A new report from the Political Economy Research Institute says that bike and pedestrian projects create 11 to 14 jobs per million dollars spent, while road construction only creates 7 per million.”
— Bike Projects Create More Jobs Than Road Projects | Planetizen (via jxnblk)
(via jxnblk)
Over the years I have become pretty comfortable and confident riding amongst the four-wheeled death boxes, but I don’t think most drivers are comfortable with bicycles in the road, judging by how wide a berth they give me. I want them to give me a safe margin, but not so much that they endanger their lives and the lives inside the other four-wheeled death boxes in the oncoming lane. I try to be gracious toward the clueless, but slip now and again, especially with drivers who block a crosswalk, or don’t bother to look BOTH ways at an intersection (invariably they are only looking in one direction, and it isn’t mine). I always assume someone will do the wrong thing, and I prepare accordingly. Most often I assumed correctly, but am pleasantly surprised when proved wrong.”
— John Burnham, bike commuter (via bikecommuters.com)
REDLANDS: Bike club plans memorial for fallen rider »
posted by PE News on November 11, 2010 1:01 PM
A memorial bike ride and ceremony is planned on Saturday to honor of Paul “Lynn” Pletcher, 70, who was killed Nov. 4 when he was hit by a vehicle while riding his bike in Beaumont.
The Redlands Water Bottle Transit Company will lead the ride, which will depart at 8 a.m. from Stell Coffee and Tea Company on Barton Road in Redlands and travel to the accident site on Champions Drive near Cherry Valley Boulevard.
The riders will conduct a short ceremony and leave a ghost bike chained at the scene. Ghost bikes are painted white and usually have a sign with the name of the person who was killed and the date of the accident.
Members of the Redlands Water Bottle Transit Company may establish an annual Lynn Pletcher Memorial Ride starting next year. Funds raised would go to a charity or the Yucaipa High School Scholarship Fund in his honor. Pletcher, who was retired, had worked for the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District more than 20 years.
— JAN SEARS
jsears@PE.com
moving from #bikeSEATTLE to #bikePDX
video posted by Kery Caffrey via commuterorlando.com, on January 20, 2010
article reposted below:
Dude! Who do you think you’re honking at?
Today was a stellar day! The weather was perfect and my work for today consisted of shooting on-bike video for the Law Enforcement Toolkit. The objective was to shoot the best practices of bicycle driving with a uniformed officer. My subject was Bill Edgar of OPD (with appearances by Mighk). Bill runs the bicycle training program and trains bike patrol officers all over North America.
One important segment of the program deals with a cyclist’s use of a “sub-standard width” lane. For the purpose of the statute, that’s a lane less than 14 feet wide. A cyclist is allowed the full use of a sub-standard* lane — meaning you can ride anywhere in it you choose and motorists must change lanes to pass. The lane in the photo above (Princeton St) has 13 feet of usable pavement (from the gutter seam to the lane line). It looks pretty wide with a small car in it, but it’s too tight to share with SUVs or large commercial vehicles. A cyclist’s best position in the lane is one that makes it clear to motorists that they have to change lanes.
Unfortunately, some motorists resent having to change lanes, and they make a big fuss about it.
So, as I was riding directly behind Bill on Princeton, one such motorist came upon us. Unable to see any details of the cyclist in front of me, he laid on the horn to try and intimidate us out of his way. That’s when Bill moved left into view… and the horn went silent.
It’s unbelievable that the guy went on sassing Bill after we stopped. I guess that’s the personality of someone who would honk like that (frequently wrong but never in doubt). The video doesn’t show it, but he was shaking like a schoolboy. I’m guessing his bravado was a cover for having peed in his pants.
We actually did demonstrate 2-abreast riding in a sub-standard lane (including Princeton St) with Mighk. Oddly enough, there was no honking.
*Sub-standard is a misleading term, since >90% of the lanes in Central Florida are less than 14ft wide.
Inquest continues in London cycling death from February 2009 »
Lorry kills woman cyclist on road too narrow for it to pass
via London Evening Standard, posted January 22, 2010
A cyclist was crushed to death by a tipper lorry at an accident blackspot where the road was too narrow for the vehicle, an inquest heard today.
TV producer Eilidh Cairns, 30, died from multiple injuries after the rush-hour collision at a pedestrian crossing near Pembridge Road, Notting Hill. The road narrowed to two metres at that point and the truck, driven by Joao Lopes, was 2.5 metres wide, Westminster coroner’s court heard.
As Ms Cairns lay trapped under the wheels at 9am on 5 February last year, she pleaded with a woman to stay with her until the ambulance arrived. Eyewitnesses Melinda Ross told the inquest in a statement: “I heard a loud bang and a scream. I saw a woman trapped under the second wheel of the lorry.
“Her body from the waist down was under the tyre itself. She asked me to help her and not to leave. She found it hard to breathe and was in pain.
“She kept asking where the ambulance was and I stayed with her and tried to keep her calm.” Ms Cairns, of Kentish Town, died in hospital at 10.48.
Anna Morris, for Ms Cairns’s family, said: “The collision investigation report specifically makes observations on the narrowing of the carriageway at this key point.
“It notes that at one point it is two metres wide, while the vehicle in question is 2.5 metres wide.
“It is obvious now from the material obtained there have been other incidents at this crossing. There have been allegations of incidents resulting in serious injury that have been noted by the council.”
Deputy coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe rejected an appeal by the family to adjourn the inquest so Kensington and Chelsea council could see the report.
Ms Cairns’s sister Kate said: “Eilidh always strove to be fit and active and loved to cycle to work. Her daily commute alone was 20 miles a day.”
