At a St. Charles County Council meeting last night, Councilman Joe Brazil came prepared with statistics in hand. In his push to ban bikes from certain rural two-lane roads in the county, Brazil cited some alarming numbers: 14 fatalities in the last 16 months, as well as “over a hundred serious vehicle accidents,” owing to the lack of shoulder on the roads.

With those numbers, that would be nearly a death a month and a serious accident a week for nearly the last year and a half. Wouldn’t someone have noticed if bikers in the cyclist-heavy county were being picked off one-by-one?

With that in mind, we gave Brazil a buzz this morning to ask him the names of bikers who had been killed on the roads — if bike fatalities are this much of a problem, maybe the ban shouldn’t have been tabled for another month, as it was at the meeting last night.

As it turns out, exactly NONE of the fatalities Brazil mentioned were bikers. Holy misleading use of statistics, Batman!

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle politics, bicycle safety, cycling, traffic law

Need to jump start the ol’ blood pressure this afternoon? Check out a few of the comments on this article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle politics, bicycle safety, cycling, traffic law

Question: If these roads are so dangerous, why are the speed limits 55 mph? Perhaps what needs to happen is to slow drivers rather than to ban bicyclists.

The council tabled the bill in order to consider expanding the ban.

More coverage from:

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• AP via KPLR
• KMOV4
• MoBikeFed
• LAB

Does MoDOT have a say in this?

UPDATE: From an e-mail sent by MoBikeFed:

Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Coordinator Melissa Anderson says that the roads in the proposed ban fall under the jurisdiction of Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission and that “MoDOT has no intention of prohibiting cyclists from state roads. Bicyclists have the same rights and responsibilities as drivers according to the law. It is important that there is mutual respect and consideration between cyclists and motorists. Cyclists must obey the laws and motorists need to respect a cyclist’s right to use the road and not intentionally cause them harm. Local law enforcement may be able to assist with both of these issues.”

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle politics, bicycle safety, cycling, traffic law

Roger Kramer has complete coverage on his blog here and here.

Check out this press release for details on the proposed bill.

Could such a bill pass and be upheld? Would MoDOT have anything to say about it? Are other county officials across the state thinking about similar bills?

I think all of us need to keep a close eye on this situation.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle politics, cycling, traffic law

If you want to learn to ride a bicycle in traffic with ease and confidence, this is a great place to start. I hope this site becomes the beginning of the cure for bicycle-lane fever — the false assumption that bicyclists are safer riding in what amounts to the gutter.

Great stuff. Please check it out.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle culture, bicycle education, bicycle safety, cycling, traffic law