Please be careful what you ask for, that is. There’s a movement afoot at the Bicycle Friendly Springfield group on Facebook to have Springfield bicyclists send postcards to the mayor requesting more bicycle friendliness in Springfield. The post cards are available at local bicycle shops. Fill it out. Send it in. Be heard. Good idea! [...]
Wow. Newsy day transportation-wise in Springfield. Check it out. Grand St. at MSU Eyed for Improvement: Never was their a better stretch of road needing some attention to make the lives of pedestrians and non-motorized traffic better. A preliminary design shows the project would cost around $2 million to pay for upgrades of traffic lights at both [...]
The first CyclingSavvy class in Springfield was a success. I define success this way: We had students! We had five! Two were members of my family. One other was known to me. And two signed up after having seen the announcement on Facebook. It’s tough to fill bicycling classes for a number of reasons. So I’m good [...]
Tom Vanderbilt — author of a book everyone should read — wrote about the diverging diamond intersection in his column for Slate. The first one in the U.S. was built right here in Springfield. I’ll be taking my CyclingSavvy class through that intersection tomorrow Technorati Tags: bicycle education, cycling, cyclingsavvy, traffic design
Not long ago I published photos, video, and explanatory graphics of the new bicycle lane on Benton between Drury University and Commercial Street. Please see: New Bicycle Lane on Benton Ave. Observations on Benton Ave. Graphics Explain Benton Situation Now it’s time to see what a door-zone crash looks like. What you are about to see is not an [...]
My thanks to the News-Leader for highlighting alternative transportation in its editorial today. I question the assumption that riding on the streets of Springfield is not safe or that bicycle lanes are safe. But, all in all, the need for transportation options is a conversation Springfield needs to have, and I’m happy to see the News-Leader taking [...]
Screw ‘em! I mean, really … other people? They’re just objects in the road. Something to get around. And if they piss you off, then scare them or put them in danger. Here’s what a road bully pulled on me this morning. He didn’t realize, however, that wasn’t scared of him. (Click for larger image) [...]
The new bicycle facilities on Division St. between Broadway and Benton are not quite complete, but I decided to make a video today because the weather was just soooooo nice You will see the 5-lane section east of Campbell that Traffic Engineer David Hutchison said (in an e-mail message) will have “shared lanes.” I assume [...]
I spent some time observing a 3-block stretch of bicycle lane in Seattle during my trip. I’m still not sure what to think about what I saw. First, take a look at the pictures. OK, so it’s a door-zone lane along 2nd Ave., a 1-way street heading south. I observed the conditions between Pike and [...]
My thanks to Keri Caffrey, of Commute Orlando and CyclingSavvy, for creating these graphics to help explain the situation on Benton Ave. Click to enlarge. Graphic #1: Current situation on Benton Ave. Graphic #2: Benton Ave. with sharrows. Also see this excellent series of graphics explaining Best Practice Bikeway Design for a 23 ft. Lane with Street [...]
I visited the bicycle lanes on Benton Ave. this morning to observe and photograph car and bicycle driver behavior. I also measured the facilities. Sidewalk: 6′ Green space: 10′ Parking lane: 7′ Bicycle lane: 6′ Travel lane: 10′ These measurements are the same for both sides of the roadway from the beginning of the bicycle [...]
A new bicycle lane has appeared on Benton Ave. from roughly Central St. to Commercial St. I say “appeared” because I had no idea this was coming. I’ve been operating under the impression that the city was uninterested in painting new lanes. Now, I have been busy this summer and traveling. I missed the last [...]
I’m late highlighting this interesting post — Fear mongers be gone! Riding a bike is safe. — by Dave Schlabowske: The point here is that it may sell papers, but fear mongering and casting blame are inappropriate responses to relatively rare tragedies when someone dies riding a bicycle, which is a generally safe activity and [...]
It is a sad thing. Just take a look at this picture. That’s the bicycle rack outside Pummil Hall on the MSU campus. I took this picture about 20 minutes ago. Nearly every rack on campus — and we have a bunch of them — looks exactly like this. The roads and (unfortunately) the sidewalks [...]
OK, yeah, I can be a bit insufferable about the whole students-ride-like-children thing. It’s especially insulting because they are not children. I’ve always been the kind of professor who refuses to refer to them as “kids” because, well, they are adults. So I guess that’s the crux of the problem for me. They are adults. I want [...]
