone can follow. Below is what I think most cyclists who consider themselves to be “Law abiding” would follow.

1.)    Ride with the flow of traffic (Never ride the wrong way.)

2.)    Don’t ride on the sidewalk

3.)    Use hand signals if you want to change direction

4.)    Stop at red lights

5.)    Don’t blow through stop signs at speed, or go out of turn

6.)    If you are riding in a crowded city, especially during rush hour with a lot of cars, pedestrians, and other cyclists; ride at a sensible speed. Your commute is not a race; if it is you need to leave home a little earlier.

Licensing all people who own and ride a bike would be an impractical bureaucratic nightmare, but clearly a situation where everyone does as they please is not good either. What do you think; does something need to be done, and if so what?  

                         

Shit Cyclists Say

If you haven’t already seen this it is pretty funny. The one that cracked me up was “Is one of my legs longer than the other?”

As a framebuilder I used to get that all the time. There was not much I could do; it is not possible to build a frame that is longer on one side.

My usual thought was, just cope with it like you do when you walk, maybe ride with a limp.

                        

Police reverse finding in Charleston advocate’s death

When Charleston cycling advocate was stuck by a Jeep Cherokee on July 21, the initial police report placed the blame on the cyclist.

Edwin Gardner, much loved and respected in the comunity died from his injuries two days later.

Now in an unusual and complete reversal of the original finding, Charleston police now say that Gardner “was not in fact a contributor to this collision.”

According to a press release last Friday a review of the case was conducted by the police department’s Fatal Collision Team. Their findings were that the driver of the Jeep, 21 year old Charlotte White was the sole contributor to the collision. White will be charged with following too closely.

In my original article I mistakenly stated the driver was a young man, when in fact it was a 21 year old female.

On Saturday July 31st about 500 local cyclists rode though the streets of downtown Charleston in tribute to Gardner’s life. The ride ended at the scene of the collision, and a white painted Ghost Bike was left to mark the spot.

The police were out in force during this ride, escorting the cyclists and in some cases closing the streets. It is my personal and humble opinion that this tremendous turnout of support by local cyclists had some bearing on the police department’s decision to reopen the investigation into this case.

You can read the full story here