Mr Lopes faces criminal proceedings in connection with the death. He attended the inquest with a Portuguese interpreter.
The inquest continues.
What shocks, angers and disgusts me the most is that guy was an ER physician of all things and left these obviously injured people to rot in the street and not attend to or even give a cursory examination as to their injuries. They could have had head trauma. At the very least he should have known — correct that — he DID KNOW — to stabilize their heads and necks; particularly the fellow with the facial injuries. When 911 asked if the cyclists were hurt he said “yes, but they can tell you about it.” He showed clear reckless disregard for human life. I’m glad he’s broke, I’m glad he’s been run out of town, and anyone who says he’s a compassionate and caring doctor must also believe in the Easter Bunny and Area 51. No compassionate and caring doctor deliberately injures people and then lets them lay injured in the road and stands by and does nothing — particularly when their specialty is emergency medicine. He deserves jail time — particularly as he has a history of tangling with bicyclists before. He seemed to think the canyon was his own personal property and now he’s going to find out the hard way it wasn’t.”
—
posted in response to LA Times article on sentencing of ‘Dr. Road Rage’
Today, January 8, Dr. Christopher Thomspon received a sentence of 5 years after assaulting and seriously injuring two cyclists with his car after a road rage incident in LA.
additional info via Associate Press:
Christopher Thompson, 60, wept and apologized to the two injured riders before he was sentenced in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“The physical and mental scars are my fault,” he said.
He has recurring nightmares about one cyclist smashing through his car window, Thompson said.
Prosecutors had sought an eight-year term while Thompson’s attorney argued for probation.
Thompson, who worked at Beverly Hospital in Montebello, has been jailed since he was convicted in November of assault with a deadly weapon, battery with serious bodily injury, reckless driving and mayhem.
Thompson deliberately hit his brakes, causing the bicyclists to hit the back of his Infiniti sedan on July 4, 2008, prosecutors said. One rider smashed through the back window, breaking his nose and front teeth. The other crashed to the pavement, separating his shoulder.
There’s a ghost bike in Tallahassee on Hartsfied Rd. locked to a pole with a sign saying “Bicyclist Struck Here”
I wanna do something similiar for my friend Jen who was run over by a drunk driver a couple weeks ago in O-town.
— Flickr user tangent, in response to photo of a ghost bike being rolled through the NYC subway on its way to installation at the site of Donna Goodson’s death by truck
from Flickr user ohnobody
ghost bike
somewhere in Belltown, possibly 4th Avenue
Seattle, WA
these always make me sad, and utterly scared.”
— Flickr user Range of Light in respose to photo of Dan Valle’s ghost bikes in Brooklyn, NY
I’m a cyclist and the first one to admit there are a lot of cyclists out there with major entitlement issues. But this doc crossed the line. He made a choice to seiously hurt these guys. And precisely because he’s a doctor, he had to know somewhere in that twisted mind that his actions could have killed. Throw the book at him.”
—
posted in response to LA Times article on sentencing of ‘Dr. Road Rage’
Today, January 8, Dr. Christopher Thomspon received a sentence of 5 years after assaulting and seriously injuring two cyclists with his car after a road rage incident in LA.
additional info via Associate Press:
Christopher Thompson, 60, wept and apologized to the two injured riders before he was sentenced in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“The physical and mental scars are my fault,” he said.
He has recurring nightmares about one cyclist smashing through his car window, Thompson said.
Prosecutors had sought an eight-year term while Thompson’s attorney argued for probation.
Thompson, who worked at Beverly Hospital in Montebello, has been jailed since he was convicted in November of assault with a deadly weapon, battery with serious bodily injury, reckless driving and mayhem.
Thompson deliberately hit his brakes, causing the bicyclists to hit the back of his Infiniti sedan on July 4, 2008, prosecutors said. One rider smashed through the back window, breaking his nose and front teeth. The other crashed to the pavement, separating his shoulder.
ATTN: Chicago Cyclists... Jepson Livingston Memorial Ride tomorrow, January 9 »
reposted from The Chicago Bicycle Advocate:
A memorial ride and ghost bike placement in memory of Jepson Livingston will take place tomorrow, January 9, 2010. Participants are to meet outside of West Town Bikes/Ciclo Urbano, 2459 W. Division St. in Chicago before 5:00 p.m. The procession will leave at 5, with ghost bike placement taking place at 5:30 at Kosciuszko Park, 2732 North Avers Avenue.
Jepson died on December 15, 2009 when he was struck by a van that was involved in an altercation with another vehicle as Jepson rode his bicycle on West Diversey Avenue in Logan Square. Click here to read more about this tragic event.
"Ghost Bike" Ride Remembers Cyclists Killed in 2009 »
Yesterday, our production team followed along with the NYC Street Memorial folks and other dedicated cyclists on the 5th Annual Memorial Ride and Walk from Harlem through Queens and into Brooklyn. Along the way they stopped at the 2009 ghost bikes and pedestrian plaques to remember and honor those who have lost their lives on NYC streets.
We spent today reviewing our footage and will be posting some to our Kickstarter blog later tonight, as a sneak preview for our backers. If you’re not a backer yet, you should consider pledging ($1 is all it takes!) because there are some neat thank you gifts, including a limited special edition backers only first release DVD! The only way to get that version is to preorder the DVD by pledging $25 on Kickstarter… everyone else will have to settle for the regular DVD, with less art and cool stuff.
Thanks to some generous backers, we are off to a decent start on reaching our fundraising goal.. but Kickstarter funding is all or nothing, so if we don’t make our goal by February 1st then we don’t get a single cent.. So please spread the word around. Blog it, tweet it, facebook it, spam your friends’ email boxes!
