The second week of school is nearly finished, and I’m ready to get back to work covering the bicycle scene — here and around the world 
I’ll be shooting video of the new bicycle lanes on Cherry east of Glenstone this weekend. I saw a picture on the Bicycle Friendly Springfield group on Facebook. I was happy to see that the chatter was soundly against this gutter lane.
I’ve been frankly flabbergasted at the pace of lane painting here lately and the poor quality of some of the lanes. Just scroll down and check out the videos from the past three weeks or so. I’ve been trying to account for why this is happening. One thought: The survey by The Network in which young professionals in town put bicycle friendliness at the top of their priorities for making Springfield more competitive in attracting and retaining young people.
Then I remembered something else. There’s been a post-card mailing campaign going on — run out of the local bicycle shops — targeting city officials. I heard regular reports at STAR Team meetings that people were sending in these cards asking for more bicycle friendliness. I didn’t pay much attention to this at the time because I was operating under the assumption (coming from STAR Team discussions) that the City of Springfield was not interested in painting lanes. Expanding the route system? Yes. Placing signs and sharrows on the route system? Yes. Expanding greenway trails? Yes.
Hmmmm… Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it, and it just might suck.
Comments 9
The problem is, there is often a huge disconnect between what a knowledgeable organization like STAR will propose and what the uncritical person on the street will propose. Those cards, which probably do not require much critical thinking to fill out, translate into “bike lanes” to uncritical politicians and ill-educated transportation officials. Its pretty frustrating.
One also has to ask about the bike shops. Are they interested in building proper facilities, or in spraying paint so they can sell more bicycles. My worry about People for Bikes, for example, is based on it being a house organ for the bike industry. Surely they want more people on bikes, so they can sell more bikes. Once you buy the bike, you are on your own out there. That is exactly the opposite of the motorcycle industry, which aggressively sponsors safety training (not “motor-cycletracks”) via their retail outlets through the industry funded Motorcycle Safety Foundation. For example, the BMW shop in Albuquerque and Harley shop in Santa Fe hold classes for beginner and experienced riders. Keeping motorcyclists upright and healthy is a great way to advertise that motorcycling is fun. Imagine if the MC industry instead harped on the “dangers” of motorcycling. Of course, they would go broke. The bike industry, rather than challenging cyclists to be better riders, passes the buck to Big Government to build these lousy facilities.
Posted 30 Aug 2012 at 1:28 pm ¶Khal… I don’t know anything about motorcycles, so that was all news to me. And very good to know. And a real eye-opener.
Posted 30 Aug 2012 at 3:43 pm ¶http://online2.msf-usa.org/msf/Default.aspx
From their website.
About MSF: The Motorcycle Safety Foundation® is the internationally recognized developer of the comprehensive, research-based, Rider Education and Training System (MSF RETS). RETS curricula promotes lifelong-learning for motorcyclists and continuous professional development for certified RiderCoaches and other trainers. MSF also actively participates in government relations, safety research, public awareness campaigns and the provision of technical assistance to state training and licensing programs. The Motorcycle Safety Foundation is a national, not-for-profit organization sponsored by BMW, BRP, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Kawasaki, KTM, Piaggio, Suzuki, Triumph, Victory and Yamaha.
Mission Statement: To make motorcycling safer and more enjoyable by ensuring access to lifelong quality education and training for current and prospective riders, and by advocating a safer riding environment.
Vision: The MSF is an internationally recognized not-for-profit foundation, supported by motorcycle manufacturers, that provides leadership to the motorcycle safety community through its expertise, tools, and partnerships.
Posted 30 Aug 2012 at 4:49 pm ¶Perhaps it is as simple as the city got a great deal on a huge amount of white paint?
Posted 30 Aug 2012 at 5:01 pm ¶While I personally totally endorse Khal’s sentiments about motorcycle education, I have yet to see solid evidence that the education/safety emphasis is anything other than – a complete failure. I want to believe based on more than faith…
Posted 30 Aug 2012 at 5:04 pm ¶IIHS puts little faith in MC training. There are also some pubs having little faith in driver’s ed training.
http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/motorcycles.aspx
This 2009 TRR paper says it seems the studies themselves are inconclusive because their methods of evaluating the effectiveness of training are flawed.
http://www.me.vt.edu/gabler/publications/TRR-Daniello-2140-2009.pdf
What I endorse is the idea of empowering participants to be better riders rather than abandoning them to the expectation that Uncle Albuquerque or Uncle Sam will keep them safe and secure via the construction of facilities of questionable virtue. Uncle Albuquerque’s job is to build facilities that conform to very good and conservative (there’s that word) engineering standards, and to vigorously enforce the law against traffic code violators.
The instructors we had at the class I took said much the same–that the numbers they looked at indicated that riders initially were more careful and had lower crash rates after a successful class, but that their crash rates creeped up again. There are things you can control for and things you can’t. A novice rider might not know the things one can control and may not know how to react to things that happen due to unforseen events. I suspect it really depends on the person. Certainly if I crash the BMW its gonna hurt a lot more than if I crash the Subaru. One has to avoid crashing. Depending on paint stripes rather than one’s own wits is a fruitless endeavour.
Posted 30 Aug 2012 at 5:25 pm ¶John Allen stated the following. It was about door zone bike lanes, but applies to any crappy bicycle facility design.
http://www.bikexprt.com/massfacil/cambridge/doorzone/pressrls.htm
“I know all too well the desire to ‘do something’ for bicyclists,” Allen said. “And when you paint a bike lane, it’s a highly visible ‘something.’ That doesn’t make it right. Sometimes, doing nothing is best. Sometimes, an accommodation that isn’t visible, or an accommodation that most people wouldn’t specifically notice, is the safest.
“A bike lane in the door zone is never safe. I told Cambridge that years ago, and now I’m sorry to have to repeat the message.”
(John) Schubert added that he’s seen “too much creativity” from planners and designers anxious to make their mark on the world.
“Traffic engineering isn’t a game,” Schubert said. “If you screw it up, people die.”
Posted 31 Aug 2012 at 1:06 pm ¶Hey Andy,
Did you go outside and dance in the rain?
Posted 01 Sep 2012 at 2:20 pm ¶Michael… It was wonderful — two days of steady rain. This week’s forecast: a return to hell.
Posted 02 Sep 2012 at 11:49 am ¶