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 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/03/03/pedestrian-fashion-trends-light-colored-clothing-a-must/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/03/03/pedestrian-fashion-trends-light-colored-clothing-a-must/#comments Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:58:13 +0000 Bill http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=11778 Light colored clothing for strolling the streets of Metro Orlando is de rigueur, definitely in fashion and absolutely a must to wear this spring. As well as making a fashion statement, wearing light colored clothing is a practical, defensive, proactive move.  When you are crossing the street and are hit and killed some tranquil evening or rainy, dark day, the newspaper article describing this shocking event will not be able to say, “she was wearing dark clothing”.  Such a report is tantamount to saying, “she was so very dumb and mostly to blame for not wearing the latest, hot colors and standing out like a mating cockatoo”.  It’s not everywhere that wearing the wrong clothing can get you killed, or at least be able to be used as an excuse for killing you.  But wearing dark clothing on the streets of Metro Orlando will give a murderous driver the time-honored excuse:  “I didn’t see her, she was wearing dark clothing and darted in front of me”.  This excuse is almost always excepted unless the driver is weaving noticeably and smells like the inside of the neighborhood pub.  If the driver is let off, your heirs will have a very tough [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2011/03/03/pedestrian-fashion-trends-light-colored-clothing-a-must/feed/ 11 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/10/21/crosswalk-workshop-ii-october-31st/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/10/21/crosswalk-workshop-ii-october-31st/#comments Fri, 22 Oct 2010 01:49:07 +0000 Bill http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=10457 Hot on the heels of our first Crosswalk Workshop is the upcoming Crosswalk Workshop II on Sunday, October 31st.  We plan to work the crosswalk on Edgewater Drive at Shady Lane Drive at the 7-11 convenience store. Please plan to join us between 3:00 and 5:00 PM to meet with local pedestrians, explain to them the proper use of the crosswalk, hand out brochures, and to exercise the crosswalk to instruct motorists on the need to yield. If you want a T-shirt, you can order them from Big Frog in Winter Park, 321-972-8879.  Just ask for the I Stop 4 Pedestrians shirt (in the Bike/Walk Central Florida file). Since it will be Halloween, costumes are optional.  What would really be great is to have someone dressed up as the Chicken That Crossed The Road!  Let me know if you’re interested in this very prestigious position. Contact me at wbcarpenter5@att.net, 407-504-2455, or leave a reply to this post with any questions or for more information. Check out video from a previous visit to this crosswalk: There’s work to be done!  See you there!]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2010/10/21/crosswalk-workshop-ii-october-31st/feed/ 5 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/05/16/dallas-texas-a-cyclist-friendly-community/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/05/16/dallas-texas-a-cyclist-friendly-community/#comments Sat, 16 May 2009 22:40:47 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=3236 If you’ve only seen Dallas from the driver’s seat of a car, you don’t know what you’re missing! A year ago, I knew nothing of Dallas except what I’d read: it’s one of our nation’s most sprawling, low-density, car-centric mega-metros; its many freeways are enormous and clogged with traffic; its arterial roads are jammed with impatient hostile drivers in huge vehicles; it’s the worst city for cycling in the U.S. (according to Bicycling Magazine). Upon discovering CycleDallas last summer, I was presented with a different image of Dallas: a pleasant, livable, inner ring with a dense mesh of quiet streets; up to a 12% biking and walking mode share in the inner city (although low overall); an 800-lane-mile signed bike-route system (and map) using cyclist-selected roads; a besieged bike-ped coordinator who steadfastly refused to buy into symbolic, potentially-dangerous bike facilities in that already-rideable urban core. Last week, LisaB and I got a chance to go to Dallas. As our unique travel plans would have it, we were able to launch rides from various parts of the city and surrounding suburbs. Our Rides Wednesday we explored in Downtown. Lisa and I cycled on parts of the bike route system, the inner [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/05/16/dallas-texas-a-cyclist-friendly-community/feed/ 26 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/04/29/pushing-the-limits-of-absurdity/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/04/29/pushing-the-limits-of-absurdity/#comments Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:30:27 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=3068 What does this road need? Here’s some context: It’s in a Mayberry-like hamlet about the size of my neighborhood, with less population density, surrounded by empty rural land and lakes. We’ve really hit bottom when a place like this needs bike lanes to be “bike friendly.” Mighk already wrote a post about this. I’m bringing it