March 2011 - AT-Network - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

Spring tune-up time
by Stacy Matwick 30 Mar '11

30 Mar '11

Found at http://www.BoingBoing.net "It's spring! Time to watch some videos that will teach you how to tune-up and repair your own bike<http://bicycletutor.com/>. (Not that I would need a pre-spring tune-up, of course. I've totally been riding all winter. Yeah. Totally.) - Maggie<http://www.boingboing.net/author/maggie-koerth-baker/> " http://bicycletutor.com/ The purpose of this site is to help people learn how to fix their own bikes. With over 200 videos you're sure to find what you need. Cheers Stacy Matwick Information Centre International Institute for Sustainable Development 161 Portage Ave. E., 6th floor Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3B 0Y4 Voice: (204)958-7755 Fax: (204)958-7710 Email: smatwick(a)iisd.ca<mailto:smatwick@iisd.ca> IISD Research Library web page: http://www.iisd.org/ic SD-Cite: IISD Research Library database: http://sd-cite.iisd.org<http://sd-cite.iisd.org/> GENERata web-magazine: http://www.iisd.org/generata/ "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read" Groucho Marx

1 0

Grist: Pedaling away from the health care crisis
by Beth McKechnie 30 Mar '11

30 Mar '11

Pedaling away from the health care crisis by Elly Blue <http://www.grist.org/people/Elly+Blue> 28 Mar 2011 11:36 AM [ http://www.grist.org/biking/2011-03-28-pedaling-away-from-the-health-care-c… ] *This is the third column in a series focusing on the economics of bicycling. Part 1 is "How bicycling will save the economy (if we let it)<http://www.grist.org/article/2011-02-28-how-bicycling-will-save-the-economy>." Part 2 is "Tearing down freeways to make room for a new bicycle economy<http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-14-tearing-down-urban-freeways-to-make…> ."* * *In the United States, we have the most expensive health care system in the world. We collectively invest more than 15 percent of our GDP<http://www.visualeconomics.com/healthcare-costs-around-the-world_2010-03-01/>-- that's around $2 trillion, or $5,700 per person -- into health care every year. The tragedy of these enormous numbers is that they fail to stem the tide of our increasing ill health. "Most of the money we're spending on health care is going to treat preventable chronic diseases," Michael Pollan told Grist<http://www.grist.org/article/2009-11-06-michael-pollan-on-agriculture-and-h…>in 2009. Our poor diet, he added, is responsible for most of those illnesses. But it's not just about what we eat. The other part of that equation is our national and increasingly desperate need for physical activity. We need to rethink our transportation system and built environment on the same scale as Pollan and others have reconsidered our agricultural system. It has become obvious that we can't afford to keep doing things the same old autocentric way. For a fraction of the cost of the world's most expensive health care system, we could all enjoy the world's best bicycling and walking infrastructure -- and with it much, much better health than we enjoy now. Even minor investments in quality bicycle and walking transportation infrastructure, particularly at bottlenecks like bridges, leads directly to increased physical activity<http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2008/may/12/bridge_pedestrian_lane_raise>for people who live nearby. A recent analysis of the health savings resulting from the bicycle infrastructure in Portland, Ore, came up with stunning results<http://bikeportland.org/2011/02/04/research-by-2040-portlands-bikeway-inves…>. If the city builds out only the infrastructure it currently plans, the researcher found, it will break even by 2015. By 2030, Portland will have saved $800 million -- partly in fuel costs but primarily in health care and the value of reduced mortality. For every $1 we spend, $5 is saved. And that doesn't take into account a multitude of other factors. It's been shown again and again that the benefits of bicycling outweigh the risks<http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/info:doi/10.1289/ehp.0901747>, that not bicycling is more dangerous<http://www.ecovelo.info/2008/06/06/the-dangers-of-not-cycling/>in the long run, and that being sedentary is worse for your health than nearly anything else<http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2009/05/05/sitting-death-rate.html>. When kids, particularly, don't get enough physical activity and good food, they are set up for a lifetime of ill health<http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/March/22/Obesity-Type-2-Diabet…> . Then there's the mental health factor. People who bicycle and walk to work love their commutes<http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2006004/pdf/9516-eng.pdf>[PDF], whereas everyone else is stressed <http://www.vtpi.org/traveltime.pdf> [PDF], even pathologically<http://www.grist.org/article/2011-01-20-new-report-quantifies-just-how-much…>so. * *Stress is often overlooked as an indicator and instigator<http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/archives/2011/03/stress-may-alte.html>of poor health. And bicycling isn't just good for your personal health. There's also a significant public health benefit to having fewer people driving. Air quality is a big one. Cars produce secondhand smoke that none of us can avoid. A parade of studies over the last few decades have steadily linked living near freeways to heart disease<http://www.justmeans.com/Freeway-proximity-can-put-you-on-road-heart-health…>, lung cancer <http://www.ehjournal.net/content/6/1/23>, asthma<http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/11614.html>, impaired lung development<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR200701260…>, and even autism<http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/16/health/la-he-autism-20101217> . Even being sealed in a car doesn't protect you<http://www.velorutia.ro/blog/util/1281-road-user-exposure-to-air-pollution.…>from the perils of concentrated car exhaust <http://www.icta.org/doc/In-car%20pollution%20report.pdf> [PDF]. Car crashes cost the country $230 billion<http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130350&page=1>in 2000 alone. Only $33 billion of that was spent on medical costs -- but to put that in perspective, that's the same amount as that year's federal highway budget. Worse, in 2009 car crashes caused nearly 34,000 deaths and 2.217 million injuries <http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2010/dot16510.html>, many of them serious enough to prevent victims from navigating our car-oriented landscape in anything *but* a car. What do we do about this? How do we address the health care crisis through reforming our transportation system? We'd be much healthier, we're always being told, if only we could get more physical activity. Bicycle transportation is uniquely suited to fill this requirement. Bicycling is uniquely suited for quickly and flexibly getting around a city designed for cars. And riding a bike for transportation is as good a workout as exercising at the gym<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10694139>. The cost, time, stress, and inconvenience of exercise evaporates with the bicycle. If only we all could take advantage of it. We are blessed in this country with a chorus of voices urging people to exercise more and try riding a bike -- but very little is being done to make that option safe and comfortable for everyone. I know, because I grew up in suburbia, that people don't eat unhealthy food and sit on the couch all day out of laziness. They end up falling into those behaviors because the options aren't there, or the cost -- in money, time, and stress -- of living differently is simply too high. Of course we want better options<http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/05/qa-transportation-secretary-on-bi…>. As many as 60 percent of Americans would like to ride more<http://streetsblog.net/2010/12/20/wooing-the-hesitant-cyclist/>, and most of us already have bikes stashed in the basement or garage. But we don't feel safe, and often that's because there aren't safe or convenient routes for us to take. Fortunately, that doesn't stop everyone from getting on a bike. And the more people out there riding, the safer *everyone* becomes<http://bikeportland.org/2011/01/27/not-just-safer-for-bikes-fatal-car-crash…>, whether or not bicycling is an option for them individually. It would be absurd to suggest that bikes will solve our health care crisis or that they can eliminate the political and economic machinations that continue to deepen it. But bicycling, like food, is one of the few areas where people can directly and concretely address the health care crisis in the context of our community. By improving our own health and working towards healthier cities, we're also taking money from a health care system that doesn't improve our health. In this light, bicycling for transportation isn't so much a lifestyle choice as it's a form of civic action.

1 0

Wed, Mar.30 webinar: How to increase the number of women cycling for transportation, 2-3:30 CST
by Beth McKechnie 29 Mar '11

29 Mar '11

Green Action Centre will be hosting a local group viewing of the following APBP (Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals) webinar on how to increase the number of women cycling for transportation. If you would like to join us, please let me know at *beth(a)greenactioncentre.ca*. Hope to see you then! cheers, Beth 925-3772 p.s. Sorry for the late notice -- we just heard about it this morning. ------------------------------ Webinar: * How to increase the number of women cycling for transportation *Date: *Wednesday, Mar. 30th, 2:00-3:30 p.m. CST * Location: *EcoCentre boardroom, 303 Portage Ave, third floor* (enter via elevator inside front doors of MEC) *Description* Learn how to increase the number of women cycling for transportation in your community. This webinar builds on last year's APBP session, "Writing Women Back into Bicycling". Five speakers offer compelling insights about cycling projects run by inspiring women, illuminate what women told APBP they want in a cycling environment, and suggest best practices to help you make a difference in your community. Don't miss the stories of some of the wonderful women leading the cycling movement, and results of APBP's 2010 survey on Women Cycling.

