This year’s ride is May 25
from Dartmouth Park
Registration begins at 7:30 AM
Ride starts at 8 AM

Ride to the ride leaves Cady Way at 7 AM

This year Bike/Walk Central Florida and Retro City Cycles are teaming up with us. We’ve designed a team T-shirt to show our love of cycling in Orlando. If you would like one, please pre-order using this form. If we get enough pre-orders to bring the cost down, proceeds will benefit Bike/Walk Central Florida.

Order here!

We frequently talk about cycling.  If I’m headed out for a ride, he always asks where I’m going and quizzes me about what I saw when I return.  If he sees me loading my bike on the car rack, he’ll ask, “Are you going downtown for a First Friday Ride?”.  Often he’ll say that he wishes that he could go for a bike ride – no doubt thinking back to days in the past when he was able to do just that.

That got me thinking, “Why couldn’t he go for a ride?”.   His arms and shoulders are strong, so a hand crank operated device on a recumbent might work.  That leaves turning and stopping?  His grip is weak, but he might be able to brake wIth some type of system that would allow him to squeeze a brake by pressing his arms against his sides.

Do you have any knowledge about human powered transportation for people with special needs?   Are there any custom bike builders in the area who specialize in this type of design and construction?   Do any groups offer assistance to help defray part of the cost?

Your thoughts and comments just might give my friend the freedom to ride.

“You Can’t Bring that Bike in Here!” is a one-hour, one-man show about Tom’s 25 years on the road, traveling to all of his comedy performances by bicycle. His fun mulit-media show features video clips and photos from his years on the bike. Enjoy a touring cyclist’s take on funny road signs from the back roads of America, starting with a section of signs you don’t like to see when on the road by bicycle!

June 20th marks exactly 25 years Tom has been on the road — 162,000 miles, through all 50 states, and in 34 countries on six continents. He has performed in more than 200 comedy clubs throughout America, Canada, Europe and Australia.

Come check him out at the Orlando Fringe Festival.  Get your tickets online or at the door ($10). Tom will be in the Yellow Venue (Shakespeare Center) in Loch Haven Park. Show times below:

Arrive by bike! If you’re looking for quiet street bike routes, here are some suggestions:

In honor of National Bike to School Day, here are the Colonial High School kids.

The change “clarifies situations in which a bicyclist is not required to ride in the marked bicycle lane (if the roadway is marked for bicycle use) or as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway. The bill clarifies that a bicyclist is exempt from this requirement when a ‘potential conflict’ or a turn lane interrupts the roadway or bicycle lane.”

Here’s the way the statute looks in CS/CS/HB 1223:

316-2065(5)(a) Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall ride in the lane marked for bicycle use or, if no lane is marked for bicycle use, as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except under any of the following situations:

1. When overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle proceeding in the same direction.
2. When preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.
3. When reasonably necessary to avoid any condition or potential conflict, including, but not limited to, a fixed or moving object, parked or moving vehicle, bicycle, pedestrian, animal, surface hazard, turn lane, or substandard-width lane, which that makes it unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge or within a bicycle lane. For the purposes of this subsection, a “substandard-width lane” is a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and another vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.

(b) Any person operating a bicycle upon a one-way highway with two or more marked traffic lanes may ride as near the left-hand curb or edge of such roadway as practicable.

Potential Conflicts

Probably the easiest thing to define is where a cyclist is unlikely to encounter potential conflicts when riding in a bike lane or near the edge of a wide lane. That would be on a long, straight stretch of road where there are no parked cars, no intersections, no driveways and no debris or standing water. And where the bike lane or wide lane width was sufficient to provide adequate operating space and passing clearance from large vehicles. That’s pretty much only going to occur in a low-density setting.

An urban bike lane is so riddled with potential conflicts that the exception voids the law (or it would in an unbiased world). Potential conflicts exist:

This cyclist was cut off by a fire department truck entering a parking space.