up again because it’s become an issue. It turns out that some homeowners want the money used for resurfacing the roads. And if you’ve ridden out there, you know why! But some bike lane advocates in Orlando are trying to encourage cyclists (who don’t live in Howey) to fight against them. I’ve ridden on that road as recently as a few months ago. It’s as quiet as it looks in the photo. It’s a narrow road, so adding bike lanes will require adding pavement and a foundation for that pavement… unless they’re defining bike lanes as substandard tack-on shoulders, then they’ll have no foundation and a crappy, uneven surface. Either way, it turns grass into asphalt. It’s far more expensive than simply resurfacing the road. It’s not something that should be undertaken without a demonstrated need—meaning a high volume of automobile traffic, which would [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/04/29/pushing-the-limits-of-absurdity/feed/ 16 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/04/06/law-enforcement-bias-and-the-3ft-law/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/04/06/law-enforcement-bias-and-the-3ft-law/#comments Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:36:57 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=2794 So, I finally got around to reading through the links Eric provided in the heartbreaking post about David Meek. Regarding enforcement of the 3-foot law This quote is from one of the TV news story links Eric provided. The officer is explaining the legitimate difficulty of enforcing the law, but throws in another little gem of absolute car-centric bias: “It’s very hard to do. The officer has to be in the right place and he has to observe a vehicle not giving the cyclist three feet. And if there’s on coming traffic, it’s hard for the motorist” said Dusty Stokes of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department. Excuse me? Hard for the motorist? Because the motorist HAS to pass? Because his car will explode if he takes his foot off the gas and waits until it is safe to pass with adequate clearance? This is exactly the kind of institutionalized anti-cycling bias that undermines the foundation of the advocacy pyramid. Cyclists are not drivers of vehicles to this official, they are an obstruction that poor motorists have to get around. Those poor motorists, in their comfortable seats and climate-controlled shells, having to wait a second. Sorry. I’m not anti-motoring. I’m anti-entitlement [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/04/06/law-enforcement-bias-and-the-3ft-law/feed/ 56 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/03/17/strategy-for-a-cyclist-friendly-community/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/03/17/strategy-for-a-cyclist-friendly-community/#comments Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:42:08 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=2689 Introduction Building a cyclist friendly community requires a combination of social and physical structures. Like a  pyramid, these structures must be built upon a solid foundation, or they will collapse. When the foundation is strong and the layers of the pyramid reinforce each other, they will support a healthy, thriving bicycle culture. 1) Foundation: Cultural Respect Bicycles are Vehicles/Cyclists are Drivers This is the foundation upon which a healthy bike culture must be built. It supports all other advocacy efforts, and the lack of it undermines them. Likewise, advocacy efforts must support this foundation, not erode it. It begins with the law—not just the legal definition of bicycles as vehicles, but legal equity and access to the roadway. Laws which restrict cyclists’ use of a travel lane (Far Right and Mandatory Bike Lane/Shoulder/Sidepath laws) must be eliminated. Even with exceptions, these laws carry discriminatory weight and are most often misinterpreted to the detriment of cyclists. Institutional bias also extends to transportation engineers and the standards set for bicycle facilities. Current minimum standards for bike lanes (and even sharrow placement) are harmful to people on bicycles. Coupled with mandatory use laws and social pressure from motorists, they restrict—rather than facilitate—access to [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/03/17/strategy-for-a-cyclist-friendly-community/feed/ 25 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/02/20/cyclist-equity-%e2%80%94-do-they-mean-it/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/02/20/cyclist-equity-%e2%80%94-do-they-mean-it/#comments Sat, 21 Feb 2009 01:26:27 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=2526 At long last. More than a year after the initial article penned by Amanda Eichstaedt and Dan Gutierrez, the League of American Bicyclists has finally made the Equity Statement a official position. I hear there is an article in the league magazine, but I haven’t received mine yet. Looking for evidence of this position on their website requires a magnifying glass. There is no page, no grand announcement, it doesn’t even show up on a search. It’s one small sentence with links to 3 PDFs tucked into the bottom corner of the homepage. Considering how important equity is (especially in light of recent events), I think it deserves more. So here it is, the contents of the Equity Statement PDFs: Cyclists’ Equity Statement Cyclists have the same