http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress Encouragement, Education & Advocacy for Bicycling in the Real World Thu, 24 May 2012 19:12:54 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Encouragement, Education & Advocacy for Bicycling in the Real World Commute Orlando no Encouragement, Education & Advocacy for Bicycling in the Real World http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/category/traffic/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2012/03/31/related-stories/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2012/03/31/related-stories/#comments Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:31:25 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=15063 Blighted Landscape An op-ed in the New York Times by Eran Ben-Joseph calls for the transformation of ugly surface parking lots. It’s estimated that there are three nonresidential parking spaces for every car in the United States. That adds up to almost 800 million parking spaces, covering about 4,360 square miles — an area larger than Puerto Rico. In some cities, like Orlando and Los Angeles, parking lots are estimated to cover at least one-third of the land area, making them one of the most salient landscape features of the built world. Such coverage comes with environmental costs. The large, impervious surfaces of parking lots increase storm-water runoff, which damages watersheds. The exposed pavement increases the heat-island effect, by which urban regions are made warmer than surrounding rural areas. Since cars are immobile 95 percent of the time, you could plausibly argue that a Prius and a Hummer have much the same environmental impact: both occupy the same 9-by-18-foot rectangle of paved space. His ideas for designing parking lots as more useful space (solar panels, permeable surface material, rows of trees) are intriguing. But who pays for that? The externalities of providing massive amounts of storage space for cars are [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2012/03/31/related-stories/feed/ 23 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2012/01/14/too-complicated/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2012/01/14/too-complicated/#comments Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:21:02 +0000 Eric http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=14517 I think I am on pretty safe ground when I say that eleven pages shouldn’t be necessary to explain a single, tiny aspect of traffic design to drivers. Yet, that is exactly how many pages the City of Minneapolis used when they published “Bike Lane Basics” complete with diagrams just in case the text doesn’t do it for you. Here are all the different types of bike lanes a driver is likely to encounter in Minneapolis. Nine different types of lanes. Nine different rules. Tons of ways to get a ticket. It gets better. At intersections, they have something called “shared space” where the cars are supposed to yield to a cylist on his right when making a turn. Yet, the cyclist is instructed to, “use caution and assume turning or merging motorists do not see you.” Gee, I wonder why they wouldn’t see you. After all, you are in the bike lane which is supposed to make you safe from those evil cars that are trying to kill you. I can assure you that motorists have absolutely no trouble seeing me when I am in the middle of the lane and crossing the intersection with the cars rather than [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2012/01/14/too-complicated/feed/ 19 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/08/18/low-speed-vehicles-in-the-city/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/08/18/low-speed-vehicles-in-the-city/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 14:35:09 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=13661 What might happen if we introduced a variety of low-speed, electric vehicles into cities? Might it reduce noise pollution? Air pollution? Speeding? Crashes? Injuries to pedestrians and bicyclists? Might it expose the absurdity of Balkanizing the streets? Those are possibilities I ponder when I see increasing numbers of LSVs around my neighborhood (Audubon Park and Baldwin Park). I like them. Not just because they’re slow and quiet, but because their drivers are not enclosed and isolated. We greet each other like neighbors when we pass. Time Magazine’s Bill Saporito drove a Garia LSV (a street-legal golf car) in Manhattan. You can get his perspective right from the first paragraph of the article, Slow Riders: Central park South in Manhattan is everything that is awful about driving in New York City. Tour buses, horse-drawn carriages, trucks, cyclists, taxis and passenger cars converge from Fifth Avenue in a tortured tango of man and metal trying, without apparent success, to get somewhere in a New York minute. And now I am adding another machine to the transportation mix: a battery-powered Garia LSV, which is short for low-speed vehicle. Of course, if it was nothing but cars they’d all be moving smoothly, like they [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/08/18/low-speed-vehicles-in-the-city/feed/ 5 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/08/11/honesty-takes-a-holiday/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/08/11/honesty-takes-a-holiday/#comments Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:11:35 +0000 Eric http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=13646 This case came across my radar today. It involves the case of a LEO driving a patrol car and striking a pedestrian. Apparently, Brevard County uses two people patrol cars and, well  . . . I’ll let you read the rest and draw your own opinion. County Judge Kelly McKibben acquitted a Brevard County sheriff’s deputy whose patrol car struck and killed a pedestrian last September. In her seven-page judgment for acquittal, McKibben wrote the state could not prove Vincent Marino-Vitani was indeed the person driving the patrol car when it struck and killed 65-year-old Henrietta Strong on State Road 520 near Wilcox Avenue in Cocoa. -MORE- What this means is that a LEO refused to step up and take his or her medicine. It was a patrol car, so an LEO must have or should have been driving it.  ]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/08/11/honesty-takes-a-holiday/feed/ 7 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/06/07/amplifying-dysfunction/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/06/07/amplifying-dysfunction/#comments Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:10:21 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=13003 Terrific video by ronconcocacola. Sent by John Ciccarelli. I’ve been following the bike-v-car wars surrounding the rapid implementation of segregated bike lanes (or cycletracks, or whatever they’re calling them) in NYC. I haven’t commented on it much. While I don’t think bicycle rat runs are the solution to the larger traffic culture problems, I find the bike lane opponents’ arguments to be rather lame and selfish (IOW, car-centric). What’s been interesting, and completely predictable, is the anti-scofflaw backlash and the attendant overreaction by NYPD. It comes back to the pyramid. If you have no foundation of respect and no education of bicyclists to be drivers when they leave the facilities (which don’t serve every destination and are slow and cumbersome to use), you can expect chaos, leading to frustration, leading to backlash. This is not quality. It is a shortcut to quantity — increased bicycle counts. The problem is, bicyclist behavior (throughout the U.S.) is a dysfunctional composition of inferiority/priority maneuvers that arise from bizarre, adaptive logic and follow neither vehicle nor pedestrian rules. Increasing the number of bicyclists without fixing the underlying problems, simply amplifies the dysfunction to the point where it becomes disruptive enough to generate a public [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/06/07/amplifying-dysfunction/feed/ 24 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/05/19/driving-developmentally-turns-us-into-children/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/05/19/driving-developmentally-turns-us-into-children/#comments Thu, 19 May 2011 21:21:38 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=12850 The article, Little. Yellow. Dangerous. "Children at Play" signs imperil our kids discusses the reasons such warning signs are ineffective. Unfortunately, Children at Play signs are subject to the usual shallow politics that governs decisions about neighborhood signage.]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/05/19/driving-developmentally-turns-us-into-children/feed/ 9 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/03/04/8-customers-per-parking-space/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/03/04/8-customers-per-parking-space/#comments Sat, 05 Mar 2011 02:37:41 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=11783 “We are traffic! Let’s eat!” said Brad. It was raining steadily, but all the ride leaders showed up for the First Friday ride. Of course, only the ride leaders were there. We decided food and beer sounded better than leading ourselves on a 10 mile ride, so we headed directly down Mills to Bananas. Just as we were queuing up to leave, one participant pulled into Loch Haven. She was happy to join us for the short roll to dinner. Welcome Sasha! A steady stream of motor traffic passed us in the left lane for the entire trip, yet not a horn was heard. Yay Orlando! The valet at Bananas welcomed us to the parking space right by the door. In one space, we parked vehicles for half as many customers as the rest of their lot holds. Yay bikes! We’ll be planning some more social rides for Florida Bike Month (March). Stay tuned to the calendar.]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/03/04/8-customers-per-parking-space/feed/ 5 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/02/16/get-out-of-my-way-you-jerk/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/02/16/get-out-of-my-way-you-jerk/#comments Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:16:50 +0000 Eric http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=11563 I think there are some points we can learn from this article. From the Wall Street Journal: You don’t need a car to get road rage. For many people, few things are more infuriating than slow walkers—those seemingly inconsiderate people who clog up sidewalks, grocery aisles and airport hallways while others fume behind them. Researchers say the concept of “sidewalk rage” is real. One scientist has even developed a Pedestrian Aggressiveness Syndrome Scale to map out how people express their fury. At its most extreme, sidewalk rage can signal a psychiatric condition known as “intermittent explosive disorder,” researchers say. On Facebook, there’s a group called “I Secretly Want to Punch Slow Walking People in the Back of the Head” that boasts nearly 15,000 members. . . . Signs of a sidewalk rager include muttering or bumping into others; uncaringly hogging a walking lane; and acting in a hostile manner by staring, giving a “mean face” or approaching others too closely, says Leon James, a psychology professor at the University of Hawaii who studies pedestrian and driver aggression. . . . How one interprets the situation is key, researchers say. Ragers tend to have a strong sense of how other people [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/02/16/get-out-of-my-way-you-jerk/feed/ 13 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/12/29/juxtaposition-of-fantasy-and-reality/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/12/29/juxtaposition-of-fantasy-and-reality/#comments Thu, 30 Dec 2010 03:43:34 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=11106 Yesterday morning as I was cruising the news feed, I watched a 1950s animation of futuristic highways, then read an article about a Broward County bikeway lacking safe and efficient crossing where it intersects major streets. This is the Disney vision of future transportation in 1958: It’s a utopia of luxury and ease created by technology. It’s also a fascinating exaltation of speed, individualism and exurban isolation. Disney’s future people have been spared having to walk more than 5 steps, and yet they are all so skinny. And everyone drives, but there are no traffic jams. Yet as wild a fantasy as it is, you may notice a few things that have come true. Some which are not so fantastic. Now take a look at the AASHTO vision of 21st century transportation in 2007. There is narrative about a new vision, transit and livable communities, but still an emphasis on relieving congestion and increasing capacity of roads. Good points are made about the need for public investment in transportation infrastructure. The actual trajectory of that 1950s motoring vision—the basis of which was individual convenience—has been influenced by a hyper-individualistic populace that has not wanted to invest in the common infrastructure [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/12/29/juxtaposition-of-fantasy-and-reality/feed/ 19 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/12/27/beijings-auto-crisis/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/12/27/beijings-auto-crisis/#comments Mon, 27 Dec 2010 22:03:43 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=11090 This is a sobering video.]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/12/27/beijings-auto-crisis/feed/ 8