• Anywhere motorists can enter or leave the roadway — any intersection or driveway. In an urban grid, there are intersections every 200-300ft. In a high-density commercial or residential area, there are driveways every 30-50ft. A right hook, left cross or drive-out can happen at any driveway. I’ve been nearly left-crossed by a motorist turning into a private home driveway on Lakemont Ave (a residential collector).
• Anywhere a bike lane exists next to on-street parking. Not only is the door zone an issue, the potential for motorists entering and leaving parking spaces offers a conflict. I’ve had an elderly driver dive into a parking space in front of me (nearly grazing my front wheel) on Edgewater Drive.
• Anywhere the bike lane, or edge of the road is likely to be obstructed or covered with debris or standing water so regularly that getting in and out of the bike lane creates constant, unpredictable movement. Or such that the cyclist is likely to get trapped between an obstruction and overtaking cars.
• Anywhere the bike lane or right edge causes the bicyclist to be trapped in a position that interferes with sensible traffic flow. There are many cases where a bike lane is to the right of a lane that diverges, and then jumps to a pocket bike lane just before the intersection. Traffic flow actually begins several blocks before the intersection, so it is safer and easier to move to the next lane over well before the bike lane does. This video shows an extreme example of bad design (the bike lane ends 1000ft past that interchange, making it pointless to use it).
• Anytime your speed is such that it would be impossible to react safely to potential downstream conflicts. Never ride at downhill speed in a bike lane (I rarely use absolutes, but I mean it here). The design speed of the standard bike lane (for a user not trained in emergency maneuvers) is about 12mph (something proponents don’t recognize or won’t admit).
• When a lane marked for bicycle use is so narrow that you can’t possibly get safe passing clearance from vehicles in the adjacent lane. The same is true for a 14ft lane. If there is potential for trucks, buses or landscape trailers to be on that road, it’s not wide enough to keep right and share the lane.

Forward focus is your priority in a complex streetscape. Leaving a bike lane to avoid a potential conflict requires scanning behind you to negotiate before moving left. Any time a series of potential conditions would cause you to move in and out of a bike lane every 15 seconds (that’s common with a city street grid, it also happens on trash day), it’s easier and more predictable just to stay out.

Unfortunately, we live in a culture where 99% of the population, including street designers, law enforcement and many bicyclists, don’t know what potential conflicts are or how to recognize the conditions which produce them. If they did, we’d have much lower crash rates for bicyclists, and we wouldn’t have urban bike lanes. Because urban bike lanes manufacture conflicts.

Special concerns for cycling in groups

Individual cyclists have a more options for dealing with an imminent bike lane conflict that a group does. We can slow down, negotiate a lane change, or at worst, perform an emergency stop.

For a group of cyclists, lane changes must be initiated by the rear rider (to avoid trapping a car in the middle of the group). Sudden changes in speed at the front cause wild braking fluctuations and swerving at the back as each rider responds with a little more braking force than the rider ahead. Emergency stops are completely out of the question — they would result in a pile-up.

These riders are safely away from debris and get a comfortable passing buffer as motorists change lanes to pass.

But while the rear rider controls the lane change, the front rider is the one who sees the obstruction. If a parked truck is blocking the bike lane, all the riders can see it and communicate in time to have the rear rider negotiate out of the bike lane to avoid the obstruction. But if the bike lane is obstructed by a pile of glass or some other hazard, there is not enough time/distance for the leader to see it and communicate from front to rear and negotiate before hitting it. As a result, the front rider has no choice but to swerve and try to communicate the hazard to all the other riders, hoping there are no overtaking cars. There have been many paceline crashes caused by this kind of last-second obstruction avoidance. Bike lanes and shoulders, by their very nature, accumulate hazardous obstructions that are rarely found in a general use lane.

The distance from an intersection at which a single rider would leave a bike lane to prevent intersection crashes must be increased by the length of the paceline and the time/distance it takes to communicate from front to back. Right hooks and other disruptions are caused because a motorist can’t judge the length of a group and distance needed to pass. If a motorist begins passing a group a block from the intersection where he wants to turn, but the group is 80-100ft long and traveling at 30ft per second, he probably won’t reach the front of the group in time to slow for the turn before the intersection. He will face the choice of attempting to speed up and cut the group off, or stop in the thru lane and wait for the group to pass. I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer not to trust my safety to the decisions of a motorist whose judgement is unknown. (See animation for more group bike lane conflicts.)

By groups, I don’t just mean roadies. When we plan social rides like First Friday, s-cargo and ice cream rides, we steer clear of roads with bike lanes. It’s not only too risky, it’s not at all social to have to ride single file in a bike lane, when you could otherwise ride 2 abreast in a general use lane.

So what does it mean?

In the short term, it can’t hurt to have one more legal defense if you get cited by an uninformed police officer who believes you are violating a discriminatory law that shouldn’t exist in the first place. Many police and magistrates are ignorant of how we drive defensively, so they wouldn’t know what constitutes “far right as practicable,” even if they know what the word itself means.

Legal redundancies are an attempt to band-aid a festering problem of ignorance, bias and injustice in a dysfunctional, car-centric traffic culture.