1 0

Costs and Benefits of Cycling Investments in Portland, OR
by Beth McKechnie 29 Mar '11

29 Mar '11

*Journal of Physical Activity and Health 2011, 8(Suppl 1), S49-S58 Costs and Benefits of Bicycling Investments in Portland, Oregon Thomas Gotschi* http://journals.humankinetics.com/jpah-pdf-articles?DocumentScreen=Detail&c… *Background: *Promoting bicycling has great potential to increase overall physical activity; however, significant uncertainty exists with regard to the amount and effectiveness of investment needed for infrastructure. The objective of this study is to assess how costs of Portland’s past and planned investments in bicycling relate to health and other benefits. *Methods:* Costs of investment plans are compared with 2 types of monetized health benefits, health care cost savings and value of statistical life savings. Levels of bicycling are estimated using past trends, future mode share goals, and a traffic demand model.* Results:* By 2040, investments in the range of $138 to $605 million will result in health care cost savings of $388 to $594 million, fuel savings of $143 to $218 million, and savings in value of statistical lives of $7 to $12 billion. The benefit-cost ratios for health care and fuel savings are between 3.8 and 1.2 to 1, and an order of magnitude larger when value of statistical lives is used. * Conclusions: *This first of its kind cost-benefit analysis of investments in bicycling in a US city shows that such efforts are cost-effective, even when only a limited selection of benefits is considered. -- *Beth McKechnie* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3772 | Find us here<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> Green Action Centre is your non-profit hub for greener living. Support our work by becoming a member<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/memberships/>

1 0

New Yorkers support bicycle lanes, poll finds
by Beth McKechnie 22 Mar '11

22 Mar '11

Nice to see this article given some recent backlash by a select few in NYC where they are setting new standards in bike infrastructure for other cities in N.A. -Beth [ http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/new-yorkers-support-bicycle-la… ] * NY TIMES - City Room March 18, 2011, 4:55 pm* New Yorkers Support Bicycle Lanes, Poll Finds By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM <http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/michael-m-grynbaum/> Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News The Bloomberg administration’s new bicycle lanes, the subject of one of the more heated civic controversies in recent memory, are supported by a majority of New Yorkers, according to a poll released on Friday<http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1302.xml?ReleaseID=1569>by Quinnipiac University. More than half of registered voters — 54 percent — said they believed the expansion of bicycle lanes had been a positive development for the city. The only demographic groups opposed were Republican voters and, by a smaller margin, residents of Queens. Over all, 39 percent of respondents said they were unhappy with the lanes, and 6 percent said they had no opinion on the matter (or did not answer). The survey question was fairly stark: either that the bike lanes are “a good thing because it’s greener and healthier for people to ride,” or “a bad thing because it leaves less room for cars, which increases traffic.” The poll asked which statement was closer to the respondent’s point of view. “On balance, people like it,” said Maurice Carroll<http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x2011.xml>, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute<http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x271.xml>. “It’s not overwhelming, but it’s a plus.” Support for the lanes was strongest in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Voters in Queens disapproved of the lanes, but by 48 to 45 percent. Only 35 percent of Republicans supported the lane, while 59 percent of Democrats approved. Support for the bike lanes seemed to wane with age. Voters between ages 18 and 49 supported the lanes by wide margins, but support fell below 50 percent among voters older than 50. Still, supporters outnumbered opponents in each age group. The poll, which surveyed 1,115 registered voters earlier this month, had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Hundreds of new bicycle lanes have been installed since 2007, part of the administration’s plan to encourage environmentally friendly modes of transportation that cut down on traffic congestion. Arguments for and against the bike lanes typically go into more detail than the survey’s questions. The city’s Department of Transportation, led by its commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/nyregion/06sadik-khan.html>, argues that carving out street space for bicycles has resulted in slower car traffic and, in turn, fewer accidents. Critics of the lanes complain about lost parking spots, additional difficulty in driving in the city, and the risk to pedestrians from bicyclists who disobey traffic laws. Some opponents have also faulted the Transportation Department for installing the lanes without sufficient community outreach, and not disclosing all the relevant data related to the lanes. Those are among the arguments in a lawsuit filed last week<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/nyregion/08bike.html>by a group of well-connected Brooklyn residents who have called on the city to remove a two-way bike lane along Prospect Park West. Biking advocates cited Friday’s poll as evidence that the city should continue expanding its bicycle network. “Whether they drive a car, ride a bike or get around by train, this poll shows that New Yorkers understand that bike lanes make our streets better for everyone,” Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, wrote in a statement. The survey also found that New Yorkers were unhappy with a plan to rename the Queensboro Bridge<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/nyregion/09bandt.html>for former Mayor Edward I. Koch. Nearly two-thirds of voters opposed the plan, proposed last year by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, with opposition particularly pointed in Queens.

1 0

Leisure Guide: Commuter Cycling Course
by Beth McKechnie 22 Mar '11

22 Mar '11

Please circulate widely. Thanks! -Beth *****active adult workshops* *****city cycling: commuter cycling skills* *****new!* Start commuting by bicycle or just feel more comfortable riding your bike. CAN-BIKE certified instructors from Bike to the Future will clarify the rules and teach you how to ride on the road with confidence. You will learn the skills you need to ride just about anywhere your bike will take you. The course includes both in-class and on-road training. Each participant will receive a free copy of the***** new* 2011 version of the Winnipeg Bike map. *****Fee:* $36.00 1 day Sport for Life Centre:145 Pacific Ave. *394547 Sat May 14 Noon–4:00pm* *394548 Sun May 29 Noon–4:00pm* You can find it on page 81 of the guide or at: * http://www.winnipeg.ca/cms/Leisure/pdfs/leisureguide.pdf*<http://www.winnipeg.ca/cms/Leisure/pdfs/leisureguide.pdf> Pass it around!

1 0

Grist: Cyclists shouldn't 'share the road', they should have their own
by Beth McKechnie 22 Mar '11

22 Mar '11

[While reading this article, note that Winnipeg got its first cycletrack, i.e. physically separated bike lane, late last fall on Assiniboine Ave! - cheers, Beth] Cyclists shouldn’t ‘share the road,’ they should have their own by Elly Blue <http://www.grist.org/member/386213> 14 Feb 2011 1:14 PM It's long been the most controversial issue in bicycling: Should people on bikes ride in traffic with cars, using the same infrastructure and following the same procedures (a style of riding known as "Vehicular Cycling")? Should we ride on the sidewalks and off-road paths, with pedestrians? Or should we have our own place to ride that's designed specifically for bicycling? <http://www.flickr.com/photos/pwkrueger/5134415882/in/set-72157625160007617/> [image: Cycletrack-Vancouver(Paul Krueger copyright).jpg] A physically separated bike lane in Vancouver, BC. Looks nice, right? Photo: Paul Krueger<http://www.flickr.com/photos/pwkrueger/5134415882/in/set-72157625160007617/> -- Like Goldilocks, we've tried all these options. Riding with faster, heavier cars is hard on us. Riding with slower, roaming pedestrians is hard on them. Only when we have our own place in traffic are things anywhere near just right. Or so says a study released last week in Montreal<http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Separated+Montreal+bike+paths+lower+ris…>, which shows that not only does dedicated bicycle infrastructure work in North America, it borders on negligence for cities *not** *to build such infrastructure. (You can download the entire study here<http://gobiking.ca/risk-of-injury-study.pdf>[PDF].) We're not talking about the old, familiar bike lane, marked by a line of white paint -- which so often functions more as a symbol and reminder of our right to be in the road than as actual bicycle infrastructure. Car doors, intersections, potholes, and misinterpretations by law enforcement are among the many pitfalls of the old-school bike lane. But on any road where car traffic is traveling significantly faster than a person can pedal, a bike lane, flawed compromise that it is, is better than nothing at all. Cities across North America have in the last two years been discovering a better way to build a bike lane -- separating it entirely from motor vehicle and pedestrian traffic alike. It's called the cycle track. Though we recently discovered it, we didn't invent it: It's been the backbone of the world's most attractive, comfortable, safe bicycling environments for decades in European cities like Utrecht<http://hembrow.blogspot.com/2010/05/cycle-rush-hour-in-spring-in-utrecht.ht…>and Groningen <http://www.camcycle.org.uk/events/visits/groningen/> (see the system in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AbPav5E5M&feature=player_embedded). Cycle tracks, also called segregated bike lanes or separated bike paths, are basically bike lanes that use the same right of way as a major street but are set off from car traffic by a barrier more substantial than a single painted white line. They may be separated by bollards, a concrete barrier, or a curb. On many streets, parked cars provide the barrier. Some cycle tracks are one-way and others carry two directions of bike traffic. Unlike their more dangerous cousins, the off-road bike paths<http://www.grist.org/article/2010-11-07-we-need-real-bike-paths-for-real-bi…>, cycle tracks are for bikes only and are not intended to be shared with people walking or running and more than with cars. Montreal, the focus of the recent study, has an unusually large number of cycle tracks for a North American city. Still, unlike their European cousins, these are mainly two-directional and have what the study calls a "less than ideal design," particularly at intersections. Even so, the researchers found, these lanes enjoy 2.5 times more bicycle traffic than alternate bicycle routes without cycle tracks. On Montreal's cycle tracks, the risk of injury is 28 percent lower -- or to be exact, 10.5 crashes, but only 8.5 injuries -- per million kilometers bicycled. Despite strong evidence from now two continents, the Montreal researchers point out, United States federal guidelines actively discourage cities from building cycle tracks. Everywhere cycle tracks are proposed and built there is some amount of local pushback<http://www.citycaucus.com/2010/10/why-are-separated-bike-lanes-so-controver…>. We're seeing an extreme degree of this in New York City, where a powerful group that includes the city's former transportation commissioner (who just happens to be married to Sen. Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.]) have filed a lawsuit to remove a successful two-way cycle track recently built along Brooklyn's Prospect Park. The media has embraced the campaign<http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/02/14/have-you-seen-the-latest-marcia-krame…>, with a local politician contributing the most venomous and spirited rhetoric<http://www.streetsblog.org/2011/01/24/markowitz-on-ppw-data-its-a-vast-biki…> . There is also a vociferous cadre of bicyclists who organize against bicycle infrastructure of all kinds<http://bicyclealliance.blogspot.com/2011/02/gravity-bike-lanes-and-limits-o…>, with the slogan: "bicyclists fare best when they act, and are treated in return, as drivers of vehicles." One such Vehicular Cycling organization in Ottawa, Ontario is rallying against<http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/Even+some+cyclists+oppose+cycling+lane/…>a high-profile cycle track planned in Canada's capital city. But as the research keeps rolling in, I suspect we'll continue to find that real bicycle infrastructure is going to be an amazing boon to bicycle transportation. For instance, we already knew that the air quality is better<http://bikeportland.org/2010/10/28/study-cycle-tracks-mean-better-air-quali…>, whether you're riding on a cycle track or walking on the sidewalk next to one. We know that, despite shopkeepers' fears, increased bicycling is good<http://therecord.blogs.com/take_the_lane/2010/06/cyclists-are-good-for-busi…>for business<http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/transit/2011/02/10/businesses-see-bi…> . We know that people will ride in greater numbers<http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/blogs/greenlife/archive/2010/…>on dedicated, separated bicycle infrastructure, and that with numbers comes safety<http://www.grist.org/article/2010-10-11-theres-safety-in-numbers-for-cyclis…> . As long as we continue to allow our streets to be dominated by cars, we need to go the extra mile -- or thousand miles -- to ensure that everyone who isn't in a motor vehicle at any given time is still able to move freely around the city. Separated infrastructure, like sidewalks and cycle tracks, are necessary if a car-oriented city is to be navigable by unarmored humans. Some day, I hope we don't need them. Until then, I hope we build them as well as possible. Elly Blue is a writer and bicycle activist living in Portland, Oregon.

