Tuesday Morning Commute - Innovation

Good morning.

• An 18 year old man, Eric Foreman, has been convicted of first-degree premeditated murder while armed in the shooting death of cyclist Neil Godleski. "According to government evidence, Godleski was biking home when Foreman fired at him, but missed. Godleski fell off his bike and Foreman walked over to him and shot him at close range."
• NPS is saying that the Memorial Bridge repair will allow for pedestrian and bicycle access at all times.
• Paving on the Four Mile Run Trail begins on the section parallel to Arlington Mill Dr tomorrow
• Innovation finally comes to the simple inverted U bike rack. "The company's "no-scratch" adaptation to the traditional rack uses a rubberlike bumper to protect the bike frame from contact with the stainless steel, ensuring the bike remains scuff-free." They also have a bike rack for mass parking that uses angled parking to keep handles from intertwining. 
• John Pucher and Ralph Buehler have a new book coming out called "City Cycling."  In it they argue that  "the bike boom needs to be expanded to a broader cross-section of people. Almost all the growth in cycling in America has come from men aged 25-64." That's actually a pretty big group of people - maybe 1/3 of Americans. "Rates of cycling have actually fallen slightly among women and sharply among children, most probably because of nervousness about safety. But in fact cycling is getting safer all the time. According to a paper* by Messrs Pucher and Buehler with Mark Seinen, fatalities per 10m bike trips fell by 65% between 1977 and 2009, from 5.1 to 1.8. In their book, the authors claim that the health benefits of cycling far exceed the safety risks."

Comments

[I forgot]

Of course biking is getting safer per mile... The proportion of male cyclists is increasing.

[charlie]

removing "cycling" as a children's activity and promoting it as an adult beverage would actually be a positive for the bike-as-transport movement.

[darren]

preorder "City Cycling" here! http://www.amazon.com/City-Cycling-Urban-Industrial-Environments/dp/0262517817/ref=la_B008FDCPB6_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347372942&sr=1-1

[JeffB]

Re City Cycling ..

As 48% of trips in American cities are shorter than three miles, there is big potential for further growth. Yet while the future looks bright, America will struggle to catch up with northern Europe, where the proportion of local trips done by bike can be as high as 30%.

One reason for this is that car ownership remains far cheaper in America. Another is the absence of restrictions on car use, which would greatly improve cycle safety. Europeans are far keener on traffic-calming measures, car-free zones, fewer parking spaces and road “diets”—where cars are allocated a narrower piece of road. America may be flirting with the bicycle, but it has by no means ended its long love affair with the car.

Exactly. Here in America we are still pushing hard just to get some accommodation on the margins of roadways. A real growth in cycling use won't occur in the cities until we can get a reapportionment of the road space away from cars.

[SJE]

Perhaps the increased complaints about cyclist attitudes may have something to do with more men riding. Whatever, I am glad to see more people riding.
Also, when you see more middle class white men doing something it is, almost by definition, a sign of something become "mainstream". Harder for politicians, media and business to ignore it.

[david]

Well I intent to keep biking even if it does become mainstream.