The truth is, “Potentials conflicts” and conditions “that make it unsafe…” are covered by “practicable.” It is not practicable to subject yourself to unsafe conditions or potential conflicts. The exceptions are redundant in the same way the 3ft law is redundant to the law requiring an unspecified safe passing distance (which is really more than 3ft most of the time!) and the duty to exercise due care not to run into people. Both redundancies are an attempt to band-aid a festering problem of ignorance, bias and injustice in a dysfunctional, car-centric traffic culture.

The “far right as practicable” law and its offspring— mandatory use laws for bike lanes, shoulders and side paths—serve no other purpose than getting bicycle drivers out of the way. They were created by the culture of speed (AKA Motordom). The original far right law, added to the UVC in 1944, did not have any exceptions beyond the word practicable. At the same time that law was imposed on bicyclists, the bicycle was downgraded from “vehicle” to “device” in the UVC. At least bicyclists retained the rights and duties of drivers, save for the new restrictions. The familiar exceptions were added in the 1970s, after a failed attempt to remove the far right law altogether. The UVC also restored vehicle status to the bicycle (though a number of states did not adopt that change).

In retrospect, those exceptions may have served to preserve the law itself more than to protect us. In practice, it is the law itself that reinforces the bias. The exceptions are often ignored by law officers as they substitute their biased opinions for accurate interpretation of the law. In practice, even if a cyclist is able to defeat a citation, the time, hassle and costs of legal council are an unfair burden to defend defensive driving (something every other driver is granted without question).

The FBA staff and lobbyists who worked to add this new exception did so because they know we currently don’t have the political or public support to get rid of the law itself. I understand that. I’ve been a part of many discussions on this topic and I still don’t have a clear idea how to proceed politically. I understand advocates in Pennsylvania spent years building relationships in order to create the conditions for having their far right and mandatory side path laws removed from statute. It takes time and deliberate action.

This is not the end

Exceptions or not, the far right and mandatory bike lane laws repress defensive driving practices for the drivers who are most exposed, passed with the highest speed differentials, create the least impact upon the system, and are the least likely to threaten the safety of others. These laws are egregious. The costs of having to fight an unjust and unwarranted citation in a potentially-biased court are onerous. This creates conditions for targeted harassment, such as Fred has suffered in Port Orange, Ormond Beach and recently Daytona Beach. Exceptions or not, they make us second class citizens.

We will not build a healthy community for alternative transportation on second-class citizenship.

So here’s my challenge to all those who want to promote bicycling (bike industry, health industry, environmentalists, new urbanists, etc): The foundation must come first! Put your power, money and energy into helping get rid of these laws entirely. This is the base of the pyramid and without it, we will build nothing of lasting value.

This is a sneak preview of the documentary. Go get some Kleenex before you hit the play button.

“I don’t believe in setting artificial limits to myself. Because that’s telling… I’ll be telling myself what I can’t do.” — Larry Smith

Learn More:
www.ridewithlarrymovie.com

Join the Ride:
www.facebook.com/ridewithlarry

“Ride with Larry” puts a human face on the day-to-day fight against Parkinson’s through the story of Larry Smith, a retired police captain, now beloved small-town baker. After twenty years with Parkinson’s, Larry attempts to ride 300 miles across his state of South Dakota with the support of his family and community to show the power of keeping your body active and mind positive, proving that the best cure is living life to its fullest.

The film follows Larry as attempts to push his limits and expand the boundary of possibilities for those with Parkinson’s. Weaved amongst his journey is an intimate portrait of Parkinson’s, illuminating the day-to-day fight of those diagnosed, their families, and caretakers. It is a film for all those stigmatized or mired in the darkness of illnesses without cures. Larry and his wife Betty refuse to be defined by this diagnosis, proving that sometimes the best cure is living life to its fullest.

Twenty-three years ago, my 4’10″ girlfriend wanted a road bike. After much research, she found Terry Bicycles and bought the one with the 700C wheel in the back and 24″ in the front. It was the only adult bike she could find that fit her. If not for Georgena Terry, she may have been stuck with a child’s bicycle.

I love this quote:

I hope I am part of a movement that encourages women to think for themselves, and to come at problems from an intellectual standpoint and not from an emotional standpoint.

That’s a worthy movement!

I’m late getting this up. CyclingSavvy and Bike/Walk Central Florida will have tables at this event. Come visit us and find out what’s happening in Winter Park.

