Richmond - Richmond, VA is one of the final two bidders for the 2015 World Road Cycling Championship. "Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones is leading the delegation to the Swiss headquarters of Union Cycliste Internationale, which is expected to announce its choice for a host city in September."
Philadelphia - Philadelphia is touting itself as the top bike commuting large city in America. They're at 2%, a 150% increase since 2000.
Georgia - A new law makes cycling in Georgia better. "The law recognizes bicyclists' right of way in dedicated bike lanes, establishes design guidelines for bike lanes, and defines three feet as the minimum safe passing distance for vehicles when passing a cyclist...Other changes include legalization of the sale and use of clip less pedals and recumbent-style bicycles,"
Los Angeles - In contrast to yesterday's link about a man teaching his son to ride a bike on the MVT, this woman spent a month training before she hit the Venice Beach bike trail. The article also includes a quote from Glen Harrison of WABA, which has taught more than 200 adults in the metropolitan D.C. region since 2008. “Lots of folks seem to have learning to ride a bike on their list of 100 things to do."
United States - The prevalence of "any biking" on a given day remains unchanged between 2001 and 2009. About 1.7% of people reported getting on a bike on the day they were asked. About 18% did "any walking". But the types of trips have changed. "it was found that the percentage of utilitarian versus recreational bicycle trips rose from 43 percent to 51 percent from 2001 to 2009."
Ray LaHood says the US DOT will looking into ways to protect urban cyclists. "as head of the Department of Transportation, LaHood noted his “concern” over the “way that bikers are treated when they are on streets.”
Some cities are starting to regulate pedicabs.
Bike sales are up 9% since last year, and road bike sales are up 29%. "Regular riders tend to be low-income who cycle to save money or affluent who bike for fitness, Clarke says. Relatively few bike for environmental reasons, he says....Upper-income leisure cyclists are unlikely to bike to work unless gas hits at least $6 a gallon, says Jay Townley of the market research firm Gluskin-Townley Group."
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) is looking to build on the Bicycle Commuter Benefit with the Commuter Relief Act. For cyclists it offers a "parking cashout" - allowing them to take cash in lieu of free parking, allows them to combine the bike commuter benefit "with other transportation fringe benefits as long as they fall under the $200 cap (for example, individuals can use the $20 bike credit and still collect up to $180 of their public transit fringe benefit)" and increase the bike benefit from $20 to $40.
A new device will warn drivers of potential collisions with pedestrians or cyclists.
World - A study contradicts the idea that wearing seatbelts makes people drive less safely. "In fact, they drive more carefully when more stringent seat belt laws are in effect, and this leads to less involvement of pedestrians in accidents. These results show that the offsetting effects do not exist when all accidents, including fatal accidents, are considered."
The United Nations' WHO has kicked off a Decade of Action on Road Safety. "The global initiative is an effort to educate the public and prevent the 1.3 million deaths that are a result of a road traffic collision—more than 3,000 deaths each day." And "More than 90 percent of traffic fatality victims are in the developing world, and half are motorcyclists, bicyclists or pedestrians."
Looks like New Amsterdam is becoming a bit more like...Old Amsterdam.
Posted by: Beaker | May 15, 2011 at 10:05 AM
The Venice Beach trail is like the MVT, but with people entering and exiting randomly at even greater frequency. Great for people watching, not so much for making time on your way to the Santa Monica pier.
Most serious cyclists would never get onto the MVT on a nice day, but for the fact that there is literally no alternative route. So while we all sympathize with the well-meaning dad and cheer his efforts to get his kid on a bike, the fact remains that the design of the MVT is such that the use demands totally overwhelm its capabilities for both recreational and transportation uses. Putting a wobbly kid into that mix is bound to be an exercise in frustration, mixed in with bouts of near-terror.
Posted by: krickey7 | May 15, 2011 at 12:23 PM
Maybe the NPS should create a well-marked bicycle learning area just off the MVT. It might be a big attraction and a good thing for NPS, assuming they like having more people in their parks (I'm still not clear on that).
Posted by: Jonathan Krall | May 16, 2011 at 11:19 AM