right to fair and equitable treatment by the government as other road users. The basis for these rights is expressed through the six Es approach that the League supports: Equality – Legal: traffic law and legislation, including movements, access, equipment, uniformity Engineering – Transportation: road and bicycle facilities development, design, and construction, and mobility and funding sources Enforcement – Police and Courts: Equitable treatment of cyclists through citations and trials Education – Schools [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/02/20/cyclist-equity-%e2%80%94-do-they-mean-it/feed/ 7 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/01/25/smart-advocacy-can-increase-cycling/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/01/25/smart-advocacy-can-increase-cycling/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:13:37 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=2169 Anyone who’s been reading this blog for a while knows that I don’t believe bike facilities are the only way to increase cycling. Most of the famous cycling cities in the U.S. actually had the ingredients of bike culture before cyclists lost their right to the full use of the travel lanes and were relegated to gutter lanes. Most are college towns. Even the heralded Dutch culture had a high regard for bicycle transportation before the bike paths were built (key ingredients of their system can’t be duplicated here because of that cultural difference). I believe it is possible to create a healthy bike culture through education, social marketing and intelligent infrastructure. But I have not seen an example of a place that has deliberately tried a comprehensive alternative to the mindless application of paint… until now. This article on TransportXtra.com made my day: Hackney shows you don’t have to have lots of cycling infrastructure to get more people on bikes By Gary Cummins The London Borough of Hackney has one of the fastest growth rates of cycling anywhere in the UK, yet planners and transport professionals visiting this borough with a view to imitating its success on their own [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2009/01/25/smart-advocacy-can-increase-cycling/feed/ 10 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2008/12/31/finding-the-way/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2008/12/31/finding-the-way/#comments Thu, 01 Jan 2009 02:00:43 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=1952 While visiting my parents over Christmas, I joined them for several bike rides on Gulf Breeze (a spit of land between Pensacola Bay and Pensacola Beach). Much of this peninsula is essentially a sand bar with a busy US Highway running through it. Years ago a recreational cycling loop was designed to circle the sound from Gulf Breeze to Navarre to Pensacola Beach and back to Gulf Breeze. It’s no longer a complete loop because the beach road was washed away in Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis. Part of the remaining route includes 6.5 miles of connected low volume roads marked by numbered wayfinding signs. This allows cyclists to bypass busy and complex US 98. It connects them to a bike path and to numerous commercial destinations. It has given my parents a unique opportunity to ride on roads with light traffic and no bike lanes… an ideal environment for novice cyclists. This is the part of the route that most interested me. I took several trips on it and saw a lot of other cyclists, some recreational, some appeared to be utility cyclists. It was good to see my parents ride safely and confidently in the narrow lanes with motorists [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2008/12/31/finding-the-way/feed/ 3 http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2008/12/25/the-gift-of-peace-coexistence/ http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2008/12/25/the-gift-of-peace-coexistence/#comments Thu, 25 Dec 2008 14:15:24 +0000 Keri http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/?p=1931 Christmas came early in Winter Park, Eatonville and Maitland. Earlier this month, the trustees of the Winter Park Health Foundation agreed to fund the next phase of the Civility on the Road initiative. This grant will support the research phase of the initiative—focus group testing of attitudes and successful social messaging. Funds will be administered by the Florida Bicycle Association. The social marketing professionals at Salter>Mitchell will conduct the research. The project will be overseen by a citizen advisory board of bike/ped advocates, law enforcement and driving educators (Safety Council). The idea for this initiative was submitted by me last December when WPHF put out a request for citizen ideas to create a healthy, active community. The purpose of the idea is to encourage active transportation by creating a more welcoming environment for non-motorized road users (see, Roads are for People). The idea has resonated with non-cyclists as well as cyclists because everyone feels the impact of impatient, uncivil behavior on the roads (I feel it more driving a car than I do on my bike). Through its Healthscaping initiative, the Winter Park Health Foundation has funded several other projects to benefit cyclists, including 34 new bike racks in Winter [...]]]> http://commuteorlando.com/wordpress/2008/12/25/the-gift-of-peace-coexistence/feed/ 5