Household move using bikes

Md. couple ditches moving van, uses bikes instead is the title of a Post article about a College Park couple, Anthony and Jess Reiss, who are carfree and were faced with the challenge of moving their household goods without a motor vehicle. With the help of friends they were able to make the move in about 2 hours.

At first, the idea of moving via bikes was a joke. That’s because moving their residence on bikes presented challenges, the most notable being that they would be moving their residence on bikes. 

But the joke turned into an idea, and the idea turned into a plan. Bicyclists from the community offered to help. A church group offered to help. A bike messenger from the District offered to help — a big coup because he had a trailer that could haul 300 pounds.

All told, about 25 people and bikes showed up.

Check out the video/slide show that documents their move:

Pedestrian death spike in DC - Post blames pedestrians

Today's Post editorial entitled Death by distraction discusses the rise in pedestrian deaths in DC, which account for 54.2% of all traffic-related deaths. The Post's solution is to advocate for laws against distracted walking despite the dramatic increase in motorists who blatantly run red lights and who often refuse to yield to pedestrians.

Why not enforce the laws we have? Motorist actions such as aggressive driving, turning right on red without stopping, running red lights and stop signs, and speeding rarely result in citations. In countries where there has been a significant reduction in pedestrian and bicycle deaths, traffic enforcement is much more strict than in the U.S. There are also many other measures that can be taken to make our streets more safe. From Transportation Alternatives, a New York based alternative transportation group:

In the last few decades, Germany and Holland have made extraordinary progress to improve the safety of people walking and bicycling. From 1975 to 2001, cycling trips in Germany doubled, but bicycling deaths declined by 64% and pedestrian fatalities by 82%. In Holland, pedestrian fatalities declined by 73% and cycling fatalities by 57%.

Germany and Holland have improved conditions for bicyclists and pedestrians by employing concerted, long-term public policies to reengineer streets, change urban design, strengthen traffic enforcement and traffic laws and institute more vigorous driver education. Almost all of what these countries have done could be replicated in some form in New York City, and would help to reduce significantly the number of New Yorkers struck, injured and killed by drivers.

An honest discussion about "the fattest people in the world"

That's the title of an article at 350.org about having a conversation about our obesity problem in the U.S. As we've built a transportation system that forces people to rely on cars and reduces opportunities for walking and biking, we as a nation have gotten fatter. There are likely many causes of the problem but reduction in walking and biking, especially among children, certainly plays a major role.

Yes, let’s have an honest discussion about being the “fattest people in the world.” Every day, “decision makers” make transportation infrastructure and planning decisions that favor cars over people, decisions that make walking and biking—walking or biking to real public transit options, to work, to school, to the store—come to seem more and more…radical. It is indeed time we took responsibility for these and for the full range of consequences they entail. Let’s take some personal responsibility and make sure we as a society make the decisions that instead favor people over cars, favor transportation infrastructure built around the human scale.

From the WashCycle.

Town of Herndon to discuss bike plan recommendations August 14

Herndon Town Council will hold a public hearing on August 14 starting at 7pm to discuss a resolution of support for the Countywide Bicycle Master Plan developed by the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee. All Herndon-area cyclists are encouraged to attend the hearing and speak out in favor of the plan recommendations.

As reported here, the Town Council recently held their first public hearing on adoption of recommendations for bike lanes, sharrows, and other bike facilities that are included in the county bicycle master plan. Adoption of the recommendations will be a great step forward for helping to make Herndon a more bicycle-friendly place.

Unfortunately there was some misinformation discussed at the earlier hearing about where cyclists are allowed to ride on the road, and about the purpose of sharrows. FABB has scheduled a meeting with Town officials to discuss the use of sharrows, rights of cyclists to ride in the road, and how the sharrows will be implemented in the Town. Among other sources we'll be referencing VDOT's guidelines on use of sharrows that we wrote about extensively in an earlier post.

WMATA to remove abandoned bikes

From a WAMTA news release:

News Release

For immediate release: August 2, 2012

Excuse me, is that your bike?
Metro publishes list of potentially abandoned bikes to encourage removal

"Excuse me, is that your bike?"

Metro is taking steps to free up bicycle rack capacity and discourage theft.

Over the past several months, Metro staff conducted a "census" of bicycles parked at Metrorail stations for planning purposes. As part of that process, Metro staff identified and photographed more than two dozen potentially abandoned bikes throughout the system. In many cases, these bikes had flat tires, missing parts or rusted frames.

To make space available for bicycle customers and to discourage theft, Metro Transit Police will soon begin a process to tag and remove these bicycles. From the time the bike is tagged, owners will have ten days to remove it.

Today, Metro is releasing a photo directory of the potentially abandoned bikes. Owners are encouraged to remove them from bike racks as soon as possible. Abandoned bikes that remain unclaimed may be sent to auction.

News release issued at 10:40 am, August 2, 2012.

NY Times article on cycling ethics

New York Times columnist Randy Cohen writes about ethics. He recently wrote an opinon piece entitled If Kant Were a New York Cyclist in which he ponders why people get so upset about what they consider bad behavior on the part of cyclists:

I roll through a red light if and only if no pedestrian is in the crosswalk and no car is in the intersection — that is, if it will not endanger myself or anybody else. To put it another way, I treat red lights and stop signs as if they were yield signs. A fundamental concern of ethics is the effect of our actions on others. My actions harm no one. This moral reasoning may not sway the police officer writing me a ticket, but it would pass the test of Kant’s categorical imperative: I think all cyclists could — and should — ride like me.

I am not anarchic; I heed most traffic laws. I do not ride on the sidewalk (O.K., except for the final 25 feet between the curb cut and my front door, and then with caution). I do not salmon, i.e. ride against traffic. In fact, even my “rolling stops” are legal in some places.

Paul Steely White, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group of which I am a member, points out that many jurisdictions, Idaho for example, allow cyclists to slow down and roll through stop signs after yielding to pedestrians. Mr. White e-mailed me: “I often say that it is much more important to tune into the pedestrians rather than tune into the lights, largely because peds jaywalk so much!”

If my rule-breaking is ethical and safe (and Idaho-legal), why does it annoy anyone? Perhaps it is because we humans are not good at weighing the dangers we face. If we were, we’d realize that bicycles are a tiny threat; it is cars and trucks that menace us. In the last quarter of 2011, bicyclists in New York City killed no pedestrians and injured 26. During the same period, drivers killed 43 pedestrians and injured 3,607.

Update: See the lengthly discussion about this article on the WashCycle.

Tour de Reston Schools

After the Tour des Lacs

First there was Tour des Lacs, a kid-friendly bike tour of two lakes in south Reston. Now the Reston Pedestrian and Bicycling Advisory Committee is sponsoring Tour de Reston Schools this weekend. The Saturday ride will start at Hunters Woods Elementary School in south Reston. The Sunday ride starts at Buzz Aldrin Elementary school in north Reston. Both rides begin at 9am.

According to the Reston PBAC:

Parents, children and interested Reston residents are welcome to join members of Reston Association's Pedestrian and Bicycling Advisory Committee (PBAC) as they bicycle between Reston's public schools on the south and north sides of Route 267 during two separate rides, surveying existing bicycle parking facilities in order to assist with improvements.

Tentatively, the Saturday ride will start at Hunters Woods Elementary school on the south side. Sunday's ride is scheduled to begin at Buzz Aldrin Elementary school in north Reston. Contact Brian Murphy at brian@reston.org or call Aric Line at 703-505-1805 for more information.

Why not join the ride and help make Reston a better place to bike?