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Archive for the ‘Street Bicycles’ Category

Does proximity to high volumes of car traffic lead to autism?

Maybe, maybe not, but research by the University of Southern California and published in JAMA Psychiatry shows an association between the numbers of autistic children with levels of nitrogen dioxide and micro-fine particulate pollutants when the children are in the womb and shortly after birth. The USC researchers say further epidemiological and toxicological examinations of likely biological pathways will help determine whether these associations are causal.

This study is not a smoking gun for autism, but we already know fine particulate matter causes brain damage. This is in addition to other direct damage caused by driving cars such as various respiratory diseases (from emissions), stress-induced illnesses (from road noise), and various cancers (from VOC, NOx, and maybe PM).

Abstract is here; full journal article available to subscribers.

Related posts:

1. Traffic kills brain cells
2. Traffic safety: If you can’t see, the speed limit is zero
3. Colorado HB 1147: Helmet legislation for children

Happy Hump Day and greetings to Eloy, who I met this morning on the Guadalupe River Trail. This Dutch cyclist wears the royal color for his bike commute.

Do you wave at other cyclists? Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal does. So does Patrick “Mad Dog” O’Grady, who’s puzzled about those who fail to wave back

That Taylor Street Bridge in San Jose where a cyclist was killed on Monday is a nasty one. Sadly, among the few bad east-west bike access choices, this one is about the least bad. Chris P, who regularly cycles across that bridge, started a petition asking the San Jose City Council to improve the safety of that bridge. San Jose’s bike plan includes improvements for that bridge but it’s currently unfunded.

Some of you might remember my disappointment two years ago when a handful of businesses opposed a streetscape project for California Avenue in Palo Alto. I recently learned that one of those businesses has done a complete about face and now welcomes cyclists to their business with open arms. It’s a wonderful story of bike advocacy in action.

Elly Blue has a bicycle coloring book featuring line drawings by artist Taliah Lempert.

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What is with these guys? Unlike passing motorists, I generally wave with all five fingers on a given hand, and there are no pentagrams tattooed on my palms. Has the mousse that grips their so-carefully coiffed ’dos soaked through their scalps to enmire the already-sluggish machinations of their brains? Are their Oakleys so dark that they simply can’t see my friendly salutation? Have they heard the ugly rumors about me, their sisters and the Sonoran donkey?

“Glee” star Gran Gustin rides a bicycle and crashed.

You may have seen the Chron‘s report to improve cycling safety in San Francisco because of a 20% increase in collisions. Jym Dyer compares this increase in collisions with an estimated 35% increase in cyclists over the same time period, and points out this is in line with Jacobsen’s “Safety in Numbers” findings. He also points out the safety improvement that results in taking motorists off of the street.

Here’s a short collection of advocacy news stories from James Bikes Green.

Santa Cruz Bicycle news

My friend Karen Kefauver covers some of the bicycling innovation in Santa Cruz for the Sentinel.

Santa Cruz police shut down a stolen bike chop shop.

This is old news but I guess nothing has happened yet so Santa Cruz Indymedia repeats the claim that the city of Santa Cruz violates city code in how they distribute unclaimed bicycles. I know the Bike Church made very good use of the donated bicycles. I have no clue what Bike Dojo does behind their closed doors.

Ramona Turner’s Street Smarts column covers exceptions to the “as far right as practicable” law in California.

Finally, I happened to notice this big purple bus passing through Santa Cruz County this morning. This is the Cavarallo Transit Center in Scotts Valley.

Apple and Google both have employee buses for Santa Cruz County residents, but I’ve never noticed a Yahoo bus before. The guy with his back to me in the photo was standing next to me and chatting amiably with other people on their way to board this bus. I get his attention and ask him if this is a new bus for Yahoos. I’m freshly shaven and dressed professionally, but this freak just looked at me like I was Frankenstein’s monster, muttered a couple of incomprehensible syllables, then turned around and blew me off.

Something tells me that if this guy rides a bike, he probably doesn’t wave.

Related posts:

1. Bicycle friendly businesses in Santa Cruz County
2. San Jose bike safety forum this afternoon
3. Bike safety and trucks

Thank you to Grist for this wonderful “How to ride your bike in traffic” video from Seattle.

H/T to Shayne.

Related posts:

1. Unified bike advocacy
2. Advocacy & transpo jobs and internships
3. Presidential candidates who support bike advocacy

A hit and run driver killed a cyclist Monday afternoon on the Taylor Street overpass over Highway 87. This is the third cyclist fatality in the Bay Area’s largest city in a week.

I’ll promote a comment left earlier this morning by San Jose resident Mark Saurwald. Saurwald has previously brought up the lack of east-west bike connectivity to city and county transportation planners.

This highlights the lack of East-West bike routes in San Jose from the area north of downtown (from SJSU to the Airport) to Santa Clara. The only options are Hedding which has a narrow bridge overpass over the Caltrain tracks, or Taylor where the bike lanes that exist on either side of highway 87 disappear to accommodate crossing traffic from all directions getting on/off highway 87. The cyclist was taking one of the only roads available to cross 87/Caltrain tracks, which has terrible bike accommodation, but is the best available.

Related posts:

1. San Jose Council approves Hedding Street Bikeway Plan
2. San Jose Bike Party ride tonight
3. Illinois blind cyclist killed

You all know I’m a big believer in making conditions safer for cyclists through a variety of measures that include safer facilities, education, law enforcement and prosecution to ensure safer driving by motorists.

The fact remains, however, that the only behavior you can control is your own. Defensive driving, which is driving to anticipate the actions of others, applies as much to cycling as it does to driving. Opening a door in traffic is illegal in 40 states and the District of Columbia, for example, but it happens so commonly that we have a name for it when a cyclist is hit by a suddenly open door. Ditto for other common collision scenarios such as The Right Hook and The Left Cross. We can watch for all of these and react accordingly when somebody does the inevitable as a fallible human being.

Very occasionally, you can do everything right and still fall afoul of bad driving. 23 year old Shayla Cypriano was walking her bicycle across the street in San Jose last Thursday when a collision claimed her life. A southbound dump truck on Lincoln was in the light-controlled intersection at Auzerais when a delivery truck on Auzerais struck it and knock it over, directly onto Ms Cypriano. The speed limit on both streets is 25 MPH.

Ms Cypriano leaves behind a toddler. You can read more about her here. She was San Jose’s 17th pedestrian fatality for 2013. Number 16 was a cyclist who ran the railroad crossing gate and was struck by a VTA light rail train near Sunol Street.

Related posts:

1. San Francisco cyclist doored, injured by passing bus
2. Another cyclist fatality at Mission and Bay in Santa Cruz
3. Cyclist killed in Menlo Park

Moscow, Russia have piloted their own bike share program after intense lobbying by local bicycle advocates.

300 red bikes (Hear that, Dan Maes?) at 30 docking stations around central Moscow are provided by Homeport Bikesharing Solutions of Prague in the Czech Republic, which also operates the bike share program. This “СитиБайк” (phonetically “City Bike”) program is sponsored by the Bank of Moscow. After this initial rollout which began at the end of May, organizers hope to expand Moscow’s bike share to 1,000 bikes at 100 stations spread across a large part of Moscow.

Like other bike share systems, users purchase a membership (anywhere from a day, which costs the equivalent of US$3, to a “season” for US$30. The first 30 minute are included in your membership fee, with increasing prices from US$1 for the first hour beyond that. Users sign up through VeloBike.RU and use the website or a mobile app to find bike and open kiosk availability.

Photos courtesy Homeport Bikesharing.

The New Yorker Magazine has an article describing how bike share came to be in the Russian capital.

Related posts:

1. Anaheim: First West Coast city with bike share
2. San Jose Bike Share begins by October 2012
3. Lawyers on bikes, and DC bike share expansion

“YOU’RE NOT DOING IT RIGHT!”

I might have been that guy a time or two. You can see the whole comic and read more discussion on this at The System, where Jimmy the Murderdog compares bike mechanics with dentists.

Related posts:

1. Cycling terms
2. How green is your bike ride?
3. Which action camera for your bike rides?

Could it be this?

Capital Bikeshare is doing more than moving people around on red bikes. It’s also helping sell houses and apartments and draw people to businesses.

The bike-sharing system, which has more than 175 docking stations across the District, Arlington and Alexandria, has become the latest tool to spur development and attract young people. Soon it will be coming to Montgomery County, and other communities are trying to bring it to their neighborhoods.

More at the Washington Examiner: Capital Bikeshare becoming an economic development tool.

Related posts:

1. Eric Cantor rides a bicycle
2. Explorations by bike: San Jose California
3. Kim Walesh rides a bicycle

Who needs a bike lane when you can just hop over traffic?

A trio of Czech companies collaborated to create the “F-Bike” flying electric fat tire bicycle.

The design team from Duratec (a custom frame builder), Technodat (which provided the 3D modeling tools) and Evektor Aircraft began working together about a year ago to design this bike. Construction of the prototype bike began last August, and today, the F-Bike took its inaugural five minute flight. For comparison, bike designer Orville Wright’s first historical flight on the Wright Flyer 1 lasted 12 seconds.

The 95 kg bike was remotely piloted with a dummy on board. Project lead Milan Duchek of Duratec says more powerful batteries will be needed before human flight is possible.

Photos from AP of this first flight of the F-Bike all over the web now; the Chronicle is one place. H/T to Platty Jo. Project website is at DesignYourDreams.CZ. There’s been no word thus far from the Wall Street Journal editorial board on the terror this flying bike will inflict on innocent New Yorkers. Mountain bike shuttle operators also had no comment on the impact such a bike might have on their businesses.

Related posts:

1. Vancouver Flying Pigeon
2. Flying Pigeon buys Campagnolo
3. Electric bicycles