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Tag Archives: bicycle infrastructure

Our Urban Challenge: Make It Awesome

In my last installment of this series I said we’d need to “build it first” in order to attract people downtown (and to the urban core) to shop, play, learn, and live. Today I saw something like this idea in action. We have a new downtown market at the most prominent intersection — Walnut and South [...]

Posted 21 August 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § news § policy ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged: , , , ,

Faux Honk Report

On my way to the STAR Team meeting yesterday afternoon I noticed a distinctive car in my mirror as I was riding downtown — a Miles Electric Car owned by fellow team member Rick Scarlet. Unlike the hybrids, this is an electric-only vehicle. And it is quiet. He and I have discussed before the possibility [...]

Posted 19 August 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § news ‡ Comments (3) ° Also tagged: , , , , , ,

A Dangerous Syllogism

See if you can spot the problem (from montrealgazette.com): A 2003 study published in the Injury Prevention Journal by Peter Lyndon Jacobsen concluded: “A motorist is less likely to collide with a person walking or bicycling if more people walk or bicycle. Policies that increase the numbers of people walking and bicycling appear to be [...]

Posted 11 August 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § news § policy ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Smart Phones and Bicycle Sharing

Interesting news out of New York: This Fall, New York City denizens will have the opportunity to test an experimental public bike share system. SoBi, the Social Bicycle System, presents an alternative to traditional public transportation and will allow riders the freedom to find and unlock nearby available communal bikes using an Andriod or iPhone application. I [...]

Posted 11 August 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § business § news ‡ Comments (4) ° Also tagged: ,

Will Bicyclists and Pedestrians Squeeze Out Cars?

Tom Madigan, writing for National Journal, asks 10 experts if efforts to accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians risks squeezing out cars. On first blush, considering the overwhelming odds in favor of cars (numbers plus massive subsidies), the question seems absurd. Read the whole thing. Very interesting. Several of the respondents do not like the question because, for example, the situation [...]

Posted 05 August 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology § news § policy ‡ Comments (2) ° Also tagged: , , , , ,

Placement of Sharrows

A “sharrow” is a shared lane marker painted on the street. Sharrows should not create de facto bicycle lanes, i.e. be painted on the road in such a way that it shunts bicyclists to side of the road in the manner of a bicycle lane. Dan Gutierrez has posted some interesting photos on Facebook that show what’s [...]

Posted 03 August 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § news § policy ‡ Comments (6) ° Also tagged: , , , , , , ,

Explain Bicycle Lanes To Me

I’ll soon have the first results of my recent bicycle survey ready. But here’s an interesting preliminary result (as yet an uncrunched stat): A bunch of respondents (almost 40%) indicated that the best thing Springfield could do to make bicycling better is add bicycle lanes. And as I gazed across the columns of answers one [...]

Posted 17 July 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § policy ‡ Comments (20) ° Also tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Almost Decapitated Sort Of

I encountered a goofy and potentially dangerous situation on the MSU Bikeway yesterday evening — police crime scene tape across the path. It was twilight, and I was travelling about 12 mph (80+ rpm pedal cadence on third gear). The Bikeway was well lit, so I had no trouble seeing where I was going. Further, [...]

Posted 13 July 2010 † Andy Cline § ecology ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged: ,

Lanes/Tracks Study: My Reaction

I’ve read the Bicycle Tracks and Lanes Study (actually an older study, so this isn’t news) and spent some time thinking about it today. I’m not at all sure I have much to add. This doesn’t mean that I agree with all the findings. It simply means that the findings appear to me to be [...]

Posted 07 July 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § bicycle safety § ecology ‡ Comments (8) ° Also tagged: , ,

Bicycle Lane Safety Study

Thanks to Dan Gutierrez for posting this to Facebook: Bicycle Tracks and Lanes: A Before-After Study. I’m a bit old-fashioned; anything that I want to study carefully I prefer to read in print. So I’m taking my printed copy of this study and heading straight to the Mudhouse for java and reading. I’ll post a [...]

Posted 07 July 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § bicycle safety § ecology ‡ Comments (2) ° Also tagged: , ,

Checking In Re: Infrastructure

Tom Vanderbilt (author of Traffic — required reading for all humans) took a quick look at bicycle infrastructure in his Slate column last week. His conclusion: One sometimes hears, in critiques of bringing bicycling in a bigger way to American cities, something along the lines of “that might work in Europe, but it will never work [...]

Posted 05 July 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology § policy ‡ Comments (3) ° Also tagged: , , , , , ,

Busy Morning on Fremont

Rode my bicycle to the Springfield Farmer’s Market this morning. My route takes me about two miles south on Fremont to Sunset where I turn left to get to the Battlefield Mall. The market is in the southeast corner of the parking lot — roughly the intersection of Glenstone and Battlefield. There was a lot [...]

Posted 17 June 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology ‡ Comments (11) ° Also tagged: , , , ,

Apocalypse Someday, Maybe

Thomas Friedman highlights the following letter to the editor in his column today: “I’d like to join in on the blame game that has come to define our national approach to the ongoing environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. This isn’t BP’s or Transocean’s fault. It’s not the government’s fault. It’s my fault. I’m [...]

Posted 13 June 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § ecology ‡ Comments (2) ° Also tagged: , , , , , ,

Creating Connections With ‘The Link’

I’ve mentioned the coming improvements to the Springfield bicycle route system that will be paid for with the CIP tax. The improvements include route number signs and sharrows. The City also has plans for a new project called The Link — an exciting plan to link existing and new greenway trails into a coherent transportation [...]

Posted 11 June 2010 † Andy Cline § advocacy § news § policy ‡ Comments (2) ° Also tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

CIP Renewal Passes by 70 Percent

Great news! The CIP renewal has passed. That means we can fund our new bicycle route sign system and add sharrows  to Springfield’s bicycle routes. I’ll have more on what this means tomorrow. Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle infrastructure, bicycle politics, cycling

Posted 08 June 2010 † Andy Cline § news ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged: , ,