WINTER PARK, Fla., an internationally recognized ICMA Excellence Award winner with accredited fire, police and parks & recreation agencies (April 2, 2012) – The City of Winter Park’s Pedestrian & Bicycle Advisory Board will present a Pedestrian & Bicycle Safety and Connectivity Forum on Thursday, April 26, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.,

at the Rachel D. Murrah Civic Center located at

1050 West Morse Boulevard.

The forum will provide an opportunity to review how recent events, developing plans and regional initiatives have heightened the need for improved pedestrian & bicycle safety and connectivity. Attendees will be encouraged to offer comments and share ideas relating to city projects and programs so interested parties can work together to make

Winter Park friendlier for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The forum will also provide information on Winter Park’s comprehensive pedestrian and bicycle facilities plan. City staff and members of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Board will be in attendance to discuss ways to promote and encourage safe walking and bicycling throughout the city.

For more information regarding the Pedestrian & Bicycle Safety and Connectivity Forum, please call 407-599-3217.

For information regarding additional events in the City of Winter Park, please visit the city’s official website at www.cityofwinterpark.org.

So a lot of people don’t ride their bikes in the road. But the road isn’t patently bad or scary. Those same people would stand next to a car that was broken down—even on, say, State Road 436 (a 50mph 6+ lane highway from the Orlando International Airport and spanning two counties of urban sprawl). The reason these people would stand next to this car (even in traffic), I believe, is because there is an understanding that the other cars will simply go around them. They will completely change lanes. So there is no risk (or no perceived risk).

I do believe that people are mostly good. And I think that one day equitable use of the government roads will exist in our country, just as equitable access to government programs such as school is now afforded to all people (some, however, sadly restricted to those who have a piece of paper proving that they are citizens). But until that point, I think it is important to recognize that taking these spaces on the road is an act nonviolent of protest.

Although nonviolent protest is at its core nonviolent, there will be violent results. I have been harassed, yelled at, called obscenities and had my intelligence questioned (even when I had my daughter who was three-years-old sitting directly behind me). On separate occasions, I and my wife have been told that we are not cars, as if it was an insult. This seems like a sort of epithet then. But I am not a car, and neither are the people who are yelling. Sadly, it seems that they have begun to view themselves as something other than a person. This dehumanization, this loneliness in a vehicle locked away from the world, seems to cause people to shut off. I have heard stories of students whose bicycling has made them invisible to cars, who were then right-hooked, students who were hit by cars and then sent to the hospital before going to school simply because they were not recognized on our busy roads. This is from both traveling in the road and on the sidewalks. So this violence comes directly and indirectly as a result of using our roads.

Obviously, as a teacher, I will not ask minors to participate in these protests. But as a parent, I want to bequeath a just world to my children. And as good little Catholics, I hope that they truly own and meditate on the fact that all their little brothers and sisters in this world are as their REAL brothers and sisters. So I can’t deny my or these children equity. They need transportation. They deserve equality. This is a dilemma, I know. But it makes me look not at myself, nor at the users of the roads, nor at my children or their peers. It causes me to look NOT at the monster, but to look at Doctor Frankenstein. It causes me to look at the builders of the roads.

There is a government trail that has been approved to run from the Colonial High School Ninth-Grade Center to Colonial High School. This will also lead to the Little Econ Trail. A lot of us bicycling advocates have friendly debates about whether we should use trails (away from cars) or roads (with the cars). Obviously, there are issues with connectivity. And with civil rights. I think I betray my stance here. But it should also be understood that, for those inside of cars, automobile accidents are the number 10 cause of death in the United States. Considering this and that the work ahead of us is very strong, I propose to embrace both trails and nonviolent protests on the road.

This is a road that cars are not allowed on. I think it’s a great step in prioritizing bicycling as traffic. It paves the way—so to speak. So if you live in Orange County, Florida, please contact your County Commissioner here: http://www.orangecountyfl.net/BoardofCommissioners.aspx and ask them to prioritize the building of this trail. This is not a nature trail, but a firm move towards bicycling as transportation, and a resounding of the voice of the people calling for new ways to get around.

A campaign by the government of the Netherlands (Ministry of infrastructure and the environment) aimed at motorists who are speeding in the built up areas in the towns and cities of the country. The message: there is no excuse for driving faster than the limits of 30 and 50kph (18 and 31 mph) in residential streets and through roads respectively. It is made very clear who is responsible for the safety of vulnerable road users: drivers and no one else. What ever your excuse is, it is always insignificant when other people suffer the consequences, especially children and the elderly.
More info: http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/i-was-only-speeding-slightly/
Source of the videos and more info:http://www.nederlandveilig.nl/houjeaandesnelheidslimiet/

Imagine how much more pleasant bicycling would be if all in-town speed limits were 18mph – 30mph.