1 0

Active Transportation Canada - March 18, 2001
by Beth McKechnie 22 Mar '11

22 Mar '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Michael Haynes <activetransportation(a)rogers.com> Date: Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 1:02 PM Subject: Active Transportation Canada - March 18, 2001 Twenty (20) new items have been posted on the Active Transportation-Canada Website today. A complete list of titles may be found in the "Blog Archive" box, located on the right margin of the Website. Some sample items: 1. Cyclists shouldn’t ‘share the road,’ they should have their own 2. Video - Cycling Options for various disabilities: UK 3. Estimating the Employment Impacts of Pedestrian, Bicycle, and Road Infrastructure Active Transportation Canada URL: http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.com A "Search" function is available on the site. You will find this at the bottom of the page. With more than 1,000 items posted on Active Transportation - Canada, there are links available to dozens of studies and hundreds of news items from communities across Canada and the world. If anyone has a problem reading this message, please let me know. I welcome suggestions for posts, so if you have news items featuring your community, please share them with the other subscribers from Canada, the US, and Australia on Active Transportation-Canada. Thank you. Michael Haynes Director TransActive Solutions

1 0

Post on NYC bike lane backlash
by Hall, Ian 18 Mar '11

18 Mar '11

Great blog post... Street Fight: What's Behind New York City's Bike Lane Backlash? http://citiwire.net/post/2562/

1 0

LA Times: At 103, he's a three-wheeled wonder
by Beth McKechnie 17 Mar '11

17 Mar '11

[My new role model...] <http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/trb.latimes/news/local;;ptype=s;slug=la-me-l…> At 103, he's a three-wheeled wonder If it were up to Octavio Orduño, he'd still be cruising Long Beach on a two-wheeled bicycle. But his wife insisted he get a tricycle. The city wants to make him an ambassador for cycling: 'He's our poster boy for healthy, active living around here.' By Esmeralda Bermudez, Los Angeles Times March 14, 2011 [image: Long Beach 103 yr old tricyclist.jpg] It's time to ride, but Octavio Orduño, stubborn as ever, won't put on his glasses. His wife, Alicia, insists: "But you can't see without them." "No," he tells her. "I don't want to." Then he starts to head off, on his way. If it were up to Orduño, he would still be cruising the streets of Long Beach on a two-wheeler. But a few years back, Alicia insisted he add another wheel and get a tricycle. After all, he was 100 and beginning to lose his balance. He turns 103 on Monday, so he's probably the oldest cyclist in Long Beach. The city, which wants to make him an ambassador for biking, likes to call him "the oldest in the world." Orduño lives half a block from the beach. Nearly every day, he toddles from his third-floor condo to the garage where he keeps his red Torker tricycle. On it, he pedals around the neighborhood — to the park, the beach and the farmers market — in a ritual honed over nearly 40 years. Not long ago, the city's bike coordinator, a gregarious, gray-haired Texan named Charles Gandy, took notice. He befriended Orduño and shared his story online, posting two videos<http://acgallery.smugmug.com/Bike-Long-Beach/Octavio-Orduno/14894674_Lmmck%…>of him coasting down the bike lanes, propped up by his self-installed blue velvet backrest. And that's only the start of Gandy's plan, if the old man is game. He'd like to have him cut the ribbon at bike-friendly ceremonies and appear in television and radio ads. "He's our poster boy for healthy, active living around here," Gandy said, just what people need "to shake themselves out of a rut." Orduño loves the attention. But his riding around town isn't any sort of campaign. "It keeps me going," he said. "And it's better than sitting in the den all day watching cars go by." Alicia is right. With his glasses off, it's clear he can't see too much at all. No matter. He knows the six-block route to Bixby Park by feel. Aside from a few potholes that rock his hunched frame and make him yell "Ayyyy!," the voyage is smooth. "I can ride this bike all day long," he says as the world whizzes by in a blur: the grind of lawn mowers, the sour smell of garbage, two growling pit bulls — one black, one beige — and a pretty girl in a flowery skirt. The retired aerospace mechanic can't recall how old he was when he first started riding. He just remembers it took him a long time to persuade his father to buy him a bike. The two used to argue all the time over school, which Orduño found boring and pointless. So at 16 he ran away, hopping freight trains from Oregon to Wisconsin to Chicago. For years, he says, he labored on farms and laid railroad track, stashing his cash in an old tobacco tin. When the Great Depression struck in 1929, the trains he rode filled up with desperate men — former doctors and lawyers who had lost it all. His first marriage lasted 20 years and gave him four children — three boys, one girl. With Alicia, he had two more girls. Next year, the couple will celebrate their 60th anniversary. His kids, grandkids and great-grandkids are spread across California and as far afield as New Mexico, Indiana and Missouri. A few times a year, his son Eddie, 79, visits from his home north of Fresno. At the sight of him, Orduño lights up. "I don't know how many days he has left, how many months, how many years," Eddie said of his father. "But he's had a full life." Alicia wants him to keep having one. There are days she has to scold him. When he turned 100 and the state took away his driver's license, she thought he'd be safer. But he returns from his tricycle rides scraped up from falls. Not long ago, on his way out of the garage, his foot slipped going uphill and he flipped over. His face hit the concrete. The bike landed on his leg. He lay on the ground for half an hour before a neighbor came to his rescue. Once, he and the tricycle* *came home in a police car. "That time, I thought I was clear, so I let it roll," he says. "I think I was going about 30 miles an hour when I went over the curb and some guys came to help me." A day or two later, he was back on the street, "like nothing ever happened," Alicia said. A few minutes into his ride to Bixby Park, the grassy knolls come into view and Orduño proudly calls out: "We're here!<http://www.latimes.com/topic/economy-business-finance/media-industry/televi…> " He waits in a driveway for the light to turn green so he can cross busy Ocean Boulevard. Just then, a giant Suburban comes up behind him, waiting for him to move. But Orduño, caught uphill without momentum, can't get his ride to budge. The driver takes in the scene and laughs. "Puchenlo! Puchenlo!" he teases out the window. *Somebody push him!* At the park, Orduño speeds past the grass and the picnic benches, where seniors lounge in the sun. He goes straight to the back, to his favorite place: the skateboarding zone. There, on an open stretch of concrete, young guys with shaggy hair and saggy pants zoom around, grinding the ground with ollies and flips. Orduño hits his brakes and takes it all in. His mouth drops open in a smile. They return the favor, singing his praises. "Hey, sweet ride, man!" "Yo, check him out! He's down." Nick Tarrant, a 21-year-old with a stubbly goatee and a low-slung action bike, asks him his name, practically yelling so Orduño can hear him. "Hey, it's OK. I'm deaf too," Tarrant tells him, pointing to his own earpieces. The two talk bikes and hearing aids, and then Orduño says goodbye. He is ready to ride home, to Alicia and his usual dinner of beans, brown rice and vegetables. "Sometimes," Orduño says, as he reaches his block, "I feel stronger than the year before." With his birthday approaching, there's been talk of getting him an electric wheelchair. Alicia thinks it will make it easier for her husband to get around. But Orduño has grown attached to his three-wheeler and has no plans to give it up. "Why would I?" he said. As for the wheelchair, "I think she can use it and follow me when I ride." *esmeralda.bermudez(a)latimes.com*

1 0

Tearing down urban freeways to make room for a new bicycle economy
by Beth McKechnie 16 Mar '11

16 Mar '11

Tearing down urban freeways to make room for a new bicycle economy by Elly Blue <http://www.grist.org/member/386213> Grist Magazine 14 Mar 2011 9:31 AM [ http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-14-tearing-down-urban-freeways-to-make… ] *This is the second column in a series focusing on the economics of bicycling. Part 1 was "How bicycling will save the economy (if we let it)<http://www.grist.org/article/2011-02-28-how-bicycling-will-save-the-economy>." * [image: bikenomics]Here's one way to fund bicycle infrastructure: Stop building freeways in cities. Better yet, tear down the ones we already have. Cities are starting to catch on that becoming bicycle friendly is one of the best investments they can make**<http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-27-why-an-additional-road-tax-for-bicy…> . Cities are also starting to realize that removing freeways makes more economic sense than maintaining or expanding them. In the last year, with the help of federal and state funding, cities like Baltimore and New Haven have been demolishing<http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0302/Downtown-need-a-makeover-More-cities…>the "highways to nowhere" that have divided their neighborhoods, drained their populations<http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2009/09/the-cost-of-urban-freeways/>, and damaged their economies<http://www.azdot.gov/Highways/valley_freeways/Loop_202/South_Mountain/artic…>and their children's health<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR200701260…>since the 1970s. ** Finding room for safe bicycle infrastructure in already strained and contested budgets can be difficult. That's especially true in places where bicycling has no historical place in the transportation budget, and is still seen as either a whim of the elite or last resort of the poor. But the economic benefits of freeway removal make anything seem possible. Our freeway system is crumbling. Freeways in cities are vastly expensive, disastrous for public health and safety, and destructive of community. The damages disproportionately affect the poor<http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2010/09/24/highway-to-nowhere-coming-down-not-…> . Urban freeways are also ineffective as transportation solutions. Caught in the vicious feedback loop of induced demand<http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/2011/03/puncturing-myth-more-r…>, they cannot be expanded fast enough to keep up with increasing traffic -- yet each expansion lures yet more drivers who create yet more congestion and demand more lanes, ad infinitum. The maintenance and expansion of these roadways gobble up transportation funds that could create and maintain less costly and destructive alternatives. The numbers at play are almost too large to comprehend, but comparison is enlightening. Bike lanes cost anywhere from $5,000 to $60,000 per mile<http://issuu.com/bikeleague/docs/economic_benefits_bicycle_infrastructure_r…>to add to an existing road. That includes everything from engineering and design to paint and concrete to traffic signals. Does that seem like a lot? Well, let's compare. Freeway construction in Michigan's countryside clocks in at $8 million per mile <http://www.michigan.gov/mdot/0,1607,7-151-14011-28076--F,00.html>. In the state's cities, with their need for overpasses, underpasses, exits and entrances, and mitigation of construction impacts on health and commerce, the cost jumps to an average of $39 million per mile. And that's a bargain-basement rate compared to many parts of the country. On the other end of the spectrum, Boston has the most expensive urban freeway systems in the country, costing over $1 billion per mile<http://www-pam.usc.edu/volume2/v2i1a3s2.html> . In Portland, Ore., a single mile of urban freeway costs on average $65 million per mile to build; that's about the same dollar figure as the entire amount as the city spent in 20 years on the bicycle infrastructure that made it one of the most famous bicycle cities in the world<http://www.planetizen.com/node/42773>, with a bicycle economy worth far more than that amount every year<http://bikeportland.org/2008/09/11/report-bike-related-economy-worth-90-mil…> .* *For further perspective, it was just announced that $100 million has already been spent on planning for a contentious $4 to $10 billion freeway expansion project here that may never be built<http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/02/a_misfire_in_design_nee…> . Those sums don't include maintenance, which can cost nearly as much as building new miles of freeway, and which, thanks to our interstate system being largely built in a short period of time, is all starting to crumble at once<http://rightdemocrat.blogspot.com/2010/05/us-pirg-report-calls-for-fixing.h…>in the last decade -- just as federal transportation funding is running out fast<http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2011/Mar11/031111/031111-03.sh…> .* *(Remember that bridge in Minnesota<http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-02-minneapolis-bridge_N.htm> ?)* *As early as 2000, the amount of spending needed for basic, safe maintenance of our national freeways and bridges was 20 percent higher<http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/2002cpr/ch24.htm>than the $30 billion that was spent that year. By contrast, according to a 2009 report by the League of American Bicyclists, for the $75 million spent repaving three miles of urban interstate, California could have installed<http://issuu.com/bikeleague/docs/economic_benefits_bicycle_infrastructure_r…>1,250 miles of some of the country's most expensive bike lanes. Cities that have chosen (or been forced by citizen groups<http://www.streetfilms.org/lessons-from-portland/>) to stop building or to remove freeways have been rewarded tremendously, and not just economically<http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009/07/06/huh-4-cases-of-how-tearing-down-…> . [image: Woman on bike in SF.]<http://www.flickr.com/photos/martindavidsson/154575832/>The scene today on San Francisco's Embarcadero, where a freeway once loomed.Photo: Martin Davidsson <http://www.flickr.com/photos/martindavidsson/154575832/>Talk of removing San Francisco's Embarcadero Freeway began almost as soon as it was built. When it was taken out of commission by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, it quickly became clear that the predicted traffic snarls weren't happening; it was demolished and replaced with an arterial street and a now beloved linear park<http://www.streetfilms.org/lessons-from-san-francisco/>along the water. When the city of Milwaukee, Wisc. removed a contested, never-finished freeway spur in 2002, the estimated cost for needed safety repairs was $100 million. Removal cost $25 million, and the 26 acres of land freed up for redevelopment attracted over $300 million in investments<http://www.preservenet.com/freeways/FreewaysParkEast.html>. Mayor John Norquist, overseeing the project, famously said, "Highways don't belong in cities. Period." President Eisenhower, the father of the U.S. interstate system, agreed. He reportedly only discovered that freeways were being built in cities, rather than between them, in 1959. He wanted them to be eliminated<http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/faq.htm#question23a>, but the march of progress had already left him behind. He was right: We don't need freeways in cities. And we can't afford them. Not every city has gotten that message. Right now in Seattle, the earthquake-damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct seems destined to be replaced by a costly freeway tunnel<http://www.grist.org/article/2010-12-15-seattle-car-centric-mega-tunnel-car…>along the city's waterfront -- despite the wishes of voters. In San Diego County, the $2.6 billion proposed for spending<http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/feb/25/bicycles-big-part-future-tra…>on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure over the next 40 years has attracted more scrutiny than the $82 billion slated for roads<http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/dec/17/sandag-approves-40-year-transportation…>in the same plan, including at least one highly contested freeway expansion project. In Portland, planning is underway for a new, widened freeway bridge that will bring more congestion into the center of the city. The ultimate cost of that project is estimated to be between $4 and $10 billion. There's a lot of criticism of the cost of bicycle infrastructure. But look at it this way: the simple act of choosing not to build one mile of urban freeway can buy you a world-class bicycle city with a thriving local economy. We can tear down these freeways and make sure that green spaces, equitable new development, and quality walking and bicycling infrastructure take their place. Soon, we may have no other choice. *Two weeks from today, we'll take on the health care crisis. With bikes, of course. * Elly Blue is a writer and bicycle activist living in Portland, Oregon.

1 0

Active Transportation - Canada: March 14, 2011
by Beth McKechnie 15 Mar '11

15 Mar '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Michael Haynes <activetransportation(a)rogers.com> Date: Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 10:21 AM Subject: Active Transportation - Canada: March 14, 2011 Dear Listserv Members: Ten (10) new items have been posted on the Active Transportation-Canada Website, and for something different, all are from our neighbours to the south, the US and Mexico. There are some fascinating an surprisingly developments taking place in these countries, and as advocates of Active Transportation it might be helpful to be aware of a few of them. A complete list of titles may be found in the "Blog Archive" box, located on the right margin of the Website. some highlights in this collection include: - San Diego - Billions proposed for bike lanes, pedestrian-friendly streets - Los Angeles plans 1600 mile cycle lane network - New York - Battle of the Bike Lanes Active Transportation Canada URL: http://activetransportation-canada.blogspot.com A "Search" function is available on the site. You will find this at the bottom of the page. With more than 1,000 items posted on Active Transportation - Canada, there are links available to dozens of studies and hundreds of news items from communities across Canada and the world. If anyone has a problem reading this message, please let me know. I welcome suggestions for posts, so if you have news items featuring your community, please share them with the many subscribers to Active Transportation-Canada. Thank you. Michael Haynes Director TransActive Solutions

1 0

Bike to Work Day Winnipeg - Event Coordinator Posting
by Beth McKechnie 12 Mar '11

12 Mar '11

Hello! Please find attached an event coordinator posting for Bike to Work Day Winnipeg, which takes place this year on Friday, June 24th. It would be greatly appreciated if you could circulate it within your networks or forward to individuals who you think might be a good fit. thanks, Beth

1 0

Bike to Work Day Winnipeg, Event Coordinator
by Mike Tutthill 12 Mar '11

12 Mar '11

Bike to Work Day Winnipeg Event Coordinator Want to coordinate an exciting city wide event that celebrates cycling culture? The Bike to Work Day Winnipeg planning team is looking for an event coordinator to assist with Bike to Work Day Winnipeg 2011 (June 24, 2011). New ideas and approaches will be welcomed. In general, the individual will be responsible for: * Attending meetings of and reporting to the planning committee * Updating a sponsorship package and soliciting donations from previous and new sponsors * Assisting with the development and coordination of promotional materials, and liaising with the planning team, graphic designer and web developer * Assisting with overall coordination of pancake breakfast and coordinating rides from established Oases in the city, including the coordination of volunteers * Communicating with media and developing partnerships with other related community organizations * Preparing a report of the event and recommendations for events in future years * Performing other coordination duties as needed Required skills and experience * Creativity in event planning and promotion * Exceptional organizational and communication skills * Able to deliver commitments under pressure * Comfortable working with a volunteer-run planning team * Development of sponsorship packages and soliciting sponsors * Event coordination and promotion * Community engagement * Media relations * Volunteer coordination * Report writing This is approximately a 3-month contract, beginning April 4th until submission of a final report, for $7500 - $10 000 depending on experience and details of the final contract. The independent contractor will be responsible to provide their own office, office supplies and equipment. The successful applicant will be accountable to the volunteer planning committee. Interested candidates should forward a résumé, covering letter and references to relevant experience to mike.tutthill(a)biketoworkdaywinnipeg.org by March 28, 2011. Mike Tutthill Information & Access Coordinator HEALTH in COMMON 100-6 Donald Street Winnipeg, MB R3L 0K6 tel: 204.949.2002 1.800.731.1792 fax: 204.284.2404 email: <mailto:mtutthill@healthincommon.ca> mtutthill(a)healthincommon.ca web: <http://www.healthincommon.ca> www.healthincommon.ca +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ April E-Newsletter deadline is March 18. <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Health-in-Common/120069149875> Health in Common on Facebook * Please consider the environment before printing this email. Coming to Health in Common? By bicycle: Bicycle parking is located behind the building. By Winnipeg transit: Routes 62, 65, 66, 68, 70 By car: Two visitor parking spaces are available at the back of the building. Street parking (restrictions): Bell Avenue (1hr 9h00 17h30), Clarke Street (none); Lewis (none); Cauchon (none); River (none west of Clarke).

1 0

Thank you for cycling!
by Beth McKechnie 08 Mar '11

08 Mar '11

Great story from: http://www.torontocranks.com/?p=2363<http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/03/anonymous-gifts-say-thank-you-for-c…>(can we hold out hope for a Winnipeg benefactor?) -cheers, Beth Thank you for cycling! March 2nd, 2011 I was riding along the College Street bike lane heading east and was coming up to the red light at University Ave. and an older woman stepped out to the edge of the sidewalk and handed me an envelope saying “Thank You for cycling today”! I thought it might be a flyer or something so I stuck it into my pocket and started through the now green light. On the other side of the intersection another cyclist passed me and turned to say ” how much do you think is inside” as he waved his envelope, I said I don’t know maybe its a coffee coupon. A bit further ahead I thought I’d make a U-turn and go back and see who she worked for, but she was gone. When I got home I looked at the envelope. It’s hand lettered “Thank You ($ gift inside).” I opened it and inside was a letter and a new $5.00 bill. Wow! So I took the $5.00 and bought 2 lottery tickets for tonights 6/49 draw! You don’t think she works for Rob Ford’s office?? Tom Polarbear

1 0

Fwd: UWSA Ice Riders Bike Lab
by Beth McKechnie 04 Mar '11

04 Mar '11

Hi everyone, I’m part of a student group at the University of Winnipeg called the Ice Riders, and we are a non-profit organization there to help people have better access to the resources they need to bike all year round. We’re in the process of building a bike lab on the Downtown campus, which should be completed this spring, and it will be a base for anyone with a bike to come by for repairs, advice, or even to build a bike. Myself and close to fifty other students and non students are committed to volunteering our time to make this a success, but a real issue is funding. The link below takes you to a video which was created by a few members and friends and submitted to the TD Go Green Challenge, where the successful candidates will receive $100,000.00 to go towards implementing their project. TD is doing a people’s choice award of $2,500.00, which is where your vote counts for this. Take a look if you’d like, and if you are so inclined please vote for them. Any vote helps, and so far we’re ahead of the pack! Regards, Michael Chiasson PS please feel free to pass it on to anyone you like! http://www.tdgogreenchallenge.com/video/id/86/playid/86#

1 0

Why do people in cars hate people on bikes so much? (Grist & Outside articles)
by Beth McKechnie 02 Mar '11

02 Mar '11

Share the road rage Why do people in cars hate people on bikes so much? by Sarah Goodyear <http://www.grist.org/member/376533> 24 Feb 2011 4:10 PM [ http://www.grist.org/article/2011-02-24-why-do-people-in-cars-hate-people-o… ] If you've ever been behind the wheel of a car, you've felt it: The dead certainty that everyone around you is a complete idiot who should get the hell out of your way. If you've spent much time riding a bicycle, you have been the target of that wrath. And without the protective metal-and-glass bubble that shields drivers (mostly) from each other's anger, it's easy to feel the hate. A horn honked in your ear by someone zooming past, an insult shouted out a window, the grit kicked up in your face by someone passing too close -- just to make a point. It's scary. The expression "road rage" apparently originated in America in the 1980s<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_rage>, and the concept was absorbed into our national DNA a long time ago. It's part of how we see ourselves, a danger so familiar it's become mundane, a cultural cliché. Driving a car does something strange to you. Tom Vanderbilt, author of the book *Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What It Says About Us<http://www.powells.com/biblio/9780307277190?&PID=25450> *), has explained it<http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/tom-vanderbilt/>this way: What happens to most of us, in most driving conditions, is that we're losing some of the key attributes that facilitate human cooperation and, in a larger sense, society. Eye contact, for example, has been shown in any number of experiments to increase the chance of gaining cooperation - that's why when drivers give you what was called on *Seinfeld* the "stare-ahead," your chances that they'll let you merge in ahead of them are greatly reduced. Then there's the anonymity in traffic - there's no one to spread rumors or gossip about you about how bad your behavior was -- not to mention the lack of consequences for acting like an idiot. It's all strikingly similar to the way we act on the internet, in what's called the "online disinhibition effect." Now Vanderbilt has written a terrific article in *Outside<http://outsideonline.com/adventure/travel-ga-201103-new-york-bike-commuting…> * about the way that people driving cars and people riding bicycles interact with each other -- and the psychology behind the "bikelash" that's taken hold as bicycles have become increasingly popular as a mode of transportation as well as recreation. People on bikes, of course, are not equal players in the battle for road space. They don't have a metal shell to protect them. Maybe that's why they are easy targets for road rage: Because they look a lot more human than people in cars do, and because they rely on eye contact and hand signals to express their intentions, rather than on blinking lights and sheer metallic muscle. Because they are more vulnerable. Vanderbilt writes about how the idea that "cyclists" are a group unto themselves, an "other," creates some of the problem: This dynamic appears on the road in all kinds of ways. "We know that merely perceiving someone as an outsider is enough to provoke a whole range of things," says Ian Walker, a researcher at the University of Bath who specializes in traffic psychology. "All the time, you hear drivers saying things like 'Cyclists, they're all running red lights, they're all riding on sidewalks,' while completely overlooking the fact that the group they identify with regularly engages in a whole host of negative behaviors as well." This social categorization is subtle but dominant, he points out. When people are given a piece of paper and asked to describe themselves, "men never write, 'I'm a man.' Whereas women will write 'woman' because being male is the 'default' status in society." And so it is with cyclists. In a country like the Netherlands, which has more bikes than people and where virtually the entire population cycles at one time or another, the word cyclist isn't meaningful. But in the U.S., the term often implies something more, in both a good and a bad sense. There's also a not-so-subtle class element in play: Yes, cultural politics are getting weird, which may also explain some of the tension, as Brian Ladd, author of the 2008 book *Autophobia*, argues. "Most Americans," he wrote in a December post on the urban-planning Web site Planetizen.com <http://www.planetizen.com/>, "know one thing about the bicyclists they see on the roads: they are losers, and you thank God you're not one of them." But wait, he says, noting the fashionability of cycling: Who's doing the sneering here? "It's harder to dismiss cyclists as beneath contempt," he says, "when you suspect that they might just be contemptuous of you." You should read Vanderbilt's article in full [note: pasted below], because it's packed with great stuff (he rides along with one guy who commutes 50 miles each way by bike twice a week, and talks with another who documents his interactions with angry drivers on video). Unlike a lot of the writing on this topic, it is well-reasoned and well-researched. In the end, Vanderbilt comes to a pretty simple conclusion: In thinking about how to improve driver-cyclist relations in America, the easiest thing is to simply get more people on bikes. Because that way, it won't be us vs. them. It'll just be us. -- [Warning: The next article is lengthy but well worth reading.] Outside Magazine, March 2011<http://outsideonline.com/travel/travel-ta-201103/table-of-contents/travel-t…> http://outsideonline.com/adventure/travel-ga-201103-new-york-bike-commuting… Rage Against Your Machine What is it about cyclists that can turn sane, law-abiding drivers into shrieking maniacs? The author ponders the eternal conflict with help from bike supercommuter Joe Simonetti, who each week survives the hostile, traffic-clogged rat race between the New York exurbs and Midtown Manhattan. By *Tom Vanderbilt * THE U.S. CENSUS BUREAU DEFINES AN "EXTREME COMMUTER" AS SOMEONE WHO SPENDS MORE THAN THREE HOURS GETTING TO AND FROM WORK. This is usually understood to be by car. It's not clear, then, how the Census would categorize Joe Simonetti, a 57-year-old psychotherapist who lives with his wife in Pound Ridge, New York. His commute takes him from the northern reaches of exurban Westchester County to his office just south of Central Park. It's about three and a half hours each way. By bike. When I heard about Simonetti's commute—some 50-odd road miles as Google Maps flies—I was vaguely stupefied. It may or may not be the longest bike commute in America, but it's certainly the most improbable. In my mind's eye, there was the dense clamor of New York City, then a netherland of train yards and traffic-clogged overpasses, then an outer belt of big-box retail, and then you were suddenly in the land of golf courses and five-acre zoning—where middle managers crowd the bar car on Metro-North and hedge-fund analysts cruise in 7 Series BMWs down I-95. The idea that this landscape could be traversed on a bike struck me as fantastic. This is America, where 65 percent of trips under one mile are made by car. But at 7 A.M. on a mid-November Thursday—among the last of the year on which Simonetti was going to ride—I packed my bike into the back of a hired minivan and headed for Pound Ridge, noting with subtle alarm the ticking off of miles as we pushed north. Simonetti obviously isn't the typical bike commuter. For one thing, he does it only twice a week, weather permitting. For another, he doesn't ride home the same day; he has a crash pad in the city where he can shower and sleep. But in following this supercommuter, I wanted to open a window into what it means to be a cyclist in a country where the bicycle struggles for the barest acceptance as a means of transportation. Over the years and the miles, Simonetti has experienced just about everything a cyclist can on the roads today: honked horns, cramped bike lanes, close calls with cars, and even a few crashes—the last one landing him in the hospital. I was curious to ride with him for the sheer novelty of it, and also to get a handle on what seemed to be an increasingly prevalent culture war between cyclists and drivers, one that was claiming actual lives. At least for one beautiful morning, I wanted to move beyond the alarming headlines and toxic chat rooms and into the real world, to get a sense of how, why—and if—things had gotten so bad. My interest isn't because I'm a cyclist, though I am, in the loose recreational sense. Rather, the issue was forced upon me by the publication of my 2008 book *Traffic*, which looked at the oft-peculiar psychology of drivers. Cyclists were among the book's most devoted readers, although I'm still not sure if it's because they found my dissection of drivers' foibles educational or cathartic. After all, the little things that drivers think are excusable—forgetting a turn signal, weaving a bit as they fumble for their Big Gulps—can range from frustrating to life-threatening for a cyclist. Simonetti's house, a cozy ranch that he jokes is the smallest in Pound Ridge, sits on a twisting country lane. The walkability-measuring Web site Walkscore.org <http://www.walkscore.org/> gives his address a rating of zero, meaning, basically, that you can't get around without a car. Tall and trim, with a professorial salt-and-pepper beard, Simonetti is waiting with his LeMond Buenos Aires, a 50th-birthday gift that, he jokes, makes him look "like a real cyclist." Clad in a helmet, gloves, and a blue cycling jacket, he fills our bikes' bottles with a mixture of juice and water, checks that his back pouch has spare tubes (I've forgotten mine), and clicks his shoes into his pedals. On a still-brisk morning—it's 8:30, and Simonetti's first appointment is at noon—we push off onto a route that Simonetti has refined over the years. It was, in fact, a bike ride that brought him here from the city. After a ride across America for charity in 1998, he returned to New York feeling "a bit midlifey." His daughter was already a teenager, and he craved nature. He and his wife, Carol Goldman, a social worker, were searching for a house that "felt country" but was still within cycling reach of Manhattan. "I never want to commute five days a week by train," he says. He is surely the only person in the history of Westchester County to arrive for a house showing by bike from Manhattan. "They thought I was pretty weird," he says of the realtors. He stresses that he is purely a "functional" cyclist: he rides when he needs to get somewhere, be it the hardware store or Midtown. Our route snakes through preternaturally quiet daytime suburbs whose streets seem plied primarily by women in SUVs and tradesmen in pickups. A Latino landscaping crew smiles at us as we ride through the leaf storm they've blown up in Greenwich, Connecticut. We don't see any other cyclists until New Rochelle, and even then it's two young girls riding on the sidewalk. In the town of Rye Brook, a little after 10 A.M., we pause at a deli for Simonetti's traditional pit-stop fare: an egg-white omelet with Swiss on a whole-wheat bagel. They all know him here, and a clipping from a local paper detailing his commute is stuck on the wall, behind a picture of the clerk's daughter. Here, Simonetti is not some "Lycra lout," some "Lance wannabe," or any of the other epithets often hurled at cyclists. He's simply Joe. He's the guy who rides his bike to work. And, thanks to me and my questions and my questionable pace, he's late. SOMEWHERE SOUTH of Pelham, Simonetti tells me of a crash last summer, in the Bronx, that left him with a broken collarbone. It was a "right hook," one of the most common crash types for cyclists: a driver, traveling in Simonetti's lane ahead of him, suddenly turned right—without signaling—directly into Simonetti's path. An ambulance responded quickly, but the police did not. The paramedics told Simonetti the police would deal with the driver when they arrived, he says. "But the guy left. I don't blame him." When the police, investigating what was now a hit-and-run, came to the hospital, they asked him if he'd gotten the license-plate number. "I was laid out on the ground," he laughs. The driver was never found. Judging by recent headlines, it's not hard to believe that riding a bike has become a little like entering a war zone. No story blew up more than that of Steven Milo, a prominent New York anesthesiologist who was struck near Vail, Colorado, last July 3 by Martin Erzinger, a Denver money manager who specializes in "ultra-high-net-worth individuals." After veering off the road and hitting Milo from behind, throwing him off his bike, Erzinger drove to a Pizza Hut parking lot and called Mercedes roadside assistance. Milo, meanwhile, sustained spinal injuries, lacerations, and, according to court documents quoted by the *Vail Daily*, "bleeding from the brain." When the district attorney, citing "job implications" for Erzinger should he be convicted of a felony, downgraded the hit-and-run charges to a misdemeanor, the cycling blogosphere went off like a supernova. Erzinger had told police that he'd never seen Milo; among the more outlandish of his lawyer's later defenses was that "new-car smell" had impaired his client. Ultimately, the judge accepted the prosecutor's misdemeanor plea deal and sentenced Erzinger to probation, a suspended jail term, and community service. Last September, in Maryland, Natasha Pettigrew, a Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, was training at dawn for a triathlon when she was fatally struck by a Cadillac Escalade. No charges have yet been filed against the driver, who said that she thought she'd hit an animal until she got home and found Pettigrew's bike lodged under her car. In Florida, the country's deadliest state for cyclists—119 deaths in 2007, ten more than California despite having half the population—two riders participating in last year's annual Memorial Day ride were stabbed by a driver after words were exchanged on the road. In 2009, the last year for which records are available, 630 cyclists were killed by cars in the U.S. (compared with 4,092 pedestrians). That's arguably a big improvement over the 1,003 cyclist fatalities that occurred in 1975, when, as Census data hint, far fewer people were commuting by bike and still fewer wore helmets. And yet, even if things have gotten safer, at least in terms of absolute deaths (which are easier to measure than where or how much people are actually cycling), a sense of hostility—and sometimes outright violence—seems to be on the rise. When accidents do happen, they can generate as much vitriol as concern, as drivers circle their station wagons and trot out now familiar arguments: that the roads are meant for cars, or that cyclists don't pay for the roads—a particularly unwarranted charge, given that local streets are paid for primarily by sales and property taxes. There's a feeling among many drivers that cyclists, either by their ignorance of the law or by their blatant disregard for it, are asking for trouble. "If the door opens into a bicycle rider," opined Rush Limbaugh on his radio show in 2009, "I won't care." In one sense, the so-called bikelash has little to do with transportation modes. In the late 1960s, a pair of British psychologists set out to understand the ways in which we humans tend to split ourselves into opposing factions. They divided a group of teenage schoolboys, who all knew each other, into two groups and asked them to perform a number of "trivial tasks." The boys were then asked to give money to fellow subjects, who were anonymous save for their group affiliation. As it turned out, the schoolboys consistently gave more money to members of their own group, even though these groups had just formed and were essentially meaningless. "The mere division into groups," wrote the psychologists, Henri Tajfel and Michael Billig, of the University of Bristol, "might have been sufficient to have produced discriminatory behavior." Though not exactly *Lord of the Flies*, the experiment was a demonstration of the power of what's called "social categorization"—and the penalties inflicted on the "out-group." This dynamic appears on the road in all kinds of ways. "We know that merely perceiving someone as an outsider is enough to provoke a whole range of things," says Ian Walker, a researcher at the University of Bath who specializes in traffic psychology. "All the time, you hear drivers saying things like 'Cyclists, they're all running red lights, they're all riding on sidewalks,' while completely overlooking the fact that the group they identify with regularly engages in a whole host of negative behaviors as well." This social categorization is subtle but dominant, he points out. When people are given a piece of paper and asked to describe themselves, "men never write, 'I'm a man.' Whereas women will write 'woman' because being male is the 'default' status in society." And so it is with cyclists. In a country like the Netherlands, which has more bikes than people and where virtually the entire population cycles at one time or another, the word cyclist isn't meaningful. But in the U.S., the term often implies something more, in both a good and a bad sense. On the one hand, cyclists have a strong group affiliation, with clubs, group rides, and a flourishing network of bike blogs. And yet the oft-invoked idea of "bike culture" itself betrays cycling's marginal status in America, observes Eben Weiss, creator of the blog Bike Snob NYC, in his book *Bike Snob: Systematically and Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling*. "The truth is," he writes, "real cultures rarely call themselves cultures, just like famous things rarely call *themselves* famous." The dark side of the "cyclist" label is that it becomes a shortcut to social categorization. Suddenly, that messenger who cut in front of you becomes the face of an entire population. And the next time you have an unpleasant encounter with a cyclist, it isn't just a matter of his (or your) carelessness: it seems intentional. Simonetti sees this type of reaction all the time, on the road and in his practice. "As a couples therapist, I tell people that we take things so personally," he says as we near the Whitestone Bridge, on the first dedicated bike path we've seen in more than two hours. It's easy, when a car edges too close or cuts him off, to "go to that paranoid place where they're just trying to fuck with me. We're so worried that someone else can steal our sense of self that we fight for it at every turn." But it could have been just that the driver didn't see him. Under the spell of what's called "inattentional blindness," people have been known to miss obvious things simply because they're not looking for them. Either that or what seems inconsequential in a car—passing by within a foot or two—can be terrifying to someone on a bike. One way to find out what drivers are thinking, of course, is to actually stop and ask them, which is precisely what one Wisconsin cyclist has been doing, with interesting results, for the past few years. THE FIRST THING Jeff Frings wants you to know is that he's not out to get drivers. (He is one, after all.) The second thing is that he doesn't have a persecution complex. "The majority of drivers go out of their way to give me room, and are decent and good drivers around cyclists," says Frings, a news cameraman and avid rider who lives in the suburbs of Milwaukee. "The problem is, it only takes one mistake to end your life or put you in a wheelchair." A few years ago, Frings found out what happens when you encounter someone who isn't a good and decent driver. Out on a weekday ride, he was nearly sideswiped. Heated words followed. The driver accelerated away, then screeched on his brakes right in front of him. "I said, 'This is out of control,'" says Frings. "I called 911." This wasn't the only time. A similar incident ended not with a reprimand of the driver but with a threat by the responding officer to book Frings for disorderly conduct. Rattled by these experiences and dismayed by the lack of evidence, Frings mounted two small video cameras: one on his helmet, one rear-facing on the handlebars. Frings started filming every one of the 100 to 250 miles he rides in a week, to provide proof against the claims of drivers, who are typically the only ones left standing after a serious bike-car crash. He posts the worst encounters on his Web site, bikesafer.blogspot.com<http://www.bikesafer.blogspot.com/>, which could provide grist for a reality show: *America's Douchiest Drivers*. The incidents tend to follow a pattern: 1. Driver cuts him off or nearly runs him off the road. 2. Frings catches up to driver at red light. 3. Frings points out error of driver's ways. 4. Driver says something like "Get on the sidewalk where you belong, jag-off!" 5. Thus ensues what Frings calls "the Conversation," in which he notes (sometimes to police officers) that it's in fact illegal for him to ride on the sidewalk, and that while the law dictates that he be "as far to the right as practicable," that doesn't mean the shoulder, and so forth. Typically, this goes about as well you'd expect. "I'm trying to be less confrontational," says Frings. He's embracing politeness. "Can I just ask you one favor?" he will say. "Can you give me a little more room next time?" He takes his victories in handshakes, promises to do better, and the occasional ticket police give a driver after seeing Frings's evidence. And while he's not optimistic about converting the "haters"—those who believe bikes have no place on the road—he hopes that if he can just get one driver to be more empathetic toward cyclists, it's worth it. "Because the next time," he says, "could be my time." The confusion over the laws pertaining to cyclists unfortunately echoes throughout the entire legal system, argues Bob Mionske, a two-time Olympic cyclist and Portland, Oregon–based lawyer specializing in cases involving bikers. "Enforcement is really where it all starts," he says. "If the police don't respect your mode of transportation, don't expect the rest of society to." Laws are often unenforced. In researching a case in Tennessee where a driver hit a cyclist (who was "lit up like a Christmas tree," says Mionske) while passing, he found that the driver hadn't been given a ticket for violating the state's three-foot passing law—in fact, he couldn't find a case where a ticket had ever been given. Even worse, laws are sometimes used against cyclists. In 2008, a cyclist in Madison, Wisconsin, who'd been hospitalized after being "doored" was actually ticketed for riding less than three feet away from parked cars—even though, as most state traffic codes note, it's the driver's responsibility not to obstruct traffic of any kind when he opens his door. But the biker had only bad choices: ride too far into traffic and risk getting hit, or ride to the right and risk getting doored. Wisconsin has since changed the law. In Mionske's view, justice for cyclists is often invisible, handled with civil settlements that rarely draw public attention. And criminal justice often hangs on a knife-edge. When a 14-year-old teenager in Connecticut was fatally struck by a speeding driver, Mionske notes that it was the driver's prior convictions—including multiple DWIs—that helped land him in jail. For anything but the most egregious cases, Mionske says, a driver who strikes a cyclist—even fatally—is rarely even brought to trial. In the case of the Vail hit-and-run last July, what changed things was that the victim was a successful doctor. "He wasn't going to sit down on this," Mionske says. "Can you imagine if the guy had been collecting aluminum cans?" Like many cyclists, Mionske would like to see some version of the liability system used in the Netherlands and other European countries, in which the burden of proof in a car-cyclist crash is on the driver—the idea being to encourage the user of the far deadlier vehicle to act more cautiously around the more "vulnerable road users," as cyclists are called in road-safety parlance. Of course, if calling cyclists "vulnerable" makes it seem like they're never to blame, that's not true, either. It's not just those hipsters on fixies sealed off from the world by earbuds who give bikers an image problem. Plenty of well-meaning bike commuters aren't aware of the laws, or fail to use bright flashing lights at night, or turn without giving hand signals. Statistically, some studies show cyclists running more red lights than drivers—for a number of complicated reasons, whether to conserve momentum, to get ahead of traffic and be more visible, or, more profoundly, perhaps because their out-group status leads them to act that way. But the red lights may be a red herring. The way cyclists get hurt seems to have less to do with their own culpability and more to do with getting hit by cars—either from behind or when a car turns right, the way Simonetti was struck. Echoing research in the UK, a recent three-year study by Australia's Monash University found that in 54 recorded crashes among a sampling of cyclists, drivers were at fault nearly nine out of ten times. Regardless of fault, there's another twist here. As various studies have found, the more cyclists and cycling infrastructure a town has, the safer it becomes statistically, not just for cyclists but for drivers and pedestrians alike. When New York City put a protected bike lane on Ninth Avenue, some protested it as unsafe for people on foot. But since the lane's opening, pedestrian injuries on Ninth have dropped by 29 percent. Last year, as miles of bike lanes were added, New York had its best pedestrian-safety record ever. While Mionske is generally positive about recent initiatives like Oregon's Vulnerable Road User law, which stiffens penalties for striking a pedestrian or cyclist, and the bicyclist bills of rights passed in a number of other states, he believes that laws are not enough. "Until the public attitude changes, you're not going to change the experience everyone has out there in the world," he says, "whether it's other kinds of discrimination or modism—discriminating against people because of their mode of transportation." THERE ARE TIMES, however, when the gulf seems too wide to span. On one of his rides, Frings was hailed by a man standing in his front yard. The man announced he had passed him earlier in his car. He told Frings he had almost hit him, because he was riding too far into the road. "I tried to explain to him the concept of 'taking the lane'—that the lane's too narrow for us to be side by side, and drivers would think they could pass me even when there's oncoming traffic," Frings says. "That concept, before I talked to him about it, was completely foreign to him. He couldn't understand how it would be safer for me to ride farther out." Hence one of the major fault lines of driver-cyclist relations. While virtually every cyclist in America is also a driver, relatively few drivers are also cyclists. "People either don't know how to handle you," says Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, "or they don't want to handle you." There's an empathy gap that, as you know if you've spent much time on cycling blogs, can cut both ways. In one study in which drivers were asked how they feel about cyclists, one of the recurring labels was "unpredictable." When asked to elaborate, drivers often blamed the "attitudes and limited competence" of the cyclists themselves, rather than the "difficulty of the situations that cyclists are often forced to face on the road." When asked to describe their own actions or those of other drivers, however, they blamed only the situation. Psychologists call this the "fundamental attribution error." So drivers, perhaps already stressed out from being late for work or stuck in traffic, then have to negotiate their way around a vehicle they essentially don't understand, causing even more stress, which they tend to attribute to something about cyclists. It's a vicious cycle—most vicious, in terms of actual harm, for cyclists. Cyclists, too, can be as susceptible as anyone to "modal bias," thinking that one's mode of travel is the "normal," even superior, one. After researching my book, there may be no more conscientious—or paranoid—driver on the American road than me. But I am still occasionally flummoxed by some wrong-way night rider wearing black. I want to tell them, "Don't ruin it for everyone!" Then again, I wouldn't tell a rude fellow driver not to ruin the image of drivers. Yes, cultural politics are getting weird, which may also explain some of the tension, as Brian Ladd, author of the 2008 book *Autophobia*, argues. "Most Americans," he wrote in a December post on the urban-planning Web site Planetizen.com <http://www.planetizen.com/>, "know one thing about the bicyclists they see on the roads: they are losers, and you thank God you're not one of them." But wait, he says, noting the fashionability of cycling: Who's doing the sneering here? "It's harder to dismiss cyclists as beneath contempt," he says, "when you suspect that they might just be contemptuous of you." In thinking about how to improve driver-cyclist relations in America, the easiest thing is to simply get more people on bikes. Growing up in the small Wisconsin town of Twin Lakes, Mionske notes, he "didn't see more than two road bikes in my entire childhood." Now, he jokes, "you've got packs of 40 guys riding around pissing people off." But with each new cyclist, he says, it's no longer "the Other; it's us." Few American cities have done a better job of getting people on bikes than Portland, Oregon, where around 7 percent of the population bikes to work and children cycle to school in huge "bike trains." And yet, last year, like many recent years, no cyclist was killed. (By comparison, Tampa, Florida, a city where fewer than 1 percent of the population commutes by bike, had nine cyclist fatalities in four months in 2009.) Greg Raisman, a traffic-safety specialist with Portland's Bureau of Transportation, says one key to getting people biking is providing infrastructure—actual or symbolic. The city features "bicycle boulevards" and bike-only traffic signals, and it's planning new six-foot-wide bike lanes. It recently put some 2,100 "sharrows" bike symbols on 50 miles of residential streets. He says the symbols send messages to motorists and are, as many Portlanders have told him, changing "people's mental maps of the city." "We need to get people to change the way they think about transportation," Raisman says. While all road users need to step up in terms of behavior, he believes, calling for cyclists to be licensed, as some critics have lately done, isn't the right place to start. "I recently got my driver's license renewed," he says. "They just asked me if my address was the same." Among the things he was not asked was whether he was aware of traffic-code changes like the 2007 Vulnerable Road User law or a new Oregon rule that makes it legal for cyclists to pass on the right so they can filter to the front past queues of cars stopped at traffic lights. THE GREENWAYS of Portland seem very far away as Joe Simonetti and I pedal down a street in the Bronx that looks like the nightmare underbelly of America's car culture. In front of myriad body shops sit subcompacts with mashed-in crumple zones and SUVs with spidery shattered windows. A billboard urges auto-accident victims to dial 1-800-I-AM-HURT. Cars honk and weave, delivery trucks wait parked in the bicycle lane. "The Bronx is lawless," says Simonetti. "It's the Wild West, dog eat dog—or car eat car." We cross the Madison Avenue Bridge into Manhattan and a few minutes later reach the Central Park loop, one of the few car-free spaces of the day. Our ride has gone off without conflict, not that it's always so. "It's hard to ride ten years without some incident," Simonetti says. There's a crash—not always major—every season or so, not to mention logistical concerns like bathroom breaks. He says he enjoys two-thirds of the ride but admits to having to "push myself" through the final third. But the benefits are clear. For one, Simonetti, despite being nearly two decades my senior, seems ready to keep riding, whereas I'm struggling from an old knee injury that's come wriggling up like worms after rain. For another, knee notwithstanding, I feel fantastic. In a study by the University of Surrey, car commuters reported having the "most stressful" commutes, while cyclists saw their journeys as "interesting and exciting." Indeed, where driving into New York City always leaves me feeling edgy and irritable, I now feel curiously alive. To cycle in America today is to engage in an almost political act, but what's often obscured is the simple idea of pleasure. Andy Clarke notes that bike-component maker Shimano, in some research it conducted with the design firm IDEO, found that when you talk to adults and ask them about their earliest childhood memory, "it invariably involves a bike—exploring their neighborhood, careening down a hill, ditching the training wheels." We need to rediscover that, he says. "They don't want to feel like they have to be Lance. People want to be normal, and they want cycling to be a part of normal life." Returning from a visit to Cape Cod last summer, I was staggered to see a traffic jam stretching for dozens of miles, heading to the beaches. Almost every car had several bikes lashed to it. You could almost feel the collective urge to escape traffic and get on a bike. I thought: *This is the country that hates cyclists, that sees them as a road menace?* Simonetti and I draw to a stop outside his office building, two people on bikes amid Midtown gridlock. I ask him why he does it. "I have a tremendous feeling of accomplishment," he says. "No matter what else happens in the day, I can feel good about the ride. There aren't many other things that make me feel that way." How many people can say that about their commute? After saying goodbye to Simonetti, I head home myself, riding over to the Hudson River Greenway, that jewel of New York's expanding—and controversial—bicycle network, where none of the larger thoughts about cycling in America intrude. I'm just enjoying the breeze off the river and thinking about that final climb over the Brooklyn Bridge. -- And the last word goes to Goofy... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZgiVicpZGk

1 0