Tag Archives: bicycle infrastructure

Bike Lane Laws; It Could Happen Here

What can happen after a community spends a lot of money painting bicycle lanes? Well, someone will get the idea that, having spent so much money, bicyclists should be required to ride in the lanes. Check out what Keri Caffrey writes about why that’s a problem. A couple of highlights: Forward focus is your priority in a [...]

Engineering And The First Amendment

Can you be persecuted (and, perhaps, prosecuted) for having an (informed) opinion about traffic infrastructure and voicing/writing that opinion as part of bicycle and pedestrian advocacy. Apparently, yes. This is partly a case of attempting to criminalize speech for political purposes. Although it also appears apparent that you’ll “win” even if the worst should happen. [...]

Lots Of Participation At The Open House

The open house hosted by the Traffic Advisory Board yesterday to get citizens’ comments on bicycle and pedestrian issues was a success. I was only able to be there for the first 30 minutes — needed to get home before the storm, seeing as how I drove my bicycle to the event. It gave me [...]

How To Increase Participation

My headline over-promises. I am not particularly interested in increasing participation as an end in itself. But it is clear that many bicycle advocates believe that providing such infrastructure as bicycle lanes, tracks, and separated paths does increase participation. According to recent studies, it’s not entirely clear what the cause-and-effect relationship actually is between infrastructure and participation. [...]

Bike-Ped Plan Official Website

The official city website for the Bicycle-Pedestrian Plan is ready to view. Just click here. From the website: The City presently has a Bicycle Plan, a Greenways Plan and miscellaneous pedestrian policies and manuals.  Our goal is a comprehensive strategy that updates these plans and adds a formal Pedestrian Plan. This project is in response [...]

Bicycle-Pedestrian Plan Open House

Here’s a good opportunity to have your say about the future of sustainable, carbon-neutral transportation in Springfield (i.e. bicycling and walking): The City of Springfield Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Open House. When: 28 February, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Where: Busch Municipal Building I assume there will be much talk of bicycle lanes. Again, I have [...]

Legislative Alert From MoBikeFed

The following is a legislative alert from Brent Hugh, executive director of the Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Federation: We aren’t exaggerating when we say this ask has never been more urgent. Click this link to contact your member of Congress in support of bicycling and walking: http://support.railstotrails.org/site/R?i=MU6Bn3Xx8UZZlnZ9Tmaq9w Thursday, February 2nd, the Transportation Infrastructure committee in the U.S. [...]

Shunted to the Shoulders

Here’s a follow-up to my previous video of bicycle infrastructure in suburban Wilmington, Delaware. What you will see is painted shoulders with bicycle lane markings. But simply putting lane markings on a shoulder does not create a proper bicycle lane. These lanes demonstrate a complete lack of understanding about how to handle intersections.  These lanes [...]

Riding Into The New Year

My wife bought me the GoPro Hero for my birthday (available in Springfield at A&B Cycle) . I used it to make the following (interminably long) video yesterday of some bicycle lanes in suburban Wilmington, Delaware. I’m here visiting family. I grew up riding the streets you’ll see in the video. So what you have [...]

Old-Fashioned Service

Here’s an idea for Springfield’s bicycle shops that I found in Bentonville, Arkansas. Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle infrastructure

Bieker Forum Discusses Bicycling

City Councilman Tom Beiker held a public forum at The Hub yesterday — first in a series of planned public discussions. The main topic was bicycling and helping make Springfield a bicycle-friendly community. I was unable to attend the meeting. The News-Leader published an article today. It’s difficult to tell how much talk there was [...]

Moving Forward With Bicycle Facilities

Last year I reported here, based on a conversation at a STAR Team meeting, that the city was uninterested in painting more bicycle lanes. With the creation of new lanes on Division and Benton and  the discussion at night’s STAR Team meeting, it has became clear to me that painting more bicycle lanes is in [...]

Please Be Careful

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! [...]

Transportation in the News

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 [...]

What Can Happen in the Door Zone